How long does stage 1 take?

drlouis · n00b Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 4 Location: Nebraska

Hi all,

I am about to begin my first gentoo install, and it will be a stage 1 since I don't do anything the easy way! Now, I know the answer will be "it depends" but _in general_ how long does a stage one take till you have a useable system? I have an AthlonXP 2600 with 512MB, and a 1.5/128 DSL connection, since I assume that will influence the answer.

Also, a related question: Once this process is begun, is there any chance to "stop, and use the computer for other stuff" (its a dual boot, and the family uses it too.... I need to know approximately how long it will be "out of commission".

Thanks for your time,

Louis

enigma_0Z · Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 3:19 am Post subject:

Woah, that's one doozie of a question. With constant use, it took me probably sixteen hours to get out of the CD prompt, but then I had to compile KDE (I accidently compiled X when in the CD prompt.)

[edit]
That 16 hours was also on an Athlon T-bird 1000 MHz with 256 MB RAM and a 512/348 cable connection. The compiling took longer than the downloading
[/edit]

Yes, you can do a dual boot.

As long as you don't install X during the inital setup, you should be to a working console inside 8 or so hours of uptime.

And, you can stop at any time that you need it to, but beware, you will need to remount your filesystems, turn swap on, and chroot everytime you have to stop and start again untill you get to a working console with grub set up. Basically that means that untiill you don't need to boot from the CD, you will have to remount and stuff if you have to stop in the middle.

Oh and another note, if you stop an emerge in the while it's doing something, (which you can do with ctrl+c), you will have to start from the beginning of the package that it was currently compiling. Thankfully you won't have to start at the beginning of the package list for the emerge (such as if you were compiling KDE and you stopped on kde-audio, you wouldn't have to recompile other packages that had finished compiling before you stopped)

That's pretty much it.

Oh yeah, and print the handbook out, it gives you step-by-step instructions on how to do a stage1, 2, or 3 install.
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drlouis · n00b Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 4 Location: Nebraska

Hey thanks! Thats exactly what I was looking for.

I'm glad to hear I can stop the install and use the computer. That is what has been holding me back... the family didn't want to be without the computer for 3 days (thats what I had "heard" a stage 1 would take).

I sorta assumed I could multi-boot Gentoo (it's already dual - WinXP, and Slackware - so it'll actually be triple boot when I'm done). Any special concerns when using lilo with Gentoo instead of Grub??

I did print the handbook (l-o-o-o-n-g print job!), glad to know it wasn't a waste!

Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions.

Louis

enigma_0Z · Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 4:17 am Post subject:

No real concerns, I would just avoid installing GRUB or LILO from gentoo, and instead go into your slackware installation to add the appropriate entrys to your lilo config file.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and some interesting notes, I also installed on-and-off, so, while it was only ~16 hours of uptime, it was a day or so before it was done.
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drlouis · n00b Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 4 Location: Nebraska

Well, I should be good to go then. Wish me luck!

And thanks again... it REALLY helps having people who are willing to answer questions, and help a guy out!

Louis

Drooling Iguana · Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 5:24 am Post subject:

It might be a good idea to install from a Knoppix liveCD instead of the Gentoo one. It's basically the same process either way but you'll have a usable system with a GUI, web browser, etc available during the installation.

enigma_0Z · Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 3:47 pm Post subject:

Well, actually, you don't have emerge with knoppix, do you?

And, you do have a web browser, just not a graphical one... It's links and links2
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Brainus · Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 5:11 pm Post subject:

Once you reach the point where you are able to use emerge (when using Knoppix), you can use it within a windowed console.
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