Gentoo Wiki:Suggestions/Archive

__NEWSECTIONLINK__ Feel free to add suggestions for our Wiki on this page. To add a new topic, click on the "+" page tab. Remember to sign your suggestion with, or the "Signature and timestamp" button text-bottom|link=|signature button in the editor toolbar. See Help:Signatures.

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)

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)