Re: [gentoo-user] Possible new gentoo user
061001 Terry Eck wrote: Thanks to everyone who responded to my post. I will give gentoo a try to see how it goes. my first experience with linux was around 1994 using Slackware 1.2.0. Back then it was common to configure and compile the kernel for sound. You really should have no problem with Gentoo with that experience ! You've had a lot of generally sensible advice while I've been asleep (smile). I installed Gentoo exactly 3 yrs ago have never had regrets or problems. Read the installation guide the manual carefully before you start, have printed copies at hand follow to the letter what they say. Avoid the GUI installer, which is not a finished product yet. I did a Stage-3 GRP install, which gives you binaries to get started. After that, it's upto you how often you update packages: I do 'eix-sync' every Sat to get the list of what's available, check the nice colored list of what's changed during the week, then 'emerge' those which seem to be worthwhile. There are 3 levels of reliability: 'x86' (or whatever your platform is) has become something like Debian 'stable', ie rather conservative; '~x86' sb useable, but perhaps not for basic system items when new; 'hard-masked' is only for people willing to test buggy stuff. My compiling get done on a separate KDE desktop, while I do other things: Open Office takes 6 hr (overnight), but there is a binary, if you want it; a middle-sized set of KDE pkgs takes perhaps 3,5 hr ; otherwise, the longest compiles are c 1 hr (my CPU is an AMD 2500+). Gentoo is for people who want to manage their own boxes: you will need to edit configure files, but they're very well annotated. You should have a reasonably fast CPU , = 512 MB memory broadband, tho' some hardy people seem to run Gentoo with smaller resources. Let us all know what happens ! -- ,, SUPPORT ___//___, Philip Webb : [EMAIL PROTECTED] ELECTRIC /] [] [] [] [] []| Centre for Urban Community Studies TRANSIT`-O--O---' University of Toronto -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
[gentoo-user] Possible new gentoo user
I've been a SuSE user for several years now currently running 10.0. I'm interested in giving gentoo a try with the object of converting from SuSE to gentoo. I've been looking at this list for a couple of weeks and have determined that there may be a steep learning curve on my part converting. Any words of advice on getting up to speed using gentoo before I install it. Thanks for any advice you might be able to give me. Terry Eck -- SUSE LINUX 10.0 (i586) -- 2.6.13-15.12-default -- Sun 10/01/06 1:00pm up 16:53, 3 users, load average: 0.79, 0.54, 0.37 -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Possible new gentoo user
On 10/1/06, Terry Eck [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I've been a SuSE user for several years now currently running 10.0. I'm interested in giving gentoo a try with the object of converting from SuSE to gentoo. I've been looking at this list for a couple of weeks and have determined that there may be a steep learning curve on my part converting. Any words of advice on getting up to speed using gentoo before I install it. Thanks for any advice you might be able to give me. Terry Eck Hi Terry, I'm a non-developer, non-sysadmin, Linux-user type. I was pretty scared of Gentoo when I started a few years ago. (2002 or 2003?) Actually, it turned out to not be that difficult once you got into the swing of things. One thing I think you'll appreciate once you get used to it is the quality of the Gentoo documentation. It's really great stuff and seldom leads you astray. Read it carefully and you'll usually get things right pretty quickly. As for installing Gentoo, since you are building most everything from scratch it does take a few days the first time you do it to get to a usable desktop with applications installed and running. It gets faster over time but my machines always take me a day at least before I'm running a browser inside of Gnome. Read and follow the Quick Install guide and it will work. Use a test machine if you have one for your first install. Once converted to Gentoo you'll love that you never really do upgrades. Just updates. Portage is really nice at keeping things up to date. Run stable packages (i.e. - not ~x86 or ~amd64) unless you need a specific package, at least to start. In my mind there is little value to running a testing package unless you have a specific problem or need a specific new feature. Testing packages become stable package pretty quickly so you'll have it in a few weeks anyway. I must say that EVERYTHING I learned about Gentoo that mattered came from the generous folks on this list. Read the docs and then feel free to ask questions. Answers here seem to be the least confrontational, most informative of pretty much any Linux list I've ever subscribed to. Get GMail or some email client that is good at threading conversation. Email traffic on this list gets a bit high at time. GMail makes it work well for me. Keep in mind that if dummies like me can make Gentoo work, and I have - my wife, my son, my 78 year old father and 77 year old mother all run Gentoo now - then I'm sure you'll have no trouble at all. Hope this helps, Mark -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Possible new gentoo user
