Gentoo Repository News
Python 3.14 to become the default on 2026-06-01 - 16/04/2026 00:00 GMT
We are planning to switch the default Python target of Gentoo systems
on 2026-06-01, from Python 3.13 to Python 3.14. If you have not changed
the values of PYTHON_TARGETS or PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET, the change will
have immediate effect on your system and the package manager will try
to switch automatically on the next upgrade following the change.
Most users do not need to do anything and it is best to wait until the
switch date, as packages are still being ported.
If you did change the values, prefer to have more control over when
the switch occurs, or have problems with the update, read on.
Please note that the default upgrade method switches packages to the new
Python versions as they are rebuilt. This means that all interdependent
packages have to support the new version for the upgrade to proceed,
and that some programs may temporarily fail to find their dependencies
throughout the upgrade (although programs that are already started
are unlikely to be affected).
If you have PYTHON_TARGETS or PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET declared
in make.conf, please remove these declarations as they will interfere
with the package.use samples provided below. Using make.conf for Python
targets is discouraged as it prevents package defaults from applying
when necessary. This news item assumes using /etc/portage/package.use
or your package manager's equivalent file for configuration.
At this point, you have a few configuration options to choose from:
1. If you wish Python upgrades to apply automatically, you can remove
PYTHON_TARGETS and PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET declarations. When
the defaults change, your package manager should handle the upgrade
automatically. However, you may still need to run the update
commands if any problems arise.
2. If you wish to defer the upgrade for the time being, you can
explicitly set the old values in package.use.
3. If you wish to force the upgrade earlier, you can explicitly set
the new values and run the upgrade commands.
4. If you wish to use a safer approach (i.e. less likely to temporarily
break packages during the upgrade), you can perform a multi-step
upgrade as outlined below.
5. Finally, you can use an arbitrary combination of PYTHON_TARGETS
and PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET.
Deferring the upgrade
=====================
To defer the upgrade, explicitly set the old targets:
*/* PYTHON_TARGETS: -* python3_13
*/* PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET: -* python3_13
This will enforce Python 3.13 and block any future updates. However,
please note that this is only a temporary solution and you will
eventually need to perform the migration.
Forcing the upgrade
===================
To force the upgrade earlier, explicitly select the Python 3.14 targets:
*/* PYTHON_TARGETS: -* python3_14
*/* PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET: -* python3_14
However, it is important to remember to remove this after the defaults
change, as it will interfere with the automatic switch to the next
Python version in the future.
Safer upgrade procedure
=======================
A safer approach is to add Python 3.14 support to your system first,
and only then remove Python 3.13. However, note that this involves two
rebuilds of all the affected packages, so it will take noticeably
longer.
First, enable both Python 3.13 and Python 3.14, and then run the upgrade
commands:
*/* PYTHON_TARGETS: -* python3_13 python3_14
*/* PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET: -* python3_13
Then switch PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET and run the second batch of upgrades:
*/* PYTHON_TARGETS: -* python3_13 python3_14
*/* PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET: -* python3_14
Finally, switch to the final version and upgrade:
*/* PYTHON_TARGETS: -* python3_14
*/* PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET: -* python3_14
You may wish to remove the target overrides after the defaults switch.
Alternatively, you can keep them to block the next automatic upgrade
to Python 3.15, and upgrade manually then.
Upgrade commands
================
The Python 3.13 cleanup requires that Python 3.13 is removed from
the complete dependency trees in batch. If some of the
installed packages using an older Python version are not triaged
for the upgrade, the package manager will throw dependency conflicts.
This makes it important that the upgrade is carried via a --deep
--changed-use @world upgrade, as well as that any stray packages
are removed prior to it, e.g.:
emerge --depclean
emerge -1vUD @world
emerge --depclean
Other Python implementations
============================
At the same time, we are also going to remove the target support
for Python 3.11 (python3_11) and PyPy 3.11 (pypy3_11). Since there are
no plans to release a Python 3.12-compatible PyPy version yet, Gentoo
will be removing PyPy support for the time being.
