Gentoo questions

[MerePeer]

Reading a bit about Gentoo for my install soon...I dont see it specifically say that it can shrink an existing ntfs partition, so assuming it does not (reply if you know it can), should I first install Mandrake 10 official which I think does shrink, then rewrite the new ext3 partitions with Gentoo?

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=1&chap=4

thx.

[Bok]

I don't believe Gentoo has any tools for shrinking existing partitions. I would tend to just use partitionmagic for that ahead of time. I guess you are dual booting ?

Glad to see you are going to try Gentoo though. Are you going to do a bootstrap install or just stage 3?

What hardware are you using for this?

Oh and prepare to enjoy using emerge :cheers:

Bok

[MerePeer]

I downloaded install-x86-universal-2004.1.iso and was going to just let it fly and stumble through the prompts as best I can. Its a livecd -- I dont know if thats stage3 or bootstrap. Don't need a fancy server setup. I was hoping if I got stuck I could post here for more of your advice -- thanks! System hasn't arrived yet. I was thinking an initial dual boot would give me fallback+ access to whatever devices that Linux might not have drivers for yet, ex: dvd+rw.

[Bok]

Most of a gentoo install is done over the net.

You boot into the livecd (which usually is fairly compatible with most any hardware :) )

You can choose to do a bootstrap, stage1,stage2 or stage3 install.

The differences are really that a bootstrap starts off by compiling the compiler....., then you start compiling everything else. It's not that difficult and the documentation is excellent... but I'd really just recommend doing a stage 3 install, this means you would use Gentoo's optimised defaults rather than the optimizations for your specific hardware. In 99% of cases there will be little difference anyway.

If you follow the docs carefully, I think you'll have little trouble. But I'll help any way I can, either on here, or PM me and we can just use email.

Bok

[MerePeer]

I got through the install and can boot Gentoo off my hard drive BUT...

I hit a problem that apparently is widespread for 2004.1 -- eth0 doesnt work so I have no net access (same problem from live cd) http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=49230

In the bugzilla is a link for a 2004.2 test iso which I am downloading to burn. I'm not clear what to do after I reboot with this new livecd. I was using a universal, the size of this (70MB) looks more like a minimal livecd. I'm guessing my kernel needs to be rebuilt and reinstalled on the hda6 partition.

:not giving up on Gentoo:

[MerePeer]

And I thought "emerge gdm" and "emerge gnome" were pokey...apparently "emerge openoffice" means 'see ya tomorrow'! :sleepy: Hopefully not...next week!

Anyway...

I'm not convinced that recompiling from scratch (i.e. Gentoo) is the way to live unless you really desire this customized O/S and have lots of time & horsepower. I'm wondering if Debian (Slackware?) might be faster? easier? to keep in sync since it sounds like it is pkg-based updates, not this source approach. I also wasn't impressed with the "bug fix responsiveness" of the Gentoo team, i.e. fixed it internally but no official patch release until end of July -- especially since it was a bug in their own cd creation app. Enough venting. I rebuilt w/a 2.6 kernel to get through it.

Here's a few questions:
* I did an emerge sun-j2sdk and it worked, but I don't see it listed in the world file. Will it be kept up to date when doing an "emerge update"? Why is it called blackdown? I got version 1.4.1, should I just stick with it because it is more compatible w/gentoo stuff even though I would prefer Sun 1.4.2_0n?

* Can I simultaneously emerge more than one at a time? If so, is there a chance they will step on each, i.e. not synchronize their activity/file updates, perhaps for common dependencies?

* Can I stop an emerge that is taking forever? using ctrl-c? what harm?

* To get email I assume I should "emerge evolution"? Then do I need sendmail/anything else?

* If I want to run a "newer" version, say, of Gnome, than what emerge 'found' using the vanilla "emerge gnome" command I used, is that a bad idea because of compatability issues? i.e. does the Gentoo emerge list reflect versions that are known to be compatable with the Gentoo kernel I have built?

Thx.

[MerePeer]

Nevermind questions above. I had to reformat the drive after Mandrake 10 messed up the NTFS partitions during the shrink. { I had better luck second time using http://www.sysresccd.org shrink. }. I wiped off Gentoo and now have Debian "Sarge" -- so far so good! :)