gentoo - wow!! - progress

[Peter Ruskin]

I started by downloading gentoo-i686-1.2.iso (135.5MB) and burning it.
Bumpy progress at the beginning, with the following events:

1)  I followed the excellent installation instructions, built my custom 
kernel and modules, then tested a few modprobes before rebooting.  Just 
as well I did...the kernel source called itself 
"/usr/src/linux-1.4.19-gentoo-r5" and include/linux/version.h defined
UTS_RELEASE "2.4.19-gentoo-r7" so understandably modules were confused 
about version.  So I started clean again, having renamed the kernel 
directory to "/usr/src/linux-2.4.19-gentoo-r7".  This time modules loaded 
OK.

2)  On reboot, after selecting gentoo from grub, I got "Cannot open root 
device 'hdg5' or 22:05 (which is hdc5) ... kernel panic.  The reason - no 
initrd and no mkinitrd either.  I had to copy the mkinitrd files from my 
Mandrake 8.2 partition to /sbin, then I successfully made an initrd and 
could boot into gentoo.

3)  Now I do like the idea of downloading a minimal linux and then merging 
from a distant mirror - especially with a broadband connection - but 
there lies another problem:  gentoo assumes you have an ethernet 
connection to the net and doesn't even provide ppp, so how to merge?  
Mandrake to the rescue again: I installed my Alcatel SpeedTouch USB PPPoA 
modem software, which assumes either a Debian or DeadRat configuration 
(gentoo is neither - no rc.?).  So I copied the entire /etc/sysconfig 
directory from Mandrake, together with Mandrake's pppd files and with a 
bit of fiddling managed to get the net connection up.

Once you get this far it's wonderful.  I had a skeleton of a system with 
no X and I told portage I wanted KDE (that's stopped Lonnie reading!).  
It worked out all the dependencies and downloaded, unpacked, compiled and 
installed a whole load of stuff - all optimised for my machine and then I 
had KDE 3.0.0 working.

The hand-holding only goes as far as dependencies though - I missed those 
system tools you get with Mandrake, but it's a great way to learn.

Good point about gentoo noticed so far:
It had KDE *exactly* where I have always wanted it:
	/usr/kde/3/
	/usr/qt/3/
...and nothing of it in /usr/lib or /usr/share.  I imagine dep may be 
pleased with that.

I haven't got gnome or the other Desktops on yet, but if they're in 
/usr/gnome/ and so on I'll be more than happy - I can actually see what's 
in /usr and /lib for the first time.

Thanks to Collins' enthusiasm that got me started on this trip.
-- 

AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1600+	 513MB	 Kernel: 2.4.19-gentoo-r7
KDE: 3.0.0		 Qt: 3.0.4	.
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