# how many of you tried/using Gentoo GNU/Linux????



## praka123 (Apr 6, 2008)

yes?how many of us use? or tried?
did u used the CLI/GTK installer for installation?
anybody tried stage1/2 install?
*www.gentoo.org/images/poster.jpg


> What is Gentoo?
> Gentoo is a free operating system based on either Linux or FreeBSD that can be automatically optimized and customized for just about any application or need. Extreme configurability, performance and a top-notch user and developer community are all hallmarks of the Gentoo experience.
> Thanks to a technology called Portage, Gentoo can become an ideal secure server, development workstation, professional desktop, gaming system, embedded solution or something else -- whatever you need it to be. Because of its near-unlimited adaptability, we call Gentoo a *meta*distribution.
> Of course, Gentoo is more than just the software it provides. It is a community built around a distribution which is driven by more than 300 developers and thousands of users. The distribution project provides the means for the users to enjoy Gentoo: documentation, infrastructure (mailinglists, site, forums ...), release engineering, software porting, quality assurance, security followup, hardening and more.
> To advise on and help with Gentoo's global development, a 7-member council is elected on a yearly basis which decides on global issues, policies and advancements in the Gentoo project.


*www.gentoo.org/main/en/about.xml

Any body tried without installer like I did ?Just post your views guys!

I have gentoo which is waiting for X and Gnome-2.22 to get installed.
and here is my /etc/make.conf  (I dont use binaries!)

```
# These settings were set by the catalyst build script that automatically
# built this stage.
# Please consult /etc/make.conf.example for a more detailed example.
#CFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe"
CFLAGS="-march=prescott -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"
#CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe"
CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"
# WARNING: Changing your CHOST is not something that should be done lightly.
# Please consult *www.gentoo.org/doc/en/change-chost.xml before changing.
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
USE="a52 acl acpi aiglx alsa bzip2 bash-completion cairo chroot cpudetection dbus dvd dvdr dvdread ffmpeg fontconfig gtk gtk2 gpm gnome gstreamer firefox hal hddtemp lm_sensors mp3 mp4 mpeg mpeg2 mplayer mime nls nptl nvidia pulseaudio truetype unicode xorg X xscreensaver xv xvid xcomposite xine opengl aiglx mime ogg theora symlink win32codecs -arts -cups -beagle -kde -ldap -mono -networkmanager -nis -oss -pcmcia -qt3 -qt4 "

MAKEOPTS="-j3"

AUTOCLEAN="yes"

PORTAGE_TMPFS="/dev/shm"

FEATURES="sandbox collision-protect ccache parallel-fetch"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://gentoo.kems.net/mirrors/gentoo/ ftp://ftp.kaist.ac.kr/gentoo/  *distfiles.gentoo.org"

CCACHE_DIR="/var/tmp/ccache"
CCACHE_SIZE="2G"
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia vesa"
INPUT_DEVICES="mouse keyboard"
EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--ask --verbose"

PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"

source /usr/portage/local/layman/make.conf
```

*gentoo.org


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## QwertyManiac (Apr 6, 2008)

*Re: how many of you tried/using Gentoo GNU/Linux??????????????????????*

I did it now, and since both the CLI and the GUI methods kept failing I did it the chroot way and it much fun to get it complete (Which isn't till now, but heck let it take a week).

I did a stage 3 for now, maybe 1 or 2 later when I've learned more from this.

I am using XFCE 4.4


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## praka123 (Apr 6, 2008)

*Re: how many of you tried/using Gentoo GNU/Linux??????????????????????*

^you can get latest stage3 and portage snapshots from *funtoo.org .
Even I used chroot method from system rescue cd.compiled a kernel from the config of 2.6.24 gentoo kernel of livecd.gr8!

and share your /etc/make.conf too  mentioning architecture!

I want to use a initramfs image for loading modules and other stuffs.but gentoo engineers in IRC continuously ruled out using initrd or initramfs for gentoo unless for livecd.

gentoo ,we can use genkernel IIRC to generate initramfs based kernel though(have to try!).

also gentoo is reluctant to provide mkinitramfs or yaird like tools although mkinitrd is bundled.


