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OldJonYoung
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Joined: 03 Jun 2013
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Location: Massillon, Ohio
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 Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 2:28 am Post subject: Installing with SystemRescueCD question |
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| I've read in other posts that the Handbook can be followed verbatim with live CDs such as SystemRescueCD. So, I was wondering if the alternative install instructions on the chroot should be followed or not. |
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The Doctor
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Joined: 27 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 2:39 am Post subject: |
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Welcome to Gentoo!
To answer your question, no. The system rescue CD is literally a Gentoo CD with a GUI, browser, and other amenities. Personally, I think this makes partitioning the hardrive and downloading the stage3 much more user friendly.
Basically, there is no difference between the SystemRescueCD and a gentoo min CD except a comfortable environment to install from. You can even view the handbook while installing.
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First things first, but not necessarily in that order.
Apologies if I take a while to respond. I'm currently working on the dematerialization circuit for my blue box. |
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Hypnos
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Location: Omnipresent
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| Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 3:38 am Post subject: |
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Moreover, once you have SysRescCd on a CD/USB stick you have a nice recovery medium in case something goes wrong with your machine. I never travel without one.
I don't know why the installation instructions don't mention SysRescCd -- is it because Gentoo devs don't want to support someone else's installation medium, in case some incompatibility does crop up?
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OldJonYoung
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Joined: 03 Jun 2013
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Location: Massillon, Ohio
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| Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 4:13 am Post subject: |
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| Thanks for your answer and for welcoming me! Although a noob to Gentoo I have used Linux before. Mainly Arch though I did install LFS once. It was fun but not very practical. Arch is very good but I like the control you have in Gentoo. I was using software raid on GPT partitions with Grub2 on Arch but I'd like to avoid testing branch (at least at first) until I'm more experienced. I figured I'd still use GPT and leave space to embed grub2 (somewhat future proof it). Since I'm used to having an initrd to boot from I was going to use genkernel to handle raid and lvm. In the interest of future proofing (systemd?), should I keep /usr and/or /var on the root partition? |
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The Doctor
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| Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 4:21 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | I'd like to avoid testing branch (at least at first) until I'm more experienced. |
Your choice of course, but from personal experience the testing branch on Gentoo is more stable than Arch.
| Quote: | | In the interest of future proofing (systemd?), should I keep /usr and/or /var on the root partition? |
As far as I know Gentoo has no plans to drop OpenRC, although if you want it systemd is available. As long as you are using an initramfs, there should be no need to worry about /usr and /var in either case.
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First things first, but not necessarily in that order.
Apologies if I take a while to respond. I'm currently working on the dematerialization circuit for my blue box. |
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OldJonYoung
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Posts: 6
Location: Massillon, Ohio
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| Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 5:37 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Your choice of course, but from personal experience the testing branch on Gentoo is more stable than Arch. |
| Quote: | | As far as I know Gentoo has no plans to drop OpenRC, although if you want it systemd is available. |
Have you tried Arch since they implemented systemd? The boot time simply amazed me! The main reason I want to stay with stable branch is the lack of documentation with the newer software. Of course with Linux that's often a problem anyway. Even as great as Arch Linux wiki is, there is often conflicting or insufficient info. (It's still not clear to me how to handle software raid in grub2.) Things are changing so fast in Linux that before you get a handle on one aspect it changes! (Arch has really been moving fast lately.) For instance, using btrfs would totally change my installation procedure. If it was more stable I'd definitely use it. Any recommendations? |
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The Doctor
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| Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 6:21 am Post subject: |
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Have you tried Arch since they implemented systemd?
Since you asked, I actually had a laptop that was running arch because I didn't want to invest the time to run Gentoo on it. I made the switch to systemd and it did run and boot OK until a update killed systemd. In my experience, systemd really isn't an upgrade over OpenRC. You may be surprised at how quickly you system will boot out of the box. In any case, I would not recommended changing the base system setup until after you have a bootable system. There is also no reason why you can't install both and decide for your self. They will not conflict.
| Quote: | | It's still not clear to me how to handle software raid in grub2 |
I have no experience with raid, I think there is documentation somewhere, particularly in the genkernel guide You will also need to keyword grub2 or use another bootloader that is GPT compatible.
I am unsure about this, but I expect that what you do is have a small /boot partition outside the raid and then use the initramfs to assemble the raid and switch_root to enter it.
Much better information can be found here
| Quote: | | The main reason I want to stay with stable branch is the lack of documentation with the newer software. |
Fair enough.
| Quote: | | For instance, using btrfs would totally change my installation procedure. If it was more stable I'd definitely use it. Any recommendations? |
I have no real experience with it, but my understanding is that it still lacks a fscheck and is just generally still a work in progress. I wouldn't use it unless you can afford to lose the data you are working on. On that same line, backups are always good.
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First things first, but not necessarily in that order.
Apologies if I take a while to respond. I'm currently working on the dematerialization circuit for my blue box. |
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OldJonYoung
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Joined: 03 Jun 2013
Posts: 6
Location: Massillon, Ohio
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| Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 7:15 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | In any case, I would not recommended changing the base system setup until after you have a bootable system. There is also no reason why you can't install both and decide for your self. They will not conflict. |
Sounds like good advice. The freedom in Gentoo is somewhat intimidating! Thanks for your assistance. I've decided to:
1. Partition with gpt
2. Set up software raid and lvm
3. Format with ext4 (ext2 for boot)
4. Genkernel (at least at first)
5. Get it to boot-up!
I guess I'll mainly follow the Software Raid and Lvm How-To and the Handbook. This is going to be fun! |
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Installing Gentoo
