Getting Gentoo!


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I'm trying to get Gentoo, but there's quite some selection for a stage1 tarball. Gentoo user which tarball did you get for your build? I saw the 1.4 release but there's also some bleeding edge new tarball. So should I stick to the 1.4 release or from http://dev.gentoo.org/~beejay/stages/ ? I've a Pentium 4. Some have Pentium 4 tarball along with x86.

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bleeding edge can be buggy and unstable, but for the most part I haven't seen any that are too bad. stable releases are just that...stable.

I dont know which one to get , lol ive got an AMD btw

oh...is gentoo 1 cd ?, east to install ?, come with a GUI on boot ?

You'd want the x86 one if doing a stage1 install, but if you have an Athlon XP and want a stage 2 or 3, then the athlon-xp would probably be best.Read the documentation as to which stage you want as the lower the number the more oyu need to do to get it working.

I've only done a stage 1 install, so I really have no clue whetehr a stage 3 comes with GUI or not...probably does. I doubt 1 and 2 do. Gentoo it probably one of the hardest, if not THE hardest distro to install, as you are installing everything on your own. However it's a great learning experience.

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I really have no clue whetehr a stage 3 comes with GUI or not...probably does.

For me, I just done a stage 3 on VMware following all the parts in the install guide --> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook.xml?part=1 where it says go here/go there for stage 3 stuff and there is definitely NO GUI pre-compiled or even included as src files.

You have to follow this --> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/desktop.xml to get either Gnome or KDE thru emerge... good luck (Y)

(and when the screen goes black during compilation, don't freak out, it's just Gentoo's inbuilt text mode blank screen screensaver. Just press alt once so yuo can see all the stuff scrolling up your screen... it takes a while to compile etc so watch a film or do something else - another PC if you've got one)

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I've only ever installed from the stage one tarball, mainly because I wanted to customize everything.

I have to disagree on the point about Gentoo being difficult to install. The installation guide is stellar -- it explains everything in detail step by step. Just follow it and you'll be good to go. This is one of the easiest distributions to install in my opinion (although it does take several hours as you usually compile everything instead of use pre-compiled binaries). The end result, however, is a distribution that is compiled for your hardware, and runs fffffffffaaaaaaaaasssssssssttttttttttttttt. Oh, the speed, it burns. ;)

~Colin

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Gentoo install is easy? What OS install do you define as "hard" then? Every single OS in the market has a detailed tutorial to install it. Gentoo has a lot more commands, and is a lot longer, than pretty much any other OS, thus quothing it the "hardest" installation.

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never tried a linux from scratch, did you? THAT one was hard to install :wacko:

gentoo is pretty forward once you get used to USE-flags and the system behind emerge. to get back on first question: doing a stage 1 takes a VERY long time, so be sure you keep yourself busy with something else, but be ready to check back every hour or so to see if something broke. i for myself am doing stage one installs from my more-than-half-a-year old 1.4-beta2 tarball, works out with no problem at all, although i'm using ~x86-packages and set up the system using udev instead of devfsd and compile glibc with nptl-support on kernel 2.6.x (love-sources are my choice, but for first time install if you are determined for some risk [as gentoo in it's base even now wants to use a 2.4.x-kernel] use gentoo-dev-sources so you get a 2.6.x-kernel). things mostly of the time break because of very aggressive CFLAGS, so first time you should only put in CFLAGS that are proven to be stable (CFLAGS="-march=athlon-xp -O3 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe" for a start on an athlon-xp).

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