ABF vs Gentoo...round 8? i honestly forgot!

So lolz, since I am hardly impressed with Edgy i went and gave gentoo another shot. Since my lan card is busted and the gentoo livecd does not have madwifi i booted up the elive livecd and installed from there.

at this point i have the base system configured...it boots and wireless works (yes! networking). I also emerged xorg-x11 and fluxbox as my wm.

Problem #1 comes from the xorg. after i compiled it i keep getting errors that i can't figure out. I tried recompiling it with some other commands and it still doesn't work (i am in school right now, I'll post the /var/Xorg.log when i get home). So before I go kill myself over this.... does Xorg 7.1 actually work in gentoo....

I'll keep dropping by this thread in the future to seek any further advice / help etc on my quest to get gentoo running. After i get the xorg issue sorted out next up on my list is getting alsa (should be easy), installing basic gui progs (so i can actually make fluxbox useful), configure fluxbox to my liking, and at that point i'll hit up the hardware specific acpi and stuff like that... anywhoo.... the Xorg log is coming today around 6pm central time

ehh nvm, when "X -configure" fialed to generate a xorg.conf for me i just used "xorgconfig" and then modified it later with "aticonfig --initial" ... some kind of gui shows up, fglrx still isn't working, will resolve that later (assume needs the kernel to be recompiled among other things).

currently figuring out how to mount usb devices....emerging ivman b/c it seems like a viable alternative

overall edgy just feels slow, i mean i know generally ubuntu is slower than other distros...but edgy is just extra slow. the new boot process is faster, the shut down is faster, gnome apps are a tad more responsive, but overall the entire package somehow feels slower. there were also some fglrx-related difficulties that arise with the next xorg with aiglx (even when the extensions are disabled), and the radeon drivers make things yet even more slow.... ehh...that, or maybe i feel like trying something new.

anywhoo...back on topic....

the plugging of usb devices still bothers me. how in the hell do i mount my usb drive...its just not working for me.

progress update: its really starting to come together, the computer prolly won't be entirely usable another week or so, but its ok, i'll just be using my thinkpad (as i am right now). but so far i got gdm and fluxbox (at least the basics) set up so it now boots nicely and lets me log in and go to a fluxbox desktop. currently installing some basic progs that i am gonna need (rox, firefox, etc...) as well as currently configuring ALSA.... yey sound!

like i said above fglrx is still not working and my wireless does not start on boot, i have to enable it manually...gonna figure that out later.

yeah i still dont get ivman, but i'll try to check the wiki again soon. i come now with a different problem, fluxbox doesn't set the desktop wallpaper for me. and then i get a pop-up error that tells me to run "Esetroot -scale /usr/share/pixmaps/gentoo/1024x768/gentoo-back-1024x768.jpg" to find out hte problem, and so i do but then it just tells me the same thing about being unable to open the file....what am i missing here?

on the bright side...
-- got my wifi to connect on boot to the nearest available unprotected network via dhcp so if i roam it will find and connect by itself w/o me having to manually fiddle.

-- since i am pretty busy right now with other stuff, i can't really "work" on configuring anything right now, but i can't have the computer just sitting there idle, so using the time to emerge some progs that i'll need for day to day operation (office, internet, media, etc)...and its going well. man did i miss the ability to pick and choose my own set of apps on all those other distros. i am trying to keep it 1 app per task, and skinny is possible (sypheed instead of thunderbird for example). not that speed is my prime concern right now, but it wouldn't hurt...right

so the wallpaper problem is currently semi-resolved. where fbsetbg failed, feh stepped it. i can now use feh to manually set a picture as a background, but as per directions found in a thread on gentoo forums, and as per directions found on feh's website, i can't get it to enable the "last applied wallpaper" at fluxbox start... so still working on that 2nd piece of the puzzle.

i am realizing that the last, yet probably most intense step in this venture will be to set up OOo. I am aware there is a binary version in the repos, but it depends on both gnome/gtk, and kde/qt stuff. i am currently keeping my system "-kde -qt3 -qt4 -gnome gtk gtk2" that is, i don't mind having gtk things since from my ubuntu days i am really used to gtk apps (like gaim rather than kopete) but i am trying to keep everything purely non-kde/non-qt so installing the binary OOo is out of the question....emerge will take oh...15 or 16 hours i am guessing (on a 2.0ghz AMD64 3200+)

but before we get there... thankfully i didn't have any hw tonight so i have some time to figure out my fglrx and ivman problems...because i am not even able to mount my flash drive at this time.

haha...i recompiled the kernel as per FGLRX instructions and now my internal keyboard doesn't work.... usb keyboard works, not internal. geeze...what did i screw up now?