[petteyg359]

I am considering trying Gentoo... I have question first, though.

1. What install should I use (Stage 1, 2, or 3)?
2. How long will it take to setup on Athlon XP 2700+ (AFAIK it compiles everything from source...)?
3. Does it have anything similar to SuSE's YaST that allows changing settings and autoconfigures everything for that change?

[{PMS}fishy]

1. Stage 1.

2. To get to a base CLI OS, about 6 hours, provided you don't screw up, and you aren't using a ton of flags.

3. Not really. Everything pretty much needs to be set-up by hand. You learn more, and its portable between distros, which is a good skill to have. It does have one of the best packages managers though, if thats worth anything to you.

[petteyg359]

More questions then.

3. There's no stage1-athlonxp iso image. Should I just use stage1-x86 then?
4. Is it just the base system included in the 16MB of stage 1?
5. Does packages-athlonxp-2005.0 contain all the stuff like KDE?
6. Do any of the stages have built in distcc/icecream support? I may be able to set up distcc on some computers on my network, if that would make it compile faster.

[MRD]

Use x86, as there cannot, by its nature, be a stage 1 for athlon xp. The point of stage 1 is that you build it all yourself, so there is only one for all x86 architectures. The more specialized versions are available when you aren't compiling it yourself so you get the optimization available for your processor.

Stage 1 basically includes the bare essentials that you need to build the rest of your system.

The full CD contains most of the packages, but not everything. It probably has some version of KDE, which may or may not be out of date now.

I have no idea what distcc/icecream is, so can't help there.

[{PMS}fishy]

Originally Posted by petteyg359

More questions then.

3. There's no stage1-athlonxp iso image. Should I just use stage1-x86 then?
4. Is it just the base system included in the 16MB of stage 1?
5. Does packages-athlonxp-2005.0 contain all the stuff like KDE?
6. Do any of the stages have built in distcc/icecream support? I may be able to set up distcc on some computers on my network, if that would make it compile faster.

3. Nope, wouldn't be a stage 1 then. x86 is what you want.

4. All that is included is the code to build the base system.

5. It should have some version of KDE on there, but you are best to emerge kdebase, as it will be a newer version, and thats the whole point of a built from scrath OS, plus it will be noticably faster.

6. mmmmm..........icecream. Distcc is on the livecd, but not all packages can take advantage of it. Never bothered to mess with it myself.

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/distcc.xml

[DarkArctic]

Originally Posted by petteyg359

More questions then.

3. There's no stage1-athlonxp iso image. Should I just use stage1-x86 then?
4. Is it just the base system included in the 16MB of stage 1?
5. Does packages-athlonxp-2005.0 contain all the stuff like KDE?
6. Do any of the stages have built in distcc/icecream support? I may be able to set up distcc on some computers on my network, if that would make it compile faster.

3. Nothing is kept in a stage 1 install so you'd get the x86 package.
4. With stage 1 you'd download and compile all the packages of a base system. So technically nothing is included except a basic environment to build your system from scratch.
5. A stage 3 package would only contain the end result of a basic installation. So it'd be the same thing as if you started from stage 1, you end up in the same place with a barebones system.
6. The stages themselves don't contain distcc, so you'd have to emerge that after the install is complete.

I hope that answers your questions. If you have anymore just give another post. Have fun.

-DarkArctic

[Flamed_Chip]

Distcc works fine right from bootsrapping at stage 1. You might find this useful if it's your first install.

All you need to do basically is follow the install guide up to the section where you bootstrap, then before you do, emerge and configure distcc and add a line into your /etc/make.conf saying:

FEATURES="distcc"

and set your MAKEOPTS="-jN" line to equal the number of processors in the distcc cluster plus one. eg. MAKEOPTS="-j5" and it should use distcc.

There are however a few packages that don't use distcc, xorg is one of them, so the compile will still be fairly lengthy.

[petteyg359]

Does emerge/portage download stuff from internet? The only way I am able to connect my computer to the network is through a wireless card, and there is a module I can compile and load to support it, how early can I do that?

[{PMS}fishy]

Originally Posted by petteyg359

Does emerge/portage download stuff from internet? The only way I am able to connect my computer to the network is through a wireless card, and there is a module I can compile and load to support it, how early can I do that?

You can do that right away, provided that the live CD has the module that you need for your wireless card. It really is a heck of a lot eaiser if you can get a NIC that is autodetected, one less thing to worry about when you are installing.

Yes portage gets all its stuff from the internet, unless you get a package CD and use that, but again it will not be as upto date, but you can worry about that later.

Knoppix might have better hardware detection for you, it would be much eaiser if it had the correct drivers. Some of the newest versions even autodetect the wireless stuff, and you don't have to do anything.

[petteyg359]

I have the module on my Windows drive... Unless Gentoo is just a piece of crap (which I very much doubt ) I should just be able to mount my Windows drive and copy the module .tar.gz from there.

EDIT: After reading part of the handbook, it seems I'll need internet access to use stage 1. Guess I'll have to move my computer so I can plug it into the router.

Downloading the install-x86-universal iso now. When I boot from the cd, how will it access the stage1 tar.bz2 file?

[petteyg359]

Finished stage1, will be ready to compile a fresh kernel when I get home from school. I would like to be able to use distcc if at all possible because I want to get this installed ASAP so I can make use of it .

There's a 733MHz Via C3 with 256MB and a 350MHz P2 with 160MB both on WinME, can I install gcc/distcc on WinME, somehow? If I can convince my dad to let me use his laptop, then that's another 2.4GHz Celeron with 256MB available (on WinXP).

