The Gentoo project released today the fourth RC of their upcoming Gentoo 1.4.
Gentoo 1.4-RC4 Released
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Does “RC” still stand for “release candidate” in the world of Gentoo? What does it even mean, release candidate FOUR? Come on guys, poop or get off the pot. THis “RC” stuff has been going on for months. Who do you think you are, Debian?
OTOH if RC means something else in Gentoo land, like maybe “really cool”, then apologies all around. Gentoo 1.4 “Really Cool-4”, yeah, I like it!
I thought there were some promises going around that RC3 was to be the final release candidate. They even had a (what I thought was) an April Fools joke in their newsletter announcing RC4 … guess it wasn’t much of a joke.
Oh well .. go Gentoo!
Yes indeed, it does stand for Release Candidate, and it means the fourth release candidate of the 1.4 Gentoo base distribution. It is the software that you use to build the distribution on your particular machine, and does all the hardware detection, software setup, etc… It also includes all the changes to the base layout, the software management tool (portage), and so forth.
Gentoo 1.4 was originally supposed to be released last September 2002 (if I recall correctly). However, instead we ended up getting rc-1. Somewhere along the line, development stalled out after rc-2 (early January 2003), but they introduced a new release process sometime in February, which hopefully will culminate in a successful 1.4 release.
There isn’t an official announcement yet on the front page, and there are only stage1-3 tarballs released for x86 as yet. There are no updated livecd’s and nothing to indicate that this has been “oficially” released. Maybe in the morning there will be livecd’s and tarballs optimized for different archs as well.
There are livecd’s right now after all. I had just looked at the sandia labs mirror and they hadn’t gotten the livecd’s yet. My bad.
This release looks similar to the rc3 release: no GRP, no tarball or cd’s optimized for various x86 archs, etc.
I thought there were some promises going around that RC3 was to be the final release candidate.
Not exactly…
Straight from gentoo [ http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86-install.xml ]
What happened to i686, pentium3, athlon, athlon-mp stages, LiveCDs and GRP (Gentoo Reference Platform)? Gentoo 1.4_rc3 is meant to be a minimal release candidate only. 1.4_rc4 will contain all the usual x86 architectures and GRP.
Remember Gentoo 1.3 was supposed to be beta, and 1.4 would be the final…damnit they take so long, stop teasing me…though 1.4 final will be the same as 1.4rc1 was…nothing changes in gentoo…stuff will still break, and it will still be gentoo.
It doesn’t matter what RC you run – it’s just the boot strap and installer. You download the most current version’s of your apps … so what’s the big deal?
A person with RC1 has the same system as someone with RC3 or RC4
Heh. The concept of release dates for Gentoo are somewhat arbitrary. I think I started my current setup with a late 1.3 release or 1.4 rc1. It’s been perfectly stable for me. 1.4 can never come out, for all I care. It’s not like Gentoo users are waiting with bated breath for a new release. It’s just a larger than usual “emerge world.” The last time I ran emerge was a few days ago. Let’s see what’s changed.
[ebuild U ] sys-kernel/development-sources-2.5.67 [2.5.66]
[ebuild U ] sys-kernel/mm-sources-2.5.67-r1 [2.5.66-r3]
[ebuild U ] media-libs/freetype-2.1.4 [2.1.3-r2]
[ebuild U ] sys-devel/binutils-2.13.90.0.20-r1 [2.13.90.0.20]
[ebuild U ] media-video/mplayer-0.90 [0.90_rc5]
[ebuild U ] net-im/gaim-0.61 [0.60-r1]
[ebuild U ] app-emulation/wine-20030318 [20030219]
Some new programs (the FreeType update is nice, I’ve been running it for weeks) but nothing fundemental. If you’ve already decided to use Gentoo, don’t let the “RC” status stop you. When the official version is released, you’re an “emerge world” away from running the latest and greatest. This isn’t RedHat or Mandrake we’re talking about
PS> 1.4 has been a long time getting here. But in the meantime, we’ve got a full GCC 3.2.x, glibc 2.3.x system with out-of-box prelink support and 3 new ports (PowerPC, Sparc, and Alpha).
I think they are waiting to get xfree 4.3.0 marked as stable. (Don’t quote me on that). Honestly, it seems like most people are using it already, so I would think they’d go ahead and slide it over there, but you never know.
Gentoo 1.0 was in a “release candidate” state for nearly 2 years (went up to rc6). Compared to that, 1.4 is still young. Don’t hold your breath for 1.4 final any time soon.
Is there anybody who actually downloads and installs 1.3 anymore ?
Seems that people have been using 1.4 for so long, they might as well make it final and then go for 1.41, 1.42, etc.
