From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1M8oGM-00034z-Gk for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Tue, 26 May 2009 04:27:42 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id BD36FE03F1; Tue, 26 May 2009 04:27:40 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtpout.karoo.kcom.com (smtpout.karoo.kcom.com [212.50.160.34]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 76D8CE03F1 for ; Tue, 26 May 2009 04:27:40 +0000 (UTC) X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.41,248,1241391600"; d="scan'208";a="96749844" Received: from unknown (HELO compaq.stroller.uk.eu.org) ([213.152.39.90]) by smtpout.karoo.kcom.com with ESMTP; 26 May 2009 05:27:39 +0100 Received: from [192.168.1.71] (unknown [192.168.1.71]) by compaq.stroller.uk.eu.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B323D137C20 for ; Tue, 26 May 2009 05:27:37 +0100 (BST) Message-Id: <4E38BD16-0410-4A31-839C-290364A8D735@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> From: Stroller To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v930.3) Subject: [gentoo-user] USE="mmx mmxext sse sse2 ssse3 3dnow 3dnowext" Date: Tue, 26 May 2009 05:27:34 +0100 X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.930.3) X-Archives-Salt: 371530e4-8d57-45e3-ac76-ce227e98f509 X-Archives-Hash: 5b7867736a5a9f0181fb827c0f6f4c51 Hi there, I'm always rather reluctant to enable any of these, being unsure whether my ageing PentiumPro or Pentium 4 CPUs support such features as 3DNow! (originally an AMD technology) or the advanced SSSSSSSSSE3. According to this page , however: You can greatly improve MPlayer's performances (in my experience, by up to +40%!) by recompiling it with appropriate CPU-related USE flags. Moreover: Note: The mplayer build system will automatically detect your CPU settings if you allow it. Therefore, the safest thing to do is enable all of the optimization USE flags and let the script detect them. If you disable the use flags, then it will forcibly disable support for that optimization, and possibly break your build. In other words, add mmx mmxext sse sse2 ssse3 3dnow 3dnowext to your USE flags for this ebuild, and if your box supports it, it will work automatically. w00t! Should I enable all these USE flags globally? Will other packages also fallback safely as mplayer does? Or should I add all these flags only to /etc/portage/package.use, allowing mplayer to make full use of the hardware USEs it supports, but limiting other apps to only those I'm really really confident about (i.e. "mmx" & that's about it). Thanks in advance for all suggestions, Stroller.