I'm planning to try Gentoo...

RIV@NVX

I have got the install CD and packages CD, and I will have universal CD tomorrow hopefully. I like to experiment with various distributions, even if I have already picked my favourite. Who knows, I might like something else. Only couple of questions:
1) Can I install offline, considering I have both CDs? If yes, what can I install offline (GNOME, KDE etc.)?
2) As I wouldn't like to destroy my Ubuntu installation for nothing, can I install it on a Laptop with Celeron 2.2? Will the installation run at acceptable speed?
3) How good is Gentoo at hardware detection and hardware support?
4) Will I be able to install ATI/NVIDIA binary drivers with it? (Since ATI uses RPM package managment, and Gentoo, well, has no package managment?)
5) How about non-free software such as Skype or Opera? (Not that I use any of it, but I just want to know in advance.)
6) Will Gentoo handbook be enough or do I need to know something more?
7) Any other directions or suggestions?
Thanks for any help.

Scar_T

If you want to install everything offline (even desktop environments) you should have the Universal disc, plus a package CD whith additional software such as Gnome, KDE, etc.

The installation speed would be good enough if you choose install it from stage 3. Believe me, install from stage 2 (not even say stage 1) it takes A LOT OF time, but in other hand you Gentoo will run as hell .

By my personal expierence, is not good, I had some problems configurating my sound card :/

I have a nVIDIA card and I had no problem for install it . But I don't know about ati's.

I've never install those apps, so I can't tell you about it .

Gentoo handbook is a really good documentation, I think that would be enough to start .

You should considere what you want, I mean if you want a very very fast SO, you should install it from stage 2 (or even 1) but only if you want to use "specific building" options and, obviously if you want to await for about 2~3 days installing this distro ;p (that took to me). But I'd suggest you install from stage 3, you will have a really good distro .

UberLord

Yes to the above. As to the speed of installation - that depends on how you install. For reference, a stage1 on my laptop (1.6 Celery) took almost a day for just the base system (ie toolchain, kernel, boot to a prompt)

No idea. I tell the kernel what hardware I have.
Easier this way imo - provided you know what driver you need for your hardware
Gentoo does have package management! Bleh
In the case of the ATI driver, it downloads the rpm, extracts it to a temp location and then plonks the binaries in the right place.

Both those packages are in portage. So are games like UT2004 and Doom3 - however you do need the CD's to install 100%.

To get a basic sytem going, the handbook will suffice. If not, ask here or at http://forums.gentoo.org

Avoid ricer CFLAGS. Seriously - causes more trouble then they are worth imo.

RIV@NVX

...and I haven't even started installing it yet. Initial impressions:
1) Splash screen + very nice icons at bottom!
2) COLORED TEXT when booting/detecting hardware! From what I tried, only Knoppix has this... and I like seeing something that cool on more distros!
3) It offers me that so l33t feel (even I didn't find anything about it in Gentoo manual ), while still beeing ugly and outdated, just the opposite... pretty cool combination.

I have barely started reading it, but I already see that Gentoo Handbook rocks. Great documentation; not something I see very often.

I will install it this weekend on my father's laptop (great machine for playing with software since it's not used for anything useful at the moment).

UberLord

If you like that, checkout unstable baselayout networking and guide which I maintain
http://dev.gentoo.org/~uberlord/net-book/

All my own work - code + documentation

Malus

Gentoo is like the FreeBSD of the Linux world. Probably my favorite Linux distro (other than Slackware) that I used during my shortlived Linux days.

RIV@NVX

Speaking of BSD, I tried PCBSD 0.6 beta on my father's laptop (Toshiba Satelite 1400 or something) and I couldn't even install it. It hangs at the following:
Also, Gentoo is getting it's chance on this laptop today... (at college of course, since I will probably want to install something more than just what's available...). I will report what happens.

Malus

Looks like a problem with USB. Odd. I hsve never actually used PCBSD, so I don't know what they have done to the source code.

RIV@NVX

I have gotten somewhere; installation isn't that hard at all if you have the handbook and have no fear of the console. However:
1) What does it mean if fdisk -l shows a number followed by a + in the "Blocks" coloumn?
2) Is it worth manually configuring kernel before compiling? I mean, will there be noticeable speed or whatever improvements if I compile it that way?
3) What is an ebuild? Is it source, binary, somekind of package...?

Scar_T

It indicates that the value showed has been rounded, I mean, when it was calculated the result wasn't an integer, so it was rounded. Thus not all blocks has been included in the value.

If you do it correctly, yes you can see a really good improvement in speed and general performance, but if you has never done this, it maybe take you a lot of time reviewing documentation of your hardware, plus documentation of the kernel, etc., and in the end maybe you chose not the best options :/, but it's a really good expierence and you learn a lot, if you have enough time an patience, give it a try.

I'm not sure about this one, but according to me, an ebuild is like an script where it says all the specific steps (compiling, checking dependencies, etc.) in order to install an application.

UberLord

If you want a kernel tailored to the exact hardware you have so it uses less memory / disk space and is faster to compile then yes.

If you just want something that works then no.

You won't see/notice much of a speed increase. There are options to enable experimental features that increase speed/throughput/latency, but if you don't really need them with a decent rig.

As the previous poster said - it's a set of instructions to download, compile and install your application and its associated dependancies.

RIV@NVX

I installed it last weekend, and it's really cool. However:
1) If I wanted to upgrade something to newer version, I would need to compile it.
2) I couldn't get X.org to work nicely with xorg.conf it generated for me. (This is probably X.org problems, since it has some pretty crappy issues with Ubuntu Breezy development version)
3) It looks indeed strange - for the first time I'm using Linux where I don't get graphical interface right away, but instead I need to run startx, and when I log off, it just goes into console. BTW, how to shut down a computer from a linux console?
4) I also noticed that xfce is quite nice... not on par with GNOME/KDE, but not very far either.

I will stick to Ubuntu dev version for now (since it's quite bleeding edge compared to other distros), but I will definitly check Gentoo in the future, especially if it gets the installer (which, from what I have seen, looks great).

Kombatant

That's the whole point with Gentoo Unless you use the binary packages that exist for large programs (e.g OpenOffice)

I had no probs whatsoever with X.org since I updated from Xfree.. why don't you post your xorg.conf here and we'll see if we can help

For starters you don't have to get to get the console when you finish the boot process; you can add startx to the initialisation scripts. Since I don't remember where you need to place the command by heart, consult the how-tos in Gentoo's site. As for shutting down from the console, all you have to do is go to init 6, if I remember correctly.

Yes it is quite nice, but that file manager it has is a nightmare

Well, I use Ubuntu nowadays too and I can't say I've regretted it (yet). In any case, my old Gentoo partition is safely backed up, so if I have a change of heart, I will just restore it

UberLord

edit /etc/rc.conf and choose the display manager of your choice that you have installed
then "rc-update add xdm default" and volia - on next reboot or "rc" a graphical login manager is used!

To reboot from a linux console, one simply types in "reboot"

Kombatant

Somehow I knew you were going to post with the details, hence I didn't bother checking the Gentoo installation how-to

Scar_T

hehehe, I'm just too crappy myself ^_^, what i did it was to add to a line in the inittab file like this:

xi:5:respawn:/usr/bin/kdm

Yeah, i know, it's not the proper way to do it, but I was too lazy to read the gentoo documentation ^^;

RIV@NVX

Yeah, I know that, but how to shut down from the console?

Scar_T

"halt" or "shutdown -h now"