gentoo-forge

Optimized Gentoo Linux configuration for a desktop/gaming workstation running OpenRC + KDE Plasma (Wayland) + AMD GPU. This combination is rarely documented end-to-end, so this repo serves as a public reference.

System Overview

Component	Details
CPU	Intel Core i7-11700F (8C/16T)
GPU	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT/XTX (Navi 31, amdgpu)
RAM	32 GB DDR4
Storage	Samsung 980 PRO NVMe (btrfs) + SATA drives
Init	OpenRC + elogind (no systemd)
Desktop	KDE Plasma 6 on Wayland
Audio	PipeWire + WirePlumber
Display Manager	SDDM

Key Features

• System-wide LTO (-flto=16 -fdevirtualize-at-ltrans -fno-semantic-interposition) with a curated exception list for packages that break with LTO
• ccache (10 GB) + tmpfs portage build directory for fast compilation
• Native Steam with the full abi_x86_32 dependency chain (70+ packages)
• OpenRC + elogind - no systemd, with polkit wheel rule for privilege escalation
• AMD GPU (amdgpu/radeonsi) with Vulkan, Wayland, and ROCm SMI support
• Firefox from source with PGO, hardware acceleration, and PipeWire integration
• Kernel/sysctl tuning for desktop responsiveness (swappiness, cache pressure, dirty ratios)
• btrfs with subvolumes (@, @home, @snapshots), zstd compression, and async discard
• User patches via /etc/portage/patches/ (e.g., libX11 XKB crash fix)

File Overview

etc/portage/
  make.conf                    # CFLAGS, LTO, ccache, parallel builds, GPU, USE flags
  package.env                  # Per-package LTO/optimization exceptions
  package.use/
    steam                      # Full abi_x86_32 chain for native Steam (~70 packages)
    firefox                    # PGO, hardware accel, PipeWire, xvfb for PGO builds
    abi32-debuginfod            # 32-bit deps for elfutils debuginfod (KDE crash handler)
    discover                   # Flatpak backend for KDE Discover
    grub                       # GRUB mount support
    installkernel              # Dracut initramfs generation
    podman                     # nftables backend for iptables
    xorg-drivers               # Disable radeonsi DDX (use modesetting instead)
  package.accept_keywords/
    steam                      # steam-overlay + libudev-compat + game-device-udev-rules
    gamemode                   # ~amd64 for Feral GameMode
    podman-compose             # ~amd64
    rocm-smi                   # ~amd64 for AMD GPU monitoring
    vanilla-sources            # ~amd64 for latest kernel sources
  env/
    no-lto.conf                # Disable LTO for incompatible packages
    no-devirtlto.conf          # Disable -fdevirtualize-at-ltrans
    no-seminterpos.conf        # Re-enable semantic interposition
  patches/
    x11-libs/libX11/           # XKB crash fix (MR#293) - applied automatically by portage
  repos.conf/
    gentoo.conf                # Main Gentoo repo with GPG verification
    eselect-repo.conf          # Steam overlay

etc/polkit-1/rules.d/
  49-wheel.rules               # Allow wheel group for polkit admin actions (OpenRC essential)

etc/sysctl.d/
  99-desktop-tuning.conf       # VM tuning for desktop responsiveness

etc/sddm.conf.d/
  01gentoo.conf                # Disable virtual keyboard
  10-keyboard.conf             # Point to Xsetup script

etc/sddm/
  Xsetup                       # Set keyboard layout for SDDM login screen

etc/conf.d/
  keymaps                      # Console keyboard layout (Swiss German)

etc/env.d/
  02locale                     # System locale (en_US.UTF-8 with Swiss regional formats)

var/cache/ccache/
  ccache.conf                  # ccache settings (10G, compression, sloppiness)

fstab.example                  # Reference fstab with btrfs subvolumes + tmpfs portage

Highlights

LTO Exception List

make.conf enables aggressive LTO flags globally. package.env maps 35+ packages to no-lto.conf that are known to break with LTO (glibc, mesa, gcc, llvm, python, rust, openssl, ...). Additional per-flag exceptions exist for -fdevirtualize-at-ltrans and -fno-semantic-interposition.

Steam abi_x86_32 Dependency Chain

Native Steam on Gentoo requires explicit abi_x86_32 USE flags on ~70 packages across multiple dependency chains (Mesa, fontconfig, udev, vulkan-loader, audio libs). The package.use/steam file documents the full chain with comments explaining each group.

libX11 XKB Crash Patch

patches/x11-libs/libX11/mr293-fix-xkb-crash.patch fixes a crash in XkbRefreshKeyboardMapping when multiple keyboard devices are present. Applied automatically by Portage's user patch system.

OpenRC + Polkit

Without systemd, the 49-wheel.rules polkit rule is essential for allowing the wheel group to perform administrative actions through KDE's privilege escalation dialogs.

Usage

These are personal configuration files. They must be adapted to your system.

Things you will need to adjust:

• make.conf: MAKEOPTS and -flto= thread count to match your CPU
• fstab.example: Replace <UUID-*> placeholders with your actual UUIDs (blkid)
• package.use/steam: You may need fewer or more abi_x86_32 entries depending on your @world
• Keyboard layout: keymaps, Xsetup, and locale files assume Swiss German - change to yours
• VIDEO_CARDS: Change if you don't have an AMD GPU

Disclaimer

This is a personal configuration reference, not a turnkey solution. Configurations are specific to this hardware and use case. No warranty. Use at your own risk. Always review changes before applying them to your system.

License

GPL-3.0