Handbook Talk:Parts/Installation/Base

Use validated snapshots
The section Installing a portage snapshot should include snapshot validation.

There is Handbook:Parts/Installation/Media and mention of  in Handbook:Parts/Installation/Stage. But here in Installing a portage snapshot, validation gets lost. --Charles17 (talk) 07:12, 23 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Very soon we hope to have the gentoo-keys keyring and the gkeys app as part of the install media and a stage4 which will contain them both. At that time, it will become possible to easily verify any downloads during the installation process as well as the early chroot work.   Dol-sen (talk) 13:22, 23 May 2015 (UTC)


 * For the time until that takes place the handbook should be restored according to ("the old tar based way of unpacking the portage tree and explain how to verify it's keys").--Charles17 (talk) 07:49, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

keeping the system prompt consistent
This page's Entering the new environment section includes running to change the prompt to remind the user that s/he's in the chroot environment. However, at the end of this page, the user is instructed to, which sets PS1 back to the system default, losing the change made earlier. There ought to be a reminder after the step for the user to fix PS1 again. Median (talk) 06:57, 20 September 2015 (UTC)


 * I have revised that part of the handbook to re-display the indication the prompt is based in the chroot. Thanks for the tip! --Maffblaster (talk) 11:17, 28 January 2016 (UTC)

Mirrorselect for Gentoo rsync mirrors
For the section Main Gentoo repository, after having copied/created the file, why not also use mirrorselect the same way as described in the Mirrorselect article:

But, how could mirrorselect be used at all before it got installed? Is it part of stage3? I can't seem to find it in stage3-amd64-20160114.tar.bz2. --Charles17 (talk) 10:51, 21 January 2016 (UTC)


 * I just looked into this. Thanks of the tip. I'll add a paragraph or so explaining that can be installed and used to update the URL. Will return here when I have finished. --Maffblaster (talk) 07:58, 28 January 2016 (UTC)


 * The point is, mirrorselect cannot be used - not even optionally - before it got installed. And it cannot be installed before the portage snapshot is in place.  Hence the first thing to happen is solving .  Imho the whole "optional" mirrorselect section should be moved to Installing tools as it needs not be done before the first reboot of a new system.   --Charles17 (talk) 09:22, 28 January 2016 (UTC)


 * That's not true. can be used if the live environment as it installed, which is true for this case. I just tested the official  minimal install CD and  is available. On another note, I'm not sure I want to add a paragraph about  for  because it does not intelligently search and replace the   line in the file. Someone working through the process would still have to manually edit (with a text editor) the  file and then use  on it. Leaving the default mirror rotation is probably the best option for the majority of readers. Anyone who want to adjust   should know enough to figure out any problems they may get themselves into. Also, that bug that you references doesn't relate to this conversation much. That's a separate conversation. --Maffblaster (talk) 11:08, 28 January 2016 (UTC)


 * You are right about the minimal install CD. But please bear in mind people could use alternative installation media like another installed linux distribution.  Also I agree about "Leaving the default mirror rotation ...".  So the whole Main Gentoo repository section - if it needs to stay in this chapter instead of being moved to Installing tools - could be reduced to the trailing TIP referring to the Sync article.  --Charles17 (talk) 12:06, 28 January 2016 (UTC)

Typo
At this point, if a new system profile as been chosen

At this point, if a new system profile has been chosen

--FabianP (talk) 11:05, 18 November 2016 (UTC)


 * Fixed. Thank you!. --Maffblaster (talk) 18:12, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

Once again Mirrorselect
In section Main Gentoo repository, it says A second important step ... and then ... Again, this is not recommended, ... Please bear in mind, noobs are working through the installation chapter ( In this part the reader learns how to install Gentoo on a system. ) to get their systems running.

