ianw1974 Posted March 7, 2006 Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 I'm actually probably behind the times, and it's been released a while, but I hadn't seen anything posted about it. I'm currently installing into a vmware session at the moment, and so far it's looking pretty good. For those of you who have installed and used Gentoo, you'll be familiar with previous versions installing completely from the command-line. Gentoo Linux 2006.0 is different. It actually now has a GUI installer, as well as a text-based installer. The LiveCD has Gnome as the desktop of choice (but Gnome and KDE, plus other Window Managers are available for you to install on your system) for booting into a LiveCD environment to check/test whether Gentoo is working for you. On the desktop, is a couple of icons for GUI installer, or command line installer. It then works through asking all the questions for installing the operating system. This is most excellent, since a lot of people who don't know Linux, wouldn't normally give Gentoo a go because of the daunting effect of installing from the command line can give you. This new installer, would help to make it more available to the masses. Since the CD is only 700MB, be prepared for a basic installation without many applications. However, since Gentoo is based around using "emerge" for installing applications, anything missing can be overcome later by simply using emerge to get the applications you want. If you fancy giving it a try because previous versions have put you off, or you're interested in the new GUI/text-based installer, check it out here: http://www.gentoo.org/ I would also recommend looking at the installation document: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/2006.0/index.xml since it's changed a lot since previous versions, and also helps you through what options you need to choose for installing Gentoo on your system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulSe Posted March 7, 2006 Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 Wow, they've been talking about this change for a while and it's good to see it here now. I like the fact that Gentoo can be installed easily and more people will now be able to enjoy this fantastic distribution. I'm going to reinstall just to see what the graphical installer is like. By all accounts it's very nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted March 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 It does look good, I must agree that. And if you check out /var/log/installer.log you can see it doing all the steps you normally would have done manually when following their 2005.x documentation. They also have a 125MB Minimal/Installer CD but a lot of stuff isn't on the disk, which means it probably won't be as user-friendly than compared to the 700MB LiveCD Installer. Although, I've not attempted this disk as of yet, and I think the minimal also means installing with an internet connection, whereas with the LiveCD, you don't need to have an internet connection as far as I can tell so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted March 7, 2006 Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 I don't think its enough to make me try Gentoo again, but anyway, it's good news (although my main concern was not the installation part). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted March 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 Hi Scarecrow, what was your main concern? EDIT: One thing I noticed is that by default, it installs with genkernel, rather than the normal method you would probably use to compile the kernel. So, perhaps after the installer-wizard, you may wish to configure an alternative kernel yourself if the genkernel doesn't suit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted March 7, 2006 Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 My main concern is that waiting the damn thing to compile the latest (say) KDE for a couple of days is nonsensical, since my distro (Arch Linux) offers the same, pre-compiled, several days before the ebuild comes avilable, and generally it works great, and without any noiticeable difference in program load speed. Oh, and if I somehow decide that it's really worth compiling KDE or whatever myself, for some reason, then Arch Linux allows you building those binaries yourself, instead of dowloading (using the ABS building mechanism) with minimal fuss (=same as in Gentoo), so WHY on earth should I prefer Gentoo? For the life of me, I cannot find one single reason to go the Gentoo way... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted March 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 Can understand that, a lot of the compilation can depend on processor/memory specs of machine as well to the time taken to build a desktop system. It is however, fast, and reliable for servers. Have heard of a number of ISP's choosing Gentoo over other distros for their web servers, probably because of the way it can be optimised by the compilation, and minimal installation of apps required. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulSe Posted March 7, 2006 Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 Gentoo bashing seems to be the most pervasive open source sport right now :P Seriously, nobody is forcing anyone to use Gentoo - but for those who have been curious, the new installer is enticing. I like Arch, I used it for a short while, but went back to Gentoo. The way I see it, if I want a fully customised distribution, then why go halfway? If I wanted something quick I would use Ubuntu or Mandriva, but if I'm going to bother to build it from scratch (or near scratch, before the LFS guys jump on me), then I may as well do it properly by setting my own flags and compiling from source. Compile times have never bothere me - maybe it's time to trade in that PII scarecrow :P Jokes aside, the longest compile I had was around four hours, but it doesn't bother me. I usually do my emerge -uD world at night before going to bed - wake up to an updates system :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted March 7, 2006 Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 maybe it's time to trade in that PII scarecrow :P My slowest desktop machine is PIV HT/ 2.8G with 512M of RAM, while my main puter is PIV HT/3.0G with 1G RAM, and my laptop Pentium M 2.0G/ 1G RAM, so none of them is terribly slow. I could accept the Gentoo philosophy if it had some noticeable difference over a fast (Arch) binary distro. Factly, I have found a difference, but it's definitely negative- so... no more Gentoo for me- it's a nice toy for people that want to learn Linux (maybe less than LFS, but then with Gentoo you might have a running system within a couple of days, while with LFS you will possibly need a whole week!), but nothing more than that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted March 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2006 OK, stop the bashing, it's way Back on topic please :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul Posted March 8, 2006 Report Share Posted March 8, 2006 doing a fresh install now (on a new machine) WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlc Posted March 9, 2006 Report Share Posted March 9, 2006 I tested the installer the day it came out, it worked looked nice and all. Gentoo just isn't my pefered distro but I would use it second in the linux only world or third after solaris10/11. For me it's just the time to build I don't care for, even with fast processors. Along with my need to bleed and nothing realy comes close to fedora on bleeding yet staying stable. Arch is nice and all, but I have 64bit processor and like to use a 64bit distrobuiton. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted March 10, 2006 Report Share Posted March 10, 2006 I have tested the live CD a bit but it did not work well on my main desktop machine (ugly X problems that I am accustomned to), but tit worked instantly on my newer laptop. I will give the installer a try there some day, as it looked very interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted March 10, 2006 Report Share Posted March 10, 2006 Along with my need to bleed and nothing realy comes close to fedora on bleeding yet staying stable. ~x86 is pretty bleeding and stable for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlc Posted March 10, 2006 Report Share Posted March 10, 2006 Along with my need to bleed and nothing realy comes close to fedora on bleeding yet staying stable. ~x86 is pretty bleeding and stable for me. I know, I didn't say it wasn't bleeding edge, just not as bleeding edge for me :) After I install gentoo, I spend the time adding keywords and rebuilding to match fedora, and realize I'm wasting my time when I can just run fedora :P I'm not knocking gentoo in anyway, i already said I would use it second, just listed the why's it is second for ME. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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