[lug] linux Distro install woes

[Lee Woodworth]

Michael Belanger wrote:
> On Wed, August 31, 2005 3:18 pm, Lee Woodworth said:
> 
>>Michael Belanger wrote:
>>
>>>Debian is good -- once you do get it installed and working.  I have yet
>>>to
>>>successfully get a running gentoo install -- and I really wanted it to
>>>work.
>>
>>What didn't work for you? I have six systems with gentoo (AMD64, Athlon
>>XP,
>>PIII, Celeron). It does take a long time to recompile everything from
>>stage 1
>>on slow machines (24 hours+ on a PIII 1.1Ghz laptop), and you do need to
>>get
>>grub installed right. Other than that it it isn't a lot harder than other
>>distros.
> 
> 
> I think I got lost in the install instructions, they are pretty thorough,
> but there are a lot of steps.  I tend to be less of a details person so I
> really wanted less steps to get a basic install up and running.  After an
> hour of going through the process, I had to stop and do other things
> (jobs!  They just get in the way of things sometimes).
> 
Some people in the project are building an installer. Might be easier
for new users in a few months after it is out of beta.

> Six Systems!  How long does it (did it) take to gain the Gentoo mindset? 
> How much time does it take you to do a fresh install of gentoo now?
> 
Its hard to say. I boot the mininal cd, configure the network, start ssh
and then work from a remote system. I start a process in a console and
work on something else. The elapsed time for bringing up a minimal
system is probably 12 hours on a newer machine. Most of that time
is rebuilding gcc and glibc.

> I have to rebuild my home system soon.. If I choose to try it again, is
> gentoo good for desktop users... non-technical ones? ( I am the only
> person that can navigate the inards of linux there)
Gentoo can be configured lots of ways, even for embedded systems.
There are about 10,000 or so packages that one can install: KDE,
GNOME, KOffice, OpenOffice, scribus, inkscape, GIMP, xsane, ...

For end-users the usablity as a desktop is pretty much the same as
other distros. You can install the same things. You will need to be
more knowledgeable than for other distros for administration though.

Your goals are really what determine whether gentoo will be a good
fit for you. I see gentoo as being real useful for people that want to
really learn more about how linux works vs. just using it; and for
people that are particular about how their systems are configured,
e.g. right down to compiler switches and package feature sets.

If your goal is a minimal-thought configure/admin system, gentoo
won't be satisfying. With gentoo you make choices and reap the
rewards/suffer the consequences.