5 ms·

I know something about Linux (can build a package, set variables, do some configs and simple stuff in terminal/vi/emacs), is weekend enough to install Gentoo?

deleted 12y ago
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- untothebreach 12y ago
  Though the person you responded to should definitely do that, just putting the acronym in a comment comes off as rude. Is it really that hard to instead say, "Gentoo has great documentation and an install guide here: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml "?
- jacquesm 12y ago
  Comments like this do more harm to linux adoption than 3 advocates helping people to install linux on their machines. What a pity.
  - cm-t 12y ago
    You must be right. I thought I was funny, but since I'am advocating for freesoftware in my way, a few scale, I should not had respond that (even if when you are going to use gentoo you should be ready to read the manual)... mea culpa NB: "what a pity" is also hard to take in the face :'(
- kornakiewicz 12y ago
  I know where to find handbook and in case I decide to play with Gentoo definitely will use it hardly, but that was just question if it's worthy my time instead of testing erlang and drinking beers :)
untothebreach 12y ago
I would say so. Gentoo's package manager is a bit different from some others (dpkg, rpm, etc) in that it will build from source instead of installing binary packages, but all in all I would say it is worth it. It will be more difficult than just running the graphical Ubuntu installer, but hey, that's how we get better, right?
- emeraldd 12y ago
  The big thing is to make surr you have reasonably modern hardware. Installing on older systems could take a week or more for all the builds.
  - kornakiewicz 12y ago
    AMD FX-8350 and 8gb shall be enough, I suppose.
- kornakiewicz 12y ago
  The issue is that I used a lot of Fedora, but it works surprisingly slow on my machine, but the support for developers' tools was awesome (never had problem with old versions). After that I tried ElementaryOS, which is beautiful and fast, but Ubuntu-based so every compiler I need to build from scratch (I'm testing new languages recently) so started thinking about something still nice and fast, but with recent stuff. Now i have a two days of continuous spare time and maybe will try Arch or Gentoo, which I know what's about, but not tried ever.
  - untothebreach 12y ago
    I personally have not used Gentoo on the desktop, but I have friends & coworkers who have, and they have been generally happy. Arch is awesome, I am not currently using it but have used it before. Another possibility you could look into is Debian Testing. Debian has the reputation of including "old" packages for the purpose of stability, but the "testing" version of the OS is much more up-to-date, and if you need something even newer, and are feeling adventurous, you can install specific packages from debian-experimental.
travisby 12y ago
Putting cm-t's words nicely, the Gentoo Handbook is fantastic! I first built a Gentoo install maybe around 2007, and had no problems up until the Grub install (however, I had done kernel compilations before). With Gentoo, the two hardest problems you arrive at _during installation_ are kernel configuration, and grub configuration. The former has now been solved with having great prebuilt kernels, or even just a way to use their configs. The latter may still be an issue, but once you wrap your head around it you'll be fine. I haven't done a new install in a couple years - it just keeps running as-is, so I don't know about the state of affairs, but I would hardly doubt they got worse! I'm sure it's even easier than before. A weekend is certainly enough time to build a base Gentoo system, and get enough packages installed to be able to use it for daily work. If you have any problems I would be happy to help someone with a *ntoo setup! My email is in my profile if you run into any issues :)
- crististm 12y ago
  I'd like to know how you deal with qt version bumps. It drives me crazy to see that every time kde is upgraded the qt dependencies are bumped with previous versions removed. I don't remember last time I did an emerge world because of this. It's insane.
- taway0987 12y ago
  Regarding grub, 2.x is torture. All hdd's with even traces of its code should be collected and shot to the sun to make sure noone would ever recreate something as painful to use as grub2. Even more, samples of their configs should be posted on the walls of every CS class, together with charges of crimes against humanity against all developers responsible for that abomination - as a warning to anyone thinking of going their road. Most systems these days have EFI bioses, just create a 512M EFI partition[1] and put your kernel(s)(with a set kernel-command line) to EFI/Boot(bootx64.efi is usually the default being loaded). You don't need a bootloader at all(+you'll get a few s off of your boot time too). Many bioses let you choose a kernel at boot time, so you don't even have to play with efibootmgr[2] if running multiple kernels/OS's. It gets more tricky if you want LVM root fe(which I'd recommend) - in that case genkernel[3] may make your life a lot easier, but even here you don't require a boot loader. If you do want a nice(er) boot menu, just copy refind[4] to your EFI partition, configuration takes seconds and you can tune it very - VERY - easily Also, folks @ #gentoo are very helpful, feel free to give them a visit if you are stuck. And the last thing I want to add - you don't have to compile your binaries on your nb/slow hw, just setup a binhost[5] and compile your tailored packages on your beefy PC/server@work - you can then share them with your devices via http for example Ok, last one - if you like elementary os, you can get the same look&feel running on gentoo, although it may take some hacks at this stage [1] http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/EFI_stub_kernel http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/EFI_stub_kernel [2] http://linux.die.net/man/8/efibootmgr http://linux.die.net/man/8/efibootmgr [3] http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Genkernel http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Genkernel [4] http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/ http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/ [5] http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Binary_package_guide http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Binary_package_guide ..a buildroot micro-system running other distributions as overlays is also a nice time-waster and only a step away from gentoo(+ with lxc/docker there is a lot of long-hanging fruit to collect)
Avshalom 12y ago
I managed a stage 2 install in a long afternoon 10 years ago knowing basically nothing about Linux, so yeah, you'll be fine.
mahouse 12y ago
Use genkernel instead of configuring the kernel by hand. That will save you hours of time. ;) Oh, and this guide: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86-quickinstall.xml http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86-quickinstall.xml
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- JelteF 12y ago
  Genkernel has never worked for me and configuring a kernel is a really good learning experience. Which is probably what you want if you install Gentoo.
  - mahouse 12y ago
    That's your experience. genkernel has always worked for me and I use Gentoo because I think the rest of distros are worse. (Last one to fall was Arch Linux after systemd)
loudmax 12y ago
A weekend is definitely enough time to learn how to install a Gentoo system, and it's a good experience. Whether you'll really want to keep with it in the long run is another question. The level of control is awesome, but it is high maintenance. Expect it to break in interesting and surprising ways during updates.
lrem 12y ago
You can just follow handbook and get a workable system within a few hours. The real question is: what do you want it for? If it's just for the kicks, you probably want to spend some more time exploring what you can break. You'll probably find out that, other than outright breakage, nothing you do has as much impact as you expected to. I'd say that there are only two valid non-educational reasons to use Gentoo: getting a stripped down (for security or embedded) system or to alpha-test a lot of the free software ecosystem at the same time (e.g. build all your system out of repositories HEADs, a friend was doing that for a long time).

