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Setup

Every guide here assumes the stuff overlay is enabled and, on a stable system, that its testing keywords are accepted. This page is that one-time setup; each guide then adds only its own package-specific steps.

Enable the overlay

eselect repository (from app-eselect/eselect-repository) is the simplest way to add the overlay; the first command installs it if it is not already present. As root:

root #
emerge --ask app-eselect/eselect-repository
eselect repository enable stuff
emerge --sync stuff

To confirm the sync worked, search for an overlay package — it should resolve:

user $
emerge -s fastflowlm

The Gentoo Wiki Overlay:Stuff page is the neutral reference for this step, including an alternative /etc/portage/repos.conf method.

Accept testing keywords

The overlay primarily targets ~amd64 (testing); many packages also carry ~arm64, and a smaller compatibility set carries other keywords. Accept the keyword for the host architecture — the broad amd64 form below takes the whole overlay; scope it per package if preferred. As root:

/etc/portage/package.accept_keywords/stuff
*/*::stuff ~amd64

A system already running ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~amd64" globally needs nothing here. On arm64, use ~arm64 instead and check the chosen package actually carries it.

Portage config filenames are arbitrary

Files under /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords/ and /etc/portage/package.use/ are directories of plain-text fragments — the filename (stuff, vllm, texlive, …) is purely organisational; portage reads them all. The guides use per-topic names, but any name works.

What to expect

The overlay follows a rolling-release model: only the current master is supported (see the repo's SECURITY.md) — no point-in-time releases. Most packages are testing-keyworded for their supported architectures. It is community-driven, with contributions from many people. Relevant package changes get a pkgcheck diff scan, the full overlay is scanned roughly every three days, and upstream-version drift is checked weekly. Production deployments should validate upgrades before relying on them, and roll back by pinning versions or checking out an earlier overlay commit. Source builds have their own costs: heavy HIP/CUDA packages (vLLM in particular) take long, RAM-hungry compiles — the guides flag these where they bite.

New to Gentoo?

The Gentoo Handbook is the place to start — it covers emerge (the package manager), USE flags (compile-time feature toggles), and ~arch keywords (the testing branch). Two more terms the guides use: a slot lets incompatible major versions of one package be installed side by side (Qt5 lives in dev-qt/*:5, Qt6 in :6), and ::gentoo means the official Gentoo package repository, which this overlay layers on top of without replacing.