LinuxQuestions.org - Gentoo stage1 problems

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Gentoo stage1 problems

I'm installing from Stage1, and following the documentation, and I'm
running into problems and I have many questions. It all goes downhill
after I run emerge sync. I then edit the make.conf file, but I'm not
sure what to use. Here are my problems:

1. I have a P4, and I'm not sure what to put in make.conf.

2. I also added some USE flags using the Gentoo Guide to USE flags and
Gentoo Linux USE Variable Descriptions. I know adding a
- in front of variable adds it, and not having one omits it. My
question is why would you still type that in the file if you don't want
it? For example, I don't want to use ALSA... so how would I achieve
that? by typing alsa or by not typing anything at all?

3. After setting all my USE flags (no idea if I did it correctly), I
run the bootstrap.sh script and it fails with that gettext error. I
found several threads on it, but the solutions I can understand didn't
help me.

4. I also noticed that some people solved their problem by emerging a
specific 'program'. Wouldn't that be fixed by emerging the entire
system using emerge sync? What's the point of updating the whole system
if you still have to update certain components after?

If someone can help me out with this, I'd very much appreciate it.
This is difficult for me because I'm not a programmer, I'm a networker
8)

1- Try CFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -Os -funroll-loops -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe"
2- If you don't want alsa, type "-alsa".
3- I don't know how to help you. Have you searched the Gentoo forums? Those guys know a lot.
4- emerge sync updates the portage tree. If you want to install a specific program, type 'emerge program'. To update your system, type 'emerge -U world'. I'm not sure I understood your question.

Hi, thanks for the help.

I did post the same question on the Gentoo Forums and nobody has replied. That is why I posted it here. :(

I did manage to get some help by reading some of the Portage guides and finding other tutorials on how to install Gentoo.

I'll fix it sooner or later.

thanks for the help,

Ronen

1. I have answered your question, so take a look. I would advise against using -march=pentium4 as it seems to produce faulty code, use -march=pentium3 instead. Also -O2 produces faster code (in general) in stead of -Os (which produces a smaller filesize).

2. That's not right, as mentioned on the Gentoo forums. Use USE="-alsa" to not build support for alsa into your programs. Mask the package if you don't want it at all.

3. I suggest you start with stage3 and when you have a working system you can always compile the whole thing again by doing emerge -e world

Quote:

Originally posted by quintar_51
I did manage to get some help by reading some... [snip] ...other tutorials on how to install Gentoo.

Ronen

Could you please post these tutorials? I'm pulling my hair out over the standard documentation on the site. My brain just isn't getting some of it.

Thanks,

Dave

Well, the 'standard' documentation on the Gentoo site is the one to use according to all other sites. However, on the Gentoo Docs section, there's also the Gentoo Handbook. It's pretty much the same thing as the standard instructions, but they arrange it a bit differently, and it does make more sense. I followed that one step by step and had no problems, except with my network card, but that's a seperate issue.

Also, the Portage Documents are also helpful in understanding how Portage itself works.

I did find a general install guide on another site, but it simply summorized the entire gentoo install. It did help me before I found the Gentoo Handbook, but it provides limited step by step instructions.

http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=3057

Hope you get yours working.

Ronen

That link and the handbook are helpful. Thanks. I'm in the middle of a stage1 install and am right at the part that is the hardest for me, the kernel config and the boot loader stuff. Hopefully I can get it sorted.

Try genkernel for that.It will build a huge thing with a lot of modules but you can always go and get rid of the things you don't need later and see if it works.Be careful though - genkernel overwrites the kernel you use and doesn't make a backup either.It is a nice alternative to configuring the kernel 'by hand' if you don't exactly know what you need in there.
Bootloader shouldn't be such a big deal.If you screw it up you can alway pop the CD in and edit it.

Course you can always do a genkernel --menuconfig all and remove things that you know positively you will not ever need... that way you don't have to wait as long for a full kernel compile...

Use -O3, not -O2 or -Os

From the Gnu Compiler Collection Manual:

Code:

-O

-O1

    Optimize. Optimizing compilation takes somewhat more time, and a lot more memory for a large function.



    With -O, the compiler tries to reduce code size and execution time, without performing any optimizations that take a great deal of compilation time.



    -O turns on the following optimization flags:



          -fdefer-pop 

          -fmerge-constants 

          -fthread-jumps 

          -floop-optimize 

          -fcrossjumping 

          -fif-conversion 

          -fif-conversion2 

          -fdelayed-branch 

          -fguess-branch-probability 

          -fcprop-registers

          



    -O also turns on -fomit-frame-pointer on machines where doing so does not interfere with debugging.

-O2

    Optimize even more. GCC performs nearly all supported optimizations that do not involve a space-speed tradeoff. The compiler does not perform loop unrolling or function inlining when you specify -O2. As compared to -O, this option increases both compilation time and the performance of the generated code.



    -O2 turns on all optimization flags specified by -O. It also turns on the following optimization flags:



          -fforce-mem 

          -foptimize-sibling-calls 

          -fstrength-reduce 

          -fcse-follow-jumps  -fcse-skip-blocks 

          -frerun-cse-after-loop  -frerun-loop-opt 

          -fgcse  -fgcse-lm  -fgcse-sm 

          -fdelete-null-pointer-checks 

          -fexpensive-optimizations 

          -fregmove 

          -fschedule-insns  -fschedule-insns2 

          -fsched-interblock -fsched-spec 

          -fcaller-saves 

          -fpeephole2 

          -freorder-blocks  -freorder-functions 

          -fstrict-aliasing 

          -falign-functions  -falign-jumps 

          -falign-loops  -falign-labels

          



    Please note the warning under -fgcse about invoking -O2 on programs that use computed gotos.

-O3

    Optimize yet more. -O3 turns on all optimizations specified by -O2 and also turns on the -finline-functions and -frename-registers options.

-O0

    Do not optimize. This is the default.

-Os

    Optimize for size. -Os enables all -O2 optimizations that do not typically increase code size. It also performs further optimizations designed to reduce code size.



    -Os disables the following optimization flags:



          -falign-functions  -falign-jumps  -falign-loops 

          -falign-labels  -freorder-blocks  -fprefetch-loop-arrays

I think you would probably rather have slightly bigger binaries that were faster, then small binaries that are slower.

Also add -fomit-frame-pointer -funroll-loops and -ffast-math.

Some programs can't compile with these options so the ebuiltds filter them out, but it doesn't hurt to have them in there. Don't ever use the -mmmx or -msse2 options. The march=pentium4 option will turn those on when they are needed. Make sure you get the newest version of gcc (3.3.3) even if it is marked as unstable. Older versions don't created sse2 code correctly.

Another thing I thought of that might be helpful... /usr/portage/profile/use.desc lists all the use flags and what they do. You put a - infront of it in the USE var to turn it off, no - to turn it on. make.globals lists the defaults, if you don't like some of what they turn on by default you have to specify them as off.