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Yes, I know it is YAFLD (Yet Another Fantastic Linux Distribution - at least I think the F is "Fantastic..."), however it does break the mould.

I've always though it good to compile from source using either a Slackware or Debian setup, however Gentoo (and its port system) is a very classy setup & well polished.

Too bad it doesn't recognize my NIC and I don't know how to add the driver..

There are other sourcebased Distros like SourceMage,Sorcerer and others that are as fast with gcc optimisations. And their package system is much simpler ( just scripts in bash ). Writing your own ebuilds is much more work. They also have easy installation and everything you need. SourceMage even has a stable, test and a developers branch!

... give me spare time, bandwidth and disk space to give it a try on my iBook

This kernel sounds like it would be a welcome addition to any existing Linux installation, not just Gentoo. Where would one go about getting their patched kernel?

I found a bunch of pieces here: http://www.ibiblio.org/gentoo/gentoo-sources/

I have been watching gentoo with interest, but installing Debian onto my laptop was enough work for now. However, I'd love to use some of the work that Gentoo has done... but there's no real documentation or instructions on how to patch a standard kernel to bring it to the kernel used by Gentoo. Can any current Gentoo users explain how I would go about doing this?

As a follow-up to my own posting, download the linux-2.4.18.tar.bz2 package:

http://www.ibiblio.org/gentoo/gentoo-sources/linux-2.4.18.tar.bz2

as well as the patches to bring it to 2.4.19-gentoo-r5:

http://www.ibiblio.org/gentoo/gentoo-sources/linux-gentoo-2.4.19-ge...

then uncompress the kernel and patch it using the usual:

patch -p1 < ../path/to/patch/patch_name

This will bring the 2.4.18 up to Gentoo's newest kernel. Which, FWIW, has the needed ac97 patch for my Presario 700 already included. I'm recompiling right now, and look forward to O(1), preemptive, as well as a kernel with the needed ACPI and ac97 patches already included. Sweet.

I'm a relative newbie to the Linux world. I installed Gentoo after about three attempts (learning something with each atempt). It works beautifully. Their instruction is well written and comprehensive. I took it step by step and I have a working Gentoo system that I'm very happy with.

I attempted Sorceror and a couple other streamlined distros and got nowhere. I thought Gentooo relatively easy and a great learning process.

I put Woody on my Pavillion zt 1130, but the sucker ran so damn hot becasue the 2.4 kernel does not have support for the Advanced power controls. 2.5.x does not either.....I guess I will just have to wait.

my next Laptop will be a Powerbook though....1 yr. 9 months........can't wait.

Robert: Gentoo wont be working on your ibook, not any time soon anyways. Gentoo is x86 specific, which i find to be a dissapointment. I really dont understand why such a distro is x86 only, its not like GCC doesnt exist for the other architectures.

If you read the interview as well as check out their webpage you would see that they are currently working on a PowerPC port and a Sparc/Sparc64 port, when these are finished there is talk of porting it to the Alpha and probaly to the Itanic (IA64)

http://www.ibiblio.org/gentoo/releases/build/1.1a/

Richard, you're wrong - if you had read the whole article you would have found an answer to PPC support in question 10.

Btw, what do you expect - that a x86 user buys a PPC just to make his software available in binary form to PPC users?

I tried to install it but couldn't find module for network card Marconix (is it tulip?) well I was quite sad. I started to think about sorcerer or something like source mage... But since I noticed there is distro based on Gentoo with anaconda-based installer I want to know where to get it. So if someone knows please post reply. It's a bit hard for newbie. And I saw I should learn Fdisk... a got a bit unexcited, I really don't have time to go so deep, but I like my system being fast so if you have any suggestion please reply.

Ummmm...

ebuilds (portage's package definitions) are overglorified shell scripts using bash functions and an object oriented like approach called eclasses to share code between ebuilds.

ebuilds will be a tad harder to develop then something as simple as sourcer because of the USE settings system and the fact the installation process is sandboxed to prevent unauthorized writes to your real filesystem.

Be warned though: I've run into some trouble with updating and things not compling out of portage, although I fully admit this may be because I've been updating sproadically since 1.0-rc6-r15. Things I've had problems with since last night when I rsync'd:
- sudo (although that's been fixed)
- you have to edit the samba ebuild to remove quotas (this is more a linux problem, even the samba .h file says it)
- something else in libtif broke last night
- you have to hand merge your /etc files after an update.
- where my nvidia glx drivers once work, the glx part broke on a previous upgrade.

I like gentoo (or else why would I be running it? ), but it needs to polish some edges before I'd run it on a machine that I couldn't wipe out on a moments notice. Of course I feel that way about Linux in general.

Jeremy,

As you can see here:
http://kernelnewbies.org/status/latest.html
support for cpu clock/voltage scaling will be in 2.5 (if it isn't already).

Scroll down to the start of the list of beta additions. Sadly the link doesn't go anywhere useful. But at least it's coming.

