Issues:

• All of a sudden, git requires that [dev-util/subversion] uses [-dso], whatever.
• desktop: emerge –unmerge dev-python/gnome-python-desktop
• python dependecies required –newuse:
  New USE are correctly set, but –newuse wasn’t requested, so an installed package with incorrect USE happened to get pulled into the dependency graph. In order to solve this, either specify the –newuse option or explicitly reinstall ‘dev-lang/python:2.5’.
• mediacenter: “Could not locate requested eblit” [sys-kernel/mips-sources] during revdep cleanup – ignored…
• desktop: transcode 1.0.3 was stable but sucked, so I unmasked it a couple months ago to get the newest fixes. transcode 1.0.7 stable is out, clean up all the transcode unmasking now (about 10 packages)…

And we’re off and running again with newly-polished boxxen that sparkle like chrome. It’s awesome that at any point in time, you can unmask as needed to get just the fresh raw updates you need, then come back in a couple months and clean up the masking and get a nice clean refresh of the stable tested new releases. Keep on rockin’, gentoo.

In my mythtv kernel configuration HOWTO, there are several kernel modules that must be re-emerged after a new kernel is installed. [ivtv] was particularly troublesome, because each version of ivtv only applied to a specific kernel version. To install a new kernel, you’d have to first make sure you could get the right version of [ivtv], typically through version-specific masking (pita), then install the kernel, then re-install [ivtv], hoping you didn’t run into any problems. So it’s a lot easier now that [ivtv] is included in the kernel – just configure it into the kernel and you’re good to go. See gentoo’s [ivtv] web page for details, it’s just starting to get documented. But gentoo packages are all good to go! Yay gentoo!

I was trying to find a better alternative to elogviewer, because it doesn’t come up sorted by reverse date. [kelogviewer] was the candidate, so I unmasked it, but the deps are creeping. Kill it…

Today’s pain in the ass gold-level sponsors are gentoo, ATI and xorg…
Somehow I initially managed to get ATI drivers working on the [dune] media center, but I’m not sure how – stable kernel and driver do NOT work together. As of today, the ATI-provided [ati-drivers] package does not work – the stable version doesn’t compile with the latest stable [gentoo-sources] kernel, and the soft-masked version doesn’t compile without soft-unmasking half of X.
Well, I opted to soft-unmask half of X, yuck. Here’s what it took in [package.keywords]…

x11-drivers/ati-drivers
x11-apps/ati-drivers-extra
# and deps... sigh...
x11-base/xorg-server
x11-libs/pixman
x11-libs/libpciaccess
x11-proto/xproto
x11-apps/xauth
x11-libs/libXrender
x11-proto/renderproto
x11-proto/xextproto
x11-libs/libXau
x11-libs/libXext
x11-libs/libXfont
x11-proto/inputproto
x11-libs/xtrans
x11-misc/xkeyboard-config
media-libs/mesa
x11-libs/libdrm
x11-libs/libX11
x11-proto/xf86driproto
x11-libs/libXxf86vm
x11-apps/rgb
x11-apps/xinit
x11-proto/randrproto
x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard
x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse
x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev

When I got done, I lost my 1080p resolution and my mouse and keyboard (!). Digging in, I found that the newer xorg-server autodetects things, and when autodetect is on, it turns off any mouse and keyboard that are specified in xorg.conf. Well… I hadn’t realized up until this point that I wasn’t running HAL (I had it installed but had not yet added it to a run level). Therefore, X would disable my mouse and keyboard specified in xorg.conf, because it expected them to be autodetected. But without hal running, it doesn’t happen. You also have to have the [xf86-input-evdev] package installed and add the [input_devices_evdev] USE flag to [xorg-server] – evdev is what can actually successfully autodetect. Moral of the story: run hal with the latest xorg-server! And run dbus and add users to plugdev group to get hot-plugging.
Next I needed to figure out why I was dropping back to 1600×1200 from 1080p. The xorg log showed this error:

(EE) AIGLX error: fglrx exports no extensions (/usr/lib64/dri/fglrx_dri.so: undefined symbol: __driDriverExtensions)
(EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering

This bug indicates that older [ati-drivers] appear to leave broken symlinks that prevent update. Do this:

emerge -C ati-drivers
eselect opengl set xorg-x11 (and remove any files that cause problems)
emerge -av ati-drivers
eselect opengl set ati

Now get your shit together, gentoo… I’d much prefer a stable [ati-drivers]… rrr… I get depressed when “those that hack on linux” cause this much pain to the end user trying to accomplish the most basic tasks… I don’t want to spend so many cycles tweaking and hammering on linux basics… makes me consider a jump to Ubuntu… steady on…

The latest media center, [dune], is up and running with the following features:

• mythtv trunk on gentoo, including development environment
• Sharp 52″ 10,000:1 1080p HDTV
• Hauppage PVR-350 (upgrade to WinTV-HVR-2250 when a driver is released)
• 1080p-ready mobo w/ onboard ATI Radeon HD3200, HDMI-out
• Athlon Phenom quad-core CPU
• 1.5tb of local Sata storage
• 1.5tb of raid1 eSata storage