Re: [gentoo-dev] FAQ

[Erik Grinaker <erikg@wired-networks.net>]

On Mon, 2002-04-08 at 21:59, Thilo Bangert wrote:

> > Hmmm... I've just experienced the joys of completely reinstalling a
> > server while it was actually running. That is, I installed gentoo on
> > it while I had the RedHat installation running - and just replaced
> > the services from the RedHat system with those from the Gentoo
> > chroot one by one until everything ran from the Gentoo installation.
> > I then did a quick reboot and had a fully functional Gentoo
> > replacement system running. Downtime was two minutes.
> > 
> 
> great - i plan on doing this myself.
> good to hear somebody already accomplished this...
> (amazing downtime!)

For a complete system reinstallation and reconfiguration including data
transfers i would say 2 minutes is rather nice, yeah :D try doing that
with redhat, debian or whatever (no flames, plz)


> > I can also contribute with maybe a bootdisk/netinstall and even a
> > more automated installation process for people not really knowing
> > what they are doing - if there is any interest for it
> 
> i've said this before: i wouldn't want to make it too easy for 
> people - thats what made gentoo really fun

True. However, I think the installation process is unneccessarily
complex, because you set up the gentoo environment manually, but all the
boot-scripts etc which really teach you the inner workings of linux are
automatically installed. Sure, newbies won't be afraid of recompiling
their kernel etc, but it's not a "complete" learning experience.

But I do know that the feeling most newbies have after installing it
will most certainly motivate them to play around some more with the
linux system (which is what you *should* do with linux; play around),
and this is definitely a good thing. I know I was pretty damn proud
after doing my first lfs install.

Anyways, you've probably had discussions on this before, so I'll just
leave it to the dev's.

> yes, a steep learning curve will scare some people away, but it will
>  make tech support much more easy (in the long)
> (perhaps this is all wrong, because then people just start
>  doing new stuff...)

hehe, well, there's really nothing stopping me, or anyone else, from
making a GentooEasyInstall(tm) disk/cd which does this, so I wouldn't
have that as my primary business model ;)


> also, gentoo is constantly under (more or less) heavy development
> (getting better every day). brave newbies have no problem dealing
> with that, but they can handle heavy documentation as well...
> 
> i don't want to kill your attempt on doing something good - i just
>  personally feel we should not lower the high standards (in terms
>  of dificulty or "heaviness") of the gentoo documentation

Also true, I just thought it would get some pressure off of the mailing
lists and make the gentoo install process a bit more flexible for people
who don't have the skills/creativity to do stuff like this - but if they
don't i guess they shouldn't be doing it in any case :)


> a dedicated gentoo floppy bootdisc really sounds like a good idea

Yup. I'll look into it, but no promises.

-- 

Erik Grinaker
Freelance UNIX/Linux systems consultant

"Perfection is acheived not when there is nothing more to add, but
rather when there is nothing more to take away"
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry