Alan McKinnon wrote:
On Sunday 14 June 2009 13:02:50 AG wrote:
Hi all
Thanks for the responses to my earlier query regarding co-location of
Debian and Gentoo on the same HDD.
I still have a few questions regarding an installation before I take the
plunge:
(1) Looking through the background docs, it occurs to me that if I
wanted to install Gentoo on my system, I would need access to a second
machine that is running all of the on-line docs that guide one through
the installation process. Is this correct? If not, how does one refer
to the (seemingly quite comprehensive) guidelines whilst in the middle
of an installation?
With links or link2 or lynx - it's on the stage 3.
Get network up and running, view docs in text mode
It looks like an installation in a chroot space on my current machine
will be the way I'll go on this one. If I can find the parts, I might
even go so far as patching together an older box and dedicating it to
the great take-on Gentoo project! In which case, this would be an
interesting route to pursue. But, for now, I'm likely to go the chroot way.
(2) When Gentoo installs its libraries, does this duplicate the
libraries already on my machine? For instance - if I have OOo and KDE
and Xfce4 loaded as part of my Debian Squeeze system, will Gentoo also
install its own version of OOo, KDE and Xfce4 alongside the Deb files?
I was thinking that this would have a number of implications in terms of
space and (potentially) in how the drive is partitioned for the Gentoo
installation ... unless I'm missing the point?
Yes. You have two complete operating systems, and they share very little, if
anything. Don't try and be tempted to share binaries - that way does madness
lie.
Thanks for the heads' up! I'm beginning to get a clearer picture of how
this would actually work now.
(3) What differences would I likely experience between running my
Debian installation and the Gentoo installation?
That's not a question that anyone except you can answer - it's like asking me
what different experience will you have between your ex-wife and current
girlfriend. I have no idea, nor any way to find out.
Interesting analogy, but your point is taken. It was a bit of an unfair
question really.
They will be different, that much is true. Gentoo will work the way you set it
up, I can't even warn you about sudo instead of su a la Ubuntu as Gentoo let's
you do it either way. If you use Gnome, you will get Gnome's default theme (a
blue one?) instead of say Ubuntu's Human theme. Changing that is a simple
emerge and a few mouse clicks.
I don't know *buntu. I'm on Squeeze (testing) and am having a good time
with it. After Slackware's rock-climbing experience of system
maintenance, I feel quite spoilt having a tool like apt at my
fingertips. Debian does have some interesting policy implementations
with renaming Firefox, etc., but these are minor and aside from my
inclination to call apps by their given name there is no inconvenience.
What you will do is spend an insane amount of time trying to figure out what a
certain USE flag actually does an if you want it. Debian doesn't give you that
choice.
Is this an example of that infinite adaptability of Gentoo as a metadistro?
Thanks.
