Re: [gentoo-dev] FAQ

[Thilo Bangert <thilo.bangert@gmx.net>]

On 08 Apr 2002 21:39:20 +0200
Erik Grinaker <erikg@wired-networks.net> wrote:

> On Mon, 2002-04-08 at 21:17, Thilo Bangert wrote:
> 
> > well - this has come up pretty often lately....
> > 
> >              I can't use the gentoo boot cd - is there any other
> >              way...
> 
> 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!)


> 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

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...)

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

a dedicated gentoo floppy bootdisc really sounds like a good idea

just my 2 cents

regards
Thilo