Time to heat up those CPUs, Gentoo Linux 1.4_rc3 has been released. You can find LiveCDs, and stage tarballs at the Gentoo master mirror. At this time, the release includes basic x86 builds, PowerPC support for generic PowerPC, G3 and G4 systems, and Sparc and UltraSparc support.
Gentoo Linux 1.4 RC-3 Released
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w00t!
Downloading now!
Thanks Gentoo team!
Keep up the good work.
I certianly don’t want to recompile everything i just did yesterday.
Would like to use it, but I cannot install Gentoo with a dialup connection. It seems to require cable.
“If I use 1.4_rc2, just need a emerge and update, right?”
Right.
The rc3 doesn’t affect people who have already install gentoo. It’s just the install process that change.
When you have finish the install, having start with rc2, rc3 or final doesn’t change anything.
Glad to see they’ve made it to RC3. Gentoo has been one of the most fun things I’ve experienced with computers for a long time.
That’s one of the main reasons I use Gentoo… type “emerge -up world” and you have the very latest of everything, they can release 2.0 tomorrow and I only have to type that at the prompt to get it all automagically, less hassle free then Windows if you ask me.
Go go gentoo rangers.
Gentoo does have different types (stages) of installs. The stage three install CD has the most on it. Can anyone comment on how stage three install compares to Redhat (ie what does a completed stage three install give you)?
Stage 3 does not contain very much (no X, no Gnome, no KDE). But you don’t have to recompile the base system (compiler and bin utils) – it saves some time. At home I use a stage 1 system and on my work I use a stage 3 system: I really experience no difference between those systems – so I would recommend the stage 3 tarball.
If we use stage1 install, do we need any network access for packages?
Yes, you basically need network (fast) access for all stages
Hi all gentoo users,
I would really like to know if/when graphical installer will be included (ala anaconda). I’m not so experienced and I remember trying to install it once but I failed due to my inexpiriance with linux. However idea seems realy great and if install would be simplified I bet I would try again
dont expect a graphical installer anytime soon. the developers have plenty on their hands and i think the general concensus is that its good enough for their needs. but who knows!?!
Gentoo isn’t impossible to install using dialup, though it might take a lot longer for a working system then you’d like. I did my initial base installation for Gentoo 1.4-rc2 from a broadband connection, but I’ve installed everything since then using dialup (Abiword, Gimp, Epiphany-cvs, Gaim-cvs, etc.). Mostly, I just surf the web while Gentoo does its thing on a different desktop. My only issue is that (perhaps I didn’t check well enough), the Gentoo Install CD didn’t come with tools to install over dialup.
By the way, does anybody know if there is a GTK frontend for wvdial in portage?
Unlike the other distros, you never need to reinstall, so there is no real need for fancy installers. You are always up-to-date with the latest “packages”, and except for the recent 1.2 to 1.4 upgrade, you are always synced to the latest version with “emerge -pu world”.
Unfortunately the 1.2 to 1.4 transition (due to gcc 2.95.3 to 3.2.x) is causing most people to trash their old installs and try it fresh…interestingly though, you have 100% functionally equivalent boxes on a up-to-date 1.2 and 1.4 install…only difference is the compiler used (and perhaps a 0-10% speed boost).
Well, Problem was back in the (I think) 1.1 that I didn’t knew how to set up network card, pppoe and network; If there would be automated process (probing for network, writing it to cfg file…) I surely have had gentoo running allready. Typeing emerge world or whatever would become a dream even for newbies.
Nice work gentoo team!
Go Gentoo!! Keep up the good work!
Unlike the other distros, you never need to reinstall, so there is no real need for fancy installers. You are always up-to-date with the latest “packages”, and except for the recent 1.2 to 1.4 upgrade, you are always synced to the latest version with “emerge -pu world”.
Just for the record, of course there is also a (apt-get update ; apt-get dist-upgrade) under debian.
Having said that, I am a convert, having used debian for over three years. I really like gentoo’s development pace. While debian is still releasing gnome 1.2 packages 😉 I am using 2.2 under gentoo.
If only I could solve my font problems …
GENTOO WAS EASY TO INSTALL AND USER FRIENDLY! I always wanted to installl a fully optimized source distribution but every time I try I cant.
If you have problems with Gentoo (like broken fonts), I would recommend searching the forums at http://forums.gentoo.org. I would have to say that, since I started using Gentoo, it’s helped me resolve all problems I’ve had with it. (Like frozen-bubble segfaulting if you have an nVidia card)
Just installed on a compaq dl360 with hardware raid and it is much better than the redhat it replaced.
I tried xandros and it sucks compared to 1.4 with KDE 3.1.
Have you tried out the gentoo forums wow? Steve put a link to them in his reply I see
. Anyways, I highly reccomend them. It would have taken me at least twice as long to get gentoo up and running without those forums, plus there are things that I learned there that helped me do things I never knew how to do before (use fstab to automount windows drive, set up one of those slick bootsplashes ala Suse 8.1, and a variety of other tricks). I still check the forums even when I am not having problems just because everyone is so helpful and I feel like I should contribute when I can.
