doc/en/faq.xml

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<guide link="/doc/en/faq.xml">
<title>Gentoo Linux Frequently Asked Questions</title>
<author title="Chief Architect">
  <mail link="drobbins@gentoo.org">Daniel Robbins</mail>
</author>
<author title="Reviewer">
  Colin Morey
</author>
<author title="Editor"><!-- zhen@gentoo.org -->
  John P. Davis
</author>
<author title="Editor">
  <mail link="stocke2@gentoo.org">Eric Stockbridge</mail>
</author>
<author title="Editor">
  <mail link="zhware@gentoo.org">Stoyan Zhekov</mail>
</author>
<author title="Editor">
  <mail link="carl@gentoo.org">Carl Anderson</mail>
</author>
<author title="Editor">
  <mail link="peesh@gentoo.org">Jorge Paulo</mail>
</author>
<author title="Editor">
  <mail link="swift@gentoo.org">Sven Vermeulen</mail>
</author>

<abstract>
This FAQ is a collection of questions and answers collected from the gentoo-dev 
mailing list and from IRC -- if you have any questions (or answers!) to add, 
please contact either an author or a member of the documentation team.
</abstract>

<license/>

<version>1.1.12</version>
<date>January 27, 2004</date>

<chapter>
<title>Featured Questions</title>
<section>
<title>Getting Started</title>
<body>

<ul>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap2_sect1">How is Gentoo pronounced, and what does it mean
    ?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap2_sect2">What makes Gentoo different?</uri>
  </li>
</ul>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Installation</title>
<body>

<ul>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap3_sect1">What is the difference between the .iso and 
    .tbz2 files?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap3_sect2">Why do the build .iso and .tbz2 files sometimes
    have different -r (revision) numbers?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap3_sect3">I'm finding things to be really unstable and 
    I'm using "-O9 -ffast-math -fomit-frame-pointer" optimizations. What 
    gives?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap3_sect4">What's the default root password after 
    installation?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap3_sect5">How can I change the root (or indeed any other 
    user's) password?</uri>
  </li>
  <li><uri link="#doc_chap3_sect6">How do I add a normal user?</uri></li>
  <li><uri link="#doc_chap3_sect7">Why can't a user su to root?</uri></li>
  <li><uri link="#doc_chap3_sect8">How do I enable devfs?</uri></li>
  <li><uri link="#doc_chap3_sect9">How to I disable devfs?</uri></li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap3_sect10">How do I get a /dev/mouse that doesn't go away
    when I reboot (when using devfs)?</uri>
  </li>
  <li><uri link="#doc_chap3_sect11">Grub can't find stage x.y?</uri></li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap3_sect12">My ASUS CUV4X-D won't boot and it freezes 
    during various stages of kernel loading and hardware detection.</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap3_sect13">If I have Gentoo 1.4_rc1 can I upgrade to 
    1.4_rc2/rc3/final without reinstalling?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap3_sect14">My kernel doesn't boot (properly), what 
    should I do now?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap3_sect15">My proxy requires authentication, what do I 
    have to do?</uri>
  </li>
</ul>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Package Management</title>
<body>

<ul>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap4_sect1">In what format are the packages stored?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap4_sect2">Why write a new port system (Portage) instead 
    of using BSD's version?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap4_sect3">How does this differ from Debian's apt or 
    BSD's ports?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap4_sect4">How do I install and uninstall packages?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap4_sect5">How can I set a global configuration for 
    compiling packages?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap4_sect6">What happened to /etc/make.defaults?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap4_sect7">Is there a way to upgrade all installed 
    packages e.g. apt-get upgrade or make World?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap4_sect8">When updating a package using emerge or ebuild,
    how do I avoid clobbering my config files?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap4_sect9">I want to perform the ./configure step myself. 
    Can I?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap4_sect10">What if rsync doesn't work for me?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap4_sect11">How do I use emerge from behind a 
    firewall?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap4_sect12">Can I rsync from another operating 
    system?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap4_sect13">I have only slow modem connection at home.  
    Can I download sources somewhere else and add them to my system?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap4_sect14">.tar.gz sources for installed software are 
    piling up in /usr/portage/distfiles/ using valuable space.  Is it safe to 
    delete these files?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap4_sect15">I went to emerge blackdown-jdk and 
    blackdown-jre, and afterwards java-config --list-available-vms would only 
    list blackdown-jre.  Openoffice then refuses to emerge.  What do I do?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap4_sect16">What's in /var/tmp/portage?  Is it safe to 
    delete the files and directories in /var/tmp/portage?</uri>
  </li>
</ul>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Usage</title>
<body>

