Jump to content

gentoo mirrors during install?? (emerge / portage)


Recommended Posts

I decided to give gentoo a spin on a spare hard drive. Everyone talks about how long it takes to compile everything, but the problem I'm having is that it is taking forever to download ! (i'm now getting less than 1K/s from oregonstate.edu.) there are mirrors listed on the gentoo.org page, but is there a way to use these during install? or should I just wait it out? :) (i haven't been able to find this on gentoo's page, although their documentation is generally very thorough) thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

there used to be a way back in 1.4_rc2, but it was broken. it was a program you ran to select a mirror, but in rc2 it would cause major issues and pretty much kill the install (it filled make.conf with garbage for some reason). there is no mention of this tool in the rc4 documentation. i hope they bring it back for 1.4 final!

 

so, at this point I don't know how to change mirrors, i wish I did, i just got done installing gentoo about 10 minutes ago and am now working on building the system (installing gnome right now). did you search the gentoo forums at all?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can't answer, but just some words of encouragement. Sourcemage searches for the fastest mirror when downloading using netselect, so I'm sure the option (or something similar) is also available in your Gentoo configuration.

 

Edit: Or maybe not at the moment, considering tyme's post.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ah ha! a little search on gentoo forums turned up this option:

For anyone else referencing this thread you can insert mirrors in /etc/make.conf. Here's an example that would have worked well for Finnish:

<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteEBegin-->GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://sunsite.dk/mirrors/gentoo/ ftp://gentoo.linux.no/pub/gentoo "

 

(for reference: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=203955#203955)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ahh. i searched those boards, but i guess i was focusing on keywords like "install" when i shouldn't have. i posted my Q here because i knew people were pretty newbie-friendly, i'm never sure on other boards. :P i'll play with this later. thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

you're asking the question gave me a reason to find an answer (i search for "mirror select" or something like that), and I had been wondering too because I wanted to switch mirrors, so it worked out :-)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok, so if it's still cranking away at a ridiculously slow speed... is there a safe way to interrupt the download and start over (changing the server as discussed above?) I did a

# emerge sys-kernel/gentoo-sources

hours ago and it's now downloading at 800B/second. this could take forever. i thought if i unplugged the ethernet cable, maybe the installer would try another server, but that didn't seem to work. if i kill the process, will that screw up my whole install and i'll have to fdisk and start over?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So you are at the kernel. Notice that gentoo-sources-2.4.20-r2 does not include a frame buffer support. In other word, you'll get plain text when you'll boot the machine. If you want images support, emerge /usr/portage/media-gfx/bootsplash/bootsplash-0.6.ebuild and patch the kernel with the patch at /usr/share/bootsplash before compiling it. Read the ebuild for more details (/usr/portage/media-gfx/bootsplash/bootsplash-0.6.ebuild)

 

Motts

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thanks for the heads-up. that's my first time patching a kernel (or compiling one, for that matter) but i think i've got it working. and if i find out when i reboot that i've messed it up somewhere along the line, i'll just try again until it actually works :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest fubar::chi
I'm using ftp://ftp.gtlib.cc.gatech.edu/pub/gentoo/ .  This is really fast.  And yes you have to put it in /etc/make.conf as tyme said :-)

 

You guys are Gentoo geeks now  :P  

 

MOtts

Mandrake geeks are better. Were so hard core we have to deal with dependency hell while recompiling the whole system. You gentoo geeks have it to easy :twisted:

I wonder what that makes tyme then :?:

A Gendrake geek :?:

A Mandentoo geek :?:

A Mantoo geek :?:

:twisted: who knows :twisted:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

here's another cool little hint that perhaps you haven't thought of

 

have you noticed the files in /usr/portage/distfiles ???

 

how about making an NFS export of the directory .. and sharing it with the other computers in your network.

 

now whenever you emerge -u world (or whatever) the files are stored in one place for your entire network, and you will only have to download them once

 

8)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...