Gentoo - 2 questions about my first install
 

I installed Gentoo 2005.0 - stage 3 (yeah, I wimped out of a stage 1 install).

Anyway, all is going pretty well - to my suprise, after the install was done, it
booted to a prompted and I logged in - couldn't ask for much more!

I have just a few questions I'm hoping a Gentoo knowledgeable person can answer.

First off, So I'm 'emerging' things - xfce4 & some plugins, xfe file manager,
jed, and doing xmms as I'm typing this. It seems to me that:

A - my disk space is filling up pretty quick - I'm already at 1.5GB used on / which
includes everything except /boot, /home, /tmp & /root. My question is, if I simpy
type "emerge xfce4", what is kept and where, and is it OK to get rid of it? Or am
I just misinterpretting/misjudging the amount of disk space I need?

B - installing some things takes WAY too long. For example, since I'm "emerge
xmms" right now, its downloading, compiling & installing 18 things (1/18), (2/18),
etc. Once I get the basics installed for a desktop system, this'll stop since all the
dependencies will already be installed? I'm hoping so.

Just looking for some pratical advice from someone who is familiar with Gentoo.
Thanks
-tw

Re: Gentoo - 2 questions about my first install
 

hi there,

yes. normally the source code is kept. you can delete it. but keep in mind that if you want to recompile you need to make the download again.

take a look at /etc/make.conf. you should see what "you are asking for". ex: if you use ALSA only, you can disable oss with the flag -oss in your make.conf. this will merge less things in xmms.
this is just a stupid example. ;)

regards

slackie1000

All the source code is kept by default in /usr/portage/distfiles/ . You could safely delete it but if you want to emerge some package again you have to download it another time ... Because packeages in portage get updated quickly that s less important because there always be a newer version to install :)

You could also delete all the dirs in /var/tmp/portage/ wich hold temporary files from te compilation process ..

Well, I can't add much because everybody is dead on with what they have said so far.

One more thing though, the make.conf, mostly the USE line, is likely the most important file you will edit, short of fstab. Make sure you have the right stuff in the USE line.

Later

:D :D :D

Thanks a lot for the replies - as soon as I'm done getting kde, I'll clean things up.

And since the topic of USE in make.conf came up, here is mine:

USE="-gnome qt kde dvd dvdr alsa"

Not too execssive is it? I use my system for regualr desktop stuff (kde & xfce),
and a little music listening/recording & cd/dvd burning.

Thanks agin for the replies.
-tw

hi there,

you are "building" a kde env. i would suggest adding
some apps can mess a bit with both : qt + gtk.

just my :twocents:

regards

slackie1000

If you want to know what a pretty full blown install can consume just from souce code, my /usr/portage/distfiles is just over 3.2GBs. That is where all the stuff you download is stored.

Keep in mind that I am on dial-up so I save everything just in case I need to recompile with new settings or something. It can get quite large. I'm sure some people have more than that, some maybe less.

If you have broadband, or want to get rid of them anyway, I think this will delete the sources after the install is done:

That is in the make.conf file and you just need to uncomment, take out the # in front of "AUTOCLEAN="yes"", to tell it to do that. If I EVER get broadband, I will likely uncomment that myself.

Hope that helps. You should see me downloading Open Office. :cry: :rolleyes:

Later

:D :D :D :D

From the emerge manual
The -c switch only cleans older versions of packages sitting on your hd after a update ..


--depclean can also help you free some space by cleaning uneeded deps but that is unlikely to happen in a fresh installed system

Take also a look here
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=286471

You can use "emerge --fetchonly packagename" to download everything at once then "emerge packagename". Also take a look at adding "ntpl ntplonly" to your use flags, it will help with KDE compile time. If you can do a stage 3 with no problems you should not have a problem with a stage 1 install, just a couple more steps and takes longer. This will help you learn about your system better.

wow- I really appreciate all the real world examples & the replies.

slackie1000 - [QUOTE] USE=" -gtk" [END QUOTE]
Thanks for the warning, but I tend to use gtk apps with my xfce4 - I did consider using a
-gtk, mmm.... now I have a quandry.... I'll have to give that some thought.


dalek - [QUOTE] #AUTOCLEAN="yes" in /etc/make.conf [END QUOTE]
Did it, thanks. But since I do have broadband, downloading is nothing compared to compiling :)
But at the same time, I am trying to be friendly to the servers I'm using.


Adony - [QUOTE] From the emerge manual [END QUOTE]
humm.... looks like I need to read that through carefully - I just hit the highlights.


RanDrake10 -[QUOTE] If you can do a stage 3 with no problems you should not have a
problem with a stage 1 install, just a couple more steps and takes longer. [END QUOTE]
Funny you should mention that. I was thinking about getting everything going as I want it,
and then starting over with a stage 1 install and comparing the differences. This started out
as just a learning experiment, but with some work, I think I can get a real nice running system.


Update on my install: Got the sound working, with some errors on startup, but it works. Going to
take care of those errors within 24 hours. Still need to: get bt878 video capture working, find some
plugins in portage tree, get k3b installed/working, get dual-monitors working, install some more apps,
update kernel to the newest when I get around to doing that, and then I'll be just about there.
I'm not asking for help with these issues, just rambling on.

Thanks again for all your help/posts/info everyone!
-tw