<ul>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap5_sect1">I have installed openssh on my box, but can 
    only log in as root - my normal user account doesn't work.</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap5_sect2">I can start X applications as root only.</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap5_sect3">How do I set up an International Keyboard 
    Layout?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap5_sect4">DNS name resolution works for root only.</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap5_sect5">Why is KDE not reading /etc/profile?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap5_sect6">Why can't my user use their own crontab?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap5_sect7">How do I get numlock to start on boot?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap5_sect8">How do I have my terminal cleared when I log 
    out?</uri>
  </li>
</ul>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Maintenance</title>
<body>

<ul>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap6_sect1">ReiserFS and filesystem corruption issues -- 
    how to fix'em, etc...</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap6_sect2">How to I view the timestamps in 
    /var/log/syslog.d, etc. on a pre-1.0_rc5 Gentoo system?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap6_sect3">Metalogd doesn't log in real time!</uri>
  </li>
</ul>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Development</title>
<body>

<ul>
  <li><uri link="#doc_chap7_sect1">Where can I report bugs?</uri></li>
  <li><uri link="#doc_chap7_sect2">How often are new releases made?</uri></li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap7_sect3">I would like a package to be added to Portage; 
    how would I go about this?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap7_sect4">How can I add a question or answer to this 
    FAQ?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap7_sect5">make -f Makefile.cvs on a KDE app produces 
    "invalid unused variable" errors.  What gives?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap7_sect6">My speaker beeps like crazy while compiling 
    Mozilla.  How do I disable console beeps?</uri>
  </li>
</ul>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Resources</title>
<body>

<ul>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap8_sect1">Where can I find more about supervise used by 
    default in Gentoo Linux 1.0_rc5 and earlier?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap8_sect2">Where can I find more information about Gentoo 
    Linux?</uri>
  </li>
  <li><uri link="#doc_chap8_sect3">Can I buy a CD of Gentoo Linux?</uri></li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap8_sect4">Why, when I hit reply to a post on a Gentoo 
    mailing list, does my answer only go to the original poster and not the 
    entire list?</uri>
  </li>
  <li>
    <uri link="#doc_chap8_sect5">This FAQ hasn't answered my question.  What do 
    I do now?</uri>
  </li>
</ul>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>

<chapter>
<title>Getting Started</title>

<section>
<title>How is Gentoo pronounced, and what does it mean?</title>
<body>

<p>
Gentoo is a species of small fast penguin, pronounced "gen-too" (The "g" in 
"gentoo" is a soft "g", as in "gentle").
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>What makes Gentoo different?</title>
<body>

<p>
Gentoo Linux is a fast, modern distribution with a clean and flexible
design -- in this respect, Gentoo may appeal to
<uri link="http://www.slackware.com/">Slackware</uri>,
<uri link="http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/">Linux From Scratch</uri> or
<uri link="http://www.bsd.org/">BSD</uri> users.  Unlike most Linux
distros, Gentoo has a package system reminiscent of BSD's ports,
meaning the packages are continually updated to the latest
versions.
</p>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>

<chapter>
<title>Installation</title>
<section>
<title>What is the difference between the .iso and .tbz2 files?</title>
<body>

<p>
The build <e>.tbz2</e> file is a minimal set of system files
that is necessary for allowing a user to bootstrap and install
Gentoo Linux.  The build <e>.iso</e> is a complete, bootable CD image that
contains a system kernel, a reasonably complete set of kernel modules,
necessary system tools such as <c>mkfs</c> and networking support,
as well as the <e>.tbz2</e> minimal-system tarball.  Most users will install
Gentoo Linux by burning the .iso file onto a CD, booting off of the CD,
and installing from within the minimal linux environment provided by
the Gentoo boot CD.  It is possible, however, for users to install
Gentoo Linux directly from an already-existing Linux distribution.
Such users need only download the .tbz2 file, install the contents
on a spare partition (making sure to use the <c>p</c> flag when
untarring the tarball!), chroot, and install in the usual fashion.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>
  Why do the build .iso and .tbz2 files sometimes have different -r (revision) 
  numbers?
</title>
<body>

<p>
The .tbz2 minimal-system tarball only needs to be revised when there have
been significant changes to the core Gentoo Linux system (such as baselayout
changes, or a new profile), and as such .tbz2 updates are relatively rare.
The .iso file tends to get updated whenever we discover that somebody has
hardware that won't boot from our .iso.  Since new kernel modules and
patches are constantly being generated, this situation probably won't
stabilise anytime soon.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>
  I'm finding things to be really unstable and I'm using "-O9 -ffast-math 
  -fomit-frame-pointer" optimizations.  What gives?
</title>
<body>