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## mehulved (Apr 6, 2008)

*Re: how many of you tried/using Gentoo GNU/Linux??????????????????????*

I believe you'd like to disable ipv6 in your use flags.
You have dual core PC? Else just stick to MAKEOPTS=j2
Add parallel-fetch to features. Very useful IMO. You can also optionally add test, sandbox and collision protect.
Since you have nvidia card, add the following line
VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia nv vesa vga"
INPUT_DEVICES="mouse keyboard -evdev -wacom"
Also, ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" or if you want to go for unstable arch then
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86"
Another nicety which you can add to your make.conf in the initial days is
EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--ask --verbose" I do specify them manually though.
Some must have tools for gentoo that I can recollect are portage-utils, gentoolkit, eix, eselect, gentoo-bashcomp.
Do you revdep-rebuild, eix-sync, use flags, dispatch-conf, layman, etc wisely to maximise your gentoo experience.


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## praka123 (Apr 6, 2008)

*Re: how many of you tried/using Gentoo GNU/Linux??????????????????????*

OK thx.I dont think,this time I'll go for ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86" ie,unstable repo. 
yes,already had bashcompletion items.
what is the use of "nv" USE flag when anyways I m gonna install nvidia driver? 

I know there are other package managers available for gentoo like pkgbuild.


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## mehulved (Apr 6, 2008)

*Re: how many of you tried/using Gentoo GNU/Linux??????????????????????*

nv isn't a use flag.


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## FilledVoid (Apr 6, 2008)

*Re: how many of you tried/using Gentoo GNU/Linux??????????????????????*

How much data transfer on the internet will be required to get Gentoo to run. Or can the same be done from a DVD /CD?


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## mehulved (Apr 6, 2008)

0 bytes to TB's per month depending on your needs and your bandwidth.


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## praka123 (Apr 6, 2008)

gentoo is a rolling release based distros(like archlinux).
if ur really into Gentoo with Gnome,I think around 100MB+ /month minimum.

@biju:if u want gentoo dvd along with hardy,just PM me @ that time


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## QwertyManiac (Apr 8, 2008)

*Re: how many of you tried/using Gentoo GNU/Linux??????????????????????*



FilledVoid said:


> How much data transfer on the internet will be required to get Gentoo to run. Or can the same be done from a DVD /CD?



I initially downloaded the *Live CD (698 MB x86)* to try the GUI Gentoo-Linux-Installer but it just kept failing all the time. 

The CD has *Portage*'s snapshot in it (Its around *30 MB* to download otherwise, needed to install.)

All I had to download for install thus was a *Stage 3 tarball (116 MB) *and do it the real easy way - *chroot* method. The manual might be long but its very linear and you just have to keep executing the commands they ask you to. Even a newbie to linux can do it if he follows. Of course a pro would understand what he's doing and do it better... 

Mehul helped a lot post and pre install and since you do frequent #think-digit we can help you too. 

I'd rather you get the Live CD and do the CLI install method since you have a GUI at your disposal that way so you can use the Live CD's Firefox etc for installation issues rather than use the CLI elinks browser.

Also, you can go the entire CLI way if you prefer it like that - The *minimal install CD is just 61 MB*.


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## mehulved (Apr 8, 2008)

Isn't minimal install CD for chroot install, too?


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## praka123 (Apr 8, 2008)

I installed using system rescue cd.I have to copy the config of its kernel(gentoo only 2.6.24).I dont want to use installer's though 
@qwerty:what is ur /etc/make.conf ?
and 
ls -l /etc/make.profile ???


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## QwertyManiac (Apr 8, 2008)

mehulved said:


> Isn't minimal install CD for chroot install, too?


Did I say anything otherwise? 

