GNOME/GNOME without systemd/Gentoo



The fully-featured GNOME desktop environment is directly supported in Gentoo for both and, as of -3.30.

This article briefly covers a native install; for an alternative (-based) approach, please see Dantrell's overlays.

Prerequisites
It is assumed that:
 * following completion of the normal "Installing Gentoo" process from the official Handbook, a stock, , or  Gentoo system is running, with working internet access etc.
 * at least one 'regular' (non-root) user has already been set up;
 * the kernel and file has been prepared for X-server installation ( VIDEO_CARDS and INPUT_DEVICES variables set), as described here. While the X-server itself does not have to actually be installed prior to emerging GNOME, this is recommended (since X-related problems are some of the most commonly encountered);
 * if targeting Wayland, an appropriate Direct Rendering Manager ('DRM') kernel driver has been installed (see e.g. these notes for further details);
 * a UTF-8 locale has been selected (as described here).

Keywording
At the time of writing (May 2019), official support for GNOME on has been stabilized for  and  users. Other supported architectures ( and ) still require use of the testing branch.

Setting global USE flags
If the USE flag is set in, it is recommended to unset it now, to avoid issues with ,  and dependencies later.

If it is desired to install GNOME on Wayland (rather than the default X11), then add  to the global USE flags, in  (note that it will still be possible to log in to an old-school GNOME-on-X11 session when needed, even when Wayland is used).

To disable GNOME's tracker software (this is optional), add  to the global USE flags in.

Then, ensure everything is up-to-date, before proceeding further:

Setting the GNOME profile, and updating
To ease installation under, select the appropriate profile now (this will ensure appropriate package-specific USE flags, masks etc are set to ensure a painless GNOME emerge):

With the desired profile set, re-emerge, to pick up the new USE flags, default packages etc.

Emerging GNOME
GNOME itself may now be emerged! Issue:

Assuming that completes successfully, it is still important to check that the necessary X11 drivers have been properly emerged: often, they will not have been, particularly if it proved necessary to run the step more than once (due to build parallelism errors). To make sure, issue:

Configuration
Once GNOME is emerged, change the DISPLAYMANGER value in the configuration file, so that the gdm display manager is used:

Leave the rest of the file as-is.

Then, set, , and  to come up in the default runlevel, and disable  if using it:

Also, ensure that the service starts up at boot:

Next, check if the machine has a group, and, if it does, add any regular users to it:

Similarly, to allow regular users to play GNOME games, add them to the group:

To allow the use of direct rendering, issue:

Finally, start up GNOME!

A GNOME login screen should now be visible (and this will also come up automatically on boot). On some machines, it may be necessary to move the mouse or press a key, for the login screen to appear.

Usage
For more information about the GNOME interface (which is generally self-explanatory), see https://gnome.org. Some additional useful setup tips about GNOME may also be found here.

Removal
To remove GNOME, begin by unmerging it:

Switch profile; for example:

Update :

Clean dependencies:

Prevent unnecessary services starting up automatically; e.g.:

Add (if required, in the absence of ):

Finally, reboot the system to complete the uninstall (to a textual login, in this case).

External resources

 * The project's sticky support thread on the Gentoo Forums.