Gentoo Linux 1.4_rc2 has been released. There have been a huge number of improvements since the 1.4_rc1 release. A new release of Gentoo Linux is expected in 2 weeks time (est. 14 Jan 2003,) which will become 1.4_final or 1.4_rc3.
Gentoo Linux 1.4_rc2 Released
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Eugenia Loli
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I attemped the 1.4 RC1 install, but ran into a snag …
The biggest flaw about the docs, IMHO is that when you do an install, it takes quite awhile to compile everything and if you need to turn your computer off/reboot during the process, the docs (at least when I read them) do nothing to help you out in this regard by telling you when it would be safe for a reboot and when it would be catastrophic, and what actually you’re supposed to do when you reboot to get back to the point you were at, assuming you haven’t yet gotten to the step where you configured grub to boot into your new Linux partition.
Yes it does take a while, source-based distros aren’t for all, although the time taken is considerably slashed if you use a stage3 tarball. As for suspending the process, it’s quite safe as long as you exit out of your chrooted shell and cleanly unmount your partitions (/mnt/boot, anything else if you’ve split things up – separate /home, /var or whatever, and finally /mnt/gentoo). Once you’re “out” of your system-in-progress, even a hard reset from the CD live filesystem doesn’t matter in the slightest. When you want to resume just boot of the CD, remount the aforementioned, chroot back in and off you go. Obviously you shouldn’t do that while it’s in the middle of something (such as the bootstrap or an emerge) otherwise you’ll need to start that particular process again, but it shouldn’t be catastrophic. Good point though, I may suggest that to the doc maintainers.
Sorry, I meant “/mnt/gentoo/boot” not “/mnt/boot”.
1.4 rc2 introduces prebuilt binaries for most of the x86 and ppc installs so you can install the Openoffice, XFree86, KDE, or Gnome package sets without waiting for compilation. All the installs are pre-optimized for your specific CPU.
Heck sure they save a lot of time, and gives you more flexibility, now you have more choices.
But heck, the greatest attribute of Gentoo is the fact that it allows you to compile everything from source for the best performance.
I just installed Gentoo Linux for the first time yesterday. I used a 1.4rc2 stage3 install, and it took a couple of hours to install. Everythings been working really great so far. And it’s a great way to get your hands on bleeding edge software like kde 3.1rc5 (although rc6 is out).
In 1.3 there was problems with openjade when installing Gnome, with 1.4_rc1 there still was problems with installing Gnome because of openjade… and now 1.4_rc2 still the same old problem. Why not fix it? The fix is already available in the forums! Why not apply it so not every new user has to deal with it?!? Bad rep building is what I call stuff like that…
/Anon for flame-fear
[email protected]
“In 1.3 there was problems with openjade when installing Gnome, with 1.4_rc1 there still was problems with installing Gnome because of openjade… and now 1.4_rc2 still the same old problem. Why not fix it? The fix is already available in the forums! Why not apply it so not every new user has to deal with it?!? Bad rep building is what I call stuff like that… ”
My guess is that it is a personal attempt on Gentoo’s part to make your life that much harder… Maybe you said something about one of the Gentoo developers. Have you slept with any of their daugthers? Did you flirt around with their girlfriends? Did you steal their slice of Pizza? Did you make fun of their penguin headed slippers?
If not, my best advice to you is just to sit tight, and hope RC3 or the Final Gentoo 1.4 release fixes the problem. They might have overlooked the problem… There’s lots of bugs you know, and some of them do take time.
they give you the precompiled binaries so your system is up and going quicker, when you can boot up, start doing stuff and play around in kde or gnome, you can be productive while you run ’emerge -up world’ in the background.
That will rebuild everything. So you don’t have everything compiled to your architecture from the get go, but it makes things a hell of a lot easier intially.
Also, there has no print version for it. If you are trying to print -> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86-install.xml , it sucks. It doesn’t even fits in the print, which the width is too wide. They need to get rid of right side table to allow printer to print it easier. I have posted this issue in the Gentoo forums and they never improve and fix this issue. I had to save this on the hardware, tweak, put it into pdf and print.
