How to install the Web 2.0 i686 Flock Web Browser on 64-bit Gentoo Linux…

Installing Flock on Gentoo 2008.0-r1 “It’s Got What Plants Crave” LOL Luv “Idiocracy” with Luke Wilson.

First things first: I’m going step by step.

1) Create a “local” portage overlay:

nano -w /etc/make.conf

… add the code somewhere logical:

PORTDIR=”/usr/local/portage”

… like under your rsync addresses.

2) Make a path with the following directory structure for your ebuild:

mkdir -p /usr/local/portage/www-client/flock-bin

…that creates a directory to place your ebuild in.

3) Copy the latest ebuild from: http://bugs.gentoo.org/attachment.cgi?id=156141

Copy the entire contents of the ebuild and past into your favorite editor. If you’re on Xfce like me it will be Mousepad or medit, gedit for Gnome, kedit for KDE.

Save the ebuild to your Desktop and name it like so:

flock-bin-1.2.1.ebuild

…now we’ll copy it over to your local portage overlay…

4) cp ~/Desktop/flock-bin-1.2.1.ebuild /usr/local/portage/www-client/flock-bin/flock-bin-1.2.1.ebuild

… there that was easy!

5) Lets unmask the ebuild Open a terminal and use nano:

# nano -w /etc/portage/package.keywords

P.S. you can also use Mousepad, medit, gedit, or kedit.

6) Now that we have the file open, lets add a comment and the unmasking value:

# this is the Flock Web Browser ebuild:
=www-client/flock-bin-1.2.1 ~amd64

Note: replace “~amd64″ with your arch. ex. “~x86″

7) now we must ‘digest’ the ebuild to prepare a Manifest and get it ready to be emerged.

ebuild /usr/local/portage/www-client/flock-bin/flock-bin-1.2.1.ebuild digest

… there that should do it!
… a Manifest will be generated!

Let’s emerge flock-bin:

emerge -av www-client/flock-bin

… you should see the version of flock, and the option to install it. -av means “a” for ask and “v” for version.

9) Now lets make sure we don’t have any pesky libstdc++5 errors by (re-)emerging app-emulation/emul-linux-x86-compat:

emerge app-emulation/emul-linux-x86-compat

Note: not necessary for non amd64 Gentoo installations from what I’ve read.

10) and just to be sure, lets finish off with a revdep-rebuild:

revdep-rebuild

… All done! You should now have a flock launcher, and from a terminal (to check for errors) lets open flock-bin

/opt/flock/flock

…you should have a shiny new browser named Flock! The Web 2.0 Browser. See www.flock.com for details!

11) Lets update Flock.

Go to the Menu ‘Help’ > ‘Check for updates’ and update Flock to the latest version!

12) Lets install the Flash plugin. The Getting Started page should have a puzzle piece icon for you to download the latest plugin. Click on it.

Click ‘Next’ then wait for the Adobe (R) Software License Agreement, click the ‘I agree’ radio button and ‘Next’ button to proceed.
Then click ‘Finish’ and you should have Flash content working! Yay!

13) All Done!