HOWTO : Customize Pentoo 2013.0 RC1.1

Once you installed and updated Pentoo 2013.0 RC1.1, you may consider to install some packages on it. I selected some of them for the installation.

sudo emerge -av galculator
sudo emerge -av shutter
sudo emerge -av radiotray
sudo emerge -av preload
sudo emerge -av xfce4-weather-plugin
sudo emerge -av gtk-recordmydesktop
sudo emerge -av gnome-system-monitor
sudo emerge -av xfce4-kbdleds-plugin
sudo emerge -av xfce4-cpufreq-plugin
sudo emerge -av gnome-media

If you need LibreOffice, you need to install it but it will take a very long time to compile from source code :

sudo emerge -av libreoffice

*** If you have a very slow CPU or do not want to compile LibreOffice from source, you can install the binary package instead if it is available :

sudo emerge -av libreoffice-bin

Installation of Network Manager

If you do not like the Wicd and will use VPN or mobile network (such as 3G) :

sudo emerge -av networkmanager
sudo emerge -av networkmanager-pptp
sudo emerge -av networkmanager-openvpn
sudo emerge -av networkmanager-vpnc
sudo emerge -av nm-applet

Then make it boot by default :

rc-update add NetworkManager default

Now, set to load GNOME service on boot :

Menu -- Settings -- Session and Startup -- Advanced

Select "Launch GNOME services on startup"

*** Make sure you unselect the Wicd at "Application Autostart".

Then, reboot your box.

Installation of GPointing Device Settings

sudo emerge -av gpointing-device-settings

Menu -- Settings -- Session and Startup -- Application Autostart

Select "GNOME Settings Daemon"

If you have ThinkPad with TrackPoint, you may need to set the Firefox to use the middle button :

Firefox -- Edit -- Preferences -- Advanced -- General

Select "Use autoscrolling"

Then, all the hotkeys of ThinkPad should work.

Installation of 3G USB Modem

sudo emerge -av usb_modeswitch
sudo emerge -av modemmanager

Add user to the group of plugdev :

sudo gpasswd -a samiux plugdev

Then, reboot your box.

Bonus #1

To make your Pentoo more secure by append the following to /etc/fstab :

tmpfs /tmp tmpfs noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777,size=512M 0 0

*** Make sure the size is large enough for Pentoo to compile packages when update/upgrade. Or, simply DO NOT set this settings.

Bonus #2

If you are using hard drive and want to make Pentoo more faster, you can edit the /etc/fstab as the following :

/dev/sda1 /boot ext2 noatime,nodiratime,defaults 0 1
/dev/sda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda3 / ext4 noatime,nodiratime,defaults 0 1

If you are using SSD, you can :

/dev/sda1 /boot ext2 noatime,nodiratime,defaults 0 1
/dev/sda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda3 / ext4 discard,noatime,nodiratime,defaults 0 1

It will look like the following :



That's all! See you.