[clue-tech] Taking the Gentoo Plunge?

Tue May 8 17:28:05 MDT 2007

On Tuesday May 8 2007 1:04:41 pm katanacb at comcast.net wrote:
> Ok,
>
> I'm thinking about taking the Gentoo plunge, and I've read *lots* of
> information about how difficult it is to setup (or not), how time consuming
> it is to setup and administer (or not), how patches bork the entire system
> (or not).  I'm not afraid to setup Gentoo on my system(s), I've used linux
> for years and years, but I wanted to get some sort of idea from local guys
> who actually RUN the distribution what their experience has been like.
>
> If I do this I'm going to do it on 2 laptops, and 1 desktop (which doubles
> as a fileserver for things like MP3s, etc).  I prefer KDE to gnome but I
> can be converted.  I've most recently run Ubuntu, SuSE before that but I've
> used pretty much every distro out there over the years.
>
> So, for those of you out there who run Gentoo, what's your experience been
> like?  Are the rumours true?  I've downloaded the recent 2007.0 release and
> I can tell you that the live DVD seems to perform better than hosted
> systems on my machine (I know it's strange, but it's true) and I did do a
> gentoo install 3-4 years ago, but just got frustrated after borking my
> install a few times.
>
> Cheers,
> Chris
> _______________________________________________
> clue-tech mailing list
> clue-tech at cluedenver.org
> http://www.cluedenver.org/mailman/listinfo/clue-tech

I currently run gentoo in my desktop and have for several years (KDE).  It is 
fairly easy to set up if you follow the gentoo manual at gentoo.org. Gentoo 
has fantastic user documentation. I think all distros should use it as a 
example.

I recently installed debian (sorry debian folks) and was dismayed to find no 
user guide or central help area. I had to hop around the internet to find out 
answers to my questions. I ended up spending longer trying to set up my 
debian distro then I did when I recently installed Gentoo. Although that 
sounds unfair, since I know Gentoo and have used it for years, Debian doesn't 
compile everything.

The thing to remember with gentoo is that is that it has a very minimalist 
mindset. Things don't work or get installed unless you explicitly enable 
them. I.e sound doesn't work out of the box, Xorg isn't installed, etc. 
Gentoo has great guides to guide you through it though.

The biggest pain and drawback with gentoo is the initial installation, and 
that is because it is time consuming, especially an desktop system. I 
recently installed gentoo on my AMD 3500+ w/ 1 GB RAM. It took me an  little 
more 1.5 days to install. Straight through. Most of it, I wasn't there for 
though, I left or was sleeping while it was compiling. I started on an Sunday 
morning, and I had an customized version (not minimal, not full) of KDE 
running on my desktop by Monday night. I went to work Monday too. I knew what 
flags and settings to put though, and have done it before. It will probably 
take you a lot longer first time through.

Upgrades afterward are not bad, except for a few big packages. Most of the 
time they compile so fast it isn't worth getting out of your seat, but you 
may have to wait a minute or so. Kde-libs is one example of a big package 
that takes forever. I don't know how long, I ave never stuck around to figure 
it out. I usually do it overnight, or when I have something else to do.

There are multiple ways to speed up compiles. Here are two that might help you 
out as you are doing multiple machines.

If you have multiple machines you can set up an build host.  That way you 
don't waste time, recompiling the same package with the same options.
This page has an overview:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Create_A_Build_Host

You can also use distcc to do distributed compiling if you have multiple 
machines:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/distcc.xml
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Distcc_over_SSH_with_Portage

If you are setting up custom packages, the best way is with custom ebuilds and 
to may your own portage-overlay. I don't usually add my own patches, but have 
used overlays, and haven't had any problems:

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Create_an_Updated_Ebuild
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Installing_3rd_Party_Ebuilds 
http://gentoo-wiki.com/TIP_Sync_your_private_overlay

If you follow the user docs TO THE LETTER, you shouldn't have any problems. I 
also would do an cli install instead of graphical. I heard the graphical has 
problems, and in my opinion, doesn't lend itself well to the gentoo 
enviroment anyway. Haven't tried 2007 though. 

Installation docs
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/index.xml?catid=install#doc_chap2

Gentoo documentation listing:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/list.xml

Forums. Top Notch:
http://forums.gentoo.org/

Great place for more tips and help
http://gentoo-wiki.com/Main_Page

-- 

Michael Irons