Configure make.conf

Installing Gentoo - Configure make.conf

The make.conf file contains global compilation settings and USE flags which allow you to customize your system.

# nano -w /etc/make.conf

One of the key settings in the make.conf file is the MAKEOPTS value, which accepts a setting in the form -jX. The value of X should be set to the number of processors (or cores) in your machine + 1.

The global USE flags are system wide and will be applied to every relevant package that is emerged. These flags will differ depending on what type of system you are building.

The VIDEO_CARDS setting is also important, as it will be read when X is emerged in order to determine which video drivers to install. Likewise, the INPUT_DEVICES section will also instruct X as to which drivers to install for your peripherals.

The final setting, XFCE_PLUGINS, is only relevant if you are using the Xfce window manager.

The following example would apply to a desktop computer with a quad-core processor with the Xfce window manager with full multimedia capability.

file: /etc/make.conf

###############################
#
# gr0x0rd's make.conf
#
###############################

# compilation settings
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe"
CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" # this should be x86_64-pc-linux-gnu for amd64 builds
MAKEOPTS="-j5" # number should be the number of processors (or cores) in your machine + 1

# global USE flags
BUILD="amd64 mmx sse sse2 sse3 ssse3"
UDEV="-hal consolekit dbus pam policykit udev"
HW="lm_sensors"
SW="bittorrent firefox msn rdesktop"
LANGS="java python doc"
WEB="apache2 ftp mysql javascript ssl xml"
PHP="simplexml json pdo posix session pcre"
GFX="cairo branding glitz new-login opengl truetype X xorg xscreensaver wxwindows"
IMG="gif jpeg png pdf tiff"
VIDEO="asf avi ffmpeg quicktime mpeg mpeg2 mplayer theora vcd video win32codecs x264 xv xvid xmms"
AUDIO="alsa a52 aac aalib cdparanoia flac lame live nsplugin ogg oss mad mp3 wma wmp vorbis"
DVD="cdr dvd dvdr dts dv dvdread encode vcdimager vidix"
UTIL="nfs ntfs rar zip zlib"
XW="input_devices_keyboard input_devices_mouse video_cards_nvidia"
WM="xfce -gnome -kde -minimal -qt3 -qt4 lock thunar"

USE="${BUILD} ${UDEV} ${HW} ${SW} ${LANGS} ${WEB} ${PHP} ${GFX} ${IMG} ${VIDEO} ${AUDIO} ${DVD} ${UTIL} ${XW} ${WM}"
 
# xorg settings
VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia"   # for nvidia, closed source
#VIDEO_CARDS="nouveau"   # for nvidia, open source
#VIDEO_CARDS="fglrx"   # for amd radeon, closed open source
#VIDEO_CARDS="radeon"   # for amd radeon, open source
#VIDEO_CARDS="intel"   # for intel
#VIDEO_CARDS="vwmare"  # for vmware
#VIDEO_CARDS="virtualbox"  # for virtualbox
INPUT_DEVICES="evdev keyboard mouse"
#INPUT_DEVICES="virtualbox" # for virtualbox
XFCE_PLUGINS="brightness menu trash"

Once you are happy with the settings in your make.conf, you can Emerge System Utilities.