Gentoo, sweet sweet Gentoo… meta distributions are the way to go. Reading announcements like this and knowing you already are running it even though it was 6 months ago I installed and the version I installed was 1.2.
Give it a try, compiling things from source doesn’t take that long and it can always be done in batches while sleeping or whilst at work/home, or in the background while continuing work as usual.
It’s all good.
Anyone know if this version actually doesnt suck on Alpha? For a distro that “supports” Alpha, its pretty sad once you get in and realize all you can do is run console tools and X without a window manager.
I tried using the GRP install of xfree and it seemed to install ok. I even ran xf86config and it seemed to do its thing like normal, only snag was when I went to “startx” it ran into a bunch of Xauth errors of different kinds and refused to do any more. Odd no?
They seemingly forgot to put the pcmcia modules in 1.4 RC 1, which required you to have 1.2 to boot off of and 1.4 RC 1 for the stage tar ball. Does anyone know if they remembered pcmcia support this time?
Everythings been working really great so far. And it’s a great way to get your hands on bleeding edge software like kde 3.1rc5 (although rc6 is out).
RC6 is in portage.
[ebuild N ] kde-base/kde-3.1_rc6
Yep, pcmcia is added, I just did my laptop this morning, running Fluxbox and now emergeing KDE 3.1
Listen this is a question not an opening for a new episode of distro wars.
Is the stage 3 version any faster than say Redhat 8 stock?
I am saying this because I read some other posts on how Redhat splits the optimizations options so that i486 is still supported but you get some of the i686 flags.
Is the stage 3 that much faster?
I say this not being some big RH loving smart ass. It has actually occurred to me that I use no special compile flags but on the occasion I compile my own software it always runs faster than the rpm version. Always. SuSE, Redhat it does not matter which distro I use. I am not using any special flags or anything special so it just seems odd.
I’m skeptical too regarding these so-called “speed increases”, from what I have read and understand, the speed increase is pretty small in the grand scheme of things. The price is also stability and broken packages. For example, many of the hardcore gentoo tweakers use x87 optimisations and so forth.
Personally, I run FreeBSD and compiled GNOME 2.0.3 from the ports collection and have found that the majority of the speed issues desktopwise relate to GCC’s really crap compiling of C++ code. Stick to C stuff like GNOME, and generally speaking, one doesn’t have any problems, and the speed is pretty good.
Yes, I have also compiled FreeBSD with tweaks, and noticed no difference in speed. Personally, I think the whole issue is an old wives tale.
Not sure what any of you experienced, but generally, I find Gentoo runs quicker (loading apps, compiling stuff), vs. RedHat 8.0 and Mandrake 9.0.
Being bloated might have something to do with it. Or just the fact that RedHat doesn’t officially give me an option to use my fav FS, Reiser.
“Is the stage 3 version any faster than say Redhat 8 stock?”
At what? Gnome? Unless you configure Gentoo with the SAME EXACT programs and the SAME EXACT settings its a moot point. I know that would take some effort, but that’s the only fair way to do it. Everthing else is conjecture.
In general while there may be some slight gain in certain situations when you compile your own, its just not needed to for both every app and the entire OS. I think people seem to forget that when someone compiles a binary they are already doing some optimizing on their machine. I would never argue with someone who wants to do some compile time options, especially for server apps, but its no magic bullet. Its plain silly to think that the developer for your binary doesn’t know how to compile his own program well.
Gentoo sure has its place and I have no problem with people want to compile there own, but the benefits of compiling your whole OS are waaaaay overrated.
I installed Gentoo a long time ago, back then it was pre 1.0. I must admit that I installed it mainly because Debian’s package system has out of date. I was very positively suprised and has been using it ever since. I even run it on my server since it allows me to tweak and install my own special version of some software, so that it doesn’t mess up with everything else.