I Finally Installed Gentoo

The Frustration Was Worth It

from JoeUser Forums
I had been wanting to build a source-based Linux OS on my laptop for some time now and recently decided to have a go at Gentoo. I knew going in that it would be a little bit of a challenge as I had never used anything but the binary pre-packaged distros before now.

After a great deal of hair-pulling, frustration, and giving up three times, I finally got the OS built and running. I feel pretty good about it. I have to say that in the past few days I have learned more about my computer and Linux, and the way they work, than in the past several years of using pre-packaged operating systems.

Having been compiled and optimized on my computer, the system runs a good deal faster than any of the others every did. Boot up is short and sweet and applications launch in the blink of an eye. Not bad for an old Armada M700 running on a PII 399MHz with only 256M of RAM. I know, not exactly top of the line, but it's what I have at the moment.

It's been a frustrating and difficult few days, but it was also a lot of fun. I am now thinking that my next project may be a Linux From Scratch, but that can wait a while. I'd recommend everyone try it at least once. Very educational.
65,532 views 17 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Given up on Mepis already?
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
No, I didn't "give up" on Mepis. It's a very good distro for what it is. Very good hardware detection and easy installation. I would highly recommend it for someone just getting started with Linux.

I prefer to configure my settings manually than use auto-configure tools so that I know exactly what is going on in my system. Besides, I enjoyed the challenge of building the system.
Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Enjoy Gentoo, its great!

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Someday it would be great to get to that point! I've never met a disappointed Gentoo user, although I clearly don't have the skill to get there yet. Fedora Core 3 has been great so far, but I'm really thinking of trying to compile my own kernel for faster boot-up. Got to do some more reading... congrats, tho!
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
Actuallly, compiling a kernel is pretty easy to do.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I just have a hard time deciding which options in the config are necessary and which are superfluous. The last one I attempted ended up killing my linux install (thank goodness /home was on a different partition). Easy for the experienced, daunting for the linux newb (me).
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
It can be dauting the first time or two you do it, but once you compiled your kernel a few times it become much easier. After a while you'll forget you ever thought it was hard.
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
Well, after using Gentoo for a little while I've gone back to my old tried and true Slackware. As nice as Gentoo runs, the compile times were just wearing thin. "If it moves, compile it" just gets old after a little while. Slack is fast and stable, and being the oldest distro still in use, obviously has a lot going for it.

Gentoo was fun and it was educational installing it, but there is something to be said for being able to have a fast, stable OS up and running in just a couple of hours instead of several days. Not ot mention being able to upgrade a package in a few minutes instead of a few hours.

Seems like no matter how many different distros I try, I always wind up back with Slack. Guess I'm just a Slacker at heart.
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It is ALIVE!!!!
Another dead thread returns from the depths of the WC archive.

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Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top
Wow this thread's been dead a long time

Actually I have tested Ubuntu, among many others. It was strictly for testing and review purposes. Slackware is my primary OS and likely always will be.

Ubuntu is ok, but still has some bugs to be worked out. Besides, Debian based systems are just too friggin slow.
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Not again.

Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Ah, this week's second year old resurrected thread... must be a good week
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Bit dusty in here....
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
<-- I love that animation!

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Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
LOL.

I have used Fedora 1-5 for a while now, but I seem to be finding my self in Windows (no matter waht version it may be ) a lot. So, I have given up on the Linux ride, but at least it was fun while it lasted.