These special information for special cases IMHO could better be hosted in another place (maybe Handbook:Parts/Working/Portage) as it can easily be done - if ever needed - after first reboot. --Charles17 (talk) 11:27, 23 November 2016 (UTC)


 * I have removed the paragraph. It mattered only a little to me and it more of an 'advanced' concept anyway. We'll leave this open for other areas of the wiki to cover. Perhaps the Complete Handbook will catch it one day. --Maffblaster (talk) 15:58, 20 April 2017 (UTC)


 * Please also remove the Gentoo ebuild repository section which only referred to the paragraph you removed.--Charles17 (talk) 10:21, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

GNOME
Consider the following sentence: "[...] will require many packages to be installed since the init system is changing from OpenRC to systemd, and the Gnome desktop environment framework will be installed."

Gnome should be replaced by GNOME (all uppercase).

Fturco (talk) 09:17, 14 May 2017 (UTC)


 * Implemented as suggested. --Maffblaster (talk) 18:05, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

GTK+ and Qt
Let me quote: "For instance, some programs can be compiled with gtk-support, or with qt-support."

I would replace that with: "For instance, some programs can be compiled with support for GTK+ or with support for Qt."

Fturco (talk) 09:28, 14 May 2017 (UTC)


 * Implemented as suggested. --Maffblaster (talk) 18:05, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

Other minor problems

 * 1) "For instance,   will compile ssl-support in the programs that support it." should become "For instance,   will compile support for SSL in the programs that support it."
 * 2) In the sentence "  will compile programs with GNOME (and GTK) support, and not with KDE (and Qt) support" we should replace GTK with GTK+.
 * 3) In "As an example we show a USE setting for a KDE-based system with DVD, ALSA and CD Recording support" there's no need to capitalize Recording; CD recording is better

Fturco (talk) 09:35, 14 May 2017 (UTC)


 * Implemented as suggested. --Maffblaster (talk) 18:05, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

KDE-based system
Consider the following file box:

I would add the  USE flag on a KDE-based system.


 * Implemented as suggested. --Maffblaster (talk) 18:05, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

US/DE locales
Consider the following FileBox:

At minimum I would also add the  locale, but in my opinion ISO-8859 locales don't make any sense any longer since UTF-8 can be easily enabled, so I would remove them too.

Fturco (talk) 09:54, 14 May 2017 (UTC)


 * Removed  and added   to the FileBox as suggested for the locale generation example. Thanks, Fturco! --Maffblaster (talk) 18:09, 15 May 2017 (UTC)


 * Why does it still mention the ISO-8859-* stuff? Who needs it could refer to the Setting a locale in the localization guide.--Charles17 (talk) 10:38, 1 November 2019 (UTC)


 * At least, there is still this line to be removed:

[8] de_DE.iso885915 --Charles17 (talk) 15:12, 6 April 2020 (UTC)

Warn against using USE="-*"
I think we should add a warning box under the "Ignoring default USE flags" filebox like:

Comments and improvements are welcome. --Grknight (talk) 17:38, 24 May 2017 (UTC)


 * , Sounds like a good improvement to add a little warning here. I'll add it. Also, for the future, feel free to add little snippets like this. You're a developer so you have the capability. :) --Maffblaster (talk) 18:12, 26 July 2017 (UTC)

Timezone update / setting
TIMEZONE: According to the text below, emerge --config sys-libs/timezone-data will update /etc/localtime. But in case /etc/localtime already exists as a symlink, it skips and does nothing. That's confusing. So after running the commands, one should make sure that /etc/localtime is either the right symlink or properly updated.

-

Next, reconfigure the package, which will update the  file for us, based on the  entry. The file is used by the system C library to know the timezone the system is in.

Department of Redundancy Department
You just added the text: "If the Gentoo installation is interrupted at some point after this point, it should possible to 'resume' the installation at this point. …" That's a little redundant. How 'bout something like: "If the Gentoo installation is interrupted anywhere after this point, it should possible to 'resume' the installation at this step." - dcljr (talk) 02:31, 26 July 2017 (UTC)


 * That works. Changing it. --Maffblaster (talk) 18:04, 26 July 2017 (UTC)

Choosing profiles
The profile selection should be updated to 17.0, maybe with a warning about experimental state of profile 17.1 (see Handbook_Talk:AMD64/Installation/Base).--Charles17 (talk) 20:13, 30 December 2017 (UTC)


