Re: [gentoo-user] USE=X

[Alan McKinnon]

On 27/01/2015 20:54, James wrote:
> Howdy,
>
>
> So I was reading PGO (Planet.Gentoo.org) and Patrick's post
> got thinking. Yep, X was set in make.conf, like I have done
> for a very long time on any gentoo "workstation". Now it may be
> time to rethink this flag. The gist of what I understand is that
> X is set, per profile, if appropriate. On my workstations I usually
> just set the minimimum profile (architecture) like so:
>
> # eselect profile list
>
> [1]   default/linux/amd64/13.0 *
>
>
> On so I run lxde and I experiment with lxqt as the desktop.
>
> In light of Patricks post on PGO, do I have to now bump up
> the profile to
>
> [3]   default/linux/amd64/13.0/desktop
>
>
> What if I'm building a hardened base lxde (lxqt) workstation
>
> set the profile to
> [19]  hardened/linux/amd64
>
> and unset X in the make.conf file?
>
> # euse -i X
>
> This list does not look like I need to set X any more in make.conf?
>
>
> A side note: it had this line in the output:
>
>   dev-java/icedtea: Make X buildtime-only depenency.
> !!! Metadata cache not found. You need to run
> !!! 'egencache --repo=java --update'
> !!! to generate metadata for your overlays
>
>
> Very cool that portage picked up this need by "euse -i X".
>
> All input is welcome,


There's nothing magic about a profile. All it does is set a bunch of
variables and possibly specify some extra apps to be merged. It's a
convenience, and there's nothing to stop you from finding out what those
variables are and adding them to USE yourself, and adding the packages
to world yourself.

You can continue to do things exactly as you always did, and nothing
will break or change. Nothing forces you to use a desktop profile.
Personally I use a desktop profile and also have X in USE - I like to be
explicit with my stuff. I know that one of those config setting is
redundant :-)

The X USE flasg doe NOT mean "install xorg-x11". It means "build X11
support into apps that have optional support for X11". Example vim. The
flag adds xterm support so vim can modify the xterm titlebar. Without
USE=X you get plain old vim that runs in a shell as normal and doesn't
communicate with the gui system in any way.

The xorg-x11 package is pulled by you if you merge it, or by any WM/DE
you install which obviously requires X11[1].

For hardened, there is no hardened desktop profile. Apparently that was
a world of pain for the devs. Adding desktop software to a hardened
system is easy, hardening a desktop system is harder. So I'd say chose a
hardened profile, then add X to USE and merge your choice of WM/DE


Alan


[1] When wayland becomes a first-class Linux citizen, this will likely
change


-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@×××××.com