Funtoo Profiles

What is a profile?

In Gentoo and Funtoo Linux, profiles are used to define base system settings, and have historically had a lot of untapped potential. In Funtoo Linux, I 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.

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

Using epro

Remember that profiles can often be inherited. For example, the desktop flavor inherits the workstation flavor settings, which in turn inherits the X and audio mix-ins. You can view this by using epro:

root #  epro show

=== Enabled Profiles: ===

        arch:  x86-64bit
       build:  current
     subarch:  intel64-haswell
      flavor:  desktop
     mix-ins:  gnome


=== All inherited flavors from desktop flavor: ===

                     workstation (from desktop flavor)
                            core (from workstation flavor)
                         minimal (from core flavor)

=== All inherited mix-ins from desktop flavor: ===

                               X (from workstation flavor)
                           audio (from workstation flavor)
                             dvd (from workstation flavor)
                           media (from workstation flavor)
      mediadevice-audio-consumer (from media mix-in)
                mediadevice-base (from mediadevice-audio-consumer mix-in)
      mediadevice-video-consumer (from media mix-in)
                mediadevice-base (from mediadevice-video-consumer mix-in)
        mediaformat-audio-common (from media mix-in)
          mediaformat-gfx-common (from media mix-in)
        mediaformat-video-common (from media mix-in)
                  console-extras (from workstation flavor)
                           print (from desktop flavor)

To view available profiles:

root #  epro list

Enabled profiles will be highlighted in cyan. Directly enabled profiles will be in bold and have an asterisk * appended. Highlighted items are enabled via inheritance.

To add the mix-ins gnome and kde, we'd enter:

root # epro mix-ins +gnome +kde

If we want to remove a mix-in, for example gnome, simply enter:

root # epro mix-ins -gnome

To change the profile arch to x86-64:

root # epro arch x86-64bit

To change the build to current:

root # epro build current

To change the subarch to generic_64:

root # epro subarch generic_64

To change the profile flavor:

root #  epro flavor desktop

To get a JSON output of your profile info:

root #  epro show-json

To get the current value of a given profile:

root #  epro get build

History and Origins

This new system is really a completion of the original cascading profile design that was designed by Daniel Robbins 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.