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.

What It Is

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.

In Funtoo Linux, multiple types of profiles exist. These include:

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.

hardened: Enables hardened support.

kde: USE and package.use settings required to merge KDE.

media: USE settings related to audio/video media encoding. Can be for desktops or servers.

print: Enables printing capability.

rhel5-compat: settings required for running a system that uses a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5-based kernel.

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.

Mix-Ins

Warning

Please, do not add anything manually into parent file. This may result in profile breakage.

The contents of /etc/portage/make.profile/parent for a basic setup 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/core

A more rounded setup 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

Origins and Benefits

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.

Using ego / epro

epro is a new personality tool designed to eventually replace eselect profile. If your desired subarch is not listed with "eselect profile list", try using "epro list".

For more information, see this news: News: Better Experiences: Ego and Vim

And the ego wiki page itself: Package:Ego

Important

This section is in need of updates.

Using epro

The preferred method of adding and removing profiles is to use epro. This will ensure that profiles are added correctly and in the proper order. The order is imperative for things to work right.

Type the following to view a list of available options for epro: For a start, let's see what the default configuration has to offer. Get an overview using the list command:

root # epro list
=== arch: ===

    arm-32bit, (pure64*), x86-32bit, x86-64bit

=== subarch: ===

    amd64-bulldozer-pure64, amd64-jaguar-pure64, amd64-k10-pure64
    amd64-k8+sse3-pure64, amd64-k8-pure64, amd64-piledriver-pure64
    amd64-steamroller-pure64, atom_64-pure64, btver1_64-pure64
    core-avx-i-pure64, core2_64-pure64, corei7-pure64, generic_64-pure64*
    intel64-broadwell-pure64, intel64-haswell-pure64, intel64-ivybridge-pure64
    intel64-nehalem-pure64, intel64-sandybridge-pure64, intel64-silvermont-pure64
    intel64-westmere-pure64, native_64-pure64, nocona-pure64, opteron_64-pure64
    xen-pentium4+sse3_64-pure64

=== build: ===

    (current*), experimental, stable

=== flavor: ===

    core, desktop*, hardened, minimal, server, workstation

=== mix-ins: ===

    X, audio, cinnamon, console-extras, dvd, gnome, hardened, kde
    lxde, lxqt, mate, media, media-pro, mediadevice-audio-consumer
    mediadevice-audio-pro, mediadevice-base, mediadevice-video-consumer
    mediadevice-video-pro, mediaformat-audio-common, mediaformat-audio-extra
    mediaformat-gfx-common, mediaformat-gfx-extra, mediaformat-video-common
    mediaformat-video-extra, no-emul-linux-x86, no-systemd, print
    python3-only, vmware-guest, xfce*

As in several other Funtoo utilities, a star (*) on the right indicates an active item (your case may differ from the example above). Now, let's head over and add some mix-ins. To add, say, the mix-ins gnome and kde we'd have to 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