Gentoo Linux 1.4 rc4 released.

[CougTek]

You can get it here.

Then, explain me what to download from the page I linked and how to install it.

 

[SteveC]

Download either the basic or 3stages version here. Although the installation is fairly straight-foward if you follow the directions, it does take a very long time, and requires patience. The installation instructions are here (the French directions are out of date). If you start with the 3rd stage, it'll save a lot of time, but if you want X and KDE installed, it'll still take forever to compile. Make sure you try the install on a computer you won't need for a couple of days. Check over the other docs and forums for more information.

 

[Howell]

Make sure you try the install on a computer you won't need for a couple of days.

On what speed of computer?

 

[SteveC]

Make sure you try the install on a computer you won't need for a couple of days.

On what speed of computer?

All but the fastest of systems. This should give you a good idea about how long it takes for KDE alone, for various different processors. My lowly Durons will take over 24 hours!

 

[Dozer]

Good grief!

Any explanation as to why it takes so long?

Just curious.

 

[P5-133XL]

The next question - What does ithis version of Linux do special that is worth all this trouble to install?

 

[Mercutio]

Fully optimizes itself to your hardware, taking advantage of whatever unique improvements have been made with your CPU, motherboard chipset, memory controller... It's a half-step easier than doing a "roll your own" linux system and the results are supposed to be very impressive. I keep meaning to give it a try but I haven't been able to download it yet.

 

[Howell]

Fully optimizes itself to your hardware, taking advantage of whatever unique improvements have been made with your CPU, motherboard chipset, memory controller... It's a half-step easier than doing a "roll your own" linux system and the results are supposed to be very impressive. I keep meaning to give it a try but I haven't been able to download it yet.

And this is the very reason it takes so long to intstall. Since it installs just about everything from source it has to compile just about everything. I understand KDE is a particularly big program.

Besides, the speed benefit Merc meantioned, the system used to install software is related to the system used in BSD. It is supposed to be much more reliable with regards to dependencies than other package systems.

Finally when it comes time to upgrade various parts of the system for security patches or increased functionality, other distributions will let you download the new version and install it and they'll even let you download the source for that package and compile it even including the same optimizations that Merc meantions. However, if you want to upgrade Gentoo you'll set the optimizations globally and then the the machine to upgrade (whatever the actual command is?) and it will download all the programs that are already on your machine and build all the programs with the optimizations you specified.

Once set in motion it takes longer and you can't use the system until it's finished but there is much less touching start to finish.

 

[SteveC]

However, if you want to upgrade Gentoo you'll set the optimizations globally and then the the machine to upgrade (whatever the actual command is?) and it will download all the programs that are already on your machine and build all the programs with the optimizations you specified.

emerge rsync (to get the latest list of programs available)
emerge -u system (to update everything on your system to the latest)
emerge -u program-name (to update just one program)
emerge program-name (to install a new program)

Once set in motion it takes longer and you can't use the system until it's finished but there is much less touching start to finish.

AFAIK, there's no reason why you can't continue to use the system normally while it compiles the programs in the background.

 

[CougTek]

Although the installation is fairly straight-foward if you follow the directions, it does take a very long time, and requires patience.

No luck with me :-(

 

[Howell]

Also, I imagine it shouldn't be too bad on dial-up since you are mainly downloading text files (the sources) and not binaries. Granted, I don't know how big the source files are but at least they benefit more from modem compression.

 

[blakerwry]

but binaries are much smaller than text files to begin with... im thinking it'd take longer to download the source than to download the binares (you ever compare filesizes on self made programs?)

 

[Howell]

(you ever compare filesizes on self made programs?)

er.. not recently

 

[ihsan]

Although the installation is fairly straight-foward if you follow the directions, it does take a very long time, and requires patience.

No luck with me :-(

Ditto.

I can never understand on how the Linux kernel should be configured correctly. Never had even once, a successful kernel compilation. Why can't it be as straight through as FreeBSD's or OpenBSD's? Why can't it highlight the necessary dependencies (in the config file for instance) instead of spouting errors here and there during compilation?

While I'm quite liberal with my time but certainly it tested my patience.

 

[Buck]

In the next couple of weeks I'm going to try Gentoo, ArkLinux, RedHat 9, and perhaps some other versions on an nForce2 board. We'll see how things go.

 

[CougTek]

I tried to install it about half an hour ago. The adventure didn't last long : there's apparently no support in Gentoo for my Adaptec Single64 NIC.

I'll try it again when I'll have another NIC or another power supply for my test machine. I had to give the PSU in replacement to a customer that is waiting for an RMA.

 

[CougTek]

There might be hope afterall. Someone on Gentoo's forum told me that there is a driver for my NIC, but on a different name than what I thought it should be.

Here's the thread where I learned that. I'll try it soon.