Gentoo or Linux book

myrodofgod · n00b Joined: 31 Jan 2004 Posts: 4 Location: Phoenix

Im pretty darn new to this whole linux thing and my networking professor said that gentoo was the bomb so here i am. What i need to know (..please) is what book out there will give me an up-to-date, complete and beyound information on Gentoo or linux that applies to Gentoo. Im talking about everything from partioning mulitple hard drives and why, to mounting why and what it means, to what flags are and USE variables and how to use them effectively, i want them all!! Please give me advice on what book out there would be best, im a text book freak when it comes to learning knew stuff. Thanks guys and gals!!
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Vanquirius · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2004 2:28 am Post subject:

Hmmm...

I don't think you will find a lot of books out there about Gentoo Linux, mostly because it has got great documentation already available at the homepage. If you just start out by reading the install guide, you will have learned a lot about Linux.

I find it better to start studying Linux in general, since there is not a whole deal of difference between different distros. Mostly what changes is the packaging system and the init system, and an extra tool or another.
The best beginners' book about Linux I ever read was the one that came with the first distribution I ever got, Conectiva Linux. But that will be probably hard to find in the US and I don't know if there even is an English version available.
From studying a bit of the C language from books, I can tell that probably a good place to start is reading books of the type of series "Linux for dummies", "Learn Linux in 21 days" and "Linux in a nutshell". They are quite softcore, but easier than diving into some specific topic.
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stgreek · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2004 2:33 am Post subject:

No books for Gentoo AFAIK, but the installation guilde should more than cover you for installing and these forums for everything else...Plus, the magic of tweaking and playing (breaking) around with stuff yourself is lost when having the "Redhatdrakesuse Bible" on your desk ;-)

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cyrillic · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2004 3:04 am Post subject:

Gentoo is too fast of a moving target for a book to keep up with. Your best bet is to just install Gentoo and learn hands-on.

And feel free to search and ask questions. These forums are very friendly toward n00bs.

whatalotta · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2004 4:44 am Post subject:

Hear is the Holy Grail of Linux Books/Docs/HowTo's and more

http://tldp.org

Chris Hickman · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2004 5:02 am Post subject:

If you must have a book in paper form, the O'Reilly titles "Linux in a Nutshell" and "Running Linux" are great. I think the former is a lot more useful than the latter, but then I prefer online documentation for most things, especially instructions on how to use things. "Nutshell" is basically a list of commands for all the most important Linux programs...I especially use it for Vi a lot

The "cookbook" series has some nice stuff too, though I feel they're overpriced. There's a really nice Webmin book if you use that program, written by the creator. It's easy to find on amazon, search for Webmin and it's the larger of the two books available

(the other being one in the "cookbook" series)

LPI/Linux+ books generally make good learning tools in a distro-neutral manner too (unlike, say, the Red Hat Bible).

Hope this helps.

Chris

myrodofgod · n00b Joined: 31 Jan 2004 Posts: 4 Location: Phoenix

Wow, thanks for all the responses, i have almost read the install guide completely thru but its like they tell you what to do, but they dont explain why or how it works very well, like flags, i understand they optimize performance but why and how? just an example, so i was hoping to find that book that would break it down to exactly why you would use that command or why you have to mount the root to the /dev/hda1, etc, etc. In an honest opinion, how do you feel about getting red hat (really like the windows of linux it seems like to me) to get started and then delve into Gentoo, would it be easier to understand then? Im one of those perfectionist that needs to know why, who, and how when im learning something. Thanks again for all your great responses, it is much appreciated.
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him...hes a freaking genius...IM THE NEWB KING DAMNIT!!

sigix · Apprentice Joined: 25 Jul 2003 Posts: 192

I think gentoo site itself is very good book
along with it's forum

Chris Hickman · Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2004 4:11 am Post subject: