Ease of Installation

tcugrilla · n00b Joined: 23 Dec 2002 Posts: 2

I have been running linux on a dual boot machine for about a year now. I have had little or no trouble installing Redhat 8 or Linux Mandrake 9.0 because they come with a graphical setup. I have no chance at doing an install if there is anything I would have to do from the command line. How difficult for a non- techie is Gentoo linux to install?

hhaamu · Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2002 6:17 pm Post subject:

Well, not hard if you know enough of Linux. If you follow the instructions closely, even a n00b can install Gentoo.

Knowing enough of the partitions and kernel compiling are probably the hardest in the install procedure.

Woodchuck · n00b Joined: 23 Dec 2002 Posts: 4

I agree hhaamu. I know very little about Linux and install was pretty smooth. Any difficulties I did have were related to my inexperience with Linux.

diskmuncher · n00b Joined: 22 Oct 2002 Posts: 21 Location: Denver, CO

Having done a bootstrap install a few times now, the most "difficult" part was determining the appropriate CFLAGS and USE variables I wanted to define. I also foobar'd once and defined XFS partitions but installed the Gentoo Kernel (not the "bleeding edge SGI XFS kernel).

There is a STICKY discussion on CFLAGS here: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=5717&highlight=cflags

As for the USE variables, I modified my /etc/make.conf to include or remove every possible use variable (except x86 and bootstrap) and copied /usr/portage/profiles/use.desc to /usr/portage/profiles/use.desc.<date> so that I could more easily keep track of changes after I emerge sync
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Dritzen · n00b Joined: 25 Dec 2002 Posts: 14

If you read the installation instructions, it's fairly simple and straight forward.

Just read as you go, you have plenty of time while it's compiling