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Typhuse
n00b
Joined: 15 Oct 2005
Posts: 13
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 Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 2:01 pm Post subject: Going Back to Gentoo.. |
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Ok, so I used to use Gentoo.. Until a mishap. Anyways, I really really want to switch back. I know how to avoid my past mistake. I was wonder, though, what drive should I put it on? My backup or my main? They both contain valuable data, and I can't give Gentoo it's own drive, because even though this is my computer my dad needs Windows for CAD drawing and stuff.
Yes I'm a noob, to liniux.
Thanks,
Typhuse |
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ecosta
Guru
Joined: 09 May 2003
Posts: 477
Location: Brussels,BE
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| Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 3:30 pm Post subject: |
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I'd start by doing a backup of all data followed by a check of the data you backed up.
I'd probably install Gentoo on the drive that doesn't have Wintendo installed.
That said, if you are new to Linux, I'd start playing with gentoo by simply booting of the Gentoo liveCD or any other LiveCD like the fantastic Knoppix. No install needed, no risk of deleted data during installation, ...
When you are ready to install Gentoo, be very carefull as you can easily delete data.
That's my 2c.
-Ed
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batistuta
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Joined: 29 Jul 2005
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Location: Aachen
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| Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 5:28 pm Post subject: |
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If you wanna get familiar with linux, liveCDs are great. You can see what it is possible. However, if you wanna learn how linux works, liveCDs are tough... they hide a lot of things from you. For that you can't beat Gentoo.
What I always suggest to newbees is first to get familiar with Linux. Try a liveCD. Then install something like Ubuntu. Learn what you like and not like. Then install Gentoo and try to reproduce what you had with Ubuntu, but in your own way. Jumping directly to Gentoo is not always wise, because you don't even know which programs are out there for each task. Ubuntu et al come with those preinstalled for you to try.
Given the current prices of HD, I would wait until your next birthday, christmas, or whatever and get yourself a 300 GB hard drive por 80 bucks. Then you can play there as much as you want. |
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cyrillic
Watchman
Joined: 19 Feb 2003
Posts: 7313
Location: Groton, Massachusetts USA
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| Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 8:28 pm Post subject: Re: Going Back to Gentoo.. |
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| Typhuse wrote: | | I was wonder, though, what drive should I put it on? My backup or my main? They both contain valuable data ... |
Your best bet is to move all your valuable data onto the harddrive that has Windows installed on it, and then unplug this drive from the motherboard.
This way you can play around with installing Gentoo, and even make mistakes, without the risk of destroying Windows or your valuable data.
Once you have a base installation of Gentoo that can boot on its own, then plug the Windows drive back in, and edit your grub.conf to allow dual-booting. |
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Typhuse
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Joined: 15 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 4:31 pm Post subject: |
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WEll.. I'm going to use the Windows Boot Loader.. I would rather not rightto the MBR. I know hwo to do that.
I have had linux before, and I have someoen to consult for anything I need in linux.
I did know about emerging and the last time i did it, I started with a stage1 install, long but it was worth it.
I'm also wondering, how do I get the liveCD to work with wireless WPA keys? All I saw was stuff about WEP.
I also want to know, will my sound and video card still work properly? I have ATI All-inWonder and a SoundBlaster! 2 sound card.
thanks,
typhuse |
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batistuta
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| Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 10:41 pm Post subject: |
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AFAIK Windows bootloader does not support linux  |
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Typhuse
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batistuta
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| Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 11:40 am Post subject: |
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Just because you can hack it, it doesn't mean that it is supported. This is clearly a hack. Fine, we do hacks the whole time, I'm happy with that. But the biggest problem that I see is that if you later want to get rid of Windows, then guess what: you can't unless you create your /boot parition somewhere else, because your image resides inside your DOS partition.