Make.conf (Don't see why you require it..)

```
# These settings were set by the catalyst build script that automatically
# built this stage.
# Please consult /etc/make.conf.example for a more detailed example.
CFLAGS="-march=prescott -s -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"
CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"
# WARNING: Changing your CHOST is not something that should be done lightly.
# Please consult *www.gentoo.org/doc/en/change-chost.xml before changing.
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
MAKEOPTS="-j2 -s"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/gentoo-distfiles/ *gentoo.osuosl.org/ *gentoo.kems.net *ftp.twaren.net/Linux/Gentoo/ "

SYNC="rsync://rsync.namerica.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"

USE="a52 acl acpi aiglx alsa apache2 
apm asf audacious audiofile avahi 
bash-completion -beagle bidi binary-drivers 
bluetooth branding bzip2 cairo cdda cddb 
cdparanoia cdr chm chroot cpudetection cracklib 
crypt css -cups cxx dbus -debug divx 
djvu doc dri dvd dvdr dvdread examples 
ffmpeg firefox flac foomaticdb freetype 
gcj gdbm geoip gif gimp glade -gnome gnutls 
gphoto2 gpm gs gstreamer gtk gtk2 h323 hal 
hddtemp iconv id3tag imagemagick imap imlib 
ipod -ipv6 jabber java javascript jingle jpeg -kde 
lame libnotify live lm_sensors maatroska mmx mmxext 
mng -mono moznopango mp3 mp4 mpeg mpeg2 mplayer msn 
musepack musicbrainz mysql ncurses -networkmanager nls 
nptl nsplugin ntfs nvidia objc objc++ odbc offensive ogg 
opengl -oss -pam -pcmcia pdf pda perl php png postgres 
pulseaudio python qt -qt3 qt4 quicktime quotas rar 
readline real realmedia rss ruby sdl session skins sms 
sndfile source ssl startup-notification stream svg svga 
syslog theora threads tidy tiff unicode usb v4l v4l2 vcd 
vorbis wav wavpack win32codecs wmp wxwindows X x264 xcomposite 
xine xorg xpm xprint xvid yahoo zlib"

VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia nv vesa"
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse"
FEATURES="parallel-fetch"
EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--ask --verbose"
```

Am using the desktop profile.


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## praka123 (Apr 8, 2008)

heh!why do u add "-pam" 
also SYNC= line,does all needs that?Is that for local repo?


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## MetalheadGautham (Apr 8, 2008)

@praka: are you serious about installing gentoo this time ?

I too am thinking about trying it, but gave up practical solutions, as gentoo is useless without compiling(without comiling it, there is not much l33tness and pride along with that 10% performance b00st) and it would instead be advisable to go for debian.

What about your case ? I know for one that we both share the same system configuration with each worse than the other. Do you think it can compile within 6 hours the entire OS plus GDM, KDM, Gnome, KDE and Fluxbox ?

And should I even *think* of installing gentoo at my current experience level ?



PS: its not Gentoo GNU/Linux. Its Gentoo *GNU/BSD/Linux*.


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## mehulved (Apr 8, 2008)

No SYNC= isn't really necessary but is useful if you want to specify a certain rsync server(s) only.



MetalheadGautham said:


> PS: its not Gentoo GNU/Linux. Its Gentoo *GNU/BSD/Linux*.


There is work going on for other OS's too but more or less dead eg Gentoo/OpenSolaris


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## praka123 (Apr 8, 2008)

@gowtham:had already tried gentoo 4 yrs back  it aint rocket science.
@mehulved:so,not using SYNC.


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## mehulved (Apr 8, 2008)

prakash try gnome overlay if you're gonna install gentoo finally.


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## praka123 (Apr 8, 2008)

^How?for that I have to use in /etc/make.conf this line right?
"ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="*~*x86"" ???
also,I want Gnome-2.22 to be precise


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## mehulved (Apr 8, 2008)

No. don't go for unstable arch. Stick with stable unless you know what you're doing.
Just install layman then

```
layman -S
layman -a gnome
```
That will sync your portage overlay and then clone gnome overlay. You will need git for that since the gnome overlay is maintained on git.


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## praka123 (Apr 8, 2008)

what is the version of gnome available in gentoo(without overlay?)


