In an earlier article I documented how I set up a custom configuration for my trackball’s buttons and scroll direction on Linux when using the X11 windows server. KDE Plasma 6 brings the Wayland window server to my Linux installation, replacing X11, so I’ve had to think again how to implement my custom config. The […]
Archive for the ‘Gentoo’ Category
Setting up custom buttons and scrolling for Kensington trackballs under Linux
Update July 2024: This article applies only to Linux running the X11 window server. When using Wayland instead – the default since KDE Plasma 6 – none of the below will work. Fortunately Plasma 6’s System Settings let me configure everything I need except Drag Lock. I have used evsieve to implement this. The Kensington […]
Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon HDMI audio output under Linux
If the Lenovo forums are anything to go by, getting audio to come out of the TV when connecting a Lenovo laptop via HDMI in non-obvious for many folks, regardless of the operating system in use. Under KDE Plasma with PulseAudio, the volume control applet does not add an output device for HDMI audio as […]
Keeping a Gentoo house neat and tidy
Semi-automating emerge @world update tl;dr Use this interactive script on a weekly basis to keep your Gentoo installation up to date and avoid intractable library version conflicts. Gentoo has a fantastic source-based package management solution, however there are a number of housekeeping details involved in keeping an installation tidy, to avoid increasing issues with conflicts […]
Installing the EQ10Q equalizer on Gentoo
EQ10Q appears to be the absolute best quality equalizer available for Linux. I have tried that that comes with pulse-effects, but found that it introduced occasional audio glitches; no good for audiophile use. EQ10Q is an LV2 plugin, so I start from the assumption that you already have JACK installed (doing so is trivial so […]
Scanning on Gentoo using a Lexmark MX310dn
SANE, the de facto linux scanning solution has only one open source driver (backend, in SANE parlance) that supports Lexmark scanner, and only a small number of USB models at that. Lexmark have released a closed-source SANE backend, available at their support site if you search for downloads related to the product you have. Unfortunately […]
Mounting NFS shares when using dhcpcd as a network manager under Gentoo
tl;dr If you use NFS shares and/or want your workstation to have a static LAN IP and want seamless wired<->wireless LAN roaming under Gentoo/OpenRC, then dhcpcd is your go-to network manager. But not without a bit of manual tweaking.. Use Case You have the following requirements: your workstation is a laptop that moves between wired […]
Upgrading the Gentoo kernel when running ZFS on an NVME SSD
Update 2023: Thanks to bug fixes in the dependent projects, this process has become simpler over time. I have used struck-through text to denote information that is no longer true, and steps that are no longer required. Gentoo user FearedBliss wrote the de-facto guide for installing Gentoo to boot up from a […]
OpenRC – managing dependency when you’ve multiple network interfaces
tl;dr If you have multiple network interfaces and cannot guarantee that all will always be up, but have other services that depend upon network availability, set rc_depend_strict=”NO” in /etc/rc.conf. I habitually use a wireless network at home and tether my cellphone whilst out and about. I was finding that the VPN service refused to start […]
Install Gentoo linux on ZFS
Gentoo, being a source-based linux distribution, has a very particular installation process. One has to make many decisions at every step along the way, since installation and configuration effectively happen at the same time, and certain things can be very hard to change once the installation has completed. The prime example of this hard-to-change-after-the-fact situation […]