[petteyg359]

Originally Posted by {PMS}fishy

Knoppix might have better hardware detection for you, it would be much eaiser if it had the correct drivers. Some of the newest versions even autodetect the wireless stuff, and you don't have to do anything.

Knoppix supports it through NDISwrapper... But I don't want Knoppix (unless I lose a partition and want to use gpart from Knoppix (which is a very nice thing to have)). I've been using Linux off and on for almost 8 years (since I was 9 ) and I'm trying to go farther into getting stuff really tweaked. I love SuSE for easy install and ease of changing settings, but the startup time and KDE's bloat is getting to be too much, so now that I know basically the way Gentoo is designed, I want to try it.

[{PMS}fishy]

I was suggesting using knoppix to get Gentoo installed, and then setting up the wifi on Gentoo.

[petteyg359]

Explain that in a little more detail please (installing Gentoo from Knoppix)...

But... I failed to make Gentoo work this first time. Got home from school today, and compiled a new kernel and rebooted, but for some reason my Ethernet wasn't detected (for install, I set up my brother's WinME computer which is in the same room for ICS, and let Gentoo download stuff with that connection) after reboot (even though I rebuilt the kernel FOUR FRICKING TIMES trying with different modules), and I realized wireless-tools wasn't installed after I compiled the RT2500 module for my wifi card, so I guess I'm going to have to start over .

I may start with a Stage3 this time, as I'm impatient and don't want to have to wait until tomorrow to start using my computer again. Speaking of such, is there a way I can add a timestamp to the command line prompt so I can figure out exactly how long it takes to build to stage 3 starting from stage 1?

Also, after I rebooted with the new kernel, the text-mode was entirely different (different font, different screen size), and the Gentoo "bar" wasn't across the bottom of the console anymore. I thought about using genkernel to use the same kernel as the CD, but it seems that would slightly defeat the point of custom-compiling everything.

[Gnufsh]

Originally Posted by petteyg359

Explain that in a little more detail please (installing Gentoo from Knoppix)...

But... I failed to make Gentoo work this first time. Got home from school today, and compiled a new kernel and rebooted, but for some reason my Ethernet wasn't detected (for install, I set up my brother's WinME computer which is in the same room for ICS, and let Gentoo download stuff with that connection) after reboot (even though I rebuilt the kernel FOUR FRICKING TIMES trying with different modules), and I realized wireless-tools wasn't installed after I compiled the RT2500 module for my wifi card, so I guess I'm going to have to start over .

No need to start over, just boot from the live cd, chroot, install wireless-tools, recompile the kernel if you have to, and reboot

I may start with a Stage3 this time, as I'm impatient and don't want to have to wait until tomorrow to start using my computer again. Speaking of such, is there a way I can add a timestamp to the command line prompt so I can figure out exactly how long it takes to build to stage 3 starting from stage 1?

Like I said, you don't have to go through the whole install process, you just need to follow the steps to chroot into the environment (just don't re-format your filesystems).

Also, after I rebooted with the new kernel, the text-mode was entirely different (different font, different screen size), and the Gentoo "bar" wasn't across the bottom of the console anymore. I thought about using genkernel to use the same kernel as the CD, but it seems that would slightly defeat the point of custom-compiling everything.

You probably want to take a look at here for how to set up a nice looking console:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_fbsplash

my advice is to get a working kernel first, and compile a new one later with more features.

[petteyg359]

Started over from stage one with a lot more USE flags specified and -O3 instead of the default -O2, yay fast. I used genkernel for the kernel this time, so my ethernet worked after I rebooted this time. I emerged wireless-tools and tried to emerge rt2500, but it was masked and I tried to unmask it according to the gentoo-wiki, but it didn't work, so I just downloaded the source and compiled it manually. But ARRGH!!! iwconfig says 'no wireless extensions' on ra0. Eth0 stills works, though, but I'd like to get the wireless working so I don't have to have the ICS computer on all the time. Maybe I'll just switch the wireless cards (the other computer's card is a Prism2 chipset, so is supported by the kernel)...

BTW, I'm posting all these in Windows since I can't log in to the forums using either lynx or links2. When I go to the login page and click the login button, it just reloads the login page, and I never actually get logged in.

[electrorcamd]

Try logging in on the forum's home page. I kept having problems like that too, but I eventually figured it out (don't remember how) and was able to make a few posts in both lynx and links.
As for the wireless, just run iwconfig by itself and look at the interfaces it lists. It might assign it to wlan0, not ra0. Also be sure that the module is loaded for the rt2500 (not sure what the name of the module is).

[petteyg359]

Tried logging in from the home page too, didn't work.

The default name that the module uses is ra0, and that worked in SuSE 8.2, 9.2, and 9.3. If I were going to change it to wlan0, how would I do that?

Just tried switching wifi cards with the other comp, but apparently that other comp mobo has PCI 2.0, the Asus card didn't work in it (Windows didn't even see it).

[petteyg359]

Figured it out. Needed to enable config_radio in kernel. Should work now. But:
How can I get colored console back? I did everything according to the fbsplash thing on the gentoo-wiki but still nothing shows. GRUB has a splash, and the console text is a different font, but I'd like it to be the same as the LiveCD, and I'd like it that way on ALL consoles (as in keep it that way when I hit alt-f2 alt-f3 etc.)
I also want colors in ls in every dir, which is also gone. I compiled this new kernel with genkernel, I though that made it like the livecd...

[Gnufsh]

To get every console graphical, you need to add splash to a runlevel (eg rc-update add splash default), like the wiki guide says. If you want higher resolution, you need to specify that on the line with the kernel in grub.conf. As for color in ls, I think you need to add:

Code:

alias ls="ls --color=auto"

to .bashrc (in the home directory of the user you want to have color ls by default) or into /etc/profile.