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## mehulved (Apr 8, 2008)

2.20.3 is available in stable. 2.22.0 is available but is hard masked.


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## praka123 (Apr 11, 2008)

...gentoo installation was sleeping till today!(10 days??)  I am re-emering whole system as I forgot to add "X" USE flag.
just doing a "emerge -avuDN world" haha! 
another USE I missed was "pulseaudio"  what should I do?
what all packages needed to be re-emerged with pulseaudio flag?
OR
will they notify when pulseaudio dependent packages needs to be re-emerged?

OK.How I installed?
I had installed manually(I hate the installers both!) with stage3 and portage latest available from gentoo site/funtoo.org .

Now,tonight hoping to install gnome-2.22 as explained by my friend here:
Helpful Linux Tidbits 
Hope it helps you too!


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## QwertyManiac (Apr 11, 2008)

Just doing emerge gnome with ~x86 is giving me 2.22.0 already?


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## Gigacore (Apr 11, 2008)

i am not able to install at all. My display goes off at the pre-installation screen and nothing happens


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## QwertyManiac (Apr 11, 2008)

Do the Handbook method - You won't need X at all. After you've done the essential 15 minute job you can install X (takes around 20 minutes) and then work as you please.


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## mehulved (Apr 11, 2008)

reconfigure X. read the docs.



QwertyManiac said:


> Just doing emerge gnome with ~x86 is giving me 2.22.0 already?


Well that is what the article says. Only difference is just having gnome from unstable arch rather than moving totally to unstable arch. Unstable arch is great for developers, people with good experience but for most it's good to stay on stable arch and only take things from unstable if you need it.


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## Gigacore (Apr 11, 2008)

oh, will have to try that. And I will need ur help further.

and mehul, remember this thread.


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## mehulved (Apr 11, 2008)

Have you tried xorgconfig? And which nvidia card do you have. I believe Qwerty had no problems booting into live cd with his 7600GT on 2008.0 beta


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## Renny (Apr 11, 2008)

Well I tried Gentoo and I could'nt even install it, I gave up on it.


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## praka123 (Apr 11, 2008)

well,gentoo is much easier now!they got installers(both gui and cli);although I think they may be buggy 
I just did-extracted stage3 tar ball,portage snapshot.chrooted from sysrescuecd,compiled a kernel with initramfs support using genkernel script(--menuconfig).gr8!


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## Gigacore (Apr 11, 2008)

@ mehul, MX 400  

Ubuntu works fantastic with it


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## Renny (Apr 11, 2008)

You're right both the GUI and CLI installers are extremely buggy,

And I never managed to understand "chroot'ed" install ,

Waitin for the vacations to start then I can start tinkering around with it.


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## mehulved (Apr 11, 2008)

Gigacore said:


> @ mehul, MX 400
> 
> Ubuntu works fantastic with it


Prolly I can download it someday and check on my sister's PC. But, not before my exams end. Yeah, when it comes to live cd's gentoo is prolly one of the worst around. But, I can assure you it's totally opposite once installed. Or if you use some live cd based on gentoo. Sabayon is one among them.


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## praka123 (Apr 12, 2008)

well,used layman -a gnome to add portage overlay.
but...cannot emerge latest Gnome.
also,there is no /etc/portage directory/files.
while layman stores overlay in /usr/portage/local dir.

what went wrong


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## gary4gar (Apr 12, 2008)

Can anyone say whats the avg time spend in Downloading+compiling+configuring gentoo?


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## mehulved (Apr 12, 2008)

gary4gar said:


> Can anyone say whats the avg time spend in Downloading+compiling+configuring gentoo?


 10 mins to lifetime.



praka123 said:


> well,used layman -a gnome to add portage overlay.
> but...cannot emerge latest Gnome.
> also,there is no /etc/portage directory/files.
> while layman stores overlay in /usr/portage/local dir.
> ...


