Handbook:Parts/Working/Features

Warning
Readers should not try to follow instructions directly from the Handbook:Parts namespace (which is THIS page!). The sections displayed below are used as a skeleton for transcluding information into the computer architecture specific handbooks and are therefore lacking critical information.

Please visit the Handbook list to read instructions for a relevant computer architecture.

Parts Handbook
Installation
About the installation
Choosing the media
Configuring the network
Preparing the disks
The stage file
Installing base system
Configuring the kernel
Configuring the system
Installing tools
Configuring the bootloader
Finalizing
Working with Gentoo
Portage introduction
USE flags
Portage features
Initscript system
Environment variables
Working with Portage
Files and directories
Variables
Mixing software branches
Additional tools
Custom package repository
Advanced features
OpenRC network configuration
Getting started
Advanced configuration
Modular networking
Wireless
Adding functionality
Dynamic management

Portage features

Portage has several additional features that make the Gentoo experience even better. Many of these features rely on certain software tools that improve performance, reliability, security, ...

To enable or disable certain Portage features, edit /etc/portage/make.conf and update or set the FEATURES variable which contains the various feature keywords, separated by white space. In several cases it will also be necessary to install the additional tool on which the feature relies.

Not all features that Portage supports are listed here. For a full overview, please consult the make.conf man page:

user $man make.conf

To find out what FEATURES are set by default, run emerge --info and search for the FEATURES variable or grep it out:

user $emerge --info | grep ^FEATURES=

Binary package support

Gentoo prebuilt packages

Gentoo provides a range of prebuilt binary packages known as binpkgs.

These have varying levels of support depending on arch and type, but on amd64 and arm64 there is very large range that supports the following profiles:

• default/linux/amd64/23.0/no-multilib
• default/linux/amd64/23.0/desktop/gnome
• default/linux/amd64/23.0/desktop/gnome/systemd
• default/linux/amd64/23.0/desktop/plasma/systemd

Other arches such as HPPA, Gentoo provides the binpkgs created during the stage3 builds to at least give some support.

More infomation on this can be found at Gentoo Binary Host Quickstart article.

Installing prebuilt packages

To use Gentoo's provided binpkgs then see the section in Handbook on how to enable correctly at Installation/Base#Optional:_Adding_a_binary_package_host

Fetching files

Verify distfiles

To re-verify the integrity and (potentially) re-download previously removed/corrupted distfiles for all currently installed packages, run:

root #emerge --ask --fetchonly --emptytree @world

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