X220 - Full binary (except few smaller packages) - SwayFx/Wofi/Waybar/Osaka-theme/Papirus-icons

[u/-Assume_Nothing-]

This is my second Gentoo (working) install, I aimed at full binary because I'm too old to wait for compilation on this system. Also my goal was to get one of the non-systemd distros running on this machine. Void was my second choice, but Gentoo repos are bigger and if I do have to compile stuff off of Github I believe Gentoo is the best equipped distro for that. Not that is not possible with any other but it just feel more to the point on Gentoo. Anyways loving it thus far!

[u/redyos_s]

Is there a particular reason you chose GitHub rather than Codeberg for hosting this project? Was it mainly visibility/CI/integration, or was there some technical requirement?

One more thought: if the plan is to stay almost entirely on prebuilt binaries long-term, I’m not sure Gentoo is the most natural fit. Gentoo’s binary packages are very useful for heavy packages or reducing build time, but if you intend to avoid source builds almost completely, a binary-oriented distro may give you a simpler maintenance model. Gentoo makes the most sense to me when binaries are used selectively, while still keeping the option to build packages with your own USE/profile choices when needed.

One more caveat: Gentoo can be run very binary-heavy now, but I wouldn't assume you can stay 100% binary forever.

As long as your profile/USE/ABI choices match the official binhost, a lot can be installed prebuilt. But once you need a configuration that isn't available as a binary package, you'll still have to build from source.

So “mostly binary, compile only when necessary” is realistic. “Never compile anything” is not really something I'd design a Gentoo system around.

[u/-Assume_Nothing- → u/redyos_s]

Hi thanks for the comment, I wouldn't say I aim to keep it completely binary, by now I have 55 packages compiled but those are mostly small ones, also, changes I do add to USE flags I add per package and for some packages that pull big libraries it's possible to find some libraries as binaries, so I have less to compile afterwards. So, there's a way always. For the moment I see no benefit of compiling on this old Thinkpad. When I find practical benefit.. sure. As for the use of Github that is where my search for packages I've missed took me, otherwise I have no inclinations towards Github.

[u/redyos_s → u/-Assume_Nothing-]

Out of curiosity, what are the actual specs of that X220 — CPU, RAM and storage?

[u/-Assume_Nothing- → u/redyos_s]

It's: i5-2520M · 4T · 3.20 GHz, 8GB 1600 MT/s ddr3 Ram and 447.1G ssd

[u/redyos_s → u/-Assume_Nothing-]

Out of curiosity, why did you choose Wayland/SwayFX on an X220 with HD 3000 instead of a lighter, more mature X11 setup like i3 or Openbox? Was it mainly for experimentation, or is there some practical benefit you wanted from Wayland on that hardware?

[u/-Assume_Nothing- → u/redyos_s]

I've been using sway/swayfx for a past few years, mainly because i find Wayland better than x11 for video reproduction,(no tearing and lighter) I have used openbox for years back in the days of Crunchbag, I loved it, it was my intro into window managers. It seems to me also that there is a lot more support these days for wayland stuff and gradually less and less for x11.

[u/-Assume_Nothing- → u/redyos_s]

Also how is x11 lighter? I was under impression it was other way around. I still remember compiling x11 for Cinnamon on one of my previous(failed) installs of Gentoo that took forever.

[u/redyos_s → u/-Assume_Nothing-]

Cinnamon taking a long time to compile doesn't really tell you whether X11 itself is heavier. Cinnamon is a fairly large desktop environment with a lot of dependencies. I was comparing a minimal X11 stack such as Xorg + Openbox/i3 against SwayFX/wlroots. In that comparison, X11 can be very small and simple. Wayland may still be preferable for your video/tearing use case, but I wouldn't call it inherently lighter just because Cinnamon on X11 took a long time to build.

You’re definitely pushing that X220 pretty far with Wayland/SwayFX 😄 It’s interesting that it works well for you, especially on HD 3000. I can see the advantage for video playback and avoiding tearing, but for an old machine like that I’d still expect Xorg + Openbox/i3 to be the more conservative long-term setup. So I’d say Wayland makes sense for your preferences and video use, but it’s still a fairly adventurous choice for an X220.

[u/-Assume_Nothing- → u/redyos_s]

You're right about minimal stack x11, but I don't think it's significant difference. This install actually works really good, at times I completely forget I'm on the old machine. No issues what so ever with resources or overheating, it opens browsers slightly slower than my X1 g9, other than that it feels the same.