Funtoo Profiles

This page covers the Funtoo Linux profile system -- how it works, what profiles are available, and how to use epro to set and change profile settings.

What is a profile?

In Gentoo and Funtoo Linux, profiles are used to define base system settings for Portage, and have historically had a lot of untapped potential. In Funtoo Linux, Daniel Robbins wanted to take advantage of some of this potential to allow Funtoo Linux users to easily tailor their system for various types of roles. Enter the new Funtoo profile system.

Profile Types

Historically, users have had to add a ton of settings to /etc/make.conf to customize their Gentoo or Funtoo Linux system, which made setup of the operating system more difficult than it should be. In Gentoo Linux, it is possible to only define one system profile. Think of a system profile as the default settings that Portage uses for building everything on your system. Funtoo Linux uses multiple profiles per system. The following profile types are available in Funtoo Linux:

arch	One arch profile is enabled, at build time, and is not changed. This defines CPU architecture-specific settings.
subarch	One subarch profile is typically enabled at build time, and defines the CPU optimizations in use.
build	One build profile is enabled, at build time, and is generally not changed. It defines the type of build, such as current or stable, and associated settings.
flavor	One flavor is enabled per system, and can be changed by the user. This defines the general use of the system, such as minimal, core, workstation or desktop
mix-ins	Zero or more mix-ins can be enabled that enable settings specific to a particular subset of features, such as gnome, kde, media, mate, X, hardened.

Flavors

A system can have only one flavor profile enabled at a time. The following flavors are available:

minimal	This flavor defines the most minimal possible flavor. It currently only contains defaults for all Funtoo Linux flavors.
core	The core flavor is the minimal flavor plus reasonable USE options, and is used for stage3 builds.
server	The server flavor is intended for servers but at this time just tracks core.
workstation	The workstation flavor is a minimal desktop system. It includes the core flavor plus these mix-ins: X, audio, dvd, media and console-extras.
desktop	The desktop flavor is a full-featured desktop system, minus desktop environment (add KDE, GNOME or XFCE as a mix-in.) It includes the workstation flavor plus printing support.

Mix-ins

A system can have any number of mix-ins enabled at a time. The following mix-ins are available:

audio	Enables core audio-related settings, currently related to ALSA.
console-extras	Enables things that are nice to have for console-only systems. Currently enabling gpm in USE.
dvd	USE settings related to optical drives -- CDR/DVD-ROM/RW use.
gnome	USE and package.use settings required to merge GNOME. Designed to be used with desktop or workstation flavor.
hardened	Enables hardened support.
kde	USE and package.use settings required to merge KDE. Designed to be used with desktop or workstation flavor.
media	USE settings related to audio/video media encoding. Can be for desktops or servers.
print	Enables printing capability.
vmware-guest	Settings related to using Funtoo Linux as a VMWare virtual machine guest.
X	Settings related to the X Window System and hardware support.
xfce	USE settings required for merging XFCE.

Media Device Mix-ins

Media device mix-ins have been created to support media devices, including external and portable devices, and associated low-level hardware support and hardware-focused codecs. Media devices have been categorized into audio and video categories, and consumer and professional categories. "Consumer" devices are those devices that regular desktop users might typically use, while "professional" devices are those that professionals, hobbyists or enthusiasts would typically use. Here are the new mix-ins for media devices:

Mix-in	Description
mediadevice-base	Common, universally-supported media devices, like IEEE-1394 (Firewire), CDDA, CDIO. Other mediadevice mix-ins have this as a parent.
mediadevice-audio-consumer	Consumer audio devices, such as personal portable media players (iOS, iPod, etc.)
mediadevice-audio-pro	Pro audio support, such as JACK.
mediadevice-video-consumer	Consumer video support, such as DVD, Blu Ray, V4L
mediadevice-video-pro	Pro video support, such as dv, dc1394.

Media Format Mix-ins

Media format mix-ins have been created to support media formats for reading, writing, encoding and decoding images, audio and video. They have been organized into a "common" collection, for popular formats, and an "extra" collection, which is intended to include "everything else". Let's look at the new mix-ins:

Mix-in	Description
mediaformat-video-common	Common (ie. popular) video formats.
mediaformat-video-extra	More esoteric video formats.
mediaformat-audio-common	Common (ie. popular) audio formats.
mediaformat-audio-extra	More esoteric audio formats.
mediaformat-gfx-common	Common (ie. popular) graphics formats.
mediaformat-gfx-extra	More esoteric graphics formats.

How to Use Them

Our existing media mix-in still exists, and is still pulled in by the desktop and workstation flavors automatically. It now includes the following parent mix-ins:

• mediadevice-audio-consumer
• mediadevice-video-consumer
• mediaformat-audio-common
• mediaformat-gfx-common
• mediaformat-video-common

In addition, there is a new media-pro mix-in which needs to be enabled manually, which pulls in the following mix-ins:

• mediadevice-audio-pro
• mediadevice-video-pro

So typically, you would enable the desktop or workstation flavor, and if you need professional hardware support, you'd also enable the media-pro mix-in. If you needed any additional media formats support, you could enable one or more of the mediaformat-*-extra mix-ins to add the formats you needed. Of course, it's possible to enable only the specific mix-ins you need, and also complement these mix-ins with specific USE variable settings you might require.

Setting Profiles

Funtoo Linux stores its profile settings in the /etc/portage/make.profile/parent file. Typically, users don't need to modify this file, instead using ego and epro to make changes, but it can be handy to take a look at what the contents of the file look like. A simple server might have profile settings as follows:

   /etc/portage/make.profile/parent

gentoo:funtoo/1.0/linux-gnu/arch/x86-64bit
gentoo:funtoo/1.0/linux-gnu/build/current
gentoo:funtoo/1.0/linux-gnu/flavor/core

Profile settings for a desktop might look like this:

   /etc/portage/make.profile/parent

gentoo:funtoo/1.0/linux-gnu/arch/x86-64bit
gentoo:funtoo/1.0/linux-gnu/build/current
gentoo:funtoo/1.0/linux-gnu/flavor/desktop
gentoo:funtoo/1.0/linux-gnu/mix-ins/dvd
gentoo:funtoo/1.0/linux-gnu/mix-ins/media

History and Origins

This new system is really a completion of the original cascading profile design that was co-designed by Daniel Robbins and Seemant Kulleen and implemented by Seemant Kulleen as part of Portage. Funtoo Profiles designed to leverage the existing cascading profile system and provide something much more useable and maintainable for users and developers alike. Here are some of its benefits:

• Fewer settings in /etc/make.conf. CHOST and ARCH no longer set in /etc/make.conf.
• Separation of concerns -- arch, build, and flavor-related settings are organized together.
• User flexibility - any number of mix-ins can be enabled to tweak masks or USE settings as needed.

   Note

See Custom Profiles for information on how to extend the profile system.