Gentoo Linux - How Many Users Out There ?

helric

Aug 11 2005, 04:02 AM

How many gentoo users do we have out here?

Recently started delving into it, and i am extatic. It has the command line cabalities of apt-get (debians source grabber) using emerege. Love how it automatically downloads and installs the sources from a source tree. Makes things alot easier.

abhiram

Aug 11 2005, 04:13 AM

QUOTE

Makes things alot easier.

Easier? Easier than what? I'm afraid to use gentoo. If there is one thing I still don't have the balls to use ... it's gentoo.... inspite of using linux for over a year now. With the download speed I've got, it'll take 2 whole days just to download and install KDE!!! And, if anything happens (God forbid!) to the installation and you have to reinstall, you've wasted 2 days of your life!!!

. Sorry, I'm gonna stick with ready to install and go type distros like slackware.

. If I want to do a reinstall, all I;ve got to do is pop the CD in and in a 45 min or so, I'm good to go.

hatim

Aug 11 2005, 11:29 AM

QUOTE

I'm afraid to use gentoo.

abhiram, you sound like some one is stiking a gun at you...chill out..dont use gentoo. Its not the end of the world . Use some other distribution. Gentoo is not meant for normal Linux use. It will make you learn more about your computer and operating system than what average user should know. Try other distros like OpenSuSe and Ubuntu.Also what you could do is install gentoo from inside another linux . that way your precious 2 days of life wont be wasted . Go through settings and when its time to connect to internet just fetch all sources ..ie emerge -f system or emerge -f mozilla-firefox (ofcourse after setting the USE flags so you download only the stuff you need). Then you can install it later.

Anoter way is to download Gentoo Packages CD. IMO gentoo is the best OS right now for an uber geek like me. For normal user ..any major linux distro (aslso see www.distrowatch.com should suffice)

QUOTE

How many gentoo users do we have out here?

helric, i am a gentoo user for last 2 years. and Linxu suer for almost 41/2 years. I have come to know linux more ..just because of gentoo. Recently I helped one of my friends installing gentoo on his system. He was skeptical first and was very jittery the entire time the system was being compiled (i used -O2 flags and not -O3 , otherwise it would have taken alot more time and he would have chicked out.)

Just today he was boasting about his new fast system on lunch table (ofcouarse mentioning my help and thanking me

abhiram

Aug 11 2005, 11:54 AM

QUOTE

that way your precious 2 days of life wont be wasted

Sorry man,

... just the thought of having to let your computer just sit there for 2 whole days and not touch it at all.... no songs, games or net.

QUOTE

Also what you could do is install gentoo from inside another linux . that way your precious 2 days of life wont be wasted

How do you do that? I might try it out if it doesn't take so long to install.

xboxrulz

Aug 12 2005, 10:35 AM

I don't use Gentoo because it takes too long to compile on my machine.

System specs (simplified)
Intel Pentium 4 2533 MHZ
512 MB DDR SDRAM
120 GB HDD 7200 RPM 8MB Cache
80GB HDD 7200 RPM 8MB Cache

xboxrulz

the empty calorie

Aug 12 2005, 09:11 PM

Not that that sounds like a slow machine or anything...

But no, I am not, and will never be a gentoo user.
If I wanted to use linux, I would use it, but I don't like linux.

I'm an OpenBSD user. One of the few and the proud..or does anyone use OpenBSD out here?

qwijibow

Aug 12 2005, 11:33 PM

im a gentoo user !!!!!

Gentoo is pretty much the opposite to OpenBSD in manyways.
Okay Okay there both Unix like, and both make excellent servers,

But Gentoo is Bleeding edge, very up to date, patched, and secure.
Can be an excelent server or desktop machine.

OpenBSD usually runs quite old versions of software,
only uses code that has been checked checked, and re-checked at the code levels for mistakes, bugs and holes. And is 100% aimed for use as a server.

I dont need that level of securety, and i use my machine as a desktop more than a server, so if anything i would go for FreeBSD or DesktopBSD.

hatim

Aug 14 2005, 05:55 PM

QUOTE(abhiram @ Aug 11 2005, 04:54 PM)

How do you do that? I might try it out if it doesn't take so long to install.

Well what you could do is simply boot in your linux .. and dowload the stage you want to download. If you want a fully customized system then you download Stage 1 ..but it takes alot more time. Download Stage 2 or Stage 3 to get things up and running in lesser time . You can always recompile every thing once your working desktop (for me it would be Working X and Mozilla + mplayer) installed.

Then after you download the stage use the guide to compile it. Once you chroot into tyhe stage you will be inside the gentoo system ..its all in the Gentoo HandBook. It would take some time . May be a day or 2 to compile alot of stuff. If you have a slow internet connection i would recomend not to do so. Other wise you can always sacrifice a day or two for this experimentation. Believe me when i say it ...if you get this installed...you will never use any thing else ..for a very long time ()€may be when u get really old and think that computer is very fast for you ..ull switch back to Windows ..

