CRAZY Idea

[enmane]

Hi gang,
This is my first post and I was wondering if someone knew the right people or even knew if this has been done already.

I'm thinking of a Gentoo LiveCD-ish distribution that would boot up with a GUI and allow the user to select options that he/she wants for their distro based on their hardware. The information is then properly incorporated into a build-to-order Gentoo distribution.

In other words a GUI that takes the packages desired (or some baseline of packages) along with the users input and builds Gentoo right off the LiveCD and installs to the hard drive.

This might have been done already but it would be REALLY COOL to have a custom built version of an OS for your specific hardware and with the ease-of-use of GUI.

Please be gentle

[Sky]

That just takes all the fun out of everything

[smindinvern]

not only that, but sometimes a build will fail, or you'll have configuration problems, which require that you troubleshoot and fix it yourself, which would require a CLI

[enmane]

OK, so we have some intelligence in the live-cd to find errors or that the live-cd has ways that the user can fix the errors. Don't look at the implementation, look at the concept.

I'm unlike most of the Gentoo users in that I really don't like having to do all the legwork in creating my own custom-built distro although the end result is great.

I wish there was a quicker way and I'm hoping someone with the know-how will get inspired

[smindinvern]

I've been thinking about doing this for the past couple of days, but in order to fix errors, you would have to allow the user to use a shell to install the packags themself. The thing is, that when you offer people the option to install gentoo from a gui, n00bs who don't know what they're doing are going to want to install it, and then come up with an error or something that they don't know how to fix. It's a good idea, but you have to consider the n00bs too.

[enmane]

ahhhhh, screw the noobs

Seriously though, I'd only be interested in making it useable for the novice and experts as I don't think too many noobs would even know about compiling with option flags or different compiler options in general.
If the noobs are interested then they'll have to do some legwork to get up on the learning curve - heck, didn't we all have to?! I for one, wasn't born with all these useless facts that continue to clutter my brain and prevent me from being productive

[Flatline]

The noobs can use Vidalinux, anyway.

[smindinvern]

hmmm... I'm getting some ideas... well, I'll probably be putting together a mini gentoo distro with a utility for compiling and installing a custom version soon...

[enmane]

SWEEEEEEEET!

Keep me informed if you do as I'll run testing on it and I await with my fingers crossed.

Thanks a million

Actually, wouldn't it be SUPER COOL if the live-CD automatically configured the optimal choices based on the hardware that it discovered. The user would then only need to double-check that the auto-installer found the proper hardware and give it the final OK.

I'm so PUMPED!