I am using gentoo, not very long, since the release of 1.1a.

I think gentoo is the best distribution i have ever seen. I am developing myself (c++, most of the time console), and i only can say gentoo is THE distribution! I simply love the ease to use portage system. I always loved the BSD-Portage system.

However, i am happy with gentoo, and i don't think on changing to an other distribution in my dreams!

I havn't had really problems while installation, only with libpng, because the wrong libpng was in portage, they fixed that now...

Some problems with my printer and like that. But now everything GREAT!

I only can thank the gentoo-developers for bringing up a revolutionary system like that.

I've only been using Gentoo for about a month now (embarrasingly enough since I read about it in Leo Laporte's blogg) and I thought that I would chime in with a perspective that is biased towards the Debian users (I have been a big Debian user since 2.0 back in 1998).

Putting aside all of the bleeding edge compiler optimization crap -- which is mostly BS, so dont be dissapointed when your old PII 400Mhz doesnt run 10x faster-- Gentoo is great for two reasons:

1. most of the stuff is much more out in the open than Debian. Portage for all of the hype is simply a well organized mix of python-rsync-bash, a mix which in my opinion took a touch of art a touch of experience and a touch of genius. It is far far easier to get under the hood of than is apt, dselect or dpkg. How many times have you done something in dselect only to have some dependency conflict cause the system to suggest that you uninstall base-perl or something stupid like that? With Debian you can always back out, but I found that I would often not end up understanding exactly what had caused the problem in the first place. With Gentoo, all of this is much easier to diagnose. You end up learning more about the system, the packages and just how powerful a few basic UNIX tools can be when used together in the right way.

2. Gentoo is younger and therefore more approachable. Debian was probably like this before I joined the community in 98, but by the time VA linux was in full steam (99) approachinf Debian developers at conferences was like approaching Apple employees at MacWorld-- an exercise in restraint to say the least. All projects with success go this route of arrogance in the long term, but gentoo is fresh for the moment and that makes it a fun place to hang out.

That said, Gentoo is not without its problems. A couple of weeks ago, there was a decision to stop supporting XFS in the main bleeding-features kernel that has left me with a laptop install that is going to need some serious fixing. My attempts to install the most basic of services on the first server I built, mail (qmail), bombs during the installation and has not been fixed. Their rsync mirror system seems to be slow to propagate changes.

Still, if you have more than a passing interest in linux distros and want to get in on the ground floor (more or less), Gentoo can't be beat. Its the most fun I've personally had the halcyon days of lattes and changing the world that the web brought us.

I'll stick my hand up as someone else who'd like to try gentoo, but is prevented by my network card (netgear FA311) not being supported by the install

Hi,

I am using gentoo since 1.0
A migrated from slackware and I am loving gentoo!

I wrote down the installation-steps from the manual and followed them. I had no problem and some hours later I ha a complete system with kde3.
I had some problems with kde3 because of a typo (a jed did not shown an ascii-char...).
I am updating gentoo on a daily basis and didn't run in any problems, despite of a (solved) libpng version conflict.
The mailing lists a cool, a lot of high quality traffic!

Glück Auf,
Volker

Just a quickie, for all you guys who expressed their interest but complain about the nic that is not supported by install CD. Since this issue was mentioned something like 3 times out of 20 posts I decided to throw in a short comment.
First, you do not have to use install CD. Gentoo does not use any fancy installer, you get directly to commmand prompt right after the CD is booted. This was done on purpose: this allows maximum flexibility and makes it possible to use almost any method to kick-start your installation. Here are just a few:
1. The best one. If you have any kind of linux installed on the system (that will probably support your hardware already) you can just skip to create/mount partitions and go on from that point. Please take close look at the FAQ and various install instructions awailable from
http://www.gentoo.org/index-docs.html.
This is the best since you will be able to use your old distribution while you are building your fresh gentoo system. All the way through! That is you just reboot in the end and there you are!
2. You can get any boot disk, boot off that and go on as in previous case. Just make sure this boot disk contains whatever drivers are necessary to start you up.
3. You cannot find such disk? (Don't you have a resque floppy? Don't tell me you did not create one..) Still all is not lost. You can take probably more troublesome but most educating route . Download install CD and disassemble it. Replace provided kernel with the one you compile yourself, just make sure to compile in (or as a module) all necessary drivers. Assemble the CD and use it! Gentoo uses isolinux to create bootable CD. Try searching mailing lists. Also you will find help on forums and irc (#gentoo at irc.openprojects.net).

George

Sorry but I got my mother to install gentoo =), saying that this is not a newbie's distro is not well put. This is one of the better ways to learn, sure it takes time and alot of coffee. But you didn't learn to tie your shoes in 1 day did you?

