Considering installing Gentoo and was wondering....

**josolanes** · 10-17-2005

Originally Posted by genesus

I like the streamlined bootscripts myself...not even an initrd!

i take the lazy/easy way out

initng (parallel loading/faster than initrd), genkernel, and hotplugging/coldplugging

i really just want to know that everytime i push the power button it'll start without a hitch (say, if i change some hardware or something).

i'd like to make a streamlined bootloader and optimize my boot-up some but it boots pretty quickly now (especially with initng) and i'm afraid of possibly not having everything i need boot as it should.

**smolloy** · 10-18-2005

Finished the installation late last night and everything went according to plan. Kinda.......

So far I'm very impressed by the short time it took to get up and running (I thought it would be closer to the amount of time it took me to get LinuxFromScratch installed

), and the emerge command is amazing. Really seems like the best package managment solution out there.

I have a few issues to figure out first,
1/ I'm having trouble persuading it to use the correct screen resolution. I know it's one of the boot parameters I should give to the kernel, but I can't find the right one. YET!
2/ I followed the stage3 instructions, and I thought I was building a KDE system, but it just boots to the bash prompt at the moment

Looks like I have a bit of reading to do.

I'll report back later (probably with questions!)

**drakebasher** · 10-18-2005

Originally Posted by smolloy

but it just boots to the bash prompt at the moment

Edit default runlevel (initdefault) in /etc/initab from 3 to 5?

**smolloy** · 10-18-2005

Originally Posted by drakebasher

Edit default runlevel (initdefault) in /etc/initab from 3 to 5?

Thanks drakebasher, that's probably it. I remember seeing "runlevel 3" scroll past when it was booting and thought "I'll need to change that" -- and promptly forgot all about it!

I thought it was more likely due to some typo in one of the config files, and was too busy reading up on all that to think of something so obvious!

I'll try that when I get home.

Cheers.

**smolloy** · 10-18-2005

Changing it to runlevel 5 didn't do the trick. Neither did "startx", "xdm", "kdm", or "gdm". On top of that I couldn't get online, and I think it's due to skipping a few sections of the install instructions. Instead of messing around and trying to fix the mistakes I made during the installation, I'm gonna erase the partition and begin again!!

This time I'll do it right!

One question: In a typical stage 3 installation (i.e. following the instructions word for word) should I expect to boot straight into KDE after changing the default runlevel??

**psic** · 10-18-2005

Originally Posted by smolloy

One question: In a typical stage 3 installation (i.e. following the instructions word for word) should I expect to boot straight into KDE after changing the default runlevel??

No. You will boot into the CLI. There are great instructions on the gentoo page for installing and configuring KDE, Gnome and Fluxbox (I'd recommend fluxbox, since it's fast to compile, and once you have a gui and firefox, you can surf while emerging KDE in another terminal). The instructions for fluxbox:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/fluxbox-config.xml

Oh, almost forgot, you also need X (well, duh

):
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/xorg-config.xml

**dylunio** · 10-18-2005

You need to add XDM or KDE (or whatever you use) to the boot process, to do this use

Code:

rc-update add xdm default

for example,

**smolloy** · 10-18-2005

Thanks guys!

I have to say that I am blown away with the quality of the instructions on the gentoo website. After reading a few reviews, I thought building gentoo was gonna be a real trauma, and that there was a reasonable chance of putting a lot of work into it, and still not having a working OS. But with the instructions they give, along with a help from these forums, it looks like it could turn out to be a quality distro.

Thanks for all your help -- it's really appreciated!

**psic** · 10-18-2005

Yeah, the documentation is awsome, I was surprised as well. If it's not on the gentoo site, it's on the wiki:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/Main_Page

I found some great info here on fixing the fonts...

**smolloy** · 10-19-2005

Again I have to say how impressed I am with this distro! Whenever I first booted my network wasn't starting, even tho I thought it was automatically configured by genkernel. After searching google for about 5 mins I learnt that I had to compile support for my network card into the genkernel. Two mins later I was looking at the kernel options and changing the option for my card from 'M' to 'Y'. Recompiled, booted, and hey presto!! After an excessively long "emerge links" (I didn't realise X11 was a dependency

) I'm now online, and posting this from gentoo!!

The site doesn't look so good in links tho....

Now I'm off to get me KDE!!!

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