)

PM me if you have any more questions

abhiram

Aug 15 2005, 02:02 AM

Well, since you rate it so high, I'd like to check it out... but right now, my univ's net connection is at an all time low. So it might be a while before I try to install gentoo. Anyway, thanks for the info. For the time being, I'll have to continue with slackware.

xboxrulz

Aug 17 2005, 09:30 AM

if u want 100% customizability, go for Linux From Scratch

xboxrulz

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qwijibow

Aug 20 2005, 09:46 PM

Compileing the kernel is exactly the same in all distro's

cd into the kernel source.

prepair the kernel tree for a re-compile

QUOTE

make mrproper && make clean

optional: copy a base config file

CODE

gzcat /proc/config.gz > ./.config

optional: id the base config was for a different kernel version, update the config file.

CODE

make oldconfig

optional: tweak the kernel config

CODE

make menuconfig

compile the kernel, compile the drivers.

CODE

make bzImage
make modules

install the kernel

CODE

mv arch/x86_64/boot/bzImage /boot/bxImage-version
make modules_install

and finally edit /boot/grub/menu.lst
to load the new kernel.

Wow... 8 hours compile time just for the kernel !!!
lucky me with my AMD64 3400+

i can usually get a Full KDE desktop compiled from stage3 in an afternoon.

QBRADQ

Aug 20 2005, 09:28 PM

When I decided two days ago that I wanted to start messing around with Linux, I immediately went for Gentoo. I downloaded a Stage 3 Live CD ISO, as well as a package ISO (from work, where I have access to broadband). I would have liked to have gone with a Stage 1, however I am on a dial-up and that would not have been practical. This leads me to my next point...

That package CD does not contain a full KDE or GNOME GRP. I found this out after spending eight hours compiling and installing the kernel, the boot loader, Xorg, Xterm, and all that stuff. I was not pleased.

Gentoo was loads of fun though. That may sound strange, but I've been coding since I was 12, and I started my computing life with DOS. Because of these two things, the Gentoo installation procedure wasn't too foreign for me.

Also, I won't say that my time spent installing a doomed Gentoo system was wasted. Quite the opposite really. Now that I'm using Fedora 4 (install time ~10 minutes, including compilation), I actually know my system. I can make changes to fstab, the network configuration, and all that stuff without having to figure out where the GUI app is.

Now, if only I could find a guide to recompiling the Fedora kernel...
And find the disk partitioner..

Eh, I'm new

But yea, Gentoo is very cool. Just about any distro that allows you to compile the kernel during the installation procedure is cool in my book. For instance, I don't have an ISDN connection, and I don't use PCMCIA, SICI, or anything like that. With Gentoo, I can just not compile that stuff into the kernel. With Fedora, I have no choice in the matter.

Go Go Gentoo EMERGE!
QBRADQ

abhiram

Aug 19 2005, 09:28 AM

Hi Quijibow,

I'll try it out for sure now. I'll do it as soon as I get some free time. Got some exams coming up

. Thanks for the detailed info.

qwijibow

Aug 19 2005, 08:06 AM

Parted can re-size your partitons without deleting the data on them.

for example, if your windows partiton has 20Gb free, you could shink it by 10Gb, and make a new 10Gb linux partiton.

Next time you boot windows, it would be exactly the same, but show a 110Gig disk instead of 120.

As for the boot loader....
The boot loader is installed to the MBR. moving everything to /slacky/ will only move the boot loaders config file /boot/grub/menu.lst

when you install gentoo, this will be replaced by gentoo's grub config file.

when you move back to slackware, you would delete everything gentoo, and move slackware's grub config back into /boot.

In Theory, the boot loader should not be messed up.

and if the boot loader does stop working, you can fix it with the command

CODE

grub-install /dev/hda

abhiram

Aug 18 2005, 12:59 AM

QUOTE

crate a new folder in your slackware pastiton called "slacky" and move everything in the linux partiton into "slacky"

You mean move everything from / to '/slacky'. But what about the bootloader? Won't that get all messed up? How will I restore the bootloader if I want slack back the way it was. Sorry for being a pest, but I just want to know for sure before I proceed. I've spent days with this customisation.

QUOTE

you could use parted to resize your 128GB NTFS partiton to make space for a new Gentoo partiton

No, I can't do that. Too much data in those partitions. There are 3 partitions on the whole and each one has a ton of music, games and movies.

Gentoo Linux - How Many Users Out There ? - gentoo linux distro

Gentoo Linux - How Many Users Out There ? - gentoo linux distro

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