After going through 3 Gentoo installs on PPC and x86, and getting caught out every time by make.conf, I suggest that the make.conf paragraph be broken out into it's own step. On every install I have skipped over the make.conf section, because it is listed inside of the Stage 1 install. This is even worse using the HTML version of the doc, since the colors do a great job of making definitive sections, but the make.conf gets lost in there. I have seen 'Stage 1' and skipped right down to Stage 2 or 3 in my latest install. Only after installs or from experience have I noticed the make.conf section. One of the primary benefits of Gentoo is the specific hardware optimizations. Having the make.conf section in the Stage1 step increases the likelihood that many people are overlooking that valuable step.
actually this is *supposed* to be handled correctly but it doesnt always look at /etc/make.conf.build ... its the old make.conf
Spanky, I think you are missing the point ... He does not complain that his make.conf gets missing, but rather that the DOCS are not clear enouth on setting up make.conf, and you then miss reading that section.
I am not sure that is really needed I could be wrong, but any other way we do it will either have to put it in each section or will break it our right where it is, but that still will have the same problem you are talking about...is having a portage guide not enough? I will continue to look into it and see what can be done, let me know if you have a specific idea.
The existing docs: "If you are a stage2 or stage3 tarball, then we've already bootstrapped for you. There is no reason for you to bootstrap again, unless you decided to do an emerge sync and want to ensure that you have an up-to-the-minute current Gentoo Linux system. Most people using stage2 or stage3 tarballs will not want to bootstrap again, since it can take over two hours even on very fast machines." imply that that section will take a long time and is unecessary *unless* you are using a stage1 tarball. The next paragraph actually talks about make.conf. I am suggesting that the make.conf and CHOST, CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS paragraghs 2 & 3, be split off into their own section before the current. It would then theoretically be (from the x86 version): 10. Getting the current Portage tree 11. Setting Gentoo optimizations (make.conf) or a link to the USE doc 12. Progressing from Stage 1 to Stage 2 14. Timezone 15. Progressing from Stage2 to stage3 That way to a n00b such as myself, who is reading the doc, will go through step 11, and config the make.conf. If he has a Stage 2 or 3, he'll skip down to step 14 and 15 afterwards. But what happened to me was that since the 'Stage 1 to 2' was suggestive of high time consumption and the tone was not really suggesting to use that method, I never read the next make.conf paragraph. I just skipped down to stage2 install. I consider myself pretty thorough and I missed it. It was only later prepping for emerge KDE that I came across the separate USE doc, and I *was* irritated that I had missed that section in the install doc. Just my POV as somebody who went through the process recently. Hope this helps, and keep up the great work on a most excellent product.
