Gentoo - what exactly do i type to install this thing?
 

my sincere apologies for the most newbie question on these forums, but,

what exactly do i type to install this thing?


e.g. it boots up nicely into the prompt and then what do i do?


i'm more used to clicking buttons and the install guide provided on gentoo.org doesn't make a bit of sense at all


i've been running suse 9.1, wants to switch to gentoo, and can't figure out how to install it


thanks for all the help i can get



_

You absolutely need to follow that guide to the letter. From the start to the end. Even if it says skip to the next section, check if there is anything relevant to you.

The Gentoo LiveCD is what I assume you are using - it boots a Linux kernel for you to install stuff from, but you need to configure the network interfaces beforehand so it can grab stuff off the 'net. The guide is pretty much your bible in this case.

the guide never makes sense until the 4th or 5th time you install gentoo. I had no idea what I was doing until I kept screwing up the install on my sparc and after 6 failed attempts I got fairly good at typing commands such as tar -xvjpf

There are a couple of Gentoo-based live CD's with easier installers-

NavynOS- think this one has 3 different installers
VidaLinux- uses Gnome and redhat-style anaconda installer
Jollix- text based install like Gentoo, but a little simpler

Step back from the computer.

Read this, http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/index.xml

Then give it a try.

Its going to take the better part of the weekend, provided you don't screw up. Took me a few weeks the first time. Search these forums and the gentoo forums for any questions that you may have. A lot of us have done it, and many of us can help you.

Good Luck.

If the gentoo handbook doesn't make sense to you, I'd suggest putting off the install for a while an pick up a few good books first (Oreilly's Running Linux worked wonders for me). Once you know a bit more about linux, gentoo install isn't too bad- it takes a long time, but if you follow the guide you'll do fine (unless, of course, you have unsupported hardware :/). My first install took a few days, but when I finished I had learned so much about linux and I ended up with a system a hell of a lot faster/more secure/better then red hat.

okay, after a few more tries at gentoo i still don't understand how its installed; neither the guide or this other guide i've tried helps much - can't understand both

is there actually an installer for gentoo?



though, i've come along a bit further in trying very hard to get gentoo installed, so:

1. for jollix: http://www.jollix.de/en/en_home.html , they list an installer : http://jetblackz.cjb.net/ but i can't see the page for some reason,

would someone mind opening the page and get to the section about installing jollix and then copy n' paste and then pm me with it?

or just tell me how its installed?


2. for navyn linux, i've tried downloading the cd, and then when it boots up it just says: " boot: " which then i don't know what to do

e.g. how can i start the thing or get to a prompt or console?


3. for vidalinux, are there other ways to download the thing besides the .torrent files?

i'm really hardcore firewalled and none of the torrent files seems to even find the server/ sources, much less start



thanks for all the help i can get



_

Yes, its text based. AIM me and I will help you.

The boot: prompt is the bootloader, you need to press enter here for it to boot.

Gentoo is quite hard to install and it is useful to have someone nearby to give you a bit of help at each stage - sort of "holding your hand" through it.

PMS has offered to give you a hand - if you need any help and can't get a hold of him feel free to catch me on AIM/MSN/IRC.

if u use the anoconda one...yes...is that one like real gentoo though? like is the speed really there?

No, none of the 'installers' are like the real Gentoo. If you look most of them are 2.4 kernels and all the packages are precompiled. Its most similar to a stage 3 install but it is still going to be slower. I say if you are going to install Gentoo you might as well do it the right way. Stage 1 from scratch. Compile everything and tweak everything, if you want the full experience. Otherwise Id look at something else all together.

You want fast, Stage 1 Gentoo.

You want easy, Fedora/Mandrake.

ahh...jw...do these have portage? see id try a gentoo isntall, prob is, i cant exactly go more than a day w.o my dually...i heard for some it takes 3 days...1 day for the base install, and another 2 for the rest..

im tired of fighting with things doing the dependency hell dealy...tried apt-get for suse....that was a failed battle

They should all have portage as thats one of the best features of Gentoo.

One of the rsync servers seemed to be (for PPC at least). Tried to install a few days ago and was forced into downloading Debian untill I can get ahold of another address.

What?