<p>
Don't bother using anything higher than <c>-O3</c> since it isn't support by 
current versions of gcc.  Very aggressive optimizations sometimes cause the 
compiler to streamline the assembly code to the point where it doesn't quite 
do the same thing anymore. A possible setting based on <e>Loc-Dog</e> 
(on IRC)'s CFLAGS is <c>-O3 -mcpu=i686 -march=i686 -fforce-addr 
-fomit-frame-pointer -funroll-loops -frerun-cse-after-loop -frerun-loop-opt 
-falign-functions=4</c>, which is about as much as I'd want to push global 
optimization settings.  Beyond this, it's best to use ultra-high optimizations 
only with specific packages where you really need that extra 2%, (eg graphics 
and various multimedia programs), and where you can easily test the package 
to ensure that it hasn't been optimized into oblivion.
</p>

<p>
Please try first to compile with CFLAGS <c>-march= -O2</c> before reporting a 
bug.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>What's the default root password after installation?</title>
<body>

<p>
The default password is blank; hit enter.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>How can i change the root (or indeed any other user's) password?</title>
<body>

<p>
You can use <c>passwd</c> to change the password for the user you are logged 
into. For extra options and setting, please see <c>man passwd</c> once you've 
completed the install.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>How do i add a normal user?</title>
<body>

<p>
The command <c>adduser gentoo</c> will add a user called gentoo. The next step 
is to give this user a password and <c>passwd</c> will do exactly that.
</p>

<p>
Instead of <c>adduser</c> you can also use:
</p>

<pre caption="Using useradd">
# <i>useradd gentoo -m -G users,audio,wheel -s /bin/bash</i>
</pre>

<p>
This will add a user gentoo, will make possible for him to use sound-related 
devices (<path>/dev/sound/*</path>), will make possible for him to switch to
root (using <c>su</c>) and will make <path>/bin/bash</path> his login shell.
</p>

<p>
You can also install <c>superadduser</c> using <c>emerge superadduser</c> and 
then issue <c>superadduser gentoo</c> to add a user called gentoo. Just follow 
the instructions given to you by <c>superadduser</c>.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Why can't a user su to root?</title>
<body>

<p>
For security reasons, users may only <c>su</c> to root if they belong to the 
<e>wheel</e> group. To add a <i>username</i> to the <e>wheel</e> group, issue 
the following command as root:
</p>

<pre caption="Adding a user to the wheel group">
# <i>usermod -G users,wheel username</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>How do I enable devfs?</title>
<body>

<p>
If you're using 1.0_rc5 or greater, you don't need to do anything special to 
get devfs working; it's already active (you did make sure that devfs was built 
into the kernel, didn't you?). However, if you are using a version of Gentoo 
Linux <e>prior</e> to version 1.0_rc5, add <c>devfs=mount</c> to your 
<c>GRUB</c> kernel boot options so that the line looks something like 
<c>kernel /boot/boot/bzImage devfs=mount foo=bar</c>  The kernel will then 
mount the <path>/dev</path> <e>devfs</e> filesystem automatically at boot-time.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>How to I disable devfs?</title>
<body>

<p>
Under Gentoo Linux 1.0_rc6 and later, you can disable devfs by passing the 
<c>gentoo=nodevfs</c> to the kernel.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>
  How do I get a <path>/dev/mouse </path> that doesn't go away when I reboot 
  (when using devfs)?
</title>
<body>

<p>
If you are using 1.0_rc6 or later, then you can just use <c>ln -s</c>
to make the usual symbolic link from <path>/dev/mouse</path>, and
it will be preserved between reboots.
</p>

<p>
All other users need to edit <path>/etc/devfsd.conf</path> and add these 
lines:
</p>

<pre caption="Adding lines to /etc/devfsd.conf">
REGISTER        ^misc/psaux$    CFUNCTION GLOBAL symlink misc/psaux mouse
UNREGISTER      ^misc/psaux$    CFUNCTION GLOBAL unlink mouse
</pre>

<p>
If you are not using the devfs PS/2 mouse <path>/dev/misc/psaux</path> device,
adjust the <c>misc/psaux</c> strings above accoringly.  You'll then want to 
<c>killall -HUP devfsd</c> to get devfsd to reread 
<path>/etc/devfsd.conf</path>.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Grub can't find stage x.y?</title>
<body>

<p>
During installation the grub boot files are copied to <path>/boot/grub</path>
(<path>/boot/boot/grub</path> in Gentoo Linux 1.0_rc5 and earlier.) Grub 
automatically looks in the <path>/boot/grub</path> directory on the boot 
partition.  (We strongly recommend having a separate no-auto boot partition 
mounted at <path>/boot</path>, since that way it is much more difficult to 
clobber your kernel and boot info by accident.)  The above error generally 
arises from (a) not using a separate boot partition, (b) forgetting to mount 
the boot partition at <path>/boot</path> before either unpacking the build 
snapshot or running <c>emerge --usepkg system</c>, or (c) forgetting the
<c>notail</c> option when mounting a ReiserFS <path>/boot</path> partition.
You can get more information on grub, including how to debug grub from the 
grub prompt, by reading the <uri 
link="http://www-105.ibm.com/developerworks/education.nsf/linux-onlinecourse-bytitle/0F1731DC664023B7862569D0005C44AF?OpenDocument">IBM developerWorks Grub tutorial</uri>.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>
  My ASUS CUV4X-D won't boot and it freezes during various stages of kernel 
  loading and hardware detection.
</title>
<body>