On Sunday 01 October 2006 20:08, Terry Eck wrote: I've been a SuSE user for several years now currently running 10.0. I'm interested in giving gentoo a try with the object of converting from SuSE to gentoo. I've been looking at this list for a couple of weeks and have determined that there may be a steep learning curve on my part converting. Any words of advice on getting up to speed using gentoo before I install it. Thanks for any advice you might be able to give me. well, read the documentation on gentoo.org. Handbook, installation instructions. If it seems to complicated to you, don't do the switch. But if you think 'well, I might be able to do it', try it. Backup your suse forst, of course. -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Possible new gentoo user
Terry Eck wrote: I've been a SuSE user for several years now currently running 10.0. I'm interested in giving gentoo a try with the object of converting from SuSE to gentoo. I've been looking at this list for a couple of weeks and have determined that there may be a steep learning curve on my part converting. Any words of advice on getting up to speed using gentoo before I install it. Thanks for any advice you might be able to give me. Terry Eck Just one word: PRAY! ..I'm joking ;-) I would say you should be filled with patience - compiling the packets on your machine takes a lot of time and may be it is annoying for one who is used to just get the binaries and decompress them. The initial installation is the hardest part in this respect because it takes a long time before the GUI is ready. After this point compiling is not an issue - you may do whatever you please while emerge does its job. Everything else is just like on every modern distro. Most of the time it is OK but there are also problems now and then. The first time I tried Gentoo and didn't burn my bridges to turn back: I left my Slackware alone and installed Gentoo on a different HDD. A few months later the Slackware was gone. Now I won't change Gentoo for any other distro. Go forward and give a try! -- Best regards, Daniel -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Possible new gentoo user
On 10/1/06, Hemmann, Volker Armin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Sunday 01 October 2006 20:08, Terry Eck wrote: I've been a SuSE user for several years now currently running 10.0. I'm interested in giving gentoo a try with the object of converting from SuSE to gentoo. I've been looking at this list for a couple of weeks and have determined that there may be a steep learning curve on my part converting. Any words of advice on getting up to speed using gentoo before I install it. Thanks for any advice you might be able to give me. well, read the documentation on gentoo.org. Handbook, installationinstructions.If it seems to complicated to you, don't do the switch. But if youthink 'well, I might be able to do it', try it. Backup your suse forst, of course.I agree, just read the handbook over the course of a few days or however long it takes you. If you understand most of it (or if you didn't understand it before reading the handbook but you do afterwards) and you think it sounds easy to you, then everything else should be easy. -- David Granthttp://www.davidgrant.ca
Re: [gentoo-user] Possible new gentoo user
On Sunday 01 October 2006 11:08, Terry Eck wrote: I've been a SuSE user for several years now currently running 10.0. I'm interested in giving gentoo a try with the object of converting from SuSE to gentoo. I've been looking at this list for a couple of weeks and have determined that there may be a steep learning curve on my part converting. Any words of advice on getting up to speed using gentoo before I install it. Thanks for any advice you might be able to give me. Terry Eck -- SUSE LINUX 10.0 (i586) -- 2.6.13-15.12-default -- Sun 10/01/06 1:00pm up 16:53, 3 users, load average: 0.79, 0.54, 0.37 For your first time I'd highly suggest the graphical installer. It'll save you some time, and while a lot of people correctly point out that it robs you of a great learning experience, it was the only thing that enabled a complete newbie (me) to successfully install gentoo. Once you've got Gentoo installed though... it's almost invulnerable. I've done some really dumb things to my installation, and I've always been able (with a great deal of help from this list) to restore my machine to working order. I also have to say that your memory footprint will get smaller with gentoo. The stuff you compile is much more suited to your setup if you spend the time to tweak your system. It has some excellent tools for administering your system, and I haven't had a stability problem yet (Kubuntu is more error-prone than Gentoo - no joke.) If you're up to the challenge, Gentoo is wonderful. I love it so much I installed it on my server. Also, for a threaded mail client, KMail*, Thunderbird, and even MS Outlook Express have threaded features. If you're interested in GMail, I'd be happy to send you an invite. *Coming from a happy and satisfied (even spoiled) KMail user. Worth a try if nothing else. -- http://lordsauronthegreat.googlepages.com/ pgpauXUu9SJua.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] Possible new gentoo user
