BTW I used generic kernel...
I'll try to emerge the rt61pci driver by downloading the urls instead of trying to comprehend the confusing compile instructions! tnx

Why don't you just use Arch? It's as fast as Gentoo but without compiling... :-)

Skipping the package manager and installing into /usr is called asking for trouble. At least tell the package manager that you have installed it yourself. You can do that in Gentoo by adding the correct category/package_name to your world file. But frankly, why did not you use emerge? You can modify the ebuild if you want to skip patching, etc. Really, if you go on like that, you'll break it in no time.

True.

No. --prefix=/usr is most likely the default. When you install things outside the package manager scope you shouldn't do it in the system directories, at least be clean and do it in /usr/local or better, in your home directory.

And... the libs used to link would be the same regardless of your prefix, so if the previous binary didn't work it means, as I already said in my previous post, that you linked it against other libs and not those that you have right now. That can mean many things, for example that you compiled it against a previous version of the lib, or that you simply downloaded a binary package (most likely) and used that to install openbox for I-don't-know-what-reason.

I also told you in the other post how to download the sources and where to put them to you can install the package properly using emerge, and not on your own. Seriously, if you plan to compile everything by hand you should be using LFS instead of Gentoo. So, that's not a "fix", but a hack. And you are going to have problems if you continue using Gentoo that way.

However, to each his/her own. You have the right to use it as you wish, this is just an advice that aims to save you some future pain.

No. That will only push the package in the system, meaning that the next time you emerge that package or update world the package will be installed if it's not in the system. I guess you meant /etc/portage/profile/package.provided. But as you say, this makes no sense anyway.

Thanks.

I see what you mean. I'm just a bit used to ubuntu when the package manager automatically updates if you compile by hand.

I tested out emerge by installing gEdit. Pretty nifty!
Because I didn't have internet, I emerge -pvf gedit > afile.txt then go on another computer and download the packages as you said in previous post.

Well, my 'hack' worked anyhow, and frankly its my own fault if it suddenly dies. I didn't really understand portage, and now it all makes sense...!! tnx

The prefix=/usr was just what the openbox wiki said to do...(I hadn't read it first time - my fault...again)

I've just read in the Gentoo wiki how to use the rt61pci driver for my wireless card, and I'm gonna follow that. Generally its just changing the kernel configuration to use the driver included in the kernel then recompiling and installing the kernel. That means I don't have to get another ralink-rt61 driver, and use the inbuild kernel one, which should be better.

Nice to know.

Once you get your network working all should be even easier.

However I don't understand that bit about Ubuntu being aware of whatever you install by hand. I don't think it works that way, unless you are referring to create your own deb package from source.

When you install something via make install is like when you copy a file into /usr/bin by hand. The package manager has virtually no way to register that action. And even if it had a way to register that via some voodoo kernel patch that logs all the disk operations or via a heavy inotify daemon (I am fairly sure that ubuntu does neither), it would still have no clue to what package does that file belong to, and much less, what's the url to check for updates, how to compile, and how to install them.

So I think that you are somewhat confused about how the thing works.

I seem to be coming to this discussion late, but I hope you don't mind if I stick my two cents in. No one mentioned the most obvious linux "distribution" for the fastest, leanest, bespoke (i.e. customised to YOUR needs) installation - it is Linux From Scratch (LFS). Using Linux From Scratch you build a minimal system, entirely compiled from source, and then go on to add the applications that you want - only the ones you want, not what's imposed by the distributions' architects. The LFS (online) book gives clear direction as to how to build the system and once completed you have gained two things - (1) a linux installation that works the way you want it to and has the features and tools that you want without unecessary bloat, and (2) a deep understanding and knowledge of linux and the way it works. Having read through the posts above I believe that it might be worth your while to look at LFS. The website is http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs .

PS I have no association with LFS other than as a user.