Gentoo Portage emerge TMPDIR extending zram btrfs volumes

You can probably see I was heading this way. This post follows a series, and you should read those posts again if you haven't done so recently. This blog post follows my journey through btrfs to gentoo to portage to tmpfs to zram back to btrfs again to finish a circle.

multiboot btrfs subvolumes

this idea has been knocking around in my head for a while. i want to document it, while it is still there and to flush it out later..

i usually multiboot, and have several operating systems on the same disk. my currently laptop has about dozen+ partitions. each os is fully contained within a partition, including the bootloader on pbr. mbr is clean.

grub rescue btrfs ubuntu

to play more seriously with yet another distro, i needed to install it. so i had some fun resizing/moving partitions around to clear some freespace for a new partition. during this, the partition numbering changed.

now i can't boot ubuntu's btrfs partition. i didn't understand why, till i discovered that partition numbers are hardcoded into the grub boot record.. even though grub cfg contains only labels or uuids. tsk tsk! yet another reason why i seem to be going off grub2 bloatware.

gentoo second install x86 btrfs debian

Now that my Gentoo Phase 2 has been put on hold for the near future, I have to satisfy this itch to install gentoo on my main laptop. Having it on my primary rig, would allow me to use it more often than pulling out my backup system.

My blind first attempt, at a gentoo install, gave me a lot of confidence in the gentoo community. This second attempt substantially lessens the time/aggro I spent previously installing gentoo.

gentoo install x86 btrfs

this as a quick start guide to the much longer and more comprehensive gentoo handbook. but please understand what i have done, and not blindly copy. you should definitely read the gentoo install handbook a few times before even attempting an install.

Discovering zram and replacing all tmpfs

I have just discovered zram^[2] :) woohoo... and what a thing that is!

I was so sold on tmpfs, that I used it for everything I possibly could. Since discovering zram, I am using tmpfs for nothing. All my tmpfs needs are met by zram much more efficiently.

gentoo first attempt

i finally decided to jump in, and created another btrfs partition for gentoo with two subvolumes. with btrfs i don't have anything on the root subvolume.

i really didn't expect an install to drag on for so long. i don't like to give up part-way, unless i feel it is a lost investment.. and i was losing it! i would have, but for some kindly folks on the gentoo forum. the gentoo forum is one of the most responsive and helpful forums i have been in.

Trying to be All Things to All People

You can't please all the people all the time.

If so, what are the implications, particularly in an open-source world? Trying to please everyone might be a noble ambition. But is that realistic enough and practically achievable? If yes, then all is well! If not, then what..?

gentoo kernel compile

I seem to be doing this so often that I need a ready reference. So here's a post :)

debian to gentoo

as debian builds more & more complexity/layers obscuring internals from users, i get more & more disillusioned by the current crop of debian decision-makers. jessie, the current debian stable seems no longer stable, and an unstable init at it's core.

wheezy is/was the last stable version gone oldstable now. oldstable is expected to be even more stable than stable. but recent updates have littered wheezy with systemd and ubuntu garbage including upstart. even oldstable has had more than a few days downtime recently, due to buggy updates. sad debian :(

gentoo portage

ref: http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/portage

Gentoo is Portage. Portage is Gentoo.

Getting portage settings right is vitally important. It's not the end of the world, if you don't. But you sure will expend a lot of your time staring at the matrix flowing past, as you compile everything yet again one more time..

environment

Perhaps time to revise/update my environment list… This is what I use right now.

*nix file system btrfs kernel linux-4.9 init runit window manager i3 firewall nftables shell tmux irc weechat media player mpv terminal st email client sylpheed browser firefox-esr-52

android Flavours KitKat, GingerBread, Eclair Home TinyLaunch 31k Keyboard Multiling O Keyboard 540k Browser Naked Browser 120k Email K-9 Mail 4.6m Maps RMaps 703k Text Editor Editor 100k SatNav OsmAnd 76m Messaging Messenger Lite 7.7m

Have I missed anything?