INSTALLER CHANGES:
Installer now sets MAKEOPTS for you. This is the variable that tells Portage how many parallel operations to perform, and should be equal to the number of CPU cores in your system.
PACKAGES REMOVED:
media-sound/cadence::GentooStudio. Cadence is now in audio-overlay, no need for duplicates.
media-sound/jack2::GentooStudio: The Gentoo version now supports Firewire so the GentooStudio version has been removed.
media-sound/pure-data has been removed from GentooStudio overlay because it is in audio-overlay.
media-sound/supercollider has been removed from GentooStudio overlay because the Portage version now works.
x11-terms/xfce4-terminal: Removed in favor of x11-terms/rxvt-unicode, a much more resource-efficient terminal emulator.
PACKAGES ADDED:
media-libs/libgig-4.1.0 added to GentooStudio overlay to get it up to date and allow updated linuxsampler to work.
media-sound/gigedit-1.1.0 added to GentooStudio overlay to get it up to date, and added to default installation.
media-sound/hydrogen-drumkits has been added to the world file to prevent it from being unmerged during a depclean.
media-sound/jack2::gentoo is now used instead of the GentooStudio overlay version, as it now supports Firewire.
media-sound/jackmidiclock was added to the GentooStudio overlay. It is a JACK MIDI beat clock generator that can be used to keep MIDI devices in sync.
media-sound/linuxsampler-2.1.0 added to GentooStudio overlay to get it up to date.
x11-terms/rxvt-unicode: Replaces x11-terms/xfce4-terminal as Gentoo Studio’s default terminal emulator due to resource efficiency.
x11-misc/urxvt-perls: Supplements x11-terms/rxvt-unicode with tabs.
x11-misc/urxvtconfig: Supplements x11-terms/rxvt-unicode by providing a GUI to configure rxvt.
PACKAGE.* CHANGES
Being ever the last to know, I finally mv’d package.keywords to package.accept_keywords.
EBUILDS UPDATED:
media-sound/idjc has been updated to 0.8.17
media-libs/libshout-idjc has been updated to 2.4.2
USE CHANGES:
app-crypt/gpgme -qt5: This dependency traces back to udisks, a necessary system component. It does not need qt5 for our purposes.
app-crypt/pinentry -qt5: This is just a backend for Lightdm. The qt5 use flag is not needed here.
net-wireless/wpa-supplicant -qt5: This is a dependency of NetworkManager/nm-applet. We don’t need qt5 in wpa_supplicant itself. wpa-supplicant was simply picking up the globally-set use flag.
The bluray use flag has been removed from make.conf. This doesn’t affect audio-only applications. Users can add it back if you need Blu-ray support.
The dirac use flag has been removed from make.conf. It enables the Dirac video codec, which is not needed for audio applications. Users who need this codec can enable it post-install. It is currently not even being used by anything in the default Gentoo Studio install.
The dv use flag has been removed from make.conf. This is a codec for camcorders and is beyond the scope of Gentoo Studio. It shouldn’t have been there to begin with, and was probably just a remnant from earlier, more inclusive versions of GS.
The dvd use flag has been removed from make.conf. Only VLC was using it and VLC is Gentoo Studio’s default audio player. Userswanting to use VLC to watch DVDs can enable this use flag post-install.
The g3dvl use flag has been removed from make.conf. Nothing appears to use it.
The schroedinger use flag has been removed from make.conf. It is a video codec, which Gentoo Studio is not interested in as a default option.
KERNEL UPDATE:
Latest kernel is rt-sources-4.14.18_p15. Kernel config uses fully-preemptible model, excludes support for framebuffer, and includes all supported ALSA FireWire devices. The ALSA Firewire stack is still new. You may try it out, but you should continue to depend on jack2 with Firewire support.
rt-sources-4.9.76_p61 is Gentoo Studio’s official recommendation for Nvidia users. You will need nvidia-drivers-381.22-r1. Other combinations do not seem to get along.
Default kernel config now includes HPET. HPET audio group access is controlled by /etc/udev/rules.d/timer-permissions.rules.
SYSTEM CHANGES:
app-portage/cpuid2cpuflags-5 has been masked. Version 1 has the output format needed to update make.conf. If you wish to use version 5, you will need to manually edit make.conf to update your system’s CPU use flags.
Added a default /etc/sysctl.conf, which changes default swappiness, sets the HPET max frequency, and can be used to change other defaults.
KNOWN ISSUES
media-sound/gigedit may fail to run with a liblinuxsampler.so.5 not found error. Advice would be appreciated.
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
Catalyst building (the method used to build the install tarball) is being tested on a server, with the goal of moving away from a development VM to the server in order to facilitate autobuilds. (This means the install tarball can be kept updated on a schedule, automatically, and therefore more reliably.) Initial tests successful, script needs more tweaking for error handling. The latest tarball has been built with a manually-executed script, which now needs to be put into a cronjob.