Posted By: Michał Górny
Varnish Renamed - 31/03/2026 00:00 GMT
# Varnish Renamed to Vinyl-Cache As of version 9.0.0, www-servers/varnish has been renamed to www-servers/vinyl-cache in line with upstream's change of name[0][1][2][3]. The name change also affects binaries, directories, init scripts, configuration and the user and group used by the server daemon. If you are upgrading from a previous version of www-servers/varnish you will need to update your configuration as described in "Upgrading" below. # Changes All varnish* binaries have been renamed to their vinyl* equivalents: varnishd -> vinyld varnishlog -> vinyllog varnishncsa -> vinylncsa varnishadm -> vinyladm varnishhist -> vinylhist varnishstat -> vinylstat varnishstat_help_gen -> vinylstat_help_gen varnishstatdiff -> vinylstatdiff varnishtest -> vinyltest varnishtop -> vinyltop This name change also affects all related conf.d/* files, init scripts, systemd service files, logrotate etc. The api library has been renamed: libvarnishapi.so -> libvinylapi.so In these conf.d files, all VARNISH* options are now VINYL* and you will need to update your configuration accordingly: /etc/conf.d/varnishd -> /etc/conf.d/vinyld /etc/conf.d/varnishlog -> /etc/conf.d/vinyllog /etc/conf.d/varnishncsa -> /etc/conf.d/vinylncsa The configuration directory has been moved: /etc/varnish/ -> /etc/vinyl-cache/ Other varnish directories have also been renamed: /usr/include/varnish -> /usr/include/vinyl-cache /usr/lib/varnish -> /usr/lib/vinyl-cache /usr/lib64/varnish -> /usr/lib64/vinyl-cache /usr/share/varnish -> /usr/share/vinyl-cache /var/lib/varnish -> /var/lib/vinyl-cache /var/log/varnish -> /var/log/vinyl-cache # Upgrading To upgrade from varnish 8.x to 9.x: 0) Take a backup of your existing configuration files 1) Stop all running varnish services 2) emerge --oneshot www-servers/vinyl-cache 3) Update and install your VCL files in /etc/vinyl-cache/ You can now start the new vinyld, vinyllog and vinylncsa services, remembering to add them to the appropriate runlevels as usual. Ditto systemd services. For more details of the changes, you are encouraged to read the upstream announcement[0]. # Refs [0] https://vinyl-cache.org/docs/9.0/whats-new/upgrading-9.0.html [1] https://vinyl-cache.org/organization/20-years.html [2] https://vinyl-cache.org/organization/new-identity.html [3] https://vinyl-cache.org/organization/on_vinyl_cache_and_varnish_cache.html
Posted By: Brett A C Sheffield
www-client/chromium slotted installation - 15/03/2026 00:00 GMT
www-client/chromium is now available as a slotted package, allowing multiple
versions to be installed simultaneously.
The new slots are:
* www-client/chromium:stable - the latest 'stable' channel release
* www-client/chromium:beta - the latest 'beta' channel release
* www-client/chromium:unstable - the latest 'dev' channel release
Upstream are inconsistent with `dev` channel naming, so we've gone with
'unstable' to match www-client/google-chrome* packaging.
The biggest change to end-users is that various Chromium versions will no longer
share a single profile directory, instead each slot (channel) will have its own
profile directory as e.g. the various www-client/google-chrome packages work
now.
This change is particularly useful for developers who need to test their
applications against different versions of Chromium, and protects against
incompatible profile downgrades when switching between versions.
Users on stable should not expect to see any major change, however any
Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) may need to be "reinstalled" after the
upgrade to update the desktop files.
Users on ~arch may wish to select a specific slot to use, as due to the nature
of Chromium releases, the latest ~arch version will switch between the stable
and beta slots depending on where we are in the release cycle.
The same advice applies to users of the dev/unstable channel (unkeyworded) as
well - they may end up unexpectedly upgraded to beta if the dev channel is
delayed during a promotion.
