gentoo question

[Collins]

On Thu, 1 Jan 2004 18:10:34 -0500
Matthew Carpenter <matt at eisgr.com> wrote:

> I guess I should qualify that statement.  I was probably introducing
> too many unknowns, one of which being Linux on Sparc.  Gentoo is one
> of the few modern distros which does a free version for Sparc that I
> would want to do.  Unfortunately, this was a work-machine and I didn't
> afford myself the time (as Linux is not in my official
> responsibilities but Telecomm) to read how Gentoo was different from
> the other systems.  The varying Stages to start out from confused me

Yes it's confusing, even in the documentation.  I'll describe them in
quickest to longest order.  After doing the partition setup, you untar
the selected stage into the new partition and then run chroot from that
partition.

Stage3 - provides a fully compiled basic (no X, etc.) system for a
particular CPU (686, 586, sparc, etc.).  All you need to do is the
configuration stuff.

Stage2 - provides a generic pre-compiled bootstrap system which you run
to install the basic (no X, etc.) system.

Stage1 - generates everything (including the bootstrp) on your system. 
Very basic generic runnable code sufficient to make the bootstrap is
provided.


I'm not sure which of these options are provided for the sparc machine. 
Check the gentoo mirrors.

You can do any of these options from a gentoo LiveCD or from a running
linux system.  

> and the directions I was reading did not explain very clearly what
> each one was.  The newer documenatation does look more informative,
> and your email was quite helpful.  I may try it again soon.  How much
> of the lengthy install is "babysitting time" and how much is waiting
> (get other work done) time?
> 

Except for creating the partition(s), downloading,  and later on
creating a kernel and final configuration, most of the time is just
waiting(enter a few commands and then do something else while the
compiles and downloads run).  

Note: if you have the LiveCD, you can get the software from the CD
without needing a live network connection.  If you have only a plain old
dialup connection, you can choose to download software first ('emerge -f
...') and then do the installs ('emerge ...').

I'm not sure how fast sparc machines are.  On my P4 2.4Mz 196K system,
Stage1 and Stage2 run about 2 hours each, and the configuration
(including kernel) can be completed in less than an hour.

Now the really time consuming steps kick in - X and any graphic apps you
want.  Getting X, xfce4, sylpheed, and a browser (downloaded a binary
Mozilla Firebird) took another couple of hours.  KDE will take the
better part of a day, gnome a little less (you've already built GTK2
for xfce4). I find it a waste of time to compile OpenOffice or full
Mozilla, so I always get binaries. Gentoo has a good binary install for
OpenOffice, but I prever the Mozilla Firebird CVS nightly builds.

Once you have a basic system, keeping up with maintenance is not as time
consuming, unless glibc, gcc, X, KDE stuff, or gnome stuff rolls in with
a dot release.

HTH,

-- 
Collins