Using Gentoo

Gentoo differs in many ways from a standard linux distribution. It's hardware requirements,
the skill level of the administrator/installer and the intended purpose of the machine are all
factors in deciding upon a distribution.

Gentoo keeping around the sources and running Gnome 2.30.2 is 21.2 GB This is a huge
number compared to most package managed distro's Much of this is the sources in
/usr/portage/distfiles/* (4.1 GB)
/usr/src/ (7.1 GB)
Compiling software on old slow hardware can be quite time-consuming as well.

However...it's quite easy to tailor make your own system with Gentoo's package management and
the judicious use of portage. How to make your own SystemRescueCD for instance.
Create your own custom ebuilds and even your own binpkg host if you
wish or a cross-platform toolchain for embedded development.

If your skillset is more limited but still you would like to try linux; Ubuntu is a good choice for first time users of linux systems that "just want it to work". Even so it is not bug free. A recent kernel update added a new grub boot option on a system I built and without copying the needed "nomce" at the end of the kernel line. Result Lucid Lynx unusable for the user. On a working new system built for linux. I don't know why grub chokes without
the "nomce" flag but I'll file a bug as soon as the user sets up his Ubuntu One Care account so
they can hopefully address it.

Got introduced recently to NerdVittles and PBX in a flash from some acquaintances at lugot.org (which seems to be down atm SMH)
I see Asterisk has an ebuild in portage as well.

david@random

After many years of sharing the computer with other OS's and other people in the household; I now have a pc of my own.


Linux random 2.6.34.1 #1 SMP Fri Jul 9 22:55:44 EST 2010 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux
Currently running gnome 2.30 from /etc/portage/package.keywords Gnome 2.30 thread the file can be found in the thread.


15.999570] p54pci 0000:00:09.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[ 15.999591] p54pci 0000:00:09.0: enabling Mem-Wr-Inval
[ 15.999752] p54pci 0000:00:09.0: firmware: requesting isl3886pci
[ 16.357638] phy0: p54 detected a LM86 firmware
[ 16.357641] p54: rx_mtu reduced from 3240 to 2376
[ 17.271915] p54pci 0000:00:09.0: is registered as 'phy0'

Wireless networking is on. p54 provides support Prism54 is deprecated and so prism54-firmware is of no use running newer kernels. The consequence is that portage has no p54-firmware ebuild in the tree. I had to manually move the firmware to /lib/firmware and name it appropriately. In my case 'isl3886pci.bin' 'isl3886pci' both exist and are identical ;-) I'll sort out which it uses one cday and edit.

Anyway I have now my own ~/home and my own Gentoo system. Currently becoming familliar with Emacs and git. Also purchased and am reading the Ruby Way

Flameeyes has Autotools-Mythbuster updates and it is looking like a very polished document of late. There are some spelling errors and some minor things but it explains the subject matter well now. It is basically an installation guide for building software from source. Something anyone building software should know if they wish it to run on the target system.