<p>
Disable MPS 1.4 (multi-processor-system) in the BIOS or switch this 
function to 1.1. By using this option you just switch the MPS version. The 
Multi-Processor-System will still work properly. Make sure to boot Gentoo 
Linux with the following boot option, noapic.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>
  If I have Gentoo 1.4_rc1 can I upgrade to 1.4_rc2, 1.4_final/_rc3 without 
  reinstalling?
</title>
<body>

<p>
In fact there is no difference between the 1.4 releases <b>after they&apos;ve 
installed</b>. Gentoo 1.4 and later are <c>glibc-2.3.x</c> based. As such 
1.4rc1 machine for example, that does <c>emerge sync; emerge -u world</c> is 
<b>exactly the same</b> as a machine with 1.4rc2 installed, after it does 
<c>emerge sync; emerge -u world</c>. The true differences lie in the installer.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>My kernel doesn't boot (properly), what should I do now?</title>
<body>

<p>
You don't need to redo every step of the installation, but only the
kernel-stuff and all associated steps. Suppose you have installed Gentoo
on <path>/dev/hda1</path> (/boot) and <path>/dev/hda3</path> (/) with
<path>/dev/hda2</path> being the swap space:
</p>

<pre caption = "Reconfiguring the kernel">
<comment>Boot from the LiveCD and wait until you receive a prompt</comment>
<comment>We first mount all partitions:</comment>
# <i>mount /dev/hda3 /mnt/gentoo</i>
# <i>mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/gentoo/boot</i>
# <i>swapon /dev/hda2</i>
# <i>mount -t proc none /mnt/gentoo/proc</i>
<comment>Then we chroot into our Gentoo environment and configure the kernel:</comment>
# <i>chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash</i>
# <i>env-update &amp;&amp; source /etc/profile</i>
# <i>cd /usr/src/linux</i>
# <i>make menuconfig</i>
<comment>Now (de)select anything you have (de)selected wrongly at your</comment>
<comment>previous attempt. Then quit and compile your kernel:</comment>
# <i>make dep &amp;&amp; make bzImage modules modules_install</i>
<comment>Now copy over your bzImage file, overwriting your previous one:</comment>
# <i>cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot</i>
<comment>If you use LILO, rerun lilo -- GRUB users should skip this:</comment>
# <i>/sbin/lilo</i>
<comment>Now exit the chroot and reboot.</comment>
# <i>exit</i>
# <i>umount /mnt/gentoo/proc /mnt/gentoo/boot /mnt/gentoo</i>
# <i>reboot</i>
</pre>

<p>
If on the other hand the problem lays with your bootloader configuration,
follow the same steps, but instead of configuring/compiling your kernel you
should reconfigure your bootloader (recompilation isn't necessary).
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>My proxy requires authentication, what do I have to do?</title>
<body>

<p>
When you have to download something using <c>wget</c>, use the 
following syntax to authenticate yourself:
</p>

<pre caption = "Proxy-authentication using wget">
# <i>wget --proxy-user=</i><comment>username</comment><i> --proxy-passwd=</i><comment>password</comment><i> &lt;url&gt;</i>
</pre>

<p>
To have Portage automatically use this scheme, define it in 
<path>/etc/make.conf</path>:
</p>

<pre caption = "/etc/make.conf">
FETCHCOMMAND="wget --proxy-user=<comment>username</comment> --proxy-passwd=<comment>password</comment> -t 5 --passive-ftp -P \${DISTDIR} \${URI}"
RESUMECOMMAND="/usr/bin/wget --proxy-user=<comment>username</comment> --proxy-passwd=<comment>password</comment> -c -t 5 --passive-ftp -P \${DISTDIR} \${URI}"
</pre>

<p>
Sadly, <c>rsync</c> doesn't seem to support username/password 
authentication for proxies. See <uri link="#doc_chap4_sect10">What 
if rsync doesn't work for me?</uri> for more information on how to 
handle this situation.
</p>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>

<chapter>
<title>Package Management</title>
<section>
<title>In what format are the packages stored?</title>
<body>

<p>
They exist in our portage tree as <e>ebuild</e> autobuild scripts; we are 
primarily a ports-based distribution, meaning that we provide scripts 
(<c>.ebuild</c> files) and a special system (Portage) so that you can build 
apps from sources. We generally only build binaries for releases and snapshots.
The <uri link="/doc/en/gentoo-howto.xml">Development HOWTO</uri> covers the 
contents of an ebuild script in detail.  For full binary ISO releases, we 
create a full suite of binary packages in an enhanced <c>.tbz2</c> format 
(<c>.tar.bz2</c> compatible with meta-information attached to the end of the 
file).
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>
  Why write a new port system (Portage) instead of using BSD's version?
</title>
<body>

