Re: [gentoo-user] A few (gentoo-newbie) questions (mainly about binary packages)

[Bob Sanders <rmsand@concentric.net>]

On Thu, 29 Dec 2005 15:24:58 +0000
Richard Neill <rn214@hermes.cam.ac.uk> wrote:


> 1)My main machine is a laptop, so it doesn't really have either the disk
> space for sources or CPU power to compile everything
> kernel,X,kde,openoffice ...). Is there a way to do a binary install that
> will get me a fully working system within a few hours?  

I just installed Gentoo onto a 640 MHz PIII that had a 4GB disk drive.  Upside,
it took all of about 1 hr from a 2005.1 Stage3 CD, to get to the shell.  Downside,
2005.1 still has the old gcc, so it took a few days to upgrade gcc to 3.4, emerge -e system,
emerge ufed, set the USE flags, then emerge -e world.  But I only use Enlightenment
or fluxbox.  If you want KDE, emerge something really lightweight - fluxbox and rox,
then let KDE crank in the background.  Also, you'll need - laptop-mode-tools.

> 
> 2)How exactly do gentoo security updates work? Under Mdv, there is a
> mailing list with announcements of which RPMs to install. If I have a
> binary-based distribution, will it be possible to keep it current?
> 

The is a gentoo-announce list that the security updates get sent out on.  Typically, if
you're doing a daily syncs, the updates show up before the announcement.

> 3)Is there a relatively stable fork of gentoo with less frequent
> updates, or do I have to stay on the bleeding edge? Of course I want to
> get eg the latest kernel, or firefox, but I ran Mandrake Cooker for a
> while, with > 100MB of updates per day and all sorts of random breakage!
> 

If you run a straight arch flag, like "x86", vs unstable - "~x86", then you'll not see
lots of updates.  But, running a desktop means you'll see more packages changing.

The other consideration is Gentoo is source based.  Thus the dependencies on specific
revisions of libraries is somewhat relaxed.  And you control the interrelated dependencies.
Thus fewer packages will change vs a binary based dist.  Though with heavyweight desktops
like KDE and Gnome, there will be more related lib changes to occur, it's just the nature
of the beast.

> 4)Does anyone know of a good resource for ex-mandriva users?
> 

Sorry, the best thing is just go through the installation guide and the Portage related
documentation.  As there are no GUI based system management tools, you'll be
doing more editing of config files.  Also, leaving the world of chkconfig and /etc/rc.*
for rc-update, /etc/init.d/ and /etc/runlevels/{boot, default,network,single} will
be like a breath of fresh air.

Bob
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