Impacted users should explicitly select the appropriate slot(s) to use, e.g. by
selecting www-client/chromium:stable or www-client/chromium:beta:
emerge --deselect www-client/chromium
emerge --noreplace www-client/chromium:stable
Posted By: Matt Jolly
mail-mta/postfix-3.11.0: Default database change - 15/03/2026 00:00 GMT
The default local database type in mail-mta/postfix has been hash for local files and btree for caches and both file types depend on sys-libs/db. However, BerkeleyDB has not been developed sufficiently in recent years and the licensing change in 2013 made using the latest versions of BerkeleyDB problematic. Consequently, we are stuck with using ancient versions of BerkeleyDB and there is a general tendency in the Linux ecosystem to sunset BerkeleyDB support. Postfix made switching database types easier with its latest release. We will be changing the default database type in postfix for both local databases and caches to lmdb starting with mail-mta/postfix-3.11.0. # Timeline: - mail-mta/postfix-3.11.0: March 2026. Both lmdb and berkdb USE flags are on by default. BerkeleyDB is still supported but the default database and cache type changes to lmdb. - mail-mta/postfix-3.12.0: Expected Q1 2027. BerkeleyDB support will be off by default. You will need to turn it on manually if still needed. mail-mta/postfix will continue supporting BerkeleyDB until it is sunsetted in Gentoo. Changing the default database and cache types in postfix-3.11.0 requires migration for the entries in main.cf and master.cf that do not specify a database type. It is almost always a good idea to specify database type in main.cf and master.cf and in your postmap commands. As you are always specifying the database type, the default database and cache type settings do not come into play. Option 1: Accept the new defaults and migrate to lmdb. The default USE flags take effect and lmdb becomes the new default when >=mail-mta/postfix-3.11.0 is installed. All local database files without a specified type and, optionally, caches need to be migrated to lmdb. If your configuration is simple or if you are familiar with Postfix configuration, a few "grep" commands will find all the problems, and a few edits will be easy to make. Read https://www.postfix.org/NON_BERKELEYDB_README.html#manual for a complete walk through and the commands you can run to find instances of BerkeleyDB usage in your postfix configuration. Option 2: If your configuration is too complex for the manual migration step above or if you are not familiar with the details of your postfix configuration, postfix provides enable-redirect[1] and enable-reindex[2] options. Read the documentation for the details and their caveats. They provide valuable help in migration, especially for an operating system that do not have BerkeleyDB support anymore - which is NOT the case for Gentoo. However, these options still help in complex configuration cases. Option 3: Turning off lmdb USE flag is not recommended but is possible. The default stays the same as previous versions of postfix, namely hash for local files and btree for caches. No further action is necessary until BerkeleyDB support is sunsetted in Gentoo when you will have to do the above migration. For more details, please read: https://www.postfix.org/NON_BERKELEYDB_README.html [1] https://www.postfix.org/NON_BERKELEYDB_README.html#enable-redirect [2] https://www.postfix.org/NON_BERKELEYDB_README.html#enable-reindex
Posted By: Eray Aslan
sssd to run as a dedicated user - 11/02/2026 00:00 GMT
sssd now runs as its own user, rather than root, and uses file capabiltites for its helpers. Although it had this functionalilty for a while, it wasn't completely usable until 2.10. sssd-2.12.0 will be the first keyworded version in Gentoo with this change, made available shortly. Because of the user change, the sssd database, logs, and configuration files must have their ownership changed. == Systemd users == After upgrading sssd to >=2.10, stop the sssd service. Then execute the following commands: chown -R sssd:sssd /var/lib/sss chown -R sssd:sssd /var/log/sssd Then restart the sssd service and verify it launched succesfully. == openrc users === After upgrading sssd, stop the sssd service. Then execute the following commands: chown -R sssd:sssd /var/lib/sss chown -R sssd:sssd /var/log/sssd chown -R root:sssd /etc/sssd Then restart the sssd service and verify it launched succesfully.
Posted By: Christopher Byrne
Desktop Profile to enable PipeWire support - 15/01/2026 00:00 GMT
Reasons
=======
Gentoo has had a longstanding complaint that desktop profiles do not
enable a suitable working audio setting, which causes confusion for
new users. An example of when this is a user can end up compiling
Firefox without audio support, meaning the user will have to add the
USE flags and then compile Firefox a second time. This not only wastes
time for the user, but also increases support workload by the volunteers
that provides it.
