Installing Gentoo for the first time!

[Gentoobie penguin]

Hey guys! I am going to install Gentoo for the first time (for a learning experiance). I have only had little experiance with ubuntu. I know nothing on command line and wouldl ike to keep my Windows XP partition intact so i can go play my games. I will use Partition Magic 8.0 to partition 150gb for Gentoo (So i dont pwn my Windows in the face). I printed out the 100 page handbook.

I just need some tips to partition that free space into my Gentoo install. And also any other tips.

Thanks in advance gus!
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Going to be pwned in the face to find out when i install Gentoo that Guild Wars wont work. Ohwel im in for the learning experiance (And bragging rights )

[xandris]

Are you asking about what method to use to partition your free space or about a recommended partition layout?

For the former, the installation handbook is very thorough. You can use the fdisk tool from the CD's boot environment, but if you have a nice graphical tool with which you are comfortable, then why bother? Because you're in it for the learning experience, of course. =)

For the latter, I can only speak for what I have. My partitions:

• 50MB boot partition, nice and roomy for lots of kernels. I use the non-journalling ext2fs here because I feel that ext3 or reiser would be overkill. I hope others would agree!
  
• 512MB swap space. I've never seen it used....
  
• The rest for root, using ext3fs (journalling ext2)

I'm opening myself up to criticism for that last part; others like to split off /usr or /home into seperate partitions. I can see why, but it's more work for a lazy person like me. I also have Windows installed, but it gets its own HDD.

One thing you may want to consider is a small FAT partition to transfer files between your operating systems. You can read NTFS reliably from Linux, but reading the many Linux filesystems takes more effort in Windows. The existence of thumb drives makes this somewhat unnecessary =)

Read carefully about installing the bootloader. Are you going to let the Windows bootloader go first and chain to your Linux bootloader, or are you going to do it the other way around? The advantage of the latter is that you can more quickly load a superior OS =)

For gaming, have you considered Cedega? The fee may be annoying, but it's very convenient and I applaud it if it encourages more people to try Linux.

Oh, and ask more questions. My post count is too low =)

[Gentoobie penguin]

Yeah i suppose. I will be installing ALOT of stuff. To play around with of course

[bdm]

[Dewey]

[Gentoobie penguin]

Yeah i meant that. It isnt much at all is it?
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Going to be pwned in the face to find out when i install Gentoo that Guild Wars wont work. Ohwel im in for the learning experiance (And bragging rights )

[Stormblazer]

boot loaders, I would reccomend GRUB, as LILO can't be configured while it's running, and GRUB tends to have more features. The configuration while running is critical if the grub config every gets messed up, and is generally very convenient if you ever wanna add an extra option to the boot to see what happens, and other stuff like that.

I would strongly reccomend getting more aquainted with the CLI though, and make sure you have a good internet connection (preferably ethernet to start with, as it seems like only a handful of wireless cards work right away).
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The vast majority of errors are stupid mistakes that you end up kicking yourself for later.

[13thpriest]

I would always insist GRUB. It is much better than LILO as it can be configured using setup-grub command. You should try to be familiar with the CLI more than the graphical user interface. CLI offers much more flexibility than GUI.

[Gentoobie penguin]

Yes i have an ethernet network with a router with DHCP! so that should be the easy part!
_________________
Going to be pwned in the face to find out when i install Gentoo that Guild Wars wont work. Ohwel im in for the learning experiance (And bragging rights )