On Sun, 1 Oct 2006, Terry Eck wrote: I've been a SuSE user for several years now currently running 10.0. I'm interested in giving gentoo a try with the object of converting from SuSE to gentoo. I've been looking at this list for a couple of weeks and have determined that there may be a steep learning curve on my part converting. Any words of advice on getting up to speed using gentoo before I install it. One suggestion: get a KNOPPIX CD and install from that (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/altinstall.xml) This way you will have a GUI (KDE) right from the start. While you have several years of experience with linux, I had a few months with RH7.3, and only Apple (MacOS 8.6) before that. So, if I could do it... There was no genkernel then and no graphical installer. Didn't miss any. The major problem was to configure the kernel from scratch, but I managed it somehow. Good luck. -- Jorge Almeida -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Possible new gentoo user
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Hello Terry, Well, the way I learned it, when I switched from Debian to Gentoo, was that I used the Minimal Install CD. I also used the Gentoo Handbook (not the Installation Docs for the current version. The CD will detect ethernet links to the Internet, so you will be able to use: links http://www.gentoo.org/; (without quotes, of course) links is a console-based web browser. That will give you access to the Gentoo site and the Handbook. Doing it the way I've done it requires that you be familiar, or become familiar with the console. You pretty much follow the instructions from the Handbook, and you will learn what makes Gentoo tick. There is information and are links to information in the Handbook, that help. Oh, and a couple of other things regarding links: 1. When you want to download something, do not click on it - instead, use the arrow keys to navigate to the file and use the 'd' key - this will bring up a dialog. You can append a path to the beginning, by moving your cursor there and entering the path - I recommend '/mnt/gentoo/' if you are going to use the standard path for Gentoo. 2. You can navigate to pages you've been to before by using the left arrow key (the equivalent of the back button), or the right arrow key (the equivalent of the forward button). 3. It is better to navigate on a page by using page up and page down. The only other advice I have is, make sure you back everything up, in case you want to go back, read the handbook carefully, and don't forget to set your password. Regards, Chris Terry Eck wrote: I've been a SuSE user for several years now currently running 10.0. I'm interested in giving gentoo a try with the object of converting from SuSE to gentoo. I've been looking at this list for a couple of weeks and have determined that there may be a steep learning curve on my part converting. Any words of advice on getting up to speed using gentoo before I install it. Thanks for any advice you might be able to give me. Terry Eck -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- iD8DBQFFIBR1vAEeEHp061sRAtbXAKCeRI7Sq8D0+9Szwr5/9msd61aRSQCgpzeT 8k58egJDOYj6vwxnQn0CXkY= =SC3m -END PGP SIGNATURE- -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Possible new gentoo user
my first linux system was suse, then i switched to fedora...after a while i changed to debian then ubuntu then after a few conversations i switched to gentoo, but i had a lot of help from personen who worked very long ;) with gentoo. gentoo love it or had it ;) Am Sonntag, den 01.10.2006, 15:18 -0400 schrieb Chris Walters: -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Possible new gentoo user (the way I learnt it)
Hey welcome onboard! :-) I printed the handbookfor easy reference. With the handbook in my hand doing a manual install was pretty easy. Good luck! benedikt wrote: my first linux system was suse, then i switched to fedora...after a while i changed to debian then ubuntu then after a few conversations i switched to gentoo, but i had a lot of help from personen who worked very long ;) with gentoo. gentoo love it or had it ;) Am Sonntag, den 01.10.2006, 15:18 -0400 schrieb Chris Walters: -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Possible new gentoo user
