Gentoo for dummies?

[floyde]

Last night I tried to install Gentoo on my Powerbook and, although I went through all the steps (I didn't think I would get that far), I seem to have messed up a few of them, so I couldn't get it working. The handbook is ok, but it doesn't say what to do in case something goes wrong and I got several error messages during the installation. Is there a guide somewhere that shows how to install gentoo on a 17" powerbook specifically? or maybe a stage 4 tar? I don't care much for optimum performance, I just want to get it running for now. thanks

 

[SpaceMagic]

I think Ubuntu is the best linux distro for PC and Mac... the install couldn't be easier and it detected my Airport card in setup on my iBook clamshell. Tis great!

 

[floyde]

I think Ubuntu is the best linux distro for PC and Mac... the install couldn't be easier and it detected my Airport card in setup on my iBook clamshell. Tis great!

hmm... of course, why didn't I think of that. All I really need is Mono (and monodevelop, xsp, etc.). It is listed in the ubuntu packages site, so I guess it's a good alternative.

I would still like to get gentoo working some time in the future, though. I always felt curious about it. It seems powerful.

 

[belvdr]

hmm... of course, why didn't I think of that. All I really need is Mono (and monodevelop, xsp, etc.). It is listed in the ubuntu packages site, so I guess it's a good alternative.

I would still like to get gentoo working some time in the future, though. I always felt curious about it. It seems powerful.

The big Gentoo idea is to compile all source on your own machine so it is optimized just for your machine. Comparing Gentoo to another distribution (SuSE in my case) was drawn out and I was not happy with the results. Gentoo booted up faster, but only by 1 second. So the whole "optimized for my machine" idea doesn't sit well with me, especially when it takes hours to install it.

 

[grapes911]

I don't care much for optimum performance, I just want to get it running for now. thanks

IMO, Gentoo is the best flavor of linux available for any architecure. The reason it is so great, is that it can be optimized for and individual machine. If you don't want optimization, then there is no reason to use Gentoo. It's like buying a Diablo and saying, "I don't care about speed, I just want it to get me from A to B." Well, in that case, go get a GM, Toyota, Ford, etc.

 

[floyde]

If you don't want optimization, then there is no reason to use Gentoo. It's like buying a Diablo and saying, "I don't care about speed, I just want it to get me from A to B." Well, in that case, go get a GM, Toyota, Ford, etc.

Well my main goal right now is to get a test Mono ASP .NET server running on my PB (by any means necessary ). So first I tried it on Mac OS and failed to get XSP or mod_mono. Then I thought Suse would be a good idea but the ppc installer is buggy and it crashes when formatting partitions. I then considered Gentoo because I thought portage would make it easy for me to install the whole mono suite, but I couldn't install gentoo itself. So basically I just wanted to get to a point where I could use 'emerge mono' to see how well it works with gentoo, and then at some other time I would just erase my HD and install gentoo the "right way" hehe.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Is there a Knoppix-based distro for Mac yet? I would think that would be the easiest, but I haven't seen one.

 

[belvdr]

IMO, Gentoo is the best flavor of linux available for any architecure. The reason it is so great, is that it can be optimized for and individual machine. If you don't want optimization, then there is no reason to use Gentoo. It's like buying a Diablo and saying, "I don't care about speed, I just want it to get me from A to B." Well, in that case, go get a GM, Toyota, Ford, etc.

See my test case above. Overall, there was really no speed increase. It may also depend on the fact that SuSE no longer supports anything less than the 586 architecture, thus not much difference in the Gentoo optimization and the generic RPMs. If you use something compiled for a 386, then your mileage may vary.

Given there was no real significant increase in speed with Gentoo, I went for the easier maintenance of SuSE. You might want to try testing others out as well.

 

[grapes911]

See my test case above. Overall, there was really no speed increase. It may also depend on the fact that SuSE no longer supports anything less than the 586 architecture, thus not much difference in the Gentoo optimization and the generic RPMs. If you use something compiled for a 386, then your mileage may vary.

Given there was no real significant increase in speed with Gentoo, I went for the easier maintenance of SuSE. You might want to try testing others out as well.

Not to sound rude, but if you didn't see any speed increase, then you didn't customize it correctly or enough. I set 100s of flags before I bootstrap or compile. I cut off 20 seconds on boot in Gentoo over Debian. Programs load faster, and every thing is exceptionally smooth.

 

[khammack]

Not to sound rude, but if you didn't see any speed increase, then you didn't customize it correctly or enough. I set 100s of flags before I bootstrap or compile. I cut off 20 seconds on boot in Gentoo over Debian. Programs load faster, and every thing is exceptionally smooth.

http://funroll-loops.org/

-kev

 

[grapes911]

http://funroll-loops.org/

-kev

While that page is kind of funny, much of it is true. If done correctly, you can't beat the optimization Gentoo can provide. Honestly, it sounds that the author of that page is just jealous that he/she doesn't have the talent, time, patience, or whatever, to get the speed out of Gentoo. I've used many flavors of linux on PPC and x86, and Gentoo is the best for personal use. If you are going to install it in a business setting, it's probably not the best flavor to use.

 

[belvdr]

Not to sound rude, but if you didn't see any speed increase, then you didn't customize it correctly or enough. I set 100s of flags before I bootstrap or compile. I cut off 20 seconds on boot in Gentoo over Debian. Programs load faster, and every thing is exceptionally smooth.

You're not sounding rude at all.

But, Debian is compiled with optimizations for a 386. Of course, you're going to see a huge improvement comparing Gentoo to Debian.

Now, considering my SuSE 10 system boots in 17 seconds (timed from the time I hit enter at the Grub menu to the time I get to the root login window), I feel my time is better suited elsewhere.

Oh, and I admit that I didn't spend much time trying to get the optimal setup for my architecture. Say I shave 5 seconds off my boot time. Well, considering I only boot it once every 50-60 days, it's not saving me that much time in the long run. So why would I waste all that time trying to find the very optimal settings for compilation? It just makes for a headache trying to maintain the system.

EDIT: I guess I should add that SuSE installed in around 20 minutes. How long does a Gentoo install take? Now, if you save 20 seconds from boot, how many times do you have to reboot in order to start saving time? Plus, you're not being productive if you reboot.. Sorry.. I'm being a bit of a smart eleck. (sp?)

 

[grapes911]

But, Debian is compiled with optimizations for a 386. Of course, you're going to see a huge improvement comparing Gentoo to Debian.

That was my point of why I like Gentoo over Debian. I'm am unfamiliar with how SUSE is compiled.

EDIT: I guess I should add that SuSE installed in around 20 minutes. How long does a Gentoo install take? Now, if you save 20 seconds from boot, how many times do you have to reboot in order to start saving time? Plus, you're not being productive if you reboot.. Sorry.. I'm being a bit of a smart eleck. (sp?)

Gentoo takes me all day if I do a stage 1 install. I've done a stage 3 install in about 20-25 minutes. It's not just saving time at boot. I feel that I save time everywhere. Plus, protage is great. And Gentoo makes it so easy to update your system in one command. I just love so much about it.

I do have to confess: Before I started using OS X about 4 years ago, Gentoo was my primary system. I spend a lot of time optimizing and stabilizing Gentoo on my PC to be as productive as possible. Now that I have OS X, linux has become more of a relaxing hobby for me. While I still use it from time-to-time for certain programs, it is more fun than anything. I really enjoy cutting 1 second of boot time on either my PC or my PowerBook.