If you later have problems and want to boot from a liveCD, you can't check your boot partition because it is inside that image in C, which to make things worse, resides in a partition that most liveCDs mount as read only because it's NTFS (unless they use captive). Every time you recompile your kernel, you have to recreate the image, go to the floppy thingy, recopy the stuff. Isn't that a pain?
Why not just using grub? If you wanna get rid of linux/grub later, just do a fixmbr and fixboot and fine, grub is gone and you are back to your old love Windows.
In my opinion, getting winblows bootloader to work with Linux is recreating the square wheel. |
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Typhuse
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Joined: 15 Oct 2005
Posts: 13
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| Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 1:48 pm Post subject: |
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Gotcha man.. Don't want to start flaming people here.
Anyways, do you kno anything about my drivers and stuff that I posted before? |
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batistuta
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| Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 4:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Typhuse wrote: | | Gotcha man.. Don't want to start flaming people here. |
No prob dude, me neither. Just wanna make sure that you have other points of view. Then you can choose whatever you want.
| Typhuse wrote: | | Anyways, do you kno anything about my drivers and stuff that I posted before? |
Do you mean audigy 2, or really sound blaster 2, this 8-bit almost 15 years old card?
They should anyway be suported. For sound blaster support, check here. All-in-wonder should be supported as well, I'm not sure about the capturing, but at least the displaying should work. Check this link |
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Typhuse
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Joined: 15 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 4:08 pm Post subject: |
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Audigy 2, my bad.
I'm going to get some new hardware, though. My stuff is oging out of date. (Sound, Video, and Processor)
Thanks though for the links. I'll probably start installing Gentoo sometime today maybe. I jsut will miss my music for a while. 
I will have to dual boot because I can't transfer music from Linux to my MP3 player. (Sony Walkman: One of 2006s worst Technologic Inventions)
Do you know how long it will take for me to compile the kernel and all to where I can mount my NTFS partition?
2.35 GHz on an Intel 4 (i686) with 1GB memory (not sure linux uses that during installation.) |
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batistuta
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| Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 4:20 pm Post subject: |
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one HW advice: get nvidia rather than ATI, has better linux support.
compile time varies. But now stage 3 is the official installation method. This is quite fast. If you know what you are doing, you should be up and running within about 3-4 hours as a guess, it all depends on how well you know your way around gentoo.
Compiling the kernel doesn't take that long! Do you have your old config file? Configuring the kernel takes far longer than compiling it... unless you use genkernel, in which case configuring is a breeze but compilation time longer.
Remember that NTFS support is readonly. |
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Typhuse
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Joined: 15 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 4:33 pm Post subject: |
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| No I don't, but I want my installation fully optimized an everything, so I'm going with stage 1. |
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batistuta
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| Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 8:48 pm Post subject: |
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stage one is no longer supported. It has been discussed many times that it doesn't bring anything. Stage 1 is only meant for developers. Besides, you want a system up-and-running fast.
So do what makes most sense, what is suggested, and what will give you as much performance as a stage 1: get a stage 3. Install. Get it running quickly. Then set your config options. While your system is running, recompile your whole system in the background. In the end, it's like a stage 1, only done in a different way |
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mutlu_inek
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 20 Nov 2004
Posts: 141
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| Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 12:25 am Post subject: |
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Exactly. Do a stage 3 install, but NEVER use the gui installer (the one from the live cd), it might destroy your current configuration (and you don't get to learn anything).
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ecosta
Guru
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Location: Brussels,BE
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| Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 7:26 am Post subject: |
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| batistuta wrote: | | AFAIK Windows bootloader does not support linux |
Not that it matters much as none of us really want to do it but I think you can boot linux from windows... You just need to create a boot image which windows can use to boot linux.
I don't recomend doing this though. You are far better of with Grub or lilo as Solaris seems to have discovered 
-Ed
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Linux user #201331
A8N-SLI Delux / AMD64 X2 3800+ / 1024 MB RAM / 5 x 250 GB SATA RAID 1/5 / ATI Radeon X700 256MB. |
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Installing Gentoo