 * Completed by in this change. I may add a little more, but this should cover marking this discussion as closed. --Maffblaster (talk) 00:46, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

GTK+ is now known as GTK
I think we should replace every instance of "GTK+" with "GTK". See this for details. Fturco (talk) 16:38, 28 October 2019 (UTC)


 * This was fixed at some point, I just can't see the diff for it. --Maffblaster (talk) 17:25, 5 November 2021 (UTC)

repos.conf
The whole section Gentoo ebuild repository is not needed for getting a working Gentoo system. For the sake of simplicity it should be removed. For inteterested readers there is the dedicated repos.conf wiki article.--Charles17 (talk) 15:42, 31 October 2019 (UTC)


 * It is a subsection of "Optional: Selecting mirrors". So both your statement of "not needed" and the Handbook "Optional" agree. --Grknight (talk) 16:10, 31 October 2019 (UTC)


 * Even having it marked as optional makes no sense as there is no benefit at all. "Selecting (distfiles) mirrors" however has benefit and should stay optional.--Charles17 (talk) 16:33, 31 October 2019 (UTC)


 * I just see in that older discussion it should have been removed with this commit since it only refers to rsync mirrors but not to distfiles mirros.--Charles17 (talk) 10:14, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

(non-validated) emerge-webrsync
Doing as recommended in Installing an ebuild repository snapshot from the web does not provide Repository Verification as proposed in the Validated Gentoo repository snapshots section. Could this section be removed and Optional: Updating the Gentoo ebuild repository be renamed Fetching the Gentoo ebuild repository?--Charles17 (talk) 09:30, 24 November 2019 (UTC)

Remove qt4 example
This section has qt4 in examples.

Please update to realistic values.

--Jonas Stein (talk) 00:09, 24 May 2020 (UTC)


 * This was fixed by in these changes: Special:Diff/949866/1004785. --Maffblaster (talk) 17:20, 5 November 2021 (UTC)

Removing -* reference entirely in 'Configuring the USE variable'
After another "incident" in #gentoo, I think we should consider just removing the USE="-* ..." reference in the 'Configuring the USE variable' subsection.

It's too dangerous and we can shift the explanation to the "USE flags" section in "Working with Gentoo".

--Sam (talk) 23:41, 3 November 2021 (UTC)


 * I removed it all together from this section and added a note on why using  could be dangerous. Let me know if this does not work for you: Special:Diff/1026177/1028241. --Maffblaster (talk) 20:31, 5 November 2021 (UTC)

Give guidance on common circular dependencies (for 'Updating the @world set')
Most desktop installs will hit the freetype<->harfbuzz circular dependency. I've started gathering workarounds to such issues at User:Sam/Portage_help/Circular_dependencies.

We should at least warn above the world update part of the handbook that a circular dependency is likely and explain how to avoid it/work around it. Users are having to either google the issue right now or consult e.g. reddit/IRC/forums.

--Sam (talk) 23:47, 3 November 2021 (UTC)


 * Once there is a page explaining circular dependencies, might it be an idea to have Portage point to the documentation when this issue is encountered ?


 * Should the documentation suggest general methods if a specific case is not listed, such as --backtrack, USE flag wrangling, ask on IRC... ? I'd add that this is a sort of bootstrapping problem, and not a weakness on the part of Portage :).


 * -- Kyoreln (talk) 19:28, 4 November 2021 (UTC)


 * What is the easiest way to reproduce the issue? Just try to choose a desktop target? I plan on doing a fresh VM install this winter to address some of the longstanding discussions that I really need a fresh installation environment to test... We need more install testing! --Maffblaster (talk) 20:27, 5 November 2021 (UTC)

CPU_FLAGS_X86
Should we mention that CPU_FLAGS_X86 is used for AMD64 and that there is no CPU_FLAGS_AMD64 ? (I think that is correct.)

Currently, because it says "replace ARCH with the relevant system architecture as appropriate" it seems that it may push some people into error.

-- Ris (talk) 11:26, 18 June 2022 (UTC)