Configure Display Manager
- option 1: xfce
check your make.conf for the following USE flags: USE="-gnome -kde -minimal -qt3 -qt4 X branding dbus hal lock session startup-notification thunar"
now emerge xfce and some other related packages.
sudo emerge -av xfce4-meta xfce4-mixer thunar-archive-plugin x11-terms/terminal slim xfce4-screenshooter galculator
once the emerge has completed, you'll want to add yourself and any other users to the necessary groups.
for x in plugdev cdrom cdrw usb ; do sudo gpasswd -a username $x ; done
update your environment
sudo env-update && source /etc/profile
start the necessary services and add them to startup
sudo /etc/init.d/hald start sudo rc-update add hald default start xfce with xwindows
sudo echo "exec startxfce4" > ~/.xinitrc
add x to startup
sudo rc-update add xdm default
edit xdm to start slim at startup
sudo nano -w /etc/conf.d/xdm DISPLAYMANAGER="slim"
start xfce session right away
sudo nano -w /etc/rc.conf XSESSION="Xfce4"
- option 2: gnome
gnome has many more built in components than xfce. it provides a more complete desktop experience, rather than a lightweight one.
sudo emerge -pv gnome | more
check to see if there are any blocks. If there are any blocked packages, you may have to upgrade or downgrade certain packages. Refer to the using portage section for more info.
- note Feb 13 2009 *
some gnome components such as epiphany require components that are components of firefox 2.0, so firefox 2 will be dragged into the emerge as a dependency unless epiphany and epiphany-extensions are built with the xulrunner USE flag. Most users will want firefox 3, so
nano /etc/portage/package.use
and add
www-client/epiphany xulrunner www-client/epiphany-extensions xulrunner gnome-extra/yelp xulrunner media-video/totem xulrunner
- end note *
if you're confident your desktop manager will install successfully, start the emerge.
sudo emerge -av gnome
this will take a while, so go have a coffee. when the emerge is done
sudo env-update
source /etc/profile
we now add these services to the default runlevel.
sudo /etc/init.d/hald start sudo rc-update add hald default
sudo /etc/init.d/dbus start sudo rc-update add dbus default
sudo /etc/init.d/avahi-dnsconfd start sudo rc-update add avahi-dnsconfd default
to start gnome with X and when the system boots
sudo echo "exec gnome-session" > ~/.xinitrc
sudo rc-update add xdm default
sudo nano -w /etc/conf.d/xdm
and change the line to as below:
DISPLAYMANAGER="gdm"
let's also add ourselves to the plugdev group so we can mount cdroms and usb devices.
sudo usermod -a -G plugdev <your username>
before you continue it is a good idea to check your dynamic linking consistency. if you haven't already,
sudo emerge gentoolkit
sudo revdep-rebuild
the revdep-rebuild will fix any associations that may have been broken during the installation. now, you should be able to reboot your computer and if everything has installed correctly, you should be welcomed by gnome's login manager.
now we are finally in a graphical environment- hooray! open a terminal using gnome's application menu. now we can begin system customization.