Gentoo Sound and Video (printing)

[TheCelloDude]

Hello LF ppl its good to be back!

Ok so I now have installed and [basicly] have set up the core of what i need. However, looking at the gentoo wiki has made my brain hurt a bit and I really don't understand exactly what is going on So i have a good plethera of questions and if anybody has had this problem before then that would be excellent to get the solution

- What is a masked package? (i read the wiki and followed the instructions however it never worked)
- How do I install Java (I tried the blackbox thing or whatever it is and installed it the way it told me to but apparently i need a package to download somewhere, however i cannot find that package)
- How do I get my sound working (I have a Creative Sound Blaster Live! card - Again, I read the wiki and fainted)
- Lastly, How do I get my printer running (Im used to the moron fedora setting where you just tell it what you want :\)

Even though Gentoo is a biotchola to install, it has improved my system preformace dramaticly (Recommended to anyone with a few days of nothing to do.)

Thanks for all your help guys!

~thecellodude

[onlinebacon]

Hello LF ppl its good to be back!

Ok so I now have installed and [basicly] have set up the core of what i need. However, looking at the gentoo wiki has made my brain hurt a bit and I really don't understand exactly what is going on So i have a good plethera of questions and if anybody has had this problem before then that would be excellent to get the solution

- What is a masked package? (i read the wiki and followed the instructions however it never worked)
- How do I install Java (I tried the blackbox thing or whatever it is and installed it the way it told me to but apparently i need a package to download somewhere, however i cannot find that package)
- How do I get my sound working (I have a Creative Sound Blaster Live! card - Again, I read the wiki and fainted)
- Lastly, How do I get my printer running (Im used to the moron fedora setting where you just tell it what you want :\)

Even though Gentoo is a biotchola to install, it has improved my system preformace dramaticly (Recommended to anyone with a few days of nothing to do.)

Thanks for all your help guys!

~thecellodude

You were gone :P

Install the drivers for it.

CUPS

[AlexK]

1. Think of masked packages as testing packages. These packages are not fully "stable" or have various bugs and hence are masked (hidden) from unsuspecting users.
2. See this page for installing java. IIRC, you'll have to download java separately and put it into portage_dir, then emerge it.
3. Search gentoo forums, several people have that sound card, and tips are posted on getting it to work.
4. Like onlinebacon said, install CUPS and get the necessary cups drivers from www.linuxprinting.org

[genesus]

Don't worry Cello, some of us remember you...

Ok, now this is quite a few problems...so lets tackle them one at a time. Reply back with any other questions, feedback, etc. A masked package is one that is basically not in the stable branch of portage yet, so you have to unmask it and use it at your own risk...even when you emerge it before the compile there is a line that states that it will break your machine. But don't worry, I've played with tons of masked packages with no problems at all.

1) To unmask a package...say I want to emerge e17, the new version of enlightenment that is still in development, well, I can emerge it through portage; however, its masked and so are all of its dependancies...some of the packages when I try to emerge them are masked by the x86 keyword and some by the -* keyword...unmasking them is the same and done in the same place...the masked packages I need need to be unmasked at /etc/portage/package.keywords . Below is an example for the masked packages needed for e17.

/etc/portage/package.keywords

=x11-libs/ecore-0.9.9.013 ~x86
=x11-libs/ecore-0.9.9.006 ~x86
=x11-libs/ecore-0.9.9.020 ~x86
=x11-libs/evas-0.9.9.013 ~x86
=x11-libs/evas-0.9.9.020 ~x86
=dev-libs/eet-0.9.10.013 ~x86
=dev-libs/eet-0.9.10.007 ~x86
=media-libs/edje-0.5.0.007 ~x86
=media-libs/edje-0.5.0.013 ~x86
=dev-libs/embryo-0.9.1.007 ~x86
=dev-libs/embryo-0.9.1.013 ~x86

=dev-libs/embry-9999 -*
=media-libs/edje-9999 -*
=dev-libs/eet-9999 -*
=x11-libs/evas-9999 -*
=x11-wm/e-9999 -*

Remember, first =, then the direct portage path to the build followed by the keyword.

2) Gentoo sound, especially with your card can be done very easily...first stop all instances of alsa, then emerge the driver and utilities of alsa. If you've already done this please note that you HAVE to reemerge them. Alsaconf. Unmute the volumes and add them to your boot runlevel. Remember, alsa sound is muted by default, you must manually unmute it. Store the unmuted volumes for next time.

All of this may sound complicated, but after you've done it a few times it'll be a piece of cake. Do this as root...brakets are explanations, the rest are cli commands.

/etc/init.d/alsasound stop
emerge alsa-driver
emerge alsa-utils
alsaconf                                      [THIS PROG WILL SET YOUR DRIVER]
alsamixer                                    [THIS PROG UNMUTES YOUR SOUND]
alsactl store                                 [SAVES THE UNMUTING]
rc-update add alsasound boot       [MAKES ALSA RUN EVERY REBOOT, IT WONT WITHOUT]

3) Printer is easy. Emerge cups, man cups, rc-update add cups default. There will be a place you point your browser to configure cups, hence the man cups...it escapes me at the moment, but think similar to your router.

[TheCelloDude]

Printer is easy. Emerge cups, man cups, rc-update add cups default. There will be a place you point your browser to configure cups, hence the man cups...it escapes me at the moment, but think similar to your router.

Ok I did an "emerge cups" and it worked perfectly
I did whereis cups and I got

cups: /etc/cups /usr/lib/cups /usr/include/cups /usr/share/cups

i tried "man cups" but i got

No manual entry for cups

I tried it inside of the directories too, Easy fix?

[AlexK]

point your browser to http://localhost:631 to configure cups, enter root as username etc..