This change will make PipeWire the default sound server for all Gentoo
desktop profiles which support it, rather than just KDE Plasma profiles as
was the previous norm[1]. PipeWire has been widely adopted by Linux as a
whole due to its feature to work with older standards such as PulseAudio,
and means Gentoo will be less likely to need users to make any follow-up
changes to their system, related to audio.
Changes
=======
New global USE flags enabled: pulseaudio
-> Enables PulseAudio support for packages as a fallback when native
PipeWire isn't available.
New global USE flags enabled: pipewire
New package.use default: media-video/pipewire[sound-server]
-> These settings will enable PipeWire by default where available and
also tell PipeWire to act as our PulseAudio server where there is no
native PipeWire support.
New global USE flags enabled: screencast
-> In Wayland sessions, the video functionality of PipeWire is not only
used for screen sharing but also to take screenshots and recordings or
simply to cast window content onto task managers' window previews.
As this is basically a free and beneficial addition as it provides
things like screenshotting and webcam access under Wayland.
Alpha and HPPA
===============
Alpha and HPPA currently do not have PipeWire support enabled so only
PulseAudio is enabled.
These can be requested by users at a later date after confirming they work
with the respected projects.
Users not wishing to change
===========================
For users not wanting to change from the their current desktop profile
setup, then all that is required is to set
USE="-pipewire -pulseaudio -screencast"
in their make.conf file.
User Action Required
====================
In order to enact all changes:
emerge -avDU @world
Follow the post-installation messages printed by emerge to start the
needed daemons.
If using systemd, to configure the PipeWire daemon(s), run the following
commands:
$ systemctl --user --now disable pulseaudio.service pulseaudio.socket
$ systemctl --user --now disable pipewire-media-session.service
$ systemctl --user --now enable pipewire.socket pipewire-pulse.socket
$ systemctl --user --force enable wireplumber.service
OpenRC users don't need to take any action if using a desktop environment
that supports XDG autostart.
Afterwards all that should be required is a reboot, however in the unlikely
event of issues then check out how to configure PipeWire for your purposes.
[1][2].
In order to keep a previously configured PulseAudio only system (i.e. keep
using media-sound/pulseaudio-daemon), set
USE="-pipewire -screencast" in /etc/portage/make.conf
and
media-video/pipewire -sound-server in /etc/portage/package.use
For an ALSA only system, set
USE="-pipewire -pulseaudio -screencast" in /etc/portage/make.conf
[1] https://www.gentoo.org/support/news-items/2022-07-29-pipewire-sound-server.html
[2] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/PipeWire
Posted By: Ian Jordan
net-mail/dovecot-2.4.2 stabilization - 08/01/2026 00:00 GMT
net-mail/dovecot-2.4.2 will be stabilized soon[1] and will be the first dovecot-2.4 release that will be stable in Gentoo. Dovecot-2.3 configuration settings will not work with Dovecot-2.4 and manual intervention is required for the upgrade. Please read https://doc.dovecot.org/2.4.2/installation/upgrade/overview.html before upgrading your dovecot instance. We strongly recommend finalizing your Dovecot 2.4 configuration on a test system before upgrading any production systems. The following steps typically make the upgrade process easier: 1. Make a note of your current configuration by running doveconf -nP 2. Stop the dovecot daemon 3. Move ALL your configuration files to a temporary location 4. Upgrade to dovecot-2.4.2 5. Read the new configuration files and uncomment as necessary 6. Compare the new doveconf -n output with the old one and add missing configuration settings one by one while checking that the system works after each change [1]: https://bugs.gentoo.org/967978
Posted By: Eray Aslan
FlexiBLAS migration imminent - 30/11/2025 00:00 GMT
Gentoo is adopting FlexiBLAS (sci-libs/flexiblas) [0][1] as the primary way of
switching BLAS implementations at runtime.
The previous eselect-based 'eselect-blas', 'eselect-cblas', and 'eselect-lapack'
approach will be phased out in favor of this because of various reliability
problems we hit.
The defaults in profiles will change shortly for stable users. For ~arch
users, the default was changed a little while ago.
Action required
---------------
Please check your configuration for any stale references to eselect-ldso:
$ grep -rsin eselect-ldso /etc/portage
and drop any reference to to it in make.conf USE or package.use.
