GNOME related masks are in the wrong place and end up incorrectly affecting users who do not use GNOME.

For one:

funtoo-gnome-overlay/profiles/package.mask

Should merge into:

funtoo-overlay/profiles/funtoo/1.0/linux-gnu/mix-ins/gnome/package.mask

Two, GNOME specific masks in:

funtoo-overlay/profiles/package.mask/*

Such as this in funtoo cautionary:

# FL-2312: mask gnupg-2.1, breaks gnome apps
>app-crypt/gnupg-2.0.27-r1

Should be either corrected in the ebuild (which is preferable and what the GNOME herd and I have done) or moved somewhere inside the gnome mix-in like:

funtoo-overlay/profiles/funtoo/1.0/linux-gnu/mix-ins/gnome/package.mask/cautionary

I would appreciate it if this can be corrected and have attached patches to expedite the process.

Other than by upgrading, it is hard to switch to different GNOME releases

For instance, anyone using GNOME 3.14 who wants to downgrade to 3.12 will have to find an old mask file or design a custom one. This isn't difficult, but I don't believe the average user is accustomed to this. It also makes maintenance a bit burdensome.

To that end I suggest utilizing the GNOME Without Systemd project that I recently setup. For instance, you can choose to merge in the latest GNOME release from my project and refer anyone who wants to use an older release to use my project directly (straight-forward instructions have been provided on the homepage).

To facilitate merging this, the project is modular. So if you want to support GNOME 3.16 "now", merge in the following overlays:

https://github.com/dantrell/gentoo-overlay-dantrell-gnome.git
https://github.com/dantrell/gentoo-overlay-dantrell-gnome-3-16.git

There may be some overlap between packages in funtoo-overlay and gentoo-overlay-dantrell-gnome. You can either remove them from funtoo-overlay or exclude them from the merge process.

Furthermore, the profiles I have implemented are also modular and specific to the GNOME release. If you choose to support the only the latest GNOME release provided by the project, there is no need to adapt a modular approach as well. However, you can benefit by merging my simplified mix-in settings (results in clean emerge output for default installs) from:

dantrell-gnome/profiles/mix-ins/3.16/*

to:

funtoo-overlay/profiles/funtoo/1.0/linux-gnu/mix-ins/gnome

Note, right now dantrell-gnome/profiles/mix-ins/3.16/* is not in a state to be merged since the package.unmask file provided is there to counteract the incorrect Funtoo GNOME related masks. After that is dealt with, I will be happy to adjust the mix-in appropriately for Funtoo users.

Of course, you can also continue to use your own settings after adjusting it for GNOME 3.16.

Closing comments:

If my project is merged, the following issues can be marked as resolved:

• FL-1687 (Wallapaper corruption when resuming from suspend)
• FL-1694 (gnome-shell-extensions-3.14.1: Places status indicator opens Disk Usage Analyzer instead of Nautilus)
• FL-1813 (GNOME: appstream-glib circular dep)
• FL-2485 (GNOME 3.16)
• FL-2568 (app-admin/system-config-printer-gnome-1.5.3: Gentoo removal)

Reference

FL-2485 (GNOME 3.16)