<p>
In one sentence, because Portage is much better in so many ways.  One of the 
design philosophies of the <c>.ebuild</c> syntax was to make it an analog of 
what you'd type to install the program manually, thus making Portage very easy 
to learn and modify to your needs.  We also have OpenBSD-style "fake" installs,
safe unmerging, system profiles, package masking, a real dependency system, 
and lots of other good stuff.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>How does this differ from Debian's apt or BSD's ports?</title>
<body>

<p>
Portage features the best of apt and ports; for example, USE options, a full
dependency system, safe installs and uninstalls, and a true package database. 
Think of Portage as the best of both worlds; a ports system with the 
sensibilities and safety of a Linux package management system built-in.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>How do I install and uninstall packages?</title>
<body>

<p>
The <uri link="/doc/en/portage-user.xml">Portage User Guide</uri> details how 
to install and uninstall packages, and update Portage.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>How can I set a global configuration for compiling packages?</title>
<body>

<p>
<path>/etc/make.conf</path> should be modified to override global and 
profile-specific default options used to compile and merge packages. The most 
common options are as follows:
</p>

<table>
<tr>
  <th>Flag</th>
  <th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti>CHOST</ti>
  <ti>
    This sets the HOST variable for compiles, e.g. <c>i686-pc-linux-gnu</c>
  </ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti>CFLAGS</ti>
  <ti>
    The options for <c>gcc</c> when compiling programs written in C (*.c files)
  </ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti>CXXFLAGS</ti>
  <ti>
    The options for <c>gcc</c> when compiling programs written in C++ (*.c,
    *.cpp etc. files)
  </ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti>USE</ti>
  <ti>
    This allows you to set what optional components you'd like compiled-in, if
    available.  For example, if you have <c>gnome</c> inside the USE string, 
    then when you compile <c>xchat</c>, it will include GNOME support.  All 
    our dependencies are also USE-aware.
  </ti>
</tr>
<tr>
  <ti>GENTOO_MIRRORS</ti>
  <ti>
    A space separated list of URIs currently mirroring the Gentoo packages.  
    Portage will attempt download from a <c>GENTOO_MIRROR</c> first before 
    trying the official <c>SRC_URI</c>.  To force Portage to skip mirrors, 
    set this variable to "".
  </ti>
</tr>
</table>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>What happened to <path>/etc/make.defaults</path>?</title>
<body>

<p>
As of Portage 1.5 onwards, <path>/etc/make.defaults</path> is antiquated; 
if you have portage-1.5-r1 or above installed then you can safely delete it.
This file has been replaced by <path>/etc/make.profile/make.defaults</path>
(<path>/etc/make.profile</path> should actually be a symlink to, 
<path>/usr/portage/profiles/default</path>),
which contains system profile-specific default settings. The priority order of
the various configuration files is as follows (highest first):
</p>

<ol>
  <li>Environment variables</li>
  <li><path>/etc/make.conf</path>, for your use</li>
  <li>
    <path>/etc/make.profile/make.defaults</path>, for profile-specific defaults
  </li>
  <li>
    <path>/etc/make.globals</path>, for global defaults (settings not specified 
    in any other place come from here)
  </li>
</ol>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>
  Is there a way to upgrade all installed packages e.g. <e>apt-get upgrade</e> 
  or <e>make World</e>?
</title>
<body>

<p>
<b>YES!</b>  Type <c>emerge --update system</c> (use it with <c>--pretend</c> 
first) to update all core system packages, and use <c>emerge --update world</c> 
(again, use it with <c>--pretend</c> first) to do a complete system upgrade of 
all installed packages.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section> 
<title>
  When updating a package using <c>emerge</c> or <c>ebuild</c>, how do I avoid 
  clobbering my config files?
</title>
<body>

<p>
Portage now includes config file management support by default.  Type 
<c>emerge --help config</c> for more details.  The (overly) simple answer is 
that if a package installs <path>foo</path> somewhere under <path>/etc</path>, 
and another <path>foo</path> already exists there, then the new <path>foo</path>
will instead be renamed to <path>._cfgxxxx_foo</path> in that directory.  A 
useful tool for examining and updating any protected config files is 
<c>etc-update</c>, which is now part of Portage.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>I want to perform the <c>./configure</c> step myself.  Can I?</title>
<body>

<p>
Yes, but it is not trivial, and the next method only works when it is a simple
ebuild (i.e. just <c>./configure</c> and <c>make &amp;&amp; make install</c>).
Be sure to read the ebuild itself to see how Gentoo handles it.
</p>

<p>
Start with unpacking the ebuild: <c>ebuild 
/usr/portage/&lt;category&gt;/&lt;package&gt;/&lt;ebuild&gt; unpack</c>.
</p>