I mean has the 1.4 release candidates had any major bugs that were ‘showstoppers?’
http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?query_format=&short_desc_type=al…
^looks like there’s about 17 bugs that might block a release^
give or take 43, since there’s 60 blockers total (not all apply to the release though).
I got RC3 at the weekend and my AMD K6 laptop’s still compiling KDE 🙂
Awww… it’s another release… dammit. Guess that means I gotta download another 3 700meg ISOs, burn them onto my precious CD-Rs and upgrade my entire system while possibly losing data. :o/
Oh wait, I’m using gentoo.
# emerge -U world
–(X) minutes later–
Woohoo! RC4!
Not that it matters, I was running the latest stuff anyway.
okay, point here, I’m not release manager, dont qoute me as if I am.
no, the release isn’t done, ppc is still lagging behind, and livecds are being resolved and worked on by release team.
>Is there anybody who actually downloads and installs 1.3 anymore ?
No, there never was a 1.3 cd.
GRP, this takes time, unfortunately : ) . Theres also WIP on portage for new signing and hashing of our tree. Preliminary stuff is in place. Portage Tree is in a freeze, only required fixes go in at the moment to make sure all arches really are in sync and work.
And really, posting “its released” with a link to a ftp? bah, you people are even worse than slashdot.
Eugenia, you should probably link to the Gentoo mirrors page [http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/mirrors.xml] to prevent overloading ibiblio.org.
(Please remove my last post. I forgot to leave spaces around the URL)
Eugenia, you should probably link to the Gentoo mirrors page [ http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/mirrors.xml ] to prevent overloading ibiblio.org.
Slower than pigshit as per usual. Fucking gentoo
Fucking gentoo
Yeah, the jerks. What they hell do they think we’re paying them for!? Oh… wait…
i do like Gentoo, what i don’t have is the time to babysit a computer for several hours while Gentoo is compiling/installing, what i would like to see is another distro optimised for i686 with the base system & X allready made in to packages (preferably in .tgz with Slackware’s pkgtool for quick & easy installation) and development tools so a user can compile the desktop enviroment andor WMs & applications…
sorry Gentoo lubbers, i got other things to do then to spend time babysitting a computer while Gentoo compiles/installs, maybe after i get old & senile and am retired i can fiddle with a Gentoo compile & install…
“Awww… it’s another release… dammit. Guess that means I gotta download another 3 700meg ISOs, burn them onto my precious CD-Rs and upgrade my entire system while possibly losing data. :o/
Oh wait, I’m using gentoo.
# emerge -U world
–(X) minutes later–”
Yea enjoy downloading and compiling your entire OS while the rest of us are actually using ours.
I’d also like to submit Gentoo users as the most smug, elitist, most annoying “my distro is better than yours” group of the year.
Based on the constant “Gentoo Rulez your distro sucks!” posts I see daily I think they’ll be a shoe-in for next year’s award as well.
Does this do any good to BeOS or any BeOS-related project? Does this mean that OpenBeOS and all will be stuck on RCs for ages too?
</humour>
😀
sorry Gentoo lubbers, i got other things to do then to spend time babysitting a computer while Gentoo compiles/installs, maybe after i get old & senile and am retired i can fiddle with a Gentoo compile & install…
Luckily you don’t have to sit and answer “yes, yes, yes” before each file. Believe it or not – it can compile while you’re away, and it won’t catch fire if you leave the room while it’s on.
Sure, if you have to have a package right now it can be quite frustrating. But on a descent computer (>=1GHz) the compile times aren’t that long.
This is a damn release notice. Never fails to have constant bitching here. And to cheapskate… you are already senile if you actually sit and watch your system compile. Why dont you do large emerges before you go to bed?
-adam
> sorry Gentoo lubbers, i got other things to do then to spend > time babysitting a computer while Gentoo compiles/installs, > maybe after i get old & senile and am retired i can fiddle > with a Gentoo compile & install…
What do you mean “babysitting”? Do you not like leaving your computer unattended while it does things? There is absolutely no user interaction needed…
Yea enjoy downloading and compiling your entire OS while the rest of us are actually using ours.
emerge -U doesn’t download and compile the entire OS, it updates excisting packages, which can be done in the background without any problem!
And even if you are installing it for the first time, just leave it compiling during the night, or when you are at work or school. No problem there either.
It’s amazing how many people here are b!tching out of ignorance. Updating the system is as easy as emerge sync && emerge -u world.
Just type that in and the portage system will do all the work for you. No need to babysit. No need to download and burn ISOs. No need to stop using your computer (it compiles in the system and the system is usable even while it’s compiling and installing).
