[SLUG] gentoo linux mini-review

From: Seth Hollen (seth@hollen.org)
Date: Sun May 05 2002 - 22:05:08 EDT


I finally got gentoo up and running!, it's really not that hard, the
documentation on the site holds your hand the whole way. I found it a
little easier than installing Debian, but that was a couple of years
ago.
the basic install ISO is only 16 megs...yes 16! you download almost
everything else and compile from source. It makes for a very fast
system.there are larger ISO's that let you skip some steps, I actually
used a stage 3 iso in the end.
to install you just follow the directions carefully. make sure you read
them before hand. for example I forgot to add device file system support
to the kernel which is needed.

It took me some trial and error, the first install I did on thursday
night.and this Sunday I finally got a usable system. I started with the
16meg ISO.

First you have to load your modules, networking is essential, I also
install scsi modules as this is my first time putting scsi drives in my
PC. After that you turn on networking, and partition and format your
hard drive. Gentoo supports ext2, ext3, reiserFS, and XFS as file
systems.then you mount the file system and cdrom.
the next step is to download the "portage tree". it's about 10 Mb. these
ports are what makes gentoo different. Similar to *BSD and sorcerer
Linux, you compile everything for your particular PC.
Next you have to bootstratp the system, ths takes a while depending on
you processor. My AMD 1.4 GHz took a couple of hours.

The next step is building the base system. "emerge system" is all it
takes. Remeber it downloads EVERYTHING! I just let it run all night, and
that's on a cable modem.
You're almost done, next download and compile your kernel (the latest of
course), then you have to hand edit a few files. This is where newbies
might run into problems. you need to edit, among others, /etc/fstab
/etc/hosts /etc/hostname, and install a couple of programs.

the last thing to do is install and configure grub.This is where I ran
into problems. Grub did not like being on a scsi drive with other ide
drives, my solution finally after 3 full reinstalls was to disconnect
all drives except my scsi one. That solved it.
reboot and you should have a functional system. The firat thing I did
was install XFree86 and KDE, as those are big packages it took several
hours. I'm typing this from Evolution on KDE. Installing packages is
very easy. As an example to install samba I simply type "emerge
net-fs/samba"
it connects to the ibilio server dowloads the source, compiles and
installs. That's it!

Problems: There was the Grub problem mentioned earlier. and I had a hard
time getting my USB logitech wheel mouse to work. I ended up having to
recompile my kernel. But even then I can't get the USB-uhci module to
load at startup, my fix was a usb->PS2 adapter, at least until I figure
out why that module won't install. that was really the only problems but
they did give me a major headache.The other thing is that nano is the
only editor available by default, where's VI! (you can just "emerge" it
as I did though)

What I like about it is it makes you learn. for instance I can't use the
command "SU" in a console window to become root. I have to figure out
why (sudo needs to be setup is my first guess) while not something that
will stop me from using it, it does make me learn, that's why I feel
this is a great distro for an intermediate to advanced user.
I'm going to try it for a few weeks and if I decide to keep it I will
reinstall. I only setup /boot / /home and swap to test this out. and I
want to try XFS.

The Gentoo website (www.gentoo.org) has great documentation and even a
good forums section. I highly recommend you check it out.

Oh Norb! they even have a PPC version ;)

-- 
Take care,

Seth seth@hollen.org 727-919-1598



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