<p>
Next, go to <path>/var/tmp/portage/&lt;package&gt;-&lt;version&gt;/work</path>.
Inside it you'll find the unpacked sources. Execute the steps you need to
perform to configure and compile the package.
</p>

<p>
When finished, execute <c>touch
/var/tmp/portage/&lt;package&gt;-&lt;version&gt;/.compiled</c> to trick Portage
into thinking it configured and compiled the package. Then finish up with
<c>ebuild /usr/portage/&lt;category&gt;/&lt;package&gt;/&lt;ebuild&gt;
merge</c>.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>What if rsync doesn't work for me?</title>
<body>

<p>
If you're behind a firewall that doesn't permit rsync traffic, then you can use 
<c>emerge-webrsync</c> which will fetch and install a Portage snapshot for you 
through regular HTTP. <c>emerge-webrsync</c> uses <c>wget</c> to download, so 
proxy is fully supported.
</p>

<pre caption="Using emerge-webrsync">
# <i>emerge-webrsync</i>
</pre>

<p>
If you cannot do this either, you can manually download a snapshot
from <uri>http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo/snapshots/</uri>.
In order to install the snapshot correctly, you first need to remove 
your current <path>/usr/portage</path> so that outdated ebuilds don't 
stay available on your system. However, you might want to put 
<path>/usr/portage/distfiles</path> somewhere safe if you don't want to 
lose all your sourcecode.
</p>

<pre caption="Manually installing the snapshots">
<codenote>(First download the snapshot and place it in /usr)</codenote>
# <i>cd /usr</i>
# <i>mv /usr/portage/distfiles /usr/distfiles-temp</i>
# <i>rm -rf /usr/portage</i>
# <i>tar xvjf portage-foo.tbz2</i>
# <i>mv /usr/distfiles-temp /usr/portage/distfiles</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>How do I use emerge from behind a firewall?</title>
<body>

<p>
Edit the PROXY settings in <path>/etc/make.conf</path>.  If that doesn't work,
edit <path>/etc/wget/wgetrc</path> and edit http_proxy and ftp_proxy
appropriately.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Can I rsync from another operating system?</title>
<body>

<p>
There's a program called unison that works under both UNIX and Win32, available 
from <uri>http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/</uri>.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>
  I have only slow modem connection at home. Can I download sources somewhere 
  else and add them to my system?
</title>
<body>

<p>
Definitely. You can run <c>emerge --pretend package</c> to see what programs
are going to be installed. To find out the sources for those packages and where 
to download the sources from, you can run <c>emerge -fp package</c>. Download 
sources and bring them on any media home. Put the sources into 
<path>/usr/portage/distfiles</path> and run <c>emerge package</c> to see it 
picking up the sources you just brought in!
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>
  .tar.gz sources for installed software are piling up in 
  /usr/portage/distfiles/ using valuable space. Is it safe to delete these 
  files?
</title>
<body>

<p>
Yes, you can safely delete these files. But if you are on a slow
connection, such as a modem, you might want to keep the archives if
possible; often several ebuilds will be released for the same version of
a specific piece of software  - if you have deleted the archive and you
upgrade the software it will have to be downloaded from the internet
again.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>
  I went to emerge blackdown-jdk and blackdown-jre, and afterwards
  java-config --list-available-vms would only list blackdown-jre.
  Openoffice would then refuse to emerge. What do I do?
</title>
<body>

<p>
Solution: 
</p>

<pre caption = "Solution">
# <i>emerge unmerge blackdown-jre blackdown-jdk </i>  
# <i>CONFIG_PROTECT="" emerge blackdown-jdk </i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>
  What's in <path>/var/tmp/portage</path>? Is it safe to delete the files and 
  directories in <path>/var/tmp/portage</path>?
</title>
<body>

<p>
During compilation, Gentoo saves the sources of the package in 
<path>/var/tmp/portage</path>. It is safe to clean out all contents of this 
directory.
</p>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>

<chapter>
<title>Usage</title>
<section>
<title>
  I have installed openssh on my box, but can only log in as root - my normal 
  user account doesn't work.
</title>
<body>

<p>
This is most probably because your user account doesn't have a valid shell 
specified. Check for your user entry in <path>/etc/passwd</path> and see if it 
ends in /bin/bash (or any other shell). If it doesn't, you must set a shell for
the user. This is done using the usermod command, like this:
</p>

<pre caption="Using usermod">
# <i>usermod -s /bin/bash myuser</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>I can start X applications as root only.</title>
<body>

<p>
Your <path>/tmp</path> directory has the wrong permissions (it needs the 
sticky bit set). Type the following as root:
</p>

<pre caption="Changing /tmp permissions">
# <i>chmod 1777 /tmp</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>How do I set up an International Keyboard Layout?</title>
<body>

