DEV Community: DarthMooMancer

Almost 2 Months of Gentoo, The Journey So Far!

DarthMooMancer — Sat, 06 Sep 2025 20:48:57 +0000

Its been a ride so far in my 2 year journey after just 58 days. I have many issues still and lots of learning but I like it. I miss Arch but I must move on to bigger and better. I am finally past the days of Systemd and rolling release. Things are stable and slow. Compile times take too long but the perfect way to make a minimal system.

One thing I've learned so far is that Gentoo is teaching me what I need and don't need. On Arch, it is so easy and actually enthralling to install as many packages as possible because experimenting is fun. On Gentoo, you have to wait so long depending on the size of the package that it makes you think "is this worth the time I will possibly waste".

While I've had more issues with my environment on Gentoo than Arch, I actually enjoy fixing Gentoo. I can't explain why, but something about the thought of reinstalling and losing the challenge is a big incentive just to find a way to fix the issue. For almost the entire time I've gone with this install, I've had picom issues and didn't use it because of it. Turns out I was missing one line of code in my dwm's x.c and once I added it, it fixed all of my issues.

I've pretty much had to learn an entirely different system which is awesome. While switching from Debian to Arch is different, they are both systemd with the only real difference being the package manager. On Gentoo, it's completely different with Openrc and Portage. It's a learning process, but I think I am finally understanding how Openrc works for the services and managing packages with portage. Are there still many things to learn? Without a doubt, but I don't feel like I am stupid when I want to make a service start when booting or trying to remove a package from the world file.

I have been crafting the perfect zenful environment for working. It works so well in fact that time I dedicate to gaming is going down and my environments even outside of the system are changing. I have a new desk and it is minimal and perfectly crafted for me. My Apple devices all use the same wallpapers and are used for productivity more than just entertainment now. I even have a whiteboard that I use often when programming instead of just commenting in my code which doesn't help visually whatsoever.

Here are the dotfiles. I use librewolf, neovim, tmux, suckless software and everforest for everything. It is a time consuming and very carefully crafted config that I have been working on a lot. The journey of the next 22 months is long and I am definitely exited to see what is going to happen over that time with this system. So if you are thinking about trying a new system, try Gentoo or one you have always been wanting to try but always you were never smart enough for. You most likely are!

I'm Sorry Arch! Part 2

DarthMooMancer — Sat, 12 Jul 2025 05:39:37 +0000

Firstly, DWM is the only window manager for x11 that needs to exist. I used i3 for the longest time, but didn't feel happy. I've tried others but nothing compares to the power and minimalism of DWM. Don't want to install the package, just compile it from source.

While it takes time to understand DWM, such as patching it and understanding just a little bit of C, it is so simple and is a good base to then build up from. It doesn't come with some of the most basic features, but that is what makes it so good. It can be made and handcrafted perfectly for the user. No bloat. It is the perfect WM to pair with the Gentoo ideology.

Secondly, the Everforest colorscheme. I tried it on neovim for my Macbook and fell in love with it. I used Gruvbox to start and then Kanagawa, but something about them always felt off. Everforest has become my favorite colorscheme for everything. I plan on updating my dot files finally after months of not touching them.

Thirdly, Picom. The Pijulius Picom is so good and I don't know why I have never used it. On Arch I kept trying to get animations with a bunch of different forks and such but I should have just went simple and started with his. Its so easy to build and then just run picom and boom, simple but clean animations.

I plan I trying to do a challenge of a year or 2 years of just Gentoo. I have really no tie to Windows now that I have pretty much given up on CoD and Destiny 2 so I can kind of dedicate my time to just Gentoo and really explore and understand it. Maybe Gentoo will become my best distro and Arch will be replaced.

This will be updated soon DWM-Dots.

I'm Sorry Arch! Part 1

DarthMooMancer — Sat, 12 Jul 2025 05:27:52 +0000

Let me start by saying. I love Arch Linux. It's fast, easy (after RTFM), and all around my perfect distro if I need to go to something to tinker. However, I think I found my new distro to tinker with. While people go from Linux Mint to Ubuntu. I am going from Arch to Gentoo.

