Insanely broad newbie question.

[Spacefreak]

I've been curious about linux for quite some time now, and finally decided I was going to take the plunge and do it at the end of my christmas break. I'm a junior in college, and have always been, at the least, fairly knowledgable in computers. Well, I was going to install linux alongside windows. I did this because I knew I didn't know what I was doing, and that I hadn't seen UNIX in a hot minute. Well, I decided that because of that, using the LiveCD would be my best option. Well, after failing a couple of times and eventually having it erase windows and everything... though not til the 6th or so time, which was very annoying... I switched to the minimal install CD.
I had heard that Gentoo isn't where you should start on linux, but I'm difficult, so I did anyways. It took me a good long while, but I finally got it done, after I figured out that if you use the material provided as general by gentoo, it won't work. So, I did everything manually, and had many problems. Lucky for me I'm extremely good at searching the internet. BUT... nothing I've done has been easy. Everything that seems like it should be simple and easy enough is like the journey taken place in the Lord Of The Rings. I'm tired of it, and it's really hard trying to run a fraternity closing in on chartering while dealing with this too.

My main question is, does it get any easier?

I've got a thousand things on my to figure out list right now, and I don't know if it's going to be worth it, or if I should just run back to Windows. I know I've got the intellegence and patience to pull off learning this stuff, but right now I'm kind of tired of it, and would appreciate some outside input. Thanks

[desultory]

[didymos]

Well, I can't say specifically that this or that will get easier because I don't know what sorts of problems you've been having and what their root causes were. However, in general, Linux/Unix can have a pretty steep learning curve and things can seem quite arcane or bizarre or counter-intuitive the first time you run into them. Although a lot has been done in terms of "user-friendliness", it still comes down to just plain spending the time and reading documentation. I think a big part of newcomer difficulties is that Linux in general, and Gentoo in particular, exposes a lot more of what's really going on to the user and allows them to modify all sorts of settings and behavior; plus, given the "historical user-base" (apologies for the borderline-marketing jargon), there is often an assumption that the user knows what they're doing and why they're doing it. This can be supremely frustrating at times, especially when even the documentation makes that assumption. Give it some time, though, and you'll likely find that you've acquired an unconscious grasp of the idiom and style of doing things under Linux and Gentoo.
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Thomas S. Howard

[yeti]

I for one applaud you on taking the plunge and attempting the switch to Linux and free software. As you've discovered, it's not an easy thing to do. Sucks that you had to wipe out your Windows partition to get Gentoo installed.

Given that you're having trouble, and given that you have a life outside your computer (something else that most of the documentation may not assume), maybe you should start with a more straightforward distribution, like Ubuntu (or Mandriva, or Redhat, etc). I absolutely don't mean that in a condescending way, and I'm in no way saying that Gentoo "isn't for you". What I'm thinking is, if you start with one of the other distros that is likely to Just Work, you'll begin to get an idea what a working Linux installation looks like, and you'll understand where all this commandline business is headed in the end.

Starting with Gentoo as your first distro is like trying to put together a puzzle without having the picture on the box to guide you (although someone as stubborn as you may count that as cheating ). Use another distro as a guide. Install e.g. Ubuntu, get your X server running, and then look through the xorg.conf to see what settings it's using. (Incidentally, that's exactly how I got X running on my Gentoo box.) Run lsmod to see what kernel modules it loads for your hardware. Hell, just use it for a while to see if it does what you need it to do, and figure out where it falls short. This will also help you figure out if Linux is going to be worth it.

[One of the great things about Linux is that it's not either/or. If you're careful about how you partition your harddrive, it's relatively easy to run a multiboot system, with Gentoo on one partition and one of the "easy" distros on another. Just remember the golden rule of disk partitioning: Don't partition it until you need it. Leave yourself some free space.]

I'll end by seconding desultory's advice to keep Windows. It will do a lot for your patience knowing you can stop f@$%ing with Linux whenever you want and just use the damn computer for a while. Once you get comfortable, you'll notice you're switching to Windows less and less often.

[Spacefreak]

Not particularly sure if I should post this as a reply to this or not... but here goes. I decided to add windows back on to my hardrive. I resliced the partition and added it on it's own little space, how cute, windows and linux, side by side. But, when it restarted, I noted that it went straight to windows, and didn't look at grub, like i was kind of hoping it would... Anyone know how I might fix that particular problem?
Thanks

[jpmayer87]

[Turingtest]

^^ what he said

If you need more detailed instruction the relevant section of the install guide is here. Assuming you can run GRUB of the liveCD (can you?) it should take about two minutes.
Otherwise just boot from CD, mount your root partition, and run grub from sbin/grub on that.


Once you've got GRUB back on the MBR you'll need to add a section to your grub.conf to get it to boot windows.

Oh, and I also went straight from windows to gentoo, you're not insane, though you might think you are for a while until you get to grips with the new OS It does get a lot easier once you've got the initial install/setup problems out of the way though.

[kpep01]

Good Luck! I've been playing with Gentoo for about 1.25 years, and with Linux for a tad over 2 years now. It's true that the other distros are an easier way to get a feel for Linux, but, Gentoo is where I've learned the most.

You can do some out-of-the-box stuff, and install it in no time - just like Window$. The only difference is, you can get a ton of software without paying a huge price. Gimp, as an example is far better than that $600 adobe photoshop, and it's free. Some distros come with various forms of OpenOffice which is similar in nature to M$ Office - and yea, you can open M$ Word and Wordperfect docs in OpenOffice.

The only good thing about these distros is that you don't spend a ton of time compiling your system. Indeed, with Mandrake, you can have tons of software and a Linux OS in far less time than it takes to set up the same amount of stuff for Window$. Once one of these out-of-the-box distros is set up, the learning curve can begin.

Some of those other distros reminded me of Window$ - I was stuck in a box that I really didn't want to be entrapped within.

The beauty of Gentoo, though, is that you really get to learn Linux. You have to learn to open the box, because the wrapper is a bit different. This is why I love Gentoo no matter how frustrating it can be at times.

I think Window$ sucks. I hate having to deal with all of the crud that every web site my family visits puts onto the system (a problem I don't have with Gentoo). But, I would agree with that which others have said - keep Window$ for now. At the least, with Window$ you'll have a marginally stable excuse of an OS. This will permit you to get on with the other things in your life as you venture into the world of Linux.

A Dual boot system works if you have but the one box.

Yea, it's a learning curve to keep Gentoo running smoothly. I'm still learning how to do it myself. But, I dork my Gentoo box up a lot less than the Window$ box manages to dork itself up by simply behaving like Window$.

To get to that point, however, was (and remains) a product of continuing through the learning curve of Linux in general, and Gentoo specifically. It's a wonderful ride, and I hope you enjoy it.
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