<p>
Edit the <c>KEYMAP</c> variable in <path>/etc/rc.conf</path>.
Then either reboot or restart the keymaps script:
<c>/etc/init.d/keymaps restart</c>.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>DNS name resolution works for root only.</title>
<body>

<p>
<path>/etc/resolv.conf</path> has the wrong permissions; <c>chmod</c> it as 
follows:
</p>

<pre caption="Changing permissions on /etc/resolv.conf">
# <i>chmod 0644 /etc/resolv.conf</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Why is KDE not reading <path>/etc/profile</path>?</title>
<body>

<p>
You need to add <c>--login</c> to the first line in 
<path>/opt/kde2.1/bin/startkde</path>, so that it reads as follows:
</p>

<pre caption="Adding --login to startkde">
#!/bin/sh --login
</pre>

<p>
This fix has been added to recent versions of KDE.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Why can't my user use their own crontab?</title>
<body>

<p>
You need to add that user to the <c>cron</c> group.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>How do I get numlock to start on boot?</title>
<body>

<p>
If you log on graphically, or want numlock to be activated when 
you issue <c>startx</c>, then you must <c>emerge numlockx</c> and
add <c>/usr/X11R6/bin/numlockx</c> to 
<path>/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc</path> (for <c>startx</c>) or 
<path>/etc/X11/Sessions/</path> (for any graphical login manager) such
as <path>/etc/X11/Sessions/Gnome</path> for GDM.
</p>

<p>
If you work in commandline, you only need to <c>rc-update add 
numlock default</c> and numlock will be activated on the next
reboot.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>How do I have my terminal cleared when I log out?</title>
<body>

<p>
To have your terminal cleared, add <c>clear</c> to your
<path>~/.bash_logout</path> script:
</p>

<pre caption = "Clearing the terminal during logout">
$ <i>echo clear &gt;&gt; ~/.bash_logout</i>
</pre>

<p>
If you want this to happen automatically when you add a new
user, do the same for the <path>/etc/skel/.bash_logout</path>:
</p>

<pre caption = "Making new users their terminal clear on logout">
# <i>echo clear &gt;&gt; /etc/skel/.bash_logout</i></pre>
</body>

</section>
</chapter>

<chapter>
<title>Maintenance</title>
<section>
<title>ReiserFS and filesystem corruption issues -- how to fix'em, etc</title>
<body>

<p>
If your ReiserFS partition is corrupt, try booting the Gentoo 
Linux boot CD and run <c>reiserfsck --rebuild-tree</c> on
the corrupted filesystem.  This should make the filesystem consistent
again, although you may have lost some files or directories due
to the corruption.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>
  How to I view the timestamps in /var/log/syslog.d, etc. on a pre-1.0_rc5 
  Gentoo system?
</title>
<body>

<p>
To view multilog (Gentoo Linux 1.0_rc5 and earlier) timestamps, you need to 
pipe the current log through the <c>tai64nlocal</c>command:
</p>

<pre caption="Using tai64nlocal">
# <i>tai64nlocal &lt; /var/log/syslog.d/current | less</i>
</pre>

<p>
Or, alternatively, if you want to "tail" the log:
</p>

<pre caption="Using tai64nlocal (bis)">
# <i>tail -f /var/log/syslog.d/current | tai64nlocal</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Metalogd doesn't log in real time!</title>
<body>

<p>
Metalog flushes output to the disk in blocks, so messages aren't immediately 
recorded into the system logs.  If you are trying to debug a daemon, this 
performance-enhancing behavior is less than helpful.  When your Gentoo Linux 
system is up and running, you can send metalog a USR1 signal to temporarily 
turn off this message buffering (meaning that <c>tail -f 
<path>/var/log/everything/current</path></c> will now work in real time, as 
expected) and a USR2 signal to turn buffering back on again. If you want to 
disable buffering permanently, you can change METALOG_OPTS="-B" to 
METALOG_OPTS="-B -s" in <path>/etc/conf.d/metalog</path>. 
</p>

<pre caption="Turning metalog buffering on/off">
<codenote>To turn the buffering off:</codenote>
# <i>killall -USR1 metalog</i>
<codenote>To turn the buffering back on:</codenote>
# <i>killall -USR2 metalog</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>

<chapter>
<title>Development</title>
<section>
<title>Where can I report bugs?</title>
<body>

<p>
For bugs within a specific program, contact the program's author. Otherwise, 
use our Bugzilla bug tracker at <uri>http://bugs.gentoo.org</uri>.  You can 
also visit us in <c>#gentoo</c> on the <uri 
link="http://www.freenode.net">FreeNode</uri> IRC network.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>How often are new releases made?</title>
<body>

<p>
New releases are announced on the <uri 
link="http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/lists.xml">gentoo-announce</uri> 
mailing list. In reality the packages themselves are updated shortly after the 
main authors release new code. As for when new Cd images etc are released, that
tends to be whenever there are any major updates to the base code, or when
new modules get added.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>
  I would like a package to be added to Portage; how would I go about this?
</title>
<body>