Please also deselect the relevant packages from world:
$ emerge --deselect app-eselect/eselect-blas app-eselect/eselect-cblas
$ emerge --deselect app-eselect/eselect-lapack
Then complete a world upgrade and depclean:
$ emerge -a -uvDU @world
$ emerge -ac
Using flexiblas
---------------
Most users do not need to worry about this and the defaults will be fine.
For users that want to, FlexiBLAS allows both system-wide and per-user
configuration and supersedes the functionality from the old setup. Please
refer to the flexiblas(1) man page for details.
[0] https://public-inbox.gentoo.org/gentoo-dev/db65740b619e7b2413ac2b4b06f94db960f3e46e.camel@gentoo.org/
[1] https://bugs.gentoo.org/963034
Posted By: Sam James
Portage to verify git-synced ::gentoo per default - 01/11/2025 00:00 GMT
Portage now implicitly enables OpenPGP verification of the "raw" ::gentoo
repository when synchronizing using git [1]. That is, >= Portage 3.0.70 will
set
sync-git-verify-commit-signature = true
for the "raw" ::gentoo repository as default.
Note that if you have the 'rsync-verify' flag (misleading name) disabled
for sys-apps/portage, you will need to enable it, as it pulls in
app-portage/gemato which is used for verification for git repositories too.
It is enabled by default.
This behavior change otherwise only requires action from users who are
synchronizing the "raw" ::gentoo git repository, as otherwise synchronization
may fail due to verification errors.
Users
- synchronizing the "sync friendly" ::gentoo git repository,
- using rsync as synchronization mechanism
- or, using emerge-webrsync
are *not* required to take any action.
Remotes of the "sync friendly" ::gentoo git repository include:
- https://github.com/gentoo-mirror/gentoo
- https://anongit.gentoo.org/git/repo/sync/gentoo.git
- https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/sync/gentoo.git
We recommend using those instead of the "raw" repo because the "raw" repo
does not include news items, GLSAs, or generated metadata. No action is
required when using one of these remotes listed above. For those other
sync types/repos, verification is already handled and they are
unaffected by this change.
This news item is NOT instructing users to start using the raw repo, it
is just a necessary change if you are already using it. Please do not start
using the "raw" repo as a result of this news item. Stop reading if you
aren't using it already!
However, advanced users who already use the "raw" ::gentoo remote repository
need to adjust the repository configuration to verify against the
"gentoo developers" keyfile. Ensure that sec-keys/openpgp-keys-gentoo-developers
is installed, as it provides this keyfile. Furthermore, the key refresh
method should be set to 'keyserver' because WKD is not supported with the
"gentoo developers" keyfile.
Remotes of this category include:
- https://github.com/gentoo/gentoo
- https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/
An typical adjusted configuration may look like the following:
[gentoo]
location = /var/db/repos/gentoo
sync-type = git
# This is the raw git repository and it lacks news, GLSAs, and metadata.
# We don't recommend using it unless you're an advanced user!
#
# If using this repository instead of the 'sync' repositories, please make
# sure to generate news and friends yourself.
sync-uri = https://github.com/gentoo/gentoo.git
sync-openpgp-key-path = /usr/share/openpgp-keys/gentoo-developers.asc
# If you experience hangs or refresh failures, try 'no' instead.
sync-openpgp-key-refresh = keyserver
1: https://bugs.gentoo.org/959831
Posted By: Florian Schmaus
OpenZFS packages merged - 14/10/2025 00:00 GMT
To simplify maintenance and system administration, sys-fs/zfs-kmod has been merged into sys-fs/zfs starting from version 2.4.0_rc2-r1. If you are using in-kernel modules from a custom built kernel you should unset the modules USE flag for sys-fs/zfs to not build and install kernel modules via sys-fs/zfs. If you were using sys-fs/zfs-kmod and sys-fs/zfs before, you have not to do anything special while upgrading as the package manager will take care of deinstalling sys-fs/zfs-kmod before upgrading to the new sys-fs/zfs version containing the modules. If you experience a blocker, you may have to remove sys-fs/zfs-kmod from your world file by running emerge --deselect sys-fs/zfs-kmod
Posted By: Marc Schiffbauer