I tried Gentoo a year or two ago, but my laptop was slow as f**k and I had no clue what I was doing or how to read the manual. I tried to install Gentoo again yesterday or the day before and installed it fairly easy. Without videos might I add, just the manual.

The thing that set me off to try Gentoo again was when I was trying to make a custom kernel for Arch and was majorly failing and then I remembered that Gentoo was meant for that kind of customization.

IMO, the only thing that has annoyed me about Gentoo so far is that the Firefox-esr (I should have done the binary) takes ages and I couldn't get audio to work for the life of me. I finally have it installed however and aside from my mouse buttons not working properly and I have to make a custom kernel, I have crafted the perfect system.

DWM. Gentoo. Everforest. The only things that truly matter.

AI in the Terminal?

DarthMooMancer — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 17:53:24 +0000

Warning: First paragraph is a recap of my kernel experience, skip if you don't care.

So in my first post I talked about my journey to start making a custom kernel. TL;DR, it hasn't worked out great. I edited the kernel without knowing much so I used ai and also looked at the help pages in the menuconfig to try and see if I needed something. I ended up making it so the kernel couldnt even boot into efi which was fun to debug. Now I cant use my amd gpu because something is wrong. But that is neither here nor there.

I have been getting tired of AI chatbots like grok, copilot and chatgpt because while they do help a lot, they are restricted by money. You have a limited use before something stops and it sucks. The best alternatives are to figure it out through things like stack overflow or running AI locally. You can probably guess which one I chose.

Ollama is something cool that I have use for like 5 minutes so far but it is awesome. I can do almost everything the online chatbots as with Ollama. Only thing I don't think Ollama can do is use things like images. In hindsight, I also am using the terminal one so there may be a desktop version that can use them. Its really cool, all you have to do is run one command to install it, find and pull a model, then run the model and boom, you can chat to your heart's content. I chose the gemma3:4b because it is supposedly the most stable and easy to use one.

I think Ollama on the terminal will work for now but I think I want to make a web version that is local so I can use images and other things without the need to pay money or get tracked by the AI overlords.

The Linux Experience Is Special

DarthMooMancer — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 06:01:21 +0000

Some Background

I started using linux in 6th/7th grade and now have about 5 years of using it under my belt. I started with ubuntu and distro hopped for a long time and eventually deemed Debian as unworthy for me. I tried Voidlinux, Gentoo and Archlinux. Void inspired me, Gentoo inspired me and Archlinux became my main stable, always can go back to distro. I love the boot speed of Voidlinux and the customization and perfection that I could do with Gentoo with openrc, but they never felt like the one.

The Bread and Butter of Linux

Customizing the kernel feels like the ultimate version of ricing a system to your exact needs and hardware. I tried customizing things on Gentoo, but I was very impatient with the performance as I was on an older laptop. Also the laptop was inconsistent on whether it was intel or amd so figuring out hardware was difficult. But now I am on a desktop with a much more powerful processor and double the ram.

I keep going back and forth between Windows and Arch because I hate kernel level anti cheat but love my games. And dual booting was bad because I just ended up removing the linux partition and going full windows for ease of use. I finally broke and reinstalled Arch and have started de-googling/de-microsofting my life. In the process I have tried making the perfect Linux system for my needs. That being peak performance, fast boot times, and compatibility with software.

The Dark Side of Linux

I say "The Dark Side"; however, it is just difficult and makes me mad but at the same time I love it. You learn a lot while trying to make a kernel that works only for your specific hardware. For instance the lsmod command is something you have to learn to understand and read. The use of AI makes it easier to understand all of the gibberish of the ncurses menu. Also how to even start to make a custom kernel on Archlinux. People like the Mental Outlaw are great because they make the ideas of a custom kernel possible. If you want to know where to start I would recommend Custom Kernel by mental outlaw.

Arch is great and is the perfect way to let out that customization itch without building from source for 3 days. If anyone has random tips about custom kernels that they would like to share, please give them. I would love to hear them!