Gentoo Install - make.conf

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It's all a bit Reddish...
I'm just in the process of installing Gentoo and was doing ok considering I'm a n00b. Just getting to the end of stage 1 where I have to edit the 'make.conf' file.

I've hit a very large wall. I've read the docs on the install and also the section on the gentoo web site about the 'USE' flags and I'm still none the wiser.

The machine specs:

P 200MHz
128MB EDO RAM
J-656 (Jetway?) Motherboard
4.3GB HDD

(Piece of crap, I know)

The only thing I need it for is NEdit (Java for Uni) and a web browser of some sort. It was previously running redhat 7.3 (for about a week) with gnome which I later changed to fluxbox.

So the only thing I think it needs is NEdit, a web browser (Pref. Phoenix. Tried it, liked it a lot) and fluxbox.

What do I need to put the USE flags for the above system?

Thanks.

[RB]
 
The USE flags are basically preferences as to what you would like, its fine to leave them as they are in /etc/make.profile with this lot:

Code:
USE="x86 oss 3dnow apm arts avi berkdb crypt cups encode gdbm gif gpm gtk imlib 
java jpeg kde libg++ libwww mikmod mmx motif  mpeg ncurses nls                  
oggvorbis opengl pam pdflib png python qt qtmt quicktime readline sdl           
slang spell ssl svga tcpd truetype X xml2 xmms xv"

The USE flags are something that is hardware independent, it doesnt matter what hardware just what your choices are. The ones that I have on this machine are the ones about as they are pretty decent choices. This is the default. TBH on my first install I didnt change those.

Shak
 
You could just use the default. Where is got USE= just put in stuff you want and stuff you don't want. Mine looks like this, be sure to uncomment the USE if your going to use it:

USE="sse mmx xv dga xfs -gnome -kde -arts -nls -3dnow -nano"

A bit lower down you'll see the Host Settings and here you can specify your CHOST and CXXFLAGS. I'd say you should use something like this, which is fairly conservative:

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=pentium2 -O3 -pipe -mmmx -fomit-frame-pointer"
CXXFLAGS="-march=pentium2 -O3 -pipe -mmmx -fomit-frame-pointer"
 
Originally posted by Shak
The USE flags are basically preferences as to what you would like, its fine to leave them as they are in /etc/make.profile with this lot:

Code:
USE="x86 oss 3dnow apm arts avi berkdb crypt cups encode gdbm gif gpm gtk imlib 
java jpeg kde libg++ libwww mikmod mmx motif  mpeg ncurses nls                  
oggvorbis opengl pam pdflib png python qt qtmt quicktime readline sdl           
slang spell ssl svga tcpd truetype X xml2 xmms xv"

The USE flags are something that is hardware independent, it doesnt matter what hardware just what your choices are. The ones that I have on this machine are the ones about as they are pretty decent choices. This is the default. TBH on my first install I didnt change those.

Shak

Thanks mate. Just started the bootstrap process. Am I right in assuming this is going to take very long time on the aforementioned dog of a PC?
 
Originally posted by Mpemba Effect
You could just use the default. Where is got USE= just put in stuff you want and stuff you don't want. Mine looks like this, be sure to uncomment the USE if your going to use it:

USE="sse mmx xv dga xfs -gnome -kde -arts -nls -3dnow -nano"

A bit lower down you'll see the Host Settings and here you can specify your CHOST and CXXFLAGS. I'd say you should use something like this, which is fairly conservative:

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=pentium2 -O3 -pipe -mmmx -fomit-frame-pointer"
CXXFLAGS="-march=pentium2 -O3 -pipe -mmmx -fomit-frame-pointer"

D'oh! That'll teach me!
Must press refresh more often!

Just using the defaults.

[RB]
 
Here it is ... no idea what all of it does :p just of stuff people recommend at the Gentoo forums. Some of the "extras" may well already be in the -O3 optimisation haven't checked :D So far mozilla is the only program that I've found to fall over when compiling, mozilla is very sensitive to agressive optimisation anyway and seem to break easily.

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -O3 -fforce-addr -mfpmath=sse -mmmx -msse -msse2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -frerun-cse-after-loop -frerun-loop-opt -fexpensive-optimizations -fprefetch-loop-arrays -funroll-loops -falign-functions=4"
CXXFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -O3 -fforce-addr -mfpmath=sse -mmmx -msse -msse2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -frerun-cse-after-loop -frerun-loop-opt -fexpensive-optimizations -fprefetch-loop-arrays -funroll-loops -falign-functions=4"
 
Yeah it's GCC3.2 :) I haven't seen any specific dual CPU gcc optimisations either. But you can add stuff like -j3 to your make.globals. I think the intel compiler would be quite nice :)
 
Cheers Shakster, but I think I've got that one, Its the one with the C++ and Fortran compilers on and QCad ;) ... I haven't tried it, not entirely sure on how it's all going to work ... having gcc on my current machine, or how to install a linux machine with the intel compiler from scratch .. hmm. I heard Drobbins is going bring out Gentoo on both the Intel and Gcc flavours but last heard theres problems with the intel compiler thats not being addressed very quickly by Intel ... maybe one day well see it.
 
Well I thought everything was going well but apparently not :(. Must have been something I've missed or done wrong!

Start the machine - ok.
Grub loads - ok.
Select option to boot - ok.

Immediately after the following pops up

Code:
Booting 'Gentoo Linux'

root (hd0,0)
 File system type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
kernel /boot/bzImage root=/dev/hda3
    [Linux-bzImage, setup=0xa00, size=0xe91cc]

Machine reboots. Repeat ad infinitum. :(

Anything obvious or is it start again time?

Thanks

[RB]
 
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