| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
kpfuser
n00b
Joined: 22 Sep 2006
Posts: 1
Location: Greece
|
 Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 8:26 pm Post subject: Pre-installation help for a newbie |
 |
|
I became aware of Gentoo Linux recently but despite my best efforts I cannot get a clearcut idea regarding what to install and how to go about it. Thus I decided to refer matters to this forum.
To begin with, here is some basic info about my system: Presario 1500 laptop. C drive is partitioned into three primary and one logical partitions using Partition Magic. Two of the primary partitions are used for two different WinXP installations and the third contains a boot manager (Boot Magic). The laptop sits behind a router used to allow four pc's to share the same internet connection (no file or printer sharing). All pc's get a fixed ip address from the router and have their own firewall.
My objective is to start with a minimal Linux installation, connect it to the internet, secure it with a firewall, and then venture into adding more applications.
Given that I am an absolute newbie in matters Linux, what is my best course of action? Would anyone make a suggestion in easy to follow steps? |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Dammital
Apprentice
Joined: 05 Nov 2004
Posts: 189
|
| Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 9:02 pm Post subject: Re: Pre-installation help for a newbie |
|
|
First of all, the Gentoo Handbook is your friend, and the Gentoo Wiki has lots of good information.
| kpfuser wrote: | | C drive is partitioned into three primary and one logical partitions using Partition Magic. Two of the primary partitions are used for two different WinXP installations and the third contains a boot manager (Boot Magic). |
Do you have at least 2GB available on that spare partition? The minimum for Gentoo is 1.5 GB + a 256MB minimum swapfile.
| Quote: | | Given that I am an absolute newbie in matters Linux, what is my best course of action? |
You might want to back off a bit and choose one of the cup-holder distributions that can get you up in a few minutes. There are some excellent live CDs out there that recognize your network automatically and can give you a taste of Linux without you having to fool with your hard drive at all. No offense intended, but Gentoo as a first-timer's distribution is a little ambitious.
Ubuntu seems to be well thought of, and it has an easy install procedure.
Think about running a Linux of your choice in a VMware instance under one of your XP systems. Performance will not be particularly good, but you won't have to repartition anything. The VMWare Player and pre-built virtual machines for a variety of Linux (and non-Linux) systems are available at www.vmware.com
Still enamored of Gentoo? Go to the handbook and dive in! The step-by-step instructions are fairly clear, and if you get into trouble you can always ask specific questions here. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
markkuk
Guru
Joined: 29 Nov 2002
Posts: 446
|
| Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 10:16 pm Post subject: Re: Pre-installation help for a newbie |
|
|
| kpfuser wrote: | | My objective is to start with a minimal Linux installation, connect it to the internet, secure it with a firewall, and then venture into adding more applications. |
"Minimal Linux installation" means command-line only, are you familiar with using Unix-style operating systems from a text console? If not, forget "minimal" and get a full-featured desktop Linux like Ubuntu or Fedora. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
glurps
Apprentice
Joined: 11 Mar 2004
Posts: 292
|
| Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 4:07 pm Post subject: Re: Pre-installation help for a newbie |
|
|
| Dammital wrote: | | You might want to back off a bit and choose one of the cup-holder distributions that can get you up in a few minutes. |
i do not agree. when i switched from OS X to linux i used suse for a week or so and it drove me crazy. and also some time ago i installed ubuntu on my brothers machine.
now for some unknown reason everything is broken. of course i could start reading the ubuntu documentation but i dont think its worth it. instead i will install a gentoo and administer it over ssh. this will require that i read into things that i dont use like gnome but my brother most likely expects. (after lots of problems with rhythumbox he acctually told me it would be okay for him to use a cli mp3 player  )
well this was a bit of topic but what i wanted to say was this: you probalby have some knowledge how to use windows by now - but how much of it can still be used when switching to a different os? its the same with linux distros that hide a lot behind gui. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Dammital
Apprentice
Joined: 05 Nov 2004
Posts: 189
|
| Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 6:21 pm Post subject: Re: Pre-installation help for a newbie |
|
|
| glurps wrote: | | ... probalby have some knowledge how to use windows by now - but how much of it can still be used when switching to a different os? its the same with linux distros that hide a lot behind gui. |
Those Linux distributions don't "hide" anything behind a GUI -- they can't. The underlying mechanisms are available to anybody in an xterm; you're welcome to directly edit etc/fstab, etc/group, grub.conf and xorg.conf, execute lsmod and modprobe, compile a kernel, do everything the pretty GUIs do and more.
But the pretty GUIs give a total newcomer a head start, and a good idea of Linux's capabilities. Novices can have a usable desktop today while dabbling in the low-level stuff, and can inspect the delivered desktop system to see how the distributors did it.
The OP has no experience with Linux. I happen to think that starting off with a full-featured prebuilt system will offer an opportunity to learn at a comfortable rate. Gentoo does require a lot of activation energy to become useful, and could be frustrating to someone who has no prior experience with Linux at all. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
glurps
Apprentice
Joined: 11 Mar 2004
Posts: 292
|
| Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2006 7:05 pm Post subject: Re: Pre-installation help for a newbie |
|
|
| Dammital wrote: | | Those Linux distributions don't "hide" anything behind a GUI -- they can't. The underlying mechanisms are available to anybody in an xterm; you're welcome to directly edit etc/fstab, etc/group, grub.conf and xorg.conf, execute lsmod and modprobe, compile a kernel, do everything the pretty GUIs do and more. |
well i am sure your right. it just didnt seam right to me (even as a total newbie) that i first tried to solve a problem by "randomly" trying settings in a gui (and when everything was even more broke resort to ->) rather than to (1) read the man page (2) google (3) edit some file. when i googled with ubuntu in the search i mostly got results telling me what to do in the gui, and when it didnt work i had to search distro unspecifically. of course that works too but when you find a distro specific solution as you do most of the times for gentoo, things are easier.
also i never was quite sure if the gui app would later overwritte my settings again. (well that doesnt have anything to do with the interface i know, i just figured that gui apps would be more likely to do such a thing). happens even in gentoo, but most of the times there is a warning included in case a file shouldnt be edited.
hm.... yes above sounds stupid i guess. still i would advise everyone to give gentoo a shot and if they cant get it to work after reading the handbook twice and ask for help then try ubuntu or such.
| Dammital wrote: | | The OP has no experience with Linux. I happen to think that starting off with a full-featured prebuilt system will offer an opportunity to learn at a comfortable rate. Gentoo does require a lot of activation energy to become useful, and could be frustrating to someone who has no prior experience with Linux at all. |
when i started i couldnt get my network card working... was quite frustrating indead 
(then again its easier to get mp3 working on gentoo than it is on ubuntu  )
have fun what ever distro you use! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
Installing Gentoo
