Gentoo Wiki:Suggestions/Archive

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Stalled discussions and Archive
For discussions that haven't had contributions in a long time, see the Stalled discussions page, for completed discussion see the Archive subpage 2, Archive subpage 1.

Print to PDF and/or Export to EBook File Format?
I prefer reading long articles on my EBook Device (Kindle DXG). Seeing most documents being published in PDF, or some sites even providing EBook formats. Thankfully, my device can handle PDF but some can't. As for the Amazon Kindle's, I've seen really good results using kindlegen on converting EPUB to MOBI, but using kindlegen on HTML with TABLE TAGS produces poor MOBI files. As such, I usually use PDF files for computer technical documents. Also, kindlegen (aka mobigen) is binary only (proprietary). A couple months ago, I mirrored the entire Gentoo Documentation just to convert XML to HTML using gorg, and then kindlegen to convert to MOBI. This is very tedious for EBook users! I manage quite well as I use the console, but avoid Calibre due to it's package bloat and lack of command line only. (Calibre requires X for it's command line tool.) Probably the simple solution for now, for simple articles would be to ensure a 'Print to PDF' option. Lengthy articles such as the Gentoo Handbook and EBuild/EClass documentation, would be nice to have an EBook format. Signed: Roger 19:09, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

I second this motion as far as PDF and ePUB goes. I even submitted a wish/bug to Gentoo's Bugzilla about this. Hook 00:14, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Count my vote as well for this notion. --Maffblaster (talk) 19:16, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

Definition of Macros
Dear wiki-admins,

You should define some macros as soon as possible for things like referencing portage packages, infoboxes for software that autocomplete from portage information, general infoboxes for software that include fields such as 'deprecated by', and create categories for each of the Gentoo projects (Hardened, etc.) so that relevant articles can be grouped together in a way that makes sense for users coming from other sources of documentation.

Voltaire 00:02, 2 August 2012 (UTC)


 * We will definitely also need one for man pages. Like 'man 5 corosync.conf' should be possible to define with a quick macro that makes it obviously possible to type at the terminal but also clickable in-wiki to go to a hosted, HTML version of the man page.  This should be the latest version auto-built out of portage, or preferably a diffed history of versions. This sort of cross-linking is precisely where a lot of Linux documentation falls down and where the Gentoo community could showcase its pragmatism. Voltaire 00:30, 4 August 2012 (UTC)

Cannot upload and link to ASCII/Text files
Seems only JPEG, PNG, ... image files can be uploaded and linked to within Wiki articles here. It would be nice to allow ASCII/Text files to be uploaded as well. --Roger 09:51, 17 October 2012 (UTC)
 * (which I filed being unaware of this page) is related to this. --ulm (talk) 12:20, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

A few suggestion
For Users
 * Display last modify date and last modify editor on each wiki page to let user know about the status of the docs.
 * Having Version tag, if the package need some different configuration we can have a version tag there to change the need but not the whole page. Even-thought gentoo are always updated it is still good to kept some history.
 * Kernel Template should have a format for kernel version -- it will be easier for other to understand and update.
 * Files Template should have some way to indication changes required. Current way is to paste the whole file and looking for changes are not good for users.

For Editor
 * New Page Template -- There should be a new page template which something like prerequisite, kernel requirement, emerge application files changes blah blah blah until the End to rc-update. This would be good for new and old editor as in future when there are some new things can be added in.
 * Kernel Template should be easier to use so should have a field like enable or disable and the kernel_module_name/the long name
 * Conflict in changes should have diff on top before the editor/content, this is easier to verify.

--dcmwai (talk) 05:10, 19 February 2014 (UTC)


 * ill second the need for version tagging configurations. samba 3 vs samba 4 are radical departures from each other.666threesixes666 (talk) 05:14, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Use actual variables for kernel configuration instead of menu items
It is much easier to check for actual kernel configuration variables in  as well as   files in kernel source directories. It's also much quicker to find in the menuconfig using the  shortcut instead of navigating through each level of the menu by hand. I also heard about planned tools that would add support for user defined kernel configuration and that also wouldn't work well with the fancy paths. --Pavlix (talk) 14:42, 1 January 2015 (UTC)


 * From a documentation point-of-view, the paths themselves are a much better alternative. Many kernel options are also grouped (for instance, enabling a number of file system drivers) and thus displayed in one go, whereas with the use of,  , etc. users would perhaps tend to search repeatedly. So personally, I prefer paths instead of variables (at least in the KernelBox template. --SwifT (talk) 14:46, 1 January 2015 (UTC)


 * I had this crazy idea: Let editors specify variables, and have an extension that resolves these variables to the appropriate place in the menu. For your use case, the raw paths can be shown in a tab or somehow else hidden-by-default. As the menu structure wasn't immediately usable (I think I found one python library that helped with that) by the Wiki, I stopped pursuing that further. So, contributions welcome! —a3li 16:09, 1 January 2015 (UTC)


