Redoing recent install of 2007.1, should I wait for 2008.0?

[Varsuuk]

I began a setup a new install of gentoo due to replacing 90% of the hardware (inc mobo/chip amd->intel) of the old box.
I used 2007.1 and got as far as about to setup the XWindows (I had already setup the firewall/dnsmasq and other non gui work I required)
I had troubles with Apache (changes from last Apache had me mess it up I think) and some USE flags.

I decided to eliminate the possibility that my webserver/webcamfeed issues are related to the mistakes by reinstalling with better knowledge.

But since I will not be doing this until I receive my new LCD that only just ordered (expecting ~12-14th) and the likelihood is I won't start until the Sat after I receive the LCD... should I wait for the 2008.0?

I have only had bad experiences trying the Graphical install of 2007.0 (always did minimal or stage2 even earlier on) and couldn't use 2007.1 Graphical on the new hardware. So I will likely use the minimal anyhow since the GUI would be 'easier' to read/check flags/options but even one restart will kill the time saved

I assume there will be a new profile and I worry about whether it is worth waiting for that to avoid work changing it later if need or if there are any other 'changes' that I can avoid in the short term if I START with 2008 vs upgrading to it via emerge.

If it is all the same, ie: no KDE/Gnome rebuilds or issues changing profiles, I won't wait unless it takes me that long. If it is 'better' for me to start new - I'll wait. Of course, new installls/ebuilds could also mean new install issues but that is normal.

[Telemin]

I have never worried about milestone releases. Beyond the install process it is fairly irrelevant because gentoo is fluidly updated as packages mature and are marked stable rather than an ubuntu style fixed update cycle.

There is a new profile in 2008.0 and although I am not fully sure what all the repercussions of profile changes are I have not seen any differences in the 2007 profile on my desktop system and the 2008 profile on my new laptop, i have the same packages installed on both and all are the same versions. Also both are entirely stable.

The 2008.0 beta is fairly stable as far as my experience goes and if it works for your hardware I personally wouldn't be too concerned beyond that as again bugfixes will filter in through portage where relevant and necessary.

That said I do like to run a ~amd64 system so I'm possibly not the best choice for a balanced view.


-Freestyling-
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[Varsuuk]

Thank you Freestyling - my question was (as normal for me) was not probably phrased as well as it could be.




Lastly, every CPU I have bought since my last PII (God knows when?) has been AMD (1900, 2100, 3800,+ 4800x2) but when the time came to setup my Gentoo I was going to buy an lower end mb/chip than my game box (amd4800x2) but then I saw that the C2D 6850 was out and it was only 270$ plus I realized if I 'sidegraded' I'd be able to add cheaper memory etc... I bought the intel for my game pc and moved my game pc (the amd) to being my gentoo server.

So ya, my gentoo box is an amd64 x2

Okies, so if I understand - what I am hearing is I should be able to take the minimal install of 2008.0 beta and it should result in the same end as if I installed 2007.1 minimal and emerged all the way to current on both?

I am sure that is an overstatement - but what and how much of what I said above is wrong so I can better judge which way to go.

[Telemin]

Well as we both have said the only difference is the profile used. As far as I know and can read in the documentation it is perfectly possible to change profile as new releases are rolled out and recently the only issue has been unicode support is needed by default in 2007.x and 2008.0.

I guess it boils down to how patient you are. If like me you can't bear to wait for anything then grabbing 2007.0 now to do a stable install and then updating to 2008.0 profile when it is marked stable is not a big deal, the online docs have a section on updating the profile here.

Also if you have issues with the graphical install of 2007.0 then try just doing a stage3 console install. It isn't a big problem. Although i do admit to being a bit of a console junkie.

In a way I think a lot of people on the forums and in the community make too much of releases, profiles, and other such settings. The devs do an excellent job of making things farily fluid in my experience, and a good number of profiles are still perfectly valid. And portage will warn you if you try to use a deprecated profile.

I hope my ramblings are helpful to you. If not feel free to tell me i'm talking nonsense.

-Freestyling-
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[Varsuuk]

Thanks on the link I will read it once get home - FRIDAY! running out in a few mins.

Ya, I too use the console install, although - having tried a GUI install I think in 2006.#? I thought it was great due to nice things like USE Flag lists etc but it had another problem (forgot what) and I just went back to stage 2 install (or stage 3? don't recall when I switched to those)

2007 wasn't necessarily the fault of the installer as much as I had a new Xfx GeForce (budget <100$) card in there and X Windows wouldn't startup. So I went and did a console install. I believe I did something wrong though in a later step and my trying to fix it may have messed up some things on the web server and rather than troubleshoot it - I'll take the opportunity to reinstall clean since I never even got to the GU install part of the Gentoo build

I just found out I got the monitor delivered today, so looks like it makes sense for me to do another 2007 install since my main reason for delaying for 2008 is gone (not having the monitor I would actually use)

Thanks!

[landon]

2007.0 should be okay