On Sun, 01 Oct 2006 13:08:25 -0500, Terry Eck wrote: I've been a SuSE user for several years now currently running 10.0. I'm interested in giving gentoo a try with the object of converting from SuSE to gentoo. I've been looking at this list for a couple of weeks and have determined that there may be a steep learning curve on my part converting. Any words of advice on getting up to speed using gentoo before I install it. I take it you'll be installing Gentoo alongside SUSE to start with. This is the best way, it lets you take your time over the installation while still having a running system to fall back on. The default method is a Stage 3 installation nowadays, which uses mainly pre-compiled packages to get you going. If you also download the packages CD, you'll also be able to install a full desktop from there, so you'll have less waiting around. The last full Gentoo install I did took just over an hour, from fdisk to running KDE. However, for your first attempt allow plenty of time, at least half a day, preferably a full day. I would avoid the graphical installer because the manual install teaches you more about how Gentoo works and makes life easier for you in the long run, mainly because it ensures you read and understand the handbook. Follow the handbook religiously, if you think there is a quicker way to do something, forget it, the people writing the handbook know their stuff. Don't start improvising until you have three successful installs behind you. Most importantly, there is plenty of help available here and in the forums, but read the handbook first - then ask. -- Neil Bothwick You want us to do WHAT? - Ancient Chinese wall engineer. signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] Possible new gentoo user
Terry Eck wrote: I've been a SuSE user for several years now currently running 10.0. I'm interested in giving gentoo a try with the object of converting from SuSE to gentoo. I've been looking at this list for a couple of weeks and have determined that there may be a steep learning curve on my part converting. Any words of advice on getting up to speed using gentoo before I install it. Thanks for any advice you might be able to give me. I pretty much think that if I can install and run Gentoo then, anyone willing to give it an honest try can do it. I *do not* have a technical educational background. I writing this to retiterate what all other responses have said - read the Handbook and any other HowTo documents on the Gentoo site. Books have been written for other Linux distros, but no one has written one for Gentoo - it's not needed. Gentoo documentation is superlative and exceptionally easy to follow! If the something in the documentation needs clarification, or you run into a snag, the people on this list are always ready to lend a helping hand and in my experience you'll always be steered in the right direction. Good luck! At the risk of sounding biased, Gentoo is the best distro of any! I've used Redhat/Fedora Core, Mandrake (before it became Mandriva), Mepis, and Ubuntu/Kubuntu and you couldn't pay me to go back to any of those! Regards, Colleen -- Registered Linux User #411143 with the Linux Counter, http://counter.li.org -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Possible new gentoo user
Lord Sauron wrote: For your first time I'd highly suggest the graphical installer. It'll save you some time, and while a lot of people correctly point out that it robs you of a great learning experience, it was the only thing that enabled a complete newbie (me) to successfully install gentoo. I have to go the complete opposite direction from this. I'd stay away from the graphical installer at least for a releases yet - IMO it isn't a very stable product yet (no offense installer team, just needs more time) and is known to break things on a regular basis. Put in the time, do it by hand, and do it properly, configuring your own kernel and such. It'll be worth it, because by the time you first boot your Gentoo, you'll already know exactly what's in it. -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] Possible new gentoo user
Thanks to everyone who responded to my post. I will give gentoo a try to see how it goes. I remember my first attempt at switching from redhat 5.1 to SuSE 6.2 many years ago. Although linux is linux, the different distributions implement and configure the software in their own manner. Terry BTW: Not that it matters but my first experience with linux was around 1994 using Slackware 1.2.0. Back then it was common to configure and compile the kernel for sound. Linux has come a long ways and in a way I'm looking forward to getting my hands dirty like in the old days. -- SUSE LINUX 10.0 (i586) -- 2.6.13-15.12-default -- Sun 10/01/06 8:00pm up 23:53, 4 users, load average: 0.35, 0.28, 0.27 -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