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

untothebreach 12y ago
Though the person you responded to should definitely do that, just putting the acronym in a comment comes off as rude. Is it really that hard to instead say, "Gentoo has great documentation and an install guide here: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml "?
jacquesm 12y ago
Comments like this do more harm to linux adoption than 3 advocates helping people to install linux on their machines. What a pity.
- cm-t 12y ago
  You must be right. I thought I was funny, but since I'am advocating for freesoftware in my way, a few scale, I should not had respond that (even if when you are going to use gentoo you should be ready to read the manual)... mea culpa NB: "what a pity" is also hard to take in the face :'(
kornakiewicz 12y ago
I know where to find handbook and in case I decide to play with Gentoo definitely will use it hardly, but that was just question if it's worthy my time instead of testing erlang and drinking beers :)

untothebreach 12y ago

I would say so. Gentoo's package manager is a bit different from some others (dpkg, rpm, etc) in that it will build from source instead of installing binary packages, but all in all I would say it is worth it. It will be more difficult than just running the graphical Ubuntu installer, but hey, that's how we get better, right?

emeraldd 12y ago
The big thing is to make surr you have reasonably modern hardware. Installing on older systems could take a week or more for all the builds.
- kornakiewicz 12y ago
  AMD FX-8350 and 8gb shall be enough, I suppose.
kornakiewicz 12y ago
The issue is that I used a lot of Fedora, but it works surprisingly slow on my machine, but the support for developers' tools was awesome (never had problem with old versions). After that I tried ElementaryOS, which is beautiful and fast, but Ubuntu-based so every compiler I need to build from scratch (I'm testing new languages recently) so started thinking about something still nice and fast, but with recent stuff. Now i have a two days of continuous spare time and maybe will try Arch or Gentoo, which I know what's about, but not tried ever.
- untothebreach 12y ago
  I personally have not used Gentoo on the desktop, but I have friends & coworkers who have, and they have been generally happy. Arch is awesome, I am not currently using it but have used it before. Another possibility you could look into is Debian Testing. Debian has the reputation of including "old" packages for the purpose of stability, but the "testing" version of the OS is much more up-to-date, and if you need something even newer, and are feeling adventurous, you can install specific packages from debian-experimental.

