[gentoo-user] KDE without aRts?

[Abhay Kedia]

Hi,

I am currently running a "KDE 3.5" system with "arts" in /etc/make.conf but 
now experiencing serious problems with it. In my quest to remove arts I tried 
to do a "USE=-arts emerge -upDNv world" and found that emerge wants to 
recompile 134 packages!!! I am a bit sceptical in letting emerge take such a 
big step so I wanted to take advice from people with first hand experiences 
on running KDE without arts (if any). What all problems should I expect by 
putting a -arts in /etc/make.conf? I tried searching on Google and Gentoo 
Forums but could not find anything conclusive.

Also, I like to use JuK as my audio player and use Skype extensively. Will 
disabling arts trouble me? Is it a must to run a sound server? Here I would 
like to mention that I am using an on-board sound card (Intel HDA) which does 
not have hardware mixing but iirc ALSA's dmix has taken over the software 
mixing stuff now. So do I need a sound server AT ALL? If yes then will 
running JACK suffice? I have been reading a lot about JACK lately but don't 
know how it is faring on single user desktop systems.

I will be highly thankful for any insights.
TIA

Regards,
Abhay