And to the people complaining about it still being an RC. I used to use Redhat then Mandrake (among many other distros) and I’ve actually found the Gentoo RC releases to be far more stable and less buggy than even the final releases of those distros.
People who use Redhat/Mandrake and such are too used to seeing a full version number revision everytime something changes. That’s done for marketing. Gentoo is a completely non-profit oriented distro that actually gives everything away for *Free*.
It’s amazing how many people here are b!tching out of ignorance. Updating the system is as easy as emerge sync && emerge -u world.
Just type that in and the portage system will do all the work for you.
While I don’t have any experience with Gentoo yet, the emerge world thing seems kind of … risky?
I mean, with one command updating your entire system, seems like there weould be a lot of room for error. I mean, does emerge world know about all of your existing config files from everything to KDE desktop preferences to mozilla bookmarks? What are the chances that something might get changed or overwritten that shouldn’t have? Is this process pretty much ‘bulletproof’, or is it like installing a newer version of Windows over and older version of Windows ?
Not much different than a “make buildworld” in FreeBSD, or an “apt-get update” followed by “apt-get upgrade” or “apt-get dist-upgrade” in the Debian world.
I love the premise behind Gentoo. I lack patience though. When I gain some…it is time to try it.
While I don’t have any experience with Gentoo yet, the emerge world thing seems kind of … risky? I mean, with one command updating your entire system, seems like there weould be a lot of room for error. I mean, does emerge world know about all of your existing config files from everything to KDE desktop preferences to mozilla bookmarks? What are the chances that something might get changed or overwritten that shouldn’t have? Is this process pretty much ‘bulletproof’, or is it like installing a newer version of Windows over and older version of Windows ?
Actually, it works quite well (most of the time). All of your /etc files are protected so a new version will not overwrite an existing version. Instead, you are able to go through the files and merge any changes into your existing files if you want to (or you can ignore the changes, or completely overwrite the existing file). It really is quite flexible and works similarly to FreeBSD’s mergemaster (or whatever it is called).
I dont see Gentoo users bashing other ppl or their distros. I happen to use Gentoo and love it. As someone who has used virtually every distro out there, I can say with confidence it ROCKS. I only wish other ppl could experience how much it kicks ass instead of writing stupid comments like “None (IP: —.dyn.optonline.net) – Posted on 2003-04-10 14:23:49”.
Yes Gentoo takes longer to set up….but whats worse….spending a day or 2 building an uber fast highly optimized system with the best package system on the planet (portage) then having the other 363 days of the year to enjoy ULTRA easy install, uninstall, upgrading, not a single dependency issue….everything done with simple single commands or Kportage ……………..or, I could have a simple 1 to 2 hour install and for the remaining 365 days have to put up with rpm hell, dependecy hell, finding the right rpms for the right distro, upgrading apps hell, configuration hell and all of that on a system that is less optimized. So, whos got the last laugh here?
Lets say the non Gentoo distro user wants to upgrade to Xfree 4.3 from 4.2 KDE3.1.x from KDE3.0……First you have to wait for the binaries to be created, unless you think you can brave a manual compile. Then you have to download everything. Once thats done you have to install one RPM at a time and hope youre ok on the dependecy side of things. Once thats done you have to hope it all worked out ok which is not very likely most of the time………..Now for the Gentoo user….. just before bed, I open 2 konsole windows and type ’emerge -u xfree’ and ’emerge -u kde’ in the other and go to bed. Next morning I restart X and wouldnt you know it Im all set to go.
This isnt a my distro is better than yours situation….its a Gentoo kicks ass, come see what youre missing situation…….I garauntee you wont be disappointed.
i do like Gentoo, what i don’t have is the time to babysit a computer for several hours while Gentoo is compiling/installing, what i would like to see is another distro optimised for i686 with the base system & X allready made in to packages
Uhhh, Gentoo has pre-built binaries for all of the big packages including X, KDE, GNOME, OpenOffice, Phoenix, Mozilla (I think), and I’m not sure of what all else.
This is a big speed up for those wanting to install Gentoo fast.
As for babysitting, well, you really don’t have to. I mean type:
emerge xfree kde openoffice mozilla xmms xine-ui ogle
and walk away. Come back tomorrow and enjoy your nice new system. It’s not like there is any input needed from you beyond that.
It depends on what you upgrade; for things like KDE and Mozilla etc., none of your settings are changed, because settings files aren’t created as part of the install process – they’re generally created when the app starts for the first time if they don’t already exist. That’s another reason that it’s a good idea to keep your /home on a seperate partition. That way if you decide to road-test another distro or reinstall your current one, you won’t lose any of your settings.
