strategies to USE flags on a brand new system
 

I have been using Gentoo now for a while now and love it! But I still seem to be getting into trouble with setting too many USE flags on new systems (emerge compains about random deps that I don't have, and chokes.) So usually I set the ones that are absolutely necessary, install X or apache/sql (depending on the type of system,) and MAKE WORLD NEWUSE. Is this a dumb newbie method, or should you add them all in at once at bootstrap time, or maybe a little at a time. For new sytems it sure would save time only compiling everything once! What are some other people's philosophies with USE flags being added, and installing dependencies for them?

Are you putting all USE flags in /etc/make.conf? You should only be using a few USE flags in that file for OVERALL general purposes. Other packages should have their separate USE flags in /etc/portage/package.use.

Here are my USE flags in /etc/make.conf:
which I added up as I was growing my system, not from the begining.
And my entries in package.use:
So, I tend to aggree with Konphine.

There's no problem in setting them at the install stage, that is, as long as you know how to deal with cricular dependencies and probably a couple other issues that could arise in between.

Otherwise, just continue doing as you do now and you will be fine.

This is how my USE flags are set up in make.conf.

I do agree
 

I think you hit the nail on the head there. In my opinion it is better to keep the USE flags in you make.conf generic to prevent issues later on. For the more specific USE flags I always update /etc/portage/package.use. This prevents inadvertent issues with portage.

For reference, here is a good list of USE flags, just in case you wish to add more.

On a related side note, I have personally experience similar issues with compiling due to improper CFLAGS being set in my make.conf. This is an excellent wiki for Gentoo safe CFLAGS.

My Two Pence Worth...
 

Hi,

Had a look at this and then remembered what happened when I had issues with my USE flags. I'd say to read the thread I'm linking here and then for anyone using SYSTEM (or anything similarly generic) in their USE flags to re-think using that, as apparently it could cause issues. I would like to think that this would not be the case, however, better safe than sorry, I feel. I feel this particularly after having been through the incident referred to below.

C Compiler cannot Compile executables.

I havent had a gentoo install since about 2006 and i had forgotten the USE flags thing. I installed gentoo today from another linux install, booted to it, installed just enough stuff to get fluxbox started with startx, started firefox by Xforwarding from another machine and thought hey, ill jsut install XDM to manage xlogins whle im configuring some stuff.
Well during the above, and from some examples i had seen, i had been adding to the USE flags line in make.conf. So when i typed emerge XDM 217 packages started to emerge :p. Its been a few hours now and i beleive i saw somethng about the plasma desktop go by :banghead:

Anyway, here are the USE flags im using, any comments?


The fltk was for dillo befor it occured to me that i could Xforward firefox.

These are not USE flags. They are package names. If you want them, you emerge them, you don't add them to USE. But, in any case, you don't usually emerge things like libkms, fltk or libdrm. Libraries are not intended to be installed directly unless you are involved in development. When needed, they'll be pushed as dependencies.

Ah ok thanks, i must have misunderstood some of the output from emerge.

Surely at some point you meant to add these to /etc/portage/package.keywords (or maybe unmaks or mask). These are used to diverge from the official stable tree for some packages.