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Anyone Use Gentoo?


d3bruts1d

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Was looking around irc://freenode last night, and noticed a lot of gentoo channels. So I started looking at it, and i'm somewhat impressed with the gui from what I've seen... going to download it and play with it next week. Just wanted to know if anyone had any experiance with it.

 

I know most pople here use RedHat, Slackware, and Mandrake... Gentoo is ranked #4 on distro watch which is right up there with RedHat and Mandrake and just a bove Slackware #6).

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Well, since no one replaied that they use/used Gentoo.. I decided to give it a try.

 

For those use to doing a GUI install, Gentoo is MUCH different... no GUI.. everything is done by commands... and actually, I'm enjoying the command line install so far. It does take quite a bit longer to install than RedHat, but that's mainly because I decided to go with a Stage 1 install, and do everything so I could custimize it 100% and build everything according to the Athlon-XP settings rather than the generic x86 settings used by most installs.

 

I worked on it for a couple of hours yesterday, and had to quit because I had a major migrane... started at work, and never stopped. :/

 

Anyway, I should be able to finish it up today... all I have left to do is modify the /etc/fstab, install and compile the kernel and system loger, complete the network setup, and then install and configure grub and gnome... should be up and running in a few hours after I get home...

 

It's been fun so far.. and I'm looking forward to Gentoo.

 

For those really wanting to learn Linux, Gentoo has some great things you can learn (from what I've seen so far) by doing the command line install (you can command line install other distros too...). The instructions are also some of the best that I've ever seen.

 

Also... there are about 3 dozen Gentoo related chans on freenode.net, I've also found some good ones on EFNet, and 2600. In case anyone is looking. :)

Edited by d3bruts1d

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next Lan, I will bring a Spare HD, and we will install Linux on it.. You can show me around the new versions of it..

 

I guess I never got back in to it cuz, I was on 56k and it was very hard to get it online..

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I tried installing gentoo from a stage 1 tarball but i dont think it liked my hardware setup because I would follow the directions EXACTLY and it wouldnt work. I have used it at school though (we install linux on any and every laptop we can find [and run live distros on the desktop systems] and its kinda fun) I do however like slackware more than gentoo. also - if I can get to the lan I would like to help you with that installing of linux (espically if its gentoo as I need to see what I did wrong [or if it was my hardware])

 

i really like the emerge thing

Edited by Kevin_E_Cramer

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no doubt emerge is a great tool...

I've installed gentoo a couple times on my main box

but gave up because I got confused pretty quick...

I always started from stage 3 and completed the install

like twice but bah its a little too custom for me at this point...

I really wanna try it again but don't really have the time at

the moment....

I'm a big slack fan though.... I've used redhat, mandrake

and a few other distros b4 and in my opinion nothing tops

slack. I recently downloaded the 9.1 iso's and installed

them on my slacktop and it runs great. right

now Im havin a problem w/ gdm though and Im getting

real frusterated. I get some internel error when I choose

any session except failsafe xterm which I then enter fluxbox from.

Im probly gonna reinstall slack though cause I cant figure

out what file I screwed up....

 

I think any linux newbie should probly try slack or mandrake

first w/ very low expectations and try and get used to just

doing command line stuff and get used to installing stuff

then move on to somethin like slackware or debian or gentoo

once they feel pretty confident... but its a good learning experience...

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I have heard good things about gentoo. I dont mind installing without a GUI as when I started to use linux they didnt exist, even with red hat and mandrake. I also use debian which is without a GUI.

 

I think I might have a copy of Gentoo somewhere - might be a bit old though.

 

If you like gentoo give debian a spin - the apt get tool is brilliant.

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Ran into a problem with teh Gentoo install...

 

Actually, the gentoo install was fine.. I think I just misconfigured Grub.

 

The system goes through the POST, does it's thing, and then I get:

 

BOOT FROM ATAPI CD-ROM

BOOT FROM ATAPI CD-ROM

GRUB

 

 

And that's it... I probabably forgot to link the grub.conf file, or save it or something... I'll figure it out Sunday when I get back home and can mess with it again.

 

Word of advice for Gentoo stage 1 install... do it on an off day, when you have several (5+) hours you can spend.. don't split the install across multiple days, you (at least I) forget things. :P

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yea - i had to spread it over 2 or 3 days and ended up getting nowhere. Why i like slackware - takes it like 30min to copy files + maby 15min to setup install and you have a working linux box

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Oh.. you could install Gentoo in just a hour at most...

 

But I did a stage 1 install, which requires you to compile and configure every aspect of the OS...

 

You are compairing apples and oranges there.

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