What are the errors in emerging it?
Nothing has gone wrong, if /etc/portage directory doesn't exist just create it. It doesn't exist by default.
Yes, layman stores your overlays as described in your make.conf line
source /usr/portage/local/layman/make.conf

I believe you can override it with following, if you want to
PORDIR_OVERLAY=/your/new/location


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## praka123 (Apr 12, 2008)

PORTDIR_OVERLAY= variable seems not working  I set it as /usr/local/portage.but portage prefers /usr/portage/local 

I had a chat in #gentoo.acc to them,with stable arch I am on(ie,ACCPT_KEYWORDS=x86) unlike ~arch,it is better and safer to wait for gnome-2.22 to reach stable repo this week.it is already unmasked.

For the time being,I emerged icewm,firefox-bin and happy 

Now,It is a big disappointment that Gnome-2.22 was not there


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## QwertyManiac (Apr 12, 2008)

I installed GNOME 2.22.0, its amazingly neater on defaults!


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## praka123 (Apr 12, 2008)

^so,ur using ~arch ?


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## QwertyManiac (Apr 12, 2008)

gary4gar said:


> Can anyone say whats the avg time spend in Downloading+compiling+configuring gentoo?


Downloading does not take much time (Depends on connection and mirror as well) and compiling 'applications' does not take over 5-10 minutes either. Its the libraries and heavyweight apps (OOo, Firefox and libs like QT) which are killers to compile. QT takes near 3 hours 

Zero post-install configuration needed in almost all cases since defaults work out fine.


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## praka123 (Apr 12, 2008)

it is very useful to add 'parallel-fetch' in FEATURES= 

edited first post~make.conf


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## mehulved (Apr 12, 2008)

Harsh, that's why -bin's exist for Oo.org and firefox.
prakash yes very much. I always have it there.


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## QwertyManiac (Apr 12, 2008)

Yeah -bin's are helpful there, you can directly download the binaries and run it if you don't wish to remove/configure flags etc.


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## mehulved (Apr 12, 2008)

praka123 said:


> PORTDIR_OVERLAY= variable seems not working  I set it as /usr/local/portage.but portage prefers /usr/portage/local


You will need to delete the overlay, remove the source line. Then re-add the overlay for it to take effect.


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## praka123 (Apr 12, 2008)

Well.I have already removed all overlays and comfortable with firefox+icewm ATM. 

what happens is /etc/make.conf is not sourced by default 
Once sourced (. /etc/make.conf) ,the env variables are set correctly.
guess,I have to add PORTDIR_OVERLAY and co as a separate line in /etc/profile 

Layman installs its cache by default into /usr/portage/local.

I have to edit /etc/layman/layman.cfg to show the dir as /usr/local/portage


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## praka123 (Apr 14, 2008)

with Gentoo overlays,I have hard times!
autounmask tool is buggy like hell!,
used layman -a gnome to add gnome-2.22.1 overlay.

then made /etc/portage/package.keywords and /etc/portage/package.unmask both containing

```
=gnome-base/gnome-2.22.1
```

then ,tried emerge -pv gnome-base/gnome-2.22.1
and got the reply,a missing dependency 

```
localhost ~ # emerge -pv =gnome-base/gnome-2.22.1
>>> --pretend disables --ask... removing --ask from options.

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies |
emerge: there are no ebuilds to satisfy ">=media-libs/gst-plugins-base-0.10.19".
(dependency required by "gnome-base/gnome-2.22.1" [ebuild])
```
I think have to wait for the dep to be available 

BTW,got bored  and removed portage from the system 

later restored 

Ermm...gnome dreams seems delayed


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## praka123 (Apr 20, 2008)

after long time frustration with icewm,I emerged Gnome-2.20.3 with pulseaudio 

well,Gnome is fast.but not an outstanding speed-that very much defeats the purpose of gentoo(source compiling).only kernel with optimization yields a substantial speed.

My Debian Sid,after re-installation of packages is faster than gentoo(uses upstart though) 

Is good for experimenting  using gentoo wont make u feel "different" or  a core g33k.just my 2 cents!
*img8.uploadhouse.com/fileuploads/1681/1681418-holder-6d70ca834a720bf3de5b03936d9bd241.jpg


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