<p>
Head over to <uri>http://bugs.gentoo.org</uri> and submit a new bug of the type
"ebuild".  Attach your ebuild to the bug report.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>How can I add a question or answer to this FAQ?</title>
<body>

<p>
Submit a new bug over at <uri>http://bugs.gentoo.org</uri> and add it to the
"Docs-user" product, "Gentoo Linux FAQ" component.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>
  make -f Makefile.cvs on a KDE app produces "invalid unused variable" errors
</title>
<body>

<p>
Export <c>WANT_AUTOMAKE_1_4=1</c> for all KDE projects before running 
<c>make -f Makefile.cvs</c>. Also, for KDE2 apps export 
<c>WANT_AUTOCONF_2_1=1</c>, and for KDE3 apps export <c>WANT_AUTOCONF_2_5=1</c>.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>
  My speaker beeps like crazy while compiling Mozilla. How do I disable console 
  beeps?
</title>
<body>

<p>
Console beeps can be turned off using setterm, like this:
</p>

<pre caption="Using setterm">
# <i>setterm -blength 0</i>
</pre>

<p>
If you would like to turn off the console beeps on boot
you need to put this command in <path>/etc/conf.d/local.start</path>. However, 
this only disables beeps for the current terminal. To disable
beeps for other terminals, pipe the command output to the 
target terminal, like this:
</p>

<pre caption="Using setterm (bis)">
# <i>setterm -blength 0 >/dev/vc/1</i>
</pre>

<p>
You need to replace /dev/vc/1 with the terminal you would like to disable 
console beeps for.
</p>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>

<chapter>
<title>Resources</title>
<section>
<title>
  Where can I find more about supervise used by default in Gentoo Linux 1.0_rc5 
  and earlier?
</title>
<body>

<p>
<uri>http://cr.yp.to/daemontools.html</uri>
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Where can I find more information about Gentoo Linux?</title>
<body>

<p>
The official Gentoo documentation can be found on 
<uri>http://www.gentoo.org</uri>; general Linux information is at 
<uri>http://www.tldp.org</uri>.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Can I buy a CD of Gentoo Linux?</title>
<body>

<p>
Yes! LiveCDs for all supported architecture are available on
our <uri link="http://store.gentoo.org/">Gentoo Store</uri>. When you
purchase a CD from our store, you are also supporting our development.
So, please consider buying from our store if possible :-)
</p>

<p>
You can also find fresh CDs from
<uri link = "http://cart.cheapbytes.com/cgi-bin/cart/0070010933">Cheapbytes
</uri> and <uri link = "http://www.tuxcds.com/section.php?section=42">
tuxcds</uri> for a very good price. These people also bounce back a
portion of the profits to the Gentoo project, so buy them while they are hot!
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>
  Why, when I hit reply to a post on a Gentoo mailing list, does my answer 
  only go to the original poster and not the entire list?
</title>
<body>

<p>
The mailing list administrators have decided to go with minimal munging 
(altering of mail headers), which means that they have decided against  
altering headers to have replies go to the mailing list.  There are various 
reasons for this. For example, if a subscriber has a full mailbox, the 
entire list receives notice of this every time that something is posted.  
</p>

<p>
Most GUI based mailers have a "reply to all" function. This will ensure that 
your reply goes to the mailing list as well as the original poster. Most 
users of text based emailers already know the methods to use, but if you 
don't, in Pine, there is a "reply to group" option.  Setting Mutt to reply to 
the list is covered in the unofficial documentation at
<uri link="http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=1085">forums.gentoo.org</uri>.
</p>

<p>
Some list members do not like this method, but it was very heavily 
discussed when it went into effect, with arguments on both sides.  
Eventually the list administrators decided to keep it this way. Discussing 
it on the mailing list will sometimes bring a polite explanation and other 
times a rather brusque comment to check the archives. Although the 
administrators regret the inconvenience that it may cause some users, it is 
felt that at present it is preferable to the alternative for several 
reasons, many of these covered
<uri link="http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html">here</uri>.  
</p>

<p>
(There are other eloquent arguments in favor of munging, and yes, the list 
administrators have seen them).
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>This FAQ hasn't answered my question.  What do I do now?</title>
<body>

<p>
A good first step is to browse through the relevant <uri 
link="http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/index.xml">documentation</uri>, failing that,
the various Gentoo Linux mailing lists listed on <uri 
link="http://www.google.com">Google</uri>.  To search through the Gentoo 
mailing lists, just enter "lists.gentoo.org foo" to search for "foo".  If all 
else fails, or you just want to hang out with Gentoo folks, visit us on irc: 
<c>#gentoo</c> on <c>irc.freenode.net</c>.
</p>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>

</guide>