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Installing Gentoo, some questions


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'ning,

 

Some time ago I posted a general enquiry to test the waters about Gentoo. Since then I've been reading up on how to do it, but still could do with a couple of pointers. I'm planning to do a Stage 1 install.

 

1) I'm keen to optimise things as much as possible, but don't know how much is too much. Is "-O3" gonna cause problems with a lot of apps? If so, are there further optimisations that are reasonably safe to add on top of "-O2"?

 

2) I found the package-list for 2005.0 and it didn't seem as up-to-date as I hoped. How would I go about installing KDE 3.4 rather than the stock 3.3 - would there be problems with Portage from doing this?

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Ref: #1

Id say stick with -O2. You dont get too much more from what Ive read on going to -O3 except some packages not compiling and general larger packages.

 

 

Ref#2

I did a stage2 me thinks straight to KDE3.4. I didnt use the package cd I downloaded everything with emerge -u world. I also think on my last install I added the emerge -u world somewhere in the install even though it did not call for it.

 

It will depend on your make.conf. Do you plan on running unstable? (~x86).

 

Mine is not too advanced but here is my make.conf.

 

# Copyright 2000-2002 Daniel Robbins, Gentoo Technologies, Inc.
# Contains local system settings for Portage system
# Please review 'man make.conf' for more information.

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=athlon-xp -O2 -pipe -msse2 -fomit-frame-pointer -funroll-loops -ftracer -w"
CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"
USE="ooo acpi alsa bindlist cdr dga dvd gstreamer jpeg java joystick live mmx mozilla network odbc pnp ppds pic samba snmp sse sse2 tiff usb"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage /usr/local/bmg-main"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc/make.conf"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
PKGDIR="${PORTDIR}/packages"
PORTAGE_NICENESS="10"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORT_LOGDIR="/var/log/portage"
FEATURES ="distlocks ccache autoaddcvs candy sandbox"
VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia"
ALSA_CARDS="snd-intel8x0"
CCACHE_SIZE="2G"
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86"

 

My use flags may be bloated - I never had gotton around to trimming them down.

 

Youll notice I run ~x86 :cheesy:

Edited by ac_dispatcher
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Im always one to want the "bleeding edge" of each Distro. I remember When I first started out I was never satisfied with plain Mandy - I wanted cooker.

 

Anywho for bleeding edge an ~x86 Gentoo is pretty darn stable. I ran it for about 1.5 years last time. It broke because I broke it (as is most of the time).

 

But then again if my systme breaks at any time - oh well Ill have fun and learn while trying to fix it.

 

When in doubt 0 I just boot to one of the other 2 Distros Ive got on my computer:

 

Now:

Gentoo ~x86

Mepis - no advanced packages

Linux Underground - Bleeding edge Debian

 

:thumbs::thumbs:

Edited by ac_dispatcher
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Thanks guys, for the input. I've taken the plunge now, and gotten a fair way through the process, but am now stuck on the kernel configuration. Hope someone can advise.

 

The operation: emerge gentoo-sources

 

is choking because of failure to build xmlto-0.0.18. The output I'm getting is suggesting that "Your system does not have the required support for XML Catalogs."

 

Any ideas how I can fix this? I've come so far, I don't wanna throw it away, but I've only got a few hours left to do this before work...!

 

EDIT: Got this sorted. It was necessary to issue this command first:

 

emerge -v docbook-xsl-stylesheets xmlto

 

Onwards...

Edited by Havin_it
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Well, here I am a week-and-a-bit later speaking to you from an emerged Firefox..! Shame it's En-US, but whatever.

 

Whoever said "don't do it for speed reasons" was probably right, although the loading of KDE seems maybe an ickle bit faster - I wouldn't say it's anything worth jumping distros for.

 

The first weird thing is having no kernel modules to load. I compiled everything right into the kernel, so I do an lsmod and there's NOTHING there. Well, until I installed ndiswrapper at least... ;)

 

Also the network configuration methods are a bit different. I haven't made much sense of the new system yet, but I like the idea of defining all wirelesss network properties specific to a given ESSID - useful for me as I use three different APs day-to-day. And ndiswrapper worked with my OEM drivers, unlike Knoppix which forced me to download an alternative set from Dell.

 

There are still various niggles to be worked out - no sound, and some K apps taking 5mins to open for a kickoff - but all-in-all, no worse than a MDK Community install, albeit a bit more lengthy.

 

So I'm kinda dual nationality now. I know now there are some Gentoo fans here too, and some things will probably need explaining from a Mandy-aware perspective, so I don't intend to be a stranger here. I may be a little less frequent, 's all.... >sniff<

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well, gentoo is not (anymore) a lot faster than other distros imho, but once you get accustomed to it, you will like it, i guess. i found it to be a nice distro, although i removed it from my computers.

 

and even if you use gentoo instead of mandriva - you are still welcome! and soulse, ac dispatcher and others will help you with your gentoo-problems, i guess. ;)

 

take a look at some of the regulars. some use fedora, some gentoo, some debian, some suse, some ubuntu. but they all come to this forum because it is one of the best all-round-tech-forums for linux you can find. and we are the only ones that have :beer: for our members. :D

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