Sometime when you do ’emerge -u system’ or ’emerge -u world’ packages will be upgraded that do create default setting files. Instead of just letting the install script overwrite your XF86Config (for example), emerge copies the new file to a safe location and then presents you with a list at the end of the emerge process. At this point you can look at the differences between your current file and the new one and decide which one to keep. I have to admit that I found that daunting the first time it happened – I’d 28 updated files to filter through! – but it’s not that difficult.
As for the comment about Gentoo users being elitist; I find it odd that Gentoo users behave that way, if indeed it is true. Apart from a slightly more involved install process, I haven’t found Gentoo to be all that more complicated that any other distro that I’ve used. There is definitely a requirement to get your hands dirtier in terms of editing config files etc., but the docs on Gentoo.org are very helpful. And as far as I know, Webmin ( http://www.webmin.org ) is available for Gentoo. Webmin is usually the first program to go onto any Linux box I set up. Takes a lot of the pain out of configuration.
I think it’s fair to say most of us want the best possible performance for any OS we have. But as we all see, the best seems to demand the most time to set up and fine tune. I have tried to have Gentoo installed a few times. It took TOO long, especially on slower machines and it really challenged my patience. So I choose to compromise instead. I switch to Slackware.
And for ease of update, Debian is a sure winner, not to mention rock solid stability and security.
Wooow….waiting for GRP, had loads of problems compiling KDE 3.1
—
Regards, Daniel Harik
Blog: http://www.dharik.com/
Hmm… I’m not currently running Gentoo (My laptop went down, and hasn’t come back up
, but As I remember it, as someone who _ACTUALLY_ has used it, the forums were a friendly place to ask for help, the other users were polite, and no one was worried about who thought Gentoo was the greatest…
So what I’m really saying is cut the crap, if you havn’t used it and others think its great maybe it is. Oh and pull the stick out of your…. ears.
Once again the ignorance of the zealots shines through. You claim that you need to d/l and install one by one the files, in your example XFree from 4.2 to 4.3 and KDE to 3.1.1.
Lets see…..
apt-get update && apt-get upgade
ta-da! Updated, in under 5mins if that. For someone who has tried “virtually every distro” it sounds like you have only tried the old RPM based distros.
Well if you go to http://forum.gentoo.org and try to find some info on the `RC` “thingy”. Maybe you would get the meaning with it… For those who is to lasy to do that, it may be because it´s an opencource project. And thus it develops with time, not instant action
Thus rc4 is one stage on the way to stable, and there may be an rc5 to if the developers feel the need for that.
(Admins may correct my spelling if its bad somwhat
Ive used apt-get….its a great system. I would call it the second best system out there. If you dont want to compile anything than it would be the obvious choice. One advantage of Portage is that it uses ultra simple scripts along with the developers source…..thus, there is no waiting for binaries compatable with your distro etc. Most updated source is available in the Portage tree within 24hrs of release in my experience. Then there is the performance aspect of Gentoos USE flags and being compiled specifically to your system. There are other advantages and similarities on both sides, but its really not worth going into. If you want an ultra optimized compiled from source system go with gentoo. You want a binary based distro use apt.
…..btw, it takes a whole lot longer than 5mins to download KDE3.1
There is no need to “babysit” it’s as simple as
emerge rsync && emerge -u –deep world
off to bed and in the morning you have RC4.
It’s horses for courses, as most of these things tend to be. Religion and Operating Systems: two deeply personal things
Like I said previously, Gentoo is a little daunting at first, but the thing to bear in mind is that if you’re not obsessive about having every single update as soon as it’s committed to portage, then you really only need to install the packages you need once. Particularly with something relatively stable, like X or Mozilla. I update world once a month and even that’s probably too much for most packages. Security advisories are sent out regularly and that’s the only time you should really need to update certain packages.
> what i would like to see is another distro optimised
> for i686 with the base system & X allready made in to
> packages (preferably in .tgz with Slackware’s pkgtool
> for quick & easy installation) and development tools so
> a user can compile the desktop enviroment andor WMs &
> applications…
It’s your lucky day! Try CRUX ( http://crux.nu/ )!!
I used to use Gentoo but it’s growing too fast and is having to much bloat in the base system IMHO. Crux is a minimal system with a Slackware like, very light packaging system with a very nice ports system. It has all the good sides of Gentoo (source based, highly configurable…) without the bad sides.
I can highly recommend it to advanced users who’re getting tired of Gentoo.
-J
For those who have to go through the tedious process of installing gentoo along with X and gnome, etc. I suggest u boot knoppix and chroot to the gentoo partition after compiling the kernel, now I’m in knoppix and X is compiling away…. btw the installtion of 1.4rc4 looks better, it has a default framebuffer set up, with a sweet bg image while u compile from the live cd!