is there a FAST way...

xomic · n00b Joined: 11 Feb 2006 Posts: 23

... to install gentoo???

So, hi everyone.

First of all: I LOVE GENTOO!
I love the way emerge manages packages. I love the way how it is configured and I love the choice I have.

BUT, I just got a new PC and I don't want to clone my existing installation (another arch).
And when I think about the 3 or 4 days I need for compile xorg and kde (not to mention: all the more or less big stuff like gimp, openoffice, ...) I become sick!!!
Come on, spending a lot of time for configuration is really fine for me. Reading a lot of docu is ok for me, too -
but needing 4 or 5 days just to get a system with a graphical interface and a few programs is really annoying.
And the liveCD is not working at all.

So, I don't wanna complain. Not at all.

But is there a way to minimize the time for compiling/installing?

Greetings to all of you who have a nice little working gentoo (like me)!!!

xomic
_________________
There are only 10 different people in the world who understand binary.
Those who do and those who don't!

psomas · Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 3:11 pm Post subject:

maybe you should try using prebuilt packages...
or try using distcc(if you have more than one computers at home),to speed up compiling...
_________________
myblog
FOSS NTUA Community

i92guboj · Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 3:33 pm Post subject: Re: is there a FAST way...

Dralnu · Veteran Joined: 24 May 2006 Posts: 1919

distcc would help. man nice helps some, too.

Give us some specs and we can give you an idea on what kind of time you may be looking at with the system.
_________________
The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.

xomic · n00b Joined: 11 Feb 2006 Posts: 23

distcc is not possible i think (here is only one linux-machine :-(

)

Some specs:

Old machine:
Board: ASUS P2P (i told you it's an old machine)
PII 450 Mhz
512 mb RAM
Radeon 7000
HD: SCSI RAID 1 (2x 35 GB)

"new" (or lets say newer..)
Board: Intel (server board)
2x PIII 1GHz (dual cpu - not core)
2 GB RAM
GeForce 4000 MX
HD: SATA RAID 1 (2x 160 GB)

Ok, the archs may not vary that much. but board and graphic scare me a little bit....
What do you think?
_________________
There are only 10 different people in the world who understand binary.
Those who do and those who don't!

i92guboj · Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 4:45 pm Post subject:

You can tar your whole installation and put it in your new machine.

A few things would need to be done, though. But I think that your current kernel might work, at least with the basic functionality needed to boot and configure your system. And even if it doesn't, you can use a livecd to do so.

Just tar your whole installation (use -p to preserve permissions). Then put it into cds or fetch it to your new machine via network. After that make sure you tweak fstab to match the filesystems in your new box.

Untar it in your new box, make sure you tweak fstab to your needs, check also grub.conf and install grub in your hd boot record.

You can surely continue using your setting as is, you will just need to configure your kernel for the chipset of your motherboard, and any additional/different hardware that it might have. Emerge nvidia-drivers and configure xorg.conf accordingly -the nvidia driver is painless to install and run- and if you want (not needed, though), change your cflags from the current to something like -match=pentium3 -pipe -O2, that should work fine enough. But the current ones will work as well.

PS.- You will need sata support configured into your kernel, not as a module, to be able to boot from that hard drive.

Dralnu · Veteran Joined: 24 May 2006 Posts: 1919

With those specs, it shouldn't take you much more then maybe a day or so to compile everything, if that long
_________________
The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.

Dralnu · Veteran Joined: 24 May 2006 Posts: 1919

timeBandit · Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 5:13 pm Post subject:

GNUtoo · Veteran Joined: 05 May 2005 Posts: 1919

do you know that distcc is possible on windows machine with the help of colinux?

Dralnu · Veteran Joined: 24 May 2006 Posts: 1919

killfire · l33t Joined: 04 Oct 2003 Posts: 618

an option (should tar'ing not work out for you) is to get a precompiled stage3 for your arch... I think evolution mission has them, and they are what I use now, because it means you have optimized base system without having to recompile. Of course, that leaves xorg and kde etc (though I might recommend something other than kde on that system...it is a bit old... perhaps xfce?), but those really dont take very long at all. And with binary firefox, you can get going pretty quickly.

Another way if you need to get productive right away is run the entire install inside knoppix, or some other livecd... that way you can be perfectly functional for however long it takes (but it will never take 4 or 5 days. I've dont an install on a 266mhz machine and it didnt take more than two, and that was my first gentoo and first linux installation ever)
_________________
my website, built in HAppS: http://dbpatterson.com
an art (oil painting) website I built a pure python backend for: http://www.lydiajohnston.com

xomic · n00b Joined: 11 Feb 2006 Posts: 23

soooo,

bringing my existing installation on my new machine using my original hd worked so far.
Today my sata-controller arrived and I'm ready to clone to my new 160 GB hd.
I'm curious if that will work as I hope.

If it runs well I'll tell you guys.
_________________
There are only 10 different people in the world who understand binary.
Those who do and those who don't!