sort of newbie getting my hands dirty(compiling GNOME)
 

I've been using Linux for a few months now(redHat 8 and 9), but I wasn't really learning anything about the OS itself, with RPM's doing everything for me. So i decided to 'get my hands dirty' by trying to install Gentoo. I'm now the proud owner of a fully functioning gentoo system :D
Now on to GNOME! I've downloaded ALL the source files(*.gz, don't like bz2 for some reason) but where do i start? I've been searching google with every possible combination of GNOME/compiling GNOME, but to no avail.

any help will be greatly appreciated...thanks!

thanks, but i already know how to extract & compile.
at the moment i have 77 files and i'm not sure where to start, i could just start at 'a' and work my way down to 'z' but wouldn't i run into some dependency problems?

a good rule of thumb is to read the README & INSTALL files to check for dependancies.

The lib's are usually good to start with.

Just out of curiousity, why not `emerge gnome`?

You can always do `emerge -p gnome` then write down the order & package names
and follow it's sequence with the equivilent packages you downloaded... that's what I think I would do.

If you are using Gentoo then you need to:


#emerge sync
#emerge gnome

Did you look at the docs here?

thanks!! emerge sync doesn't work 'cos i got a stupid modem which won't run properly under linux. but i copied all the files to '/usr/portage/distfiles/'
then ran 'emerge gnome' which sort of works except when it looks for a file with a version no.( eg. filename.1.2.3.tar) 'cos the files i have are newer.

is there config file or something i can edit?

did you try this?

yeah i've got the list, thanks. but i was hoping there was an easier way than untaring, ./configuring, make && make installing all 70 odd files.
but i'll do it anyway.