 * I love the idea. There's also the problem that the menu items generally don't appear. It would be nice to add a link to the end of the kernel configuration template to a page that would describe the issue and possible solutions. A guide to easily configure a menu item in any of the kernel configuration tools even if the menu item is not shown at all due to dependencies. I still feel that kernel configuration is the weakest point in Gentoo automation, while otherwise the whole system fits nicely, kernel configuration is still no better than in LFS. --Pavlix (talk) 11:40, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

Template for well known overlays
It would be nice to have a wiki template to create links to well known overlays pointing to more information about those. I'm typically linking either to gpo.zugaina.org overlay pages, occasionally to the actual repositories. It would be nice to have a unified target, whether it is zugaina, an equivalent, or even a wiki space where more information can be specified.

--Pavlix (talk) 14:46, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

Consistency in article titles
I would like to suggest moving the GNOME "configuration" page to GNOME/HOWTO in order to match the title style of the other HOWTO articles. Either that or change HOWTO articles to "X/Configuration" instead of having "HOWTO" in title of the articles. This would maintain consistency throughout the wiki and make the titles easier to search. I could make the changes myself but I would need admin privileges to move a page and it's probably best to actually have input on this type of change... ;) I can continue to post other inconsistencies as I discover them.

Articles using "Configuration" in their titles:

GNOME/Configuration

Xorg/Configuration

Articles using "HOWTO" in their titles:

Openbox/HOWTO

Xfce/HOWTO

--Maffblaster (talk) 19:16, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

Make the Wiki downloadable
It would be nice to have a dump of the wiki's database available for download so that users could access the content without an active internet connection. Wikipedia has this feature. I would definitely make use of this feature if it was implemented. The dump does not have to be daily or weekly; it could be monthly or quarterly. --Maffblaster (talk) 20:15, 3 February 2015 (UTC)


 * Would be fun to have a package that would help you read the wiki both online and offline on the command line. Even if it only did a bit of automation and then started links or better user's preferred browser. --Pavlix (talk) 11:42, 10 February 2015 (UTC)


 * Pavlix, I agree, this would be a great enhancement for anyone with intermittent internet access. It would be nice if a user could simply emerge the most recent wiki dump onto a system. Maybe it could create a simple script called "gentoo-wiki" in that would open the wiki in a preferred web browser or wiki reading software. Arguments could be passed to the script to tell it which page to open first. Example: gentoo-wiki Firefox would open the Firefox page.


 * Sorry, no dumps. We have enough problems as is with stale documentation and zombie clones of long-gone Community wikis. —a3li 18:24, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

Enable copy & paste of multi-command RootCmd template
I just realized that I often need to read a couple of commands to see what they're doing but then copy the list of commands and paste them to apply them immediately. That's impossible due to the text before each line. Very often it's a list of commands I publish and in that case the current way discourages me from using RootCmd and encourages me to use CodeBox instead. I believe it would be a great improvement to make RootCmd behave more like a CodeBox in this respect so that I can copy the commands directly.

In many cases I split the data from the commands in that the first block of commands is just shell variable assignments. Those I typically don't copy and instead I do the assignments manually, but then I want to apply the generic commands that use the manually assigned variables. --Pavlix (talk) 11:31, 10 February 2015 (UTC)


 * I fear that's not doable. I can think of one way, but that would take away the ability to have custom prompts.


 * One thing that already is in place is that each of the lines are triple-click-friendly. Maybe that can work this around sufficiently for you? —a3li 18:29, 10 February 2015 (UTC)


 * The very fact that I'm using CodeBox instead confirms that it is doable to have multiple lines of code selectable, even if not with the same decorations. I'm not talking about individual lines and so there is no work around except avoiding RootCmd altogether. But that may even result in putting the stuff in my personal subpages instead of public space so that it's not “fixed” by some active person. --Pavlix (talk) 19:30, 10 February 2015 (UTC)


 * I think it would also be possible even with the current graphical layout, just the "root #" text would have to be turned into a left-aligned background image for each line. I know it is not as nice as a couple of text characters, but I also don't think it's nice to leave it as is, where the decorator is selected with the actual command line. --Pavlix (talk) 19:36, 11 February 2015 (UTC)

Link colors
I've noticed that visited links on pages such as AMD64/FAQ are almost completely indistinguishable from the surrounding normal text (I'm using Google Chrome on a Windows 8 machine with an LCD monitor). Is the visited-link color darker than it used to be? Can it be lightened a bit? - dcljr (talk) 23:46, 11 February 2015 (UTC)

Recent changes in English
I recently :) started to use Special:Recent Changes but there seems to be no way to just see pages that I will understand, let's say just English written pages. Filtering language for English gives empty result. Filter out translations is selected by default but I still see non-English pages in the list. I'm afraid there must be some conflict between how Gentoo Wiki is maintained and how MediaWiki expects to detect language and translations.