travisby 12y ago

Putting cm-t's words nicely, the Gentoo Handbook is fantastic! I first built a Gentoo install maybe around 2007, and had no problems up until the Grub install (however, I had done kernel compilations before). With Gentoo, the two hardest problems you arrive at _during installation_ are kernel configuration, and grub configuration. The former has now been solved with having great prebuilt kernels, or even just a way to use their configs. The latter may still be an issue, but once you wrap your head around it you'll be fine. I haven't done a new install in a couple years - it just keeps running as-is, so I don't know about the state of affairs, but I would hardly doubt they got worse! I'm sure it's even easier than before. A weekend is certainly enough time to build a base Gentoo system, and get enough packages installed to be able to use it for daily work. If you have any problems I would be happy to help someone with a *ntoo setup! My email is in my profile if you run into any issues :)

crististm 12y ago
I'd like to know how you deal with qt version bumps. It drives me crazy to see that every time kde is upgraded the qt dependencies are bumped with previous versions removed. I don't remember last time I did an emerge world because of this. It's insane.
taway0987 12y ago
Regarding grub, 2.x is torture. All hdd's with even traces of its code should be collected and shot to the sun to make sure noone would ever recreate something as painful to use as grub2. Even more, samples of their configs should be posted on the walls of every CS class, together with charges of crimes against humanity against all developers responsible for that abomination - as a warning to anyone thinking of going their road. Most systems these days have EFI bioses, just create a 512M EFI partition[1] and put your kernel(s)(with a set kernel-command line) to EFI/Boot(bootx64.efi is usually the default being loaded). You don't need a bootloader at all(+you'll get a few s off of your boot time too). Many bioses let you choose a kernel at boot time, so you don't even have to play with efibootmgr[2] if running multiple kernels/OS's. It gets more tricky if you want LVM root fe(which I'd recommend) - in that case genkernel[3] may make your life a lot easier, but even here you don't require a boot loader. If you do want a nice(er) boot menu, just copy refind[4] to your EFI partition, configuration takes seconds and you can tune it very - VERY - easily Also, folks @ #gentoo are very helpful, feel free to give them a visit if you are stuck. And the last thing I want to add - you don't have to compile your binaries on your nb/slow hw, just setup a binhost[5] and compile your tailored packages on your beefy PC/server@work - you can then share them with your devices via http for example Ok, last one - if you like elementary os, you can get the same look&feel running on gentoo, although it may take some hacks at this stage [1] http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/EFI_stub_kernel http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/EFI_stub_kernel [2] http://linux.die.net/man/8/efibootmgr http://linux.die.net/man/8/efibootmgr [3] http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Genkernel http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Genkernel [4] http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/ http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/ [5] http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Binary_package_guide http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Binary_package_guide ..a buildroot micro-system running other distributions as overlays is also a nice time-waster and only a step away from gentoo(+ with lxc/docker there is a lot of long-hanging fruit to collect)

Avshalom 12y ago

I managed a stage 2 install in a long afternoon 10 years ago knowing basically nothing about Linux, so yeah, you'll be fine.

mahouse 12y ago

Use genkernel instead of configuring the kernel by hand. That will save you hours of time. ;) Oh, and this guide: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86-quickinstall.xml http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86-quickinstall.xml

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
JelteF 12y ago
Genkernel has never worked for me and configuring a kernel is a really good learning experience. Which is probably what you want if you install Gentoo.
- mahouse 12y ago
  That's your experience. genkernel has always worked for me and I use Gentoo because I think the rest of distros are worse. (Last one to fall was Arch Linux after systemd)

loudmax 12y ago

A weekend is definitely enough time to learn how to install a Gentoo system, and it's a good experience. Whether you'll really want to keep with it in the long run is another question. The level of control is awesome, but it is high maintenance. Expect it to break in interesting and surprising ways during updates.

lrem 12y ago

You can just follow handbook and get a workable system within a few hours. The real question is: what do you want it for? If it's just for the kicks, you probably want to spend some more time exploring what you can break. You'll probably find out that, other than outright breakage, nothing you do has as much impact as you expected to. I'd say that there are only two valid non-educational reasons to use Gentoo: getting a stripped down (for security or embedded) system or to alpha-test a lot of the free software ecosystem at the same time (e.g. build all your system out of repositories HEADs, a friend was doing that for a long time).