Why oh why oh why? ... Tell me why, oh why

OuPiet

Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2010
Messages
13
Why oh why oh why? ... Tell me why, oh why

16 hours and counting, GENTOO - its U or ME, but I shall win, cos my zippo fluid :twisted: is not far and I will defeat and conquer YOU.
 

Osiris85

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2009
Messages
838
Why oh why oh why? ... Tell me why, oh why

16 hours and counting, GENTOO - its U or ME, but I shall win, cos my zippo fluid :twisted: is not far and I will defeat and conquer YOU.

Dude, WTF are you on about?
 

MyWorld

Executive Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2004
Messages
5,001
Read the manual again, go through the configs again, compile again, and try again, pull an all nighter or two, stack up on the caffeine and try again. Not to worry, you will soon transition from padowan to Jedi Master, it only takes a few installs and a couple of years on Gentoo wiki and forums...

Gentoo is great for learning a lot about Linux, but if you need productivity you best move on to something else, Sabayon or Arch?
 

Tacet

Expert Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
Messages
2,733
Because you're a masochist. Because you want to learn. Because you're either brave or stupid.

Honestly, I don't use linux often. But I've used gentoo a lot (wanted to learn at that stage), and I love it. But only if you have a day free for compiling. Next time I'll setup an SSH connection in the early stages of the install - that way I can do it from my cellphone. But I'm never going to sit staring at those compiling screens again! :)
 

bin3

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2005
Messages
976
Hmm; Maybe try LFS then go back to Gentoo ... You'd be amazed at the difference ... ;-)

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

I use Gentoo for all my home pc's -- I have tried other distributions but for personal use Gentoo is still my choice.

For Production I get the latest Ubuntu / SUSE / Whatever -- drop in 'n DVD, click install and go drink coffee ...
 

koffiejunkie

Executive Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2004
Messages
9,588
Gentoo is great for learning a lot about Linux

You know, I hear that all the time. But the vast majority of what I learned running Gentoo is how to fix (mostly desktop) problems that just don't occur on other distros. Granted, I ran ~, but that's because I had to to make it even boot on my laptop at the time, while again, other distros I tried (Debian, SUSE) just worked.

So while I massively enjoyed the tinkering, it's mostly time wasted. The overwhelming majority of skills I use to make my living, I learned in Debian, SUSE and RHEL.
 

bin3

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2005
Messages
976
You know, I hear that all the time. But the vast majority of what I learned running Gentoo is how to fix (mostly desktop) problems that just don't occur on other distros.

Can't deny that for a moment, but man: the pride and sense of satisfaction I get when my desktop runs exactly like I want it to, looks as beautiful as I can make it be in my view made up for all the hours I had to spend on forums and the like.

As to running "~" -- Well, everybody makes mistakes ;-) -- time to learn portage.mask and portage.unmask ;-P
 

bin3

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2005
Messages
976
oh; before I forget ... remember to add IS as a portage mirror ... makes a bit of a difference ;-)
 

koffiejunkie

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Aug 23, 2004
Messages
9,588
Can't deny that for a moment, but man: the pride and sense of satisfaction I get when my desktop runs exactly like I want it to

But only until the next time you run emerge -u world...

As to running "~" -- Well, everybody makes mistakes ;-) -- time to learn portage.mask and portage.unmask ;-P

You know, when your portage overlays and masks become more complex than your average SELinux policy, it's just not worth it any more.
 

bin3

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2005
Messages
976
But only until the next time you run emerge -u world

Again; there is no way I can deny that ...

Though I tend to start with emerge -upv world and then decide which ones I would like to upgrade first ...

Being a control freak I like the idea that I can decide which battles to fight -- some times I want to update glib, sometimes I don't;

Sometimes I want to run the same setup for years on end, other times I don't ...

And with Gentoo I do have the choice ...

And again: I definitely do not deny the issues you have with Gentoo. All I am saying is, that for some it's not as much an issue as a potential interesting challenge ...
 

koffiejunkie

Executive Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2004
Messages
9,588
Sometimes I want to run the same setup for years on end, other times I don't ...

And with Gentoo I do have the choice ...

Here's the thing. If you run a box that's exposed on the internet, especially if you're running a server, there are some updates that are not optional. Yes, linux machines get compromised too. This may have improved, but back in the day when I was using Gentoo, upgrading one thing very often meant upgrading another, not because gentoo necessarily enforced it, but because a newer version of package x would not compile against the installed version of package y. Of all the things I had to learn to live with, this is the thing that finally made me give it up and moving to Debian. I remember upgrading something that had a gaping security hole (Evolution perhaps). New version wouldn't compile unless I upgraded GTK, GTK wouldn't compile without an update to something else, and in the end I spent a whole day getting everything updated that needed updating and I still had broken icons (I mean, WTF?) after it all.

That may be a fun learning experience if you don't actually know anything about Linux, but for me this was too much of waste of time with just about no benefit.
 

bin3

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2005
Messages
976
You were running Evolution on your server ? No, just joking ...

I really do understand your issues with Gentoo; all I am saying is, it was never mine.

For any servers I minimised the packages I used, and it was very seldom that I had to do anything more than emerge -uv world.

For my home network I tend to run IDS / dark nets and honey pots because I want to and I want to know what's going on.

Yes, every upgrade is a potential risk, and yes, you have to upgrade certain packages more often than others.

But strangely enough I usually found that I don't have to upgrade it the moment a new release becomes available, and more often than not, by doing a bit of research before upgrading said important package I could pre-empt any potential issues I might have.

But, as I also mentioned, I have also gone over to use binary packaged distributions more often than not in a production environment.
 

milomak

Honorary Master
Joined
May 23, 2007
Messages
12,571
when an emerge was going to take ages even running on an i7 I decided the pain was not worth it. It was fun though when I was initially starting with Gentoo.

But I have to agree about the satisfaction of getting things in order. But just like koffie, Debian is my poison. Though I still ocassionally chroot into my gentoo partition to keep it upto date.
 

OuPiet

Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2010
Messages
13
took me a while, but i can finally say, my new hp laptop & "very old" fjs laptop are running 100% gentoo, took me a while but its been the most rewarding experience I've ever had. countless hours - make it DAYS and then the reward!!! not something i'd put on my new year's list of "things to do" - once is enough - may try it with again in 3 or so months... lol
 

Drake2007

Expert Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2008
Messages
4,413
Gentoo is certainly the most challenging Linux distro to install yes, saying that you learn a **** load of nitty gritty about Linux and where the power of the OS lay. Some good pointers here, first do SSH off another networked PC. Microsoft looks like amatuers when your mind gets expanded to the possibility of controlling the install of an OS over your LAN.

Also some major points, install Windows and the *** just works, Gentoo you're 100% sure it'll be running at optimum for your hardware just it takes a few days to get it right, Windows... 30 minutes, you're up and running and most people that sit infront of that PC know how to use it.. or at least know drag 'n drop. That's where Linux as a whole fails. I'm very suprised that no one here has mentioned virtualization.
 
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