I finally got portage working properly in Gentoo, soI got KDE running properly and I gotta say it's quite an improvement to the previous versions.

Anyways, here are a few wuestions:

1) Startup Login

Does anybody here know how to change this to something other than the fugly grey boxes?

edit: I'm talking about the ogin screen. It seems to load before it loads KDE - I'm assuming it;'s normal?

2) End new Session

When I go to the menu > Log Out, the only option is to End Session( see image below) How do I add at least the shutdown?


[attachmentid=118976]

3) Excess Baggage

How do I remove all the crap that I don;t need that Gentoo installed?

I know I'm forgetting something, I'll edit if I do find out.

I'm talking about the KDE packages.

--------EDIT---------

4) How do I cover that boot-up text with a splash screen?

3) Excess - there is no excess crap, Gentoo is kinda' empty on apps, which is a good thing.
1) Start > Control Centre (I think)
2) I type in the terminal "shutdown -h time 0" <-- or something similar

Not much help, but I tried from my limited experience

Well, it installs every single KDE package - most of which I have no use for.


Now I remember what the other one was.

1) If you're talking about the login manager, KDM, there are various themes you can use to customise it. Alternatively, use another login manager. Entrance is good looking.

2) Gentoo has the shutdown command available for root only. You can bypass this with suid on the appropriate binaries. Refer to this gentoo forum thread for more.

3) Use the KDE split ebuilds.

4) Use vesafb-tng for a framebuffer console and then fbsplash for a nice, high-res animated bootsplash logo.

But, even when I was in root, the only option wsas to end session.

I'll try the suggestions for everything else, though.

1) Oops, just realised that I acciderntily left that line commented in rc.conf
2) ...I'll stick to shutdown-h now
3) I've already put enought ime into this
4) I'll try it.

Thanks.

edit: and nice broken link to your fbsplash

Look slike I killed 2 birds with one stone on the uncommenting the line. The other shutdown/restart options are there now.

To install only parts of KDE, don't use the split ebuilds. They are intended for people not running KDE, but with the desire to use at least some KDE apps (Kate, for example). To reduce the KDE applications, add this to your /etc/make.conf (just an example):

DO_NOT_COMPILE="debian noatun kpackage juk krec kaudiocreator kolourpaint kpovmodeler kppp kget kuickshow artsbuilder kedit kmid kscd kfax kiconedit test examples kruler faxview klaptopdaemon charselectapplet kdelirc kjots lisa cervisia kbabel kbugbuster kcachegrind kmtrace kspy umbrello kstartperf kprofilemethod "

And don't install useless 'krap' like kdetoys, kdeedu or kdegames if you don't need it. That one's simple - instead of using 'emerge kde', use (another example):

emerge arts kdelibs kdebase kdenetwork kdeartwork kdemultimedia kdeadmin kdepim kdeaddons kdeutils kdegraphics

I'll do the above tommorow. I'll be at school ,so my computer can do all hat crap then.

There are numerous advantages to running the split ebuilds over the monolithic ones, as outlined on the page linked, even if you wish to install all or most of KDE. Use the meta and then emerge -C && emerge depclean, or use /etc/portage/package.provided to keep unwanted packages out.


This is the old way of doing things, and certainly not the recommended way now that we have proper split ebuilds. Build-time flags are no substitute for proper package management and dependency handling.

Here is what the Gentoo page says about DO_NOT_COMPILE:

furry_goat,

while you are right, the split ebuilds are a) cumbersome to use compared to DO_NOT_COMPILE right now, and b) not really that relevant for the dependency handling if you know what packages to keep out. Nothing in the whole wide world depends on kedit or kpovmodeler anyway... :-)

So I'll guess I'll stick to DO_NOT_COMPILE for now, 'till gentoo comes up with an easier, more intuitive way to handle the split ebuilds that is (Like simply using DO_NOT_COMPILE if provided in make.conf to select the split ebuilds accordingly - they could also rename it to KDE_DO_NOT_COMPILE or something while keeping the format, so it wont affect KDE's build system. That would be convenient and made the transition really easy)...