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Introduction

Welcome to the Gentoo Documentation Resources. This page will give you a quick overview on the documentation we provide. Most documentation is released under the Creative Commons - Attribution / Share Alike license, an open documentation license. All documentation should also be available in a printer-friendly format. To view this document, append ?style=printable to the URL. You'll also find a "Print" link on the top-right corner of each document.

If you find bugs in our documentation or have proposals, please use our Bugtracking System and fill in a bug report for "Documentation" or "Doc Other". These bug reports will then be handled by the Gentoo Documentation Project.

Documentation Repository

Our documentation is categorized and hierarchically navigable. If you want a quick overview of all available documentation without the additional information, please use our Documentation Listing page. We also have a full listing of all our documents with their descriptions.

2.  Gentoo Desktop Documentation Resources

Migrating to Modular X HOWTO: This guide shows you how to migrate to modular X.Org.

Porting to Modular X HOWTO: This guide shows you how to port packages to use the new modular X.Org.

Installing your Desktop

The X Server Configuration HOWTO: Xorg is the X Window server which allows users to have a graphical environment at their fingertips. This HOWTO explains what Xorg is, how to install it and what the various configuration options are.

Gentoo Linux nVidia Guide: Many Gentooists have an nVidia chipset on their system. nVidia provides specific Linux drivers to boost the performance of your card. This guide informs you how to install and configure these drivers.

Gentoo Linux ATI FAQ: This FAQ should help users avoid some common installation and configuration issues related to DRI and X11 for ATI boards.

The KDE Configuration HOWTO: One of the most used desktop environments is KDE. This guide tries to describe all aspects of KDE, including installation, configuration and usage.

The GNOME Configuration HOWTO: A frequently used environment is GNOME. This HOWTO tries to describe all aspects of GNOME, including installation, configuration, usage, ...

The Fluxbox Configuration HOWTO: This howto will show you how to set up the Fluxbox window manager for X11.

The Xfce Configuration Guide: This guide provides an extensive introduction to Xfce, a fast, lightweight, full-featured desktop environment.

The KDE Split Ebuilds HOWTO: With KDE 3.4, the 'split ebuilds' were introduced into Portage. This page documents the reasons behind the transition, the new features it brings and the way to upgrade from the old-style 'monolithic' ebuilds.

Gnome 2.22 Upgrade Guide: This is a guide for upgrading from GNOME 2.20.x to GNOME 2.22.x.

Configuring your Desktop

Gentoo Linux Bluetooth Guide: This guide will explain how to successfully install a host Bluetooth device, configure the kernel properly, explain all the possibilities that the Bluetooth interconnection offers and how to have some fun with Bluetooth.

Using UTF-8 with Gentoo: This guide shows you how to set up and use the UTF-8 Unicode character set with your Gentoo Linux system, after explaining the benefits of Unicode and more specifically UTF-8.

Gentoo Printing Guide: This document covers the installation and maintenance of printers using CUPS and Samba. It covers local installation and networked installations and you'll also find instructions on using shared printers from other operating systems.

Gentoo Linux ALSA Guide: This document helps a user setup ALSA on Gentoo Linux.

Gentoo Java Guide: This guide will introduce you to Java and explain how to use Java with Gentoo Linux.

Gentoo Linux Localization Guide: This guide should help users localize their Gentoo Linux distribution to any European locale. It uses Germany as a case-study, since it is translated from the German doc. Includes configuration for use of the euro currency symbol.

Hardware 3D Acceleration Guide: This document is a guide to getting 3D acceleration working using the DRM with Xorg in Gentoo Linux.

Power Management Guide: Power Management is the key to extend battery run time on mobile systems like laptops. This guide assists you setting it up on your laptop.

Using a Mouse within the Console: This guide shows you how to set up and use GPM (the General Purpose Mouse server) from within a command line interface. This is especially useful for new Gentoo installations or for systems that cannot or do not use an X server.

Gentoo Linux Conky Howto: This document describes how to install and configure the system monitor known as Conky.

Application Specific Documentation

Nano Basics Guide: This guide is meant to be a simple introduction to nano. It will quickly help you to become familiar with its basic operation.

Learning vi -- the "cheatsheet" technique: This guide will teach you how to use vi, using a cheat sheet method to accelerate the learning process. This will be the first guide for vi, catering to beginners.

GnuPG Gentoo User Guide: This small guide will teach you the basics of using GnuPG, a tool for secure communication.

QuickStart Guide to Mutt E-Mail: This guide shows you how to begin using the powerful command line tools for e-mail: fetchmail, procmail, mutt, nbsmtp, msmtp.

Streaming Radio With SHOUTcast: This guide will walk through the steps needed to setup a streaming radio server with SHOUTcast Server and SHOUTcast Trans.

Gentoo Linux VDR Guide: This guide shows you how to prepare Gentoo Linux for DVB and VDR.

Gentoo Linux Keychain Guide: This document describes how to use ssh shared keys along with the keychain program. It assumes basic knowledge of public key cryptography.