From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 4.0.0 (2022-12-14) on finch.gentoo.org X-Spam-Level: * X-Spam-Status: No, score=1.7 required=5.0 tests=DATE_IN_PAST_24_48, DMARC_REJECT,FREEMAIL_FROM,INVALID_DATE,MAILING_LIST_MULTI, RCVD_IN_MSPIKE_H3,RCVD_IN_MSPIKE_WL autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=4.0.0 Received: from front2.mail.megapathdsl.net ([66.80.60.30]) by cvs.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 3.30 #1) id 15qRLP-00048U-00 for gentoo-dev@cvs.gentoo.org; Sun, 07 Oct 2001 21:44:43 -0600 Received: from [64.32.225.42] (HELO void2) by front2.mail.megapathdsl.net (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 3.4.8a) with SMTP id 8431990 for gentoo-dev@cvs.gentoo.org; Sun, 07 Oct 2001 20:35:57 -0700 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" From: Gold is Heavy To: gentoo-dev@cvs.gentoo.org X-Mailer: KMail [version 1.2] MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-Id: <01100723442500.00464@void2> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Subject: [gentoo-dev] gentoo 1.0_rc6_r12 impressions from gentoo newbie (long) Sender: gentoo-dev-admin@cvs.gentoo.org Errors-To: gentoo-dev-admin@cvs.gentoo.org X-BeenThere: gentoo-dev@cvs.gentoo.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: gentoo-dev@cvs.gentoo.org List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Gentoo Linux development list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Date: Sun Oct 7 21:45:02 2001 X-Original-Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 23:44:25 -0400 X-Archives-Salt: 3b753b69-f428-4df2-a861-ffc2abe23822 X-Archives-Hash: fc652bc52de74d9b544183bcfb7a8402 Hi Gentoo Hackers, I've heard of your distro on LT and decided to try it. My overall impression is that this distro really *kicks ass*. I like it a lot! I like portage. There is a good chance I will make this one of my default distros. I think this is just the distro to run if I want up to date packages that are optimized for my box, all without a major hassle, while respecting config files created by hand. I think this is great. I get the feeling of "power" like from no other distro (that I've tried). Alright, now that I've complimented your fine work, it's time to mention some snags I've experienced. I hope to get help, if possible. If you decide to help me, please CC: aeoo blah myrealbox dot com. Replace blah with at sign. 1. I noticed that both bootstrap and emerge seem to download then compile, then download, then compile again, and so on. Idea: why not compile while downloading? Is it possible to take advantage of multitasking in Linux kernel to compile and download at the same time? Maybe a simple way to do this would be to somehow tell bootstrap/emerge to download only, in one virtual terminal. Then switch to another one, and run bootstrap/emergy and tell it to compile only. If compiling bootstrap/emerge finishes too soon (before the next download is complete) then it should gracefully wait and continue as soon as possible. There might be even better ways to do this. This would be desireable, as the time spent both compiling and downloading is very considerable (huge). I have 190kbps DSL and Athlon 1333Mhz, and it took me a while to get just the barebones system going. Never mind X/KDE and other goodies I want! :) 2. Perl 5.6.0 test complained with this message "(maybe your system does not have a localhost at all, 'localhost' or 127.0.0.1)". I checked /etc/hosts, and of course, it's true: nothing is configured. Then I look at your (really FINE) installation doc, and I do see a step configuring /etc/hosts, but it's way in the future. Suggestion: move /etc/hosts configuration to the front of the installation, OR, change your .ebuild package to NOT run tests while making Perl 5.6.0. 3. I've seen numerous complaints about pharmacy package. I bet you've seen them too, but if you want more detail let me know. From memory, one of the errors looked like "...name error in pharmacy-0.3-1..." another one looked something like this "invalid pharmacy directory in gentoo/portage". If you want the exact error string, I will supply it. 4. I was wondering where (and if?) all of the output from bootstrap/emerge is logged? If the output from bootstrap/emerge is not logged, it should be! If it is, I want to know where it is. The reason for this is that I like to leave the box for a while, but then I want to see if any of the packages had errors. I imagine I would want to look at the log file somewhere and see what happened? I didn't read *all* the docs yet, so if this is FAQ, forgive me please :). 5. During a very long bootstrap/emerge process, some kind of total progress indicator would be helpful. This is just a minor wish/idea. It doesn't even have to be a fancy visual one. Maybe overwrite some file in /tmp every 20 seconds? Just make /tmp/ebuild-progress or something, and overwrite it with estimated time left, bytes downloaded, other stats. Just an idea. 6. When I did 'emerge system' I noticed that latest Linux kernel was being downloaded somewhere. So I was pretty puzzled when the docs asked me to emerge it explicitely. Indeed, there was nothing in /usr/src until I did emerge the Linux kernel explicitely. I wonder why? Just curious. 7. I get a LOT of "unresolved symbol" errors from depmod. Now, let me point out that I've built my kernel to statically compile with all the stuff I want, and ONLY the stuff I want. I had to unset a ton of junk (why is it set by default? Some things there are hardly used by anyone!). I ran into a snag where IDE driver was setup as a module. Everything was fine after I made it static. I think it should be static by default. Generally, I think default configs can be much better. I am talking about 2.4.10-r1 kernel. So, back to "unresolved symbol" errors. I don't know why I see them. I read that depmod uses System.map file. Ok, so I tried copying System.map file from /usr/src/linux to /boot, and to / and to /lib/modules with no effect. In fact, if System.map normally sits in /boot, but /boot is normally NOT mounted in gentoo, it's kinda weird? Plus, installation doc didn't mention anything about System.map. So what's up? How can I fix my errors? I ran depmod -c and I noticed that it's trying to load every module I have (which is not a lot, but still...I don't need any of them loaded at all). I left my /etc/modules.conf empty because all the stuff I want is already in the kernel. I tried putting stuff in /etc/modules.conf, to no avail. I have to admit, I don't know much about modules.conf file. 8. Emerging vim installed XFree86 4.1.0?!!! Holy cow, man! I just wanted an editor. I absolutely HATE e3. I wish there was some kind of real vi clone. I know e3 was chosen for its size, but still, I could not do any real editing with it. I couldn't even find how to do search and replace in vi mode. Anyway, I was going to install XFree86 4.1.0 anyway, so it wasn't that big of a deal. But I think something needs to be done about being able to use vim in console mode without X. 9. There is a mistake in your installation doc. In Code Listing 21 you say: # mv bzImage bzImage.orig but you probably mean # mv /boot/bzImage /boot/bzImage.orig Not a biggie, but it could confuse someone following the docs literally. Also, you should make up your mind about /boot partition. In the docs is says /boot, but in the /etc/fstab template you suggest /mnt/boot. The docs should match the template file from the build. Thank you very much! I had *tons* of fun with Gentoo :). It rocks. --Leo Lipelis