Netgear cards use the tulip driver. during the install when you have to modprobe for your card "modprobe tulip" and you should be good to go.

i see alot of people saying they are newbies and trying it and getting frustrated. Gentoo is self proclaimed NOT a newbie distro. That said you can learn a schitt load doing an install and configure, and come out with a great machine in the end.

I have a few Gentoo boxen running, one of which is my file server at work running samba and netatalk to provide file and print sharing to about 30 macs and windoze machines. It has worked well for me - very well - but I don't "--update world" EVER. Key is to update what you need and check what version you are updating too.

Source Mage (formerly Sorcerer) and Gentoo are both excellent.

Source Mage is easier to setup, install, maintain, and upgrade, and has auto-healing capabilities unmatched anywhere else (except Lunar, which is a Source Mage/Sorcerer fork).

But this comes at a price. There is (currently) no versioning support, which makes it difficult to have multiple versions of, say, autoconf and automake, or a library you want several versions of.

Gentoo's weakness and strengths an almost exact mirror-image of Source Mage's ... where the one is weak, the other is strong.

Gentoo upgrades are tricky and risky (as the interview indicates), and you'd better know exactly what you're doing before you upgrade a package. It is a little more complex (but worth it for the sandbox safety features and version support). It supports versions, making it easy to have multiple versions of KDE, autoconf/automake, and various libraries present as needed, and has pretty good support for precompiled binaries when needed (e.g. Blender).

Both of these projects are important ... they have different but similar visions on how to accomplish something: leverage the power of source access with the simplicity of packaging a distro, so that normal folks using GNU/Linux can have the best of both. There is plenty of opportunity for both Source Mage and Gentoo to learn from one another and cross polinate while following their own visions (Gentoo desperately needs recursive rebuild capabilities, and the ability to audit dependencies in both directions ["I depend on that" as well as "these depend on me], while Source Mage really needs a sandbox scheme to make upgrades less intrusive (e.g. not clobbering a running X while upgrading a new one) and version support in its spell system so multiple library and application versions can coexist peacefully).

Whichever distro you use (and I use both), you will find the learning curve of dealing with a source based distro to be well worth it. Indeed, you'll likely find you're unable to go back to a binary distro, no matter how well packaged, once you've had a taste of the speed and stability a source based distro like Gentoo and Source Mage can give you.

What would be really cool is if Gentoo and Debian were combined. You could use Debian's branches to give you the binaries and the base distribution, and Gentoo to give you all the bleeding edge stuff, so in addition to: apt, dselect or dpkg, which would try to install the binaries (if available) you would also have emerge-apt, emerge-dselect and emerge-dpkg which would try to build the source and use the installed debian binary packages if they were available.

I'm thinking of something like this:
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/garnome-list/2002-May/msg00133.html

Note that if Gentoo added Debian support, it would allow it to automatically have a "stable" branch that was well debugged. It would also bring too great communities together.

Is such a distribution out there or will Gentoo do something like this in the future?

According to this link:
http://www.geocrawler.com/lists/3/Red-Hat-Linux/81/0/8286516/

"gentoo might now compile in Cygwin (on Win32), thanks to changes sent in by Erik Sittmann."

This web site:
http://www.obsession.se/gentoo/
or more specifically:
http://www.obsession.se/gentoo/contrib/Erik_Sittmann.jpg
seems to back it up.

Does anyone know how to compile Gentoo on Windows? How well does it work? Is GNOME or KDE ported?

I have been using Gentoo Linux for the past ten months as my primary work platform. It is *wonderful*.

At one point I got stuck on an installation problem. Daniel Robbins helped me fix the problem via IRC. I have never received better support!

These days, I run Gentoo Linux as a VMWare image hosted by Windows 2000 on a Dell 8000 Laptop --- my job requires this particular configuration. It works very well.

I hope to install Gentoo natively now that I have another hard disk to play with. Looking forward to trying ACPI now that it's included.

Eric, that is Gentoo the FILEMANAGER, it has nothing to do with the Gentoo, the Linux distribution.

Matt,
The fact that you have to merge your /etc files by hand after an update is by design. That way, any changes you've made (system specific etc files are very common - fstab, X11/XF86Config, make.conf, etc) don;t get overwrittem automatically. Besides, 90% of the time, the new etc file is just like the old unedited version (hence, no changes needed). My recomendation is to back up ther file before editing, then compare the backed up version with the new version (ala ._cfg0000_***) to see if anything really changed. Hope this makes sense and doesn't add confusion...

"(Gentoo desperately needs recursive rebuild capabilities"

emerge --update world --emptytree ?

"and the ability to audit dependencies in both directions ["I depend on that""

emerge foo --emptytree --pretend

"as well as "these depend on me]"

grep -r foo /var/db/pkg/*/*/*.ebuild

Gentoolkit has a nifty little script that summs the differences between the old and new config files.

if you only see lines eddited by yourself, you can emediatly delete the new uneditted version with a single keystroke.

fast efficient simple.

ebuilds are no bash scripts. They are written in python, aren't they?