How much quicker is a build like gentoo compared to per-built distributions like Redhat/Mandrake etc?
curious
I would love to try Gentoo, but downloading (the source packages for) X, KDE, Gnome, plus all the needed apps is just not possible for me (and most modem users I suspect).
I don’t understand why Gentoo can’t put out a CD (which I would gladly pay for) with more packages on it. After installing them, modem users slowly update (and add new) packages.
Is there a reason this can’t be done? Anyone know?
just about a week ago i started to dl an rc2 iso… and something told me not to….
guess i might as well take a swing at this :o)
Who just downloaded RC2. I remember when I downloaded the ISO’s for the last release candidate for Mandrake 9 and then the final version came out 2-3 days later .. I was pissed
Why? It doesn’t really matter what you have dl’ed. When you install you download the latest of everything anyways so you’ll end up with the same system regardless of which iso you start with.
re: GUI installer
schumaker (IP: —.dsl.siol.net)
I’ve read some discussions about this on the Gentoo forums, basically you will not seea graphical installer on Gentoo anytime soon. You’ll find most Gentoo developers and users are against a GUI installer.
re: performance
matt (IP: —.wilog101.pa.comcast.net)
I think my RH8 with Gnome is a little bit quicker than my Gentoo KDE 3.1. However, there could be a couple of reasons. First it’s probably KDE 3.1, which is a little sluggish anyway compared to Gnome 2.x. Second, I started at stage 3 which means I don’t have the super-optimized system that I could have with a stage 1 install. Some people really optimize the crap out of their system with stage 1 installs and ‘USE’ flags and claim near instant OpenOffice and Mozilla startups.
re: Gentoo CD
Rimmer (IP: —.atgi.net)
CDs are available, check here:
http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/where.xml
In addition, if you download or get the GRP version, it has binaries for the big apps such as Mozilla, KDE, Gnome and OpenOffice. This way, you avoid spending days compiling.
For any others considering Gentoo, be prepared for a long and sometimes frustrating process. If you hear Gentoo is ‘easy’ to install, that is frankly a very misleading statement. The documentation on installing Gentoo is some of the best I’ve ever seen for OSS, but it still has some flaws. It assumes you know a few things about GNU/Linux, and you should. Whether you are a newbie or pro, it is critical that you follow the install guide carefully from beginning to end. Also, remember that the Gentoo forums are GOLD!!! I would have never got my system going without the forums. The process might be worth it for users that want a very lean, mean, customizable and upgradeable machine. Others might not like the ‘do it yourself’ compiles and configuration that comes with it.
Digging into config files doesn’t stop after installation, but is the standard way to get many things installed, configured and tweaked in Gentoo. I personally think it was worth it, but I’m still evaluating for the long run.
Wondering when I can update from 4.2.x
No, I haven’t tried the forums yet. I’ll try Gentoo again once 1.4 is released.
I’m compiling Xfree 4.3 as we speak
A simple emerge rsync, and then emerge xfree was all it took. I love gentoo!
“Have you tried out the gentoo forums wow?”
He may not have, but I did. I tried the LiveCD Install (which I believe touted would run on everything x86) for rc2, and it got as far as “Ok, booting kernel…” before locking up completely. After searching on the forums, the best I got was “try another version”. After doing so, I started from Stage 1 and was moving to Stage 2 using emerge, and emerge died, spitting out a page of errors leading to an unindexable object in zap() in some python script. Back to the forums, the best answer I received was “Yeah, the zap() function is kind of weird.” That was enough to turn me off to Gentoo for awhile, though I *do* agree that the concept is really cool, I just haven’t had luck with it.
I’ve used Mandrake a bit, and can say that if you have a PIII ( Athlon ) or above you will notice a significant boost. I will say at least 10% to 15% certainly for X and prob. the same for KDE and GNOME.
You also have to weigh the time to compile vs the benefit. Basically, I compiled TeX, Emacs, X, Enlightenment, AbiWord, Scribus, ( there were some other packages as well ) and it took about 12 hours to compile on a PIII 800 w/ 640 MB RAM. Since its all automated to some degree it wasn’t bad – went out and when I came back it was all done. The speed is noticeable enough that I’m keeping it. Plus emerge just makes everything easy.
I had the exact same problem you did installing gentoo, and basically found out that at least on my machine the way to solve the problem was to disable acpi in the bios. After you start actually building your system make sure that you compile your kernel without acpi support. Hope this helps you out. If I can help you out any further feel free to email me.
i have XFree 4 runing:
XFree86 Version 4.3.0
Release Date: 27 February 2003
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 6.6
Build Operating System: Linux 2.4.20-xfs_pre6 i686 [ELF]
Build Date: 01 March 2003
Before reporting problems, check http://www.XFree86.Org/
to make sure that you have the latest version.
Module Loader present
runs very nice under gentoo