Re: [gentoo-user] Reconstructing a Gentoo Installer Computer

[Neil Bothwick]

On Wed, 31 May 2006 09:53:05 -0400, Timothy A. Holmes wrote:

> I am rapidly getting the idea that either leaving the system alone, or
> just wiping it out and starting over is going to be preferable to trying
> to repair this one, since no one can seem to tell me if it can be done.
> My original thought was to simply change the use flags to those that I
> wanted, and emerge -e world, apparently, this is not correct?

Re-emerging everything is unnecessary, especially if you are only
changing a few flags.

emerge -uavDN world

will re-emerge everything affected by your changed flags, and allow you
to see what it is going to do before it starts. If you have any doubt as
to what an emerge will do, run it with --verbose and either --pretend or
--ask first.

> As far as portage documentation, I have not been able to find a wiki
> article or other document that indicates how to change from a system
> created by the installer disk to one that is personally optimized.

Therein lies one of the problems with the installer. The manual
installation requires you to gain some understanding of how Gentoo works
in order to build a system. That understanding is also needed to
administer the system. By using the installer, you bypass the initial
learning curve which, paradoxically, can make things more difficult in
the long run.

I am going to suggest a course of action that I normally find totally
pointless, re-install. If you build your system again without the
installer, you will be able to configure it to suit your needs from
scratch, and you will have a greater understanding of the system, making
it easier to maintain.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

"Bother," said Pooh, as the Death Star exploded around him.