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thorpe l33t
Joined: 09 May 2005 Posts: 618 Location: Sydney, Australia.
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 2:57 am Post subject: How many times have you rebuilt? |
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from scratch I mean.
Ive been using Gentoo now since probably mid 04 and Ive just finished my 3rd complete install / reinstall on this same machine.
Just wondering how long you people have managed to keep a current installation running without having to do a reinstall. The first reinstall I had to do was pretty early in the peace (system was maybe 4 months old) and I had simply just installed way too much junk and just wasn't really happy with some things I had done. I figured it was maybe easier to reinstall than try to figure out how to clean my system.
This latest reinstall has come about because I wanted to quickly move from ~x86 back to x86. Ive been having numerous problems anytime I emerged my world and just felt the system was becomming unstable.
So I guess my last system had been running for a little over a year and a half. Lets see if I can keep this one in shape :-P
Anyone else? How many times have you started from scratch? How old is your system? (and I dont mean how 'up to date') _________________ Research before taking any advice from me. I'm still coming to grips with this myself. |
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sageman Guru
Joined: 04 May 2005 Posts: 363 Location: New Hampshire
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 3:26 am Post subject: |
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I"ve had gentoo on this computer since 2003 and have yet to have to do a complete install / reinstall. However, I have (just in the last week) had to do emerge -e system and world (but that's because of power outtages frisking with things and wanting to upgrade to GCC 4.1.1 and re-emerging everything with it).
So, I guess, zero reinstalls for about three years. And zero reinstalls on my laptop for about 2. |
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DAharon Apprentice
Joined: 17 Jun 2004 Posts: 155
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 4:28 am Post subject: |
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I have had this install of gentoo for at least three years now. My first install lasted about a month before I totally screwed it up with a depclean (Don't use depclean!).
I've screwed things up a little since then, but I have always been able to fix them. I have an old RedHat 7 install on another partition just in case I can't even boot Gentoo.
Once you learn to maintain the system properly there's nothing to it. |
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filterpunk n00b
Joined: 18 Jun 2006 Posts: 71 Location: Portland, OR
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 5:18 am Post subject: |
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I've done a handful so far. It's not due to any problems with Gentoo, just my own obsessive need to streamline things to my liking. So, i've been researching filesystems, volume management, using SQL as a backend for Portage, and really anything I can come up with to make stable, but effective, optimizations that actually make sense. Most of the re-installs have been to test something out and make sure it works as expected.
It's a good thing i'm off for the summer... _________________ Gentoo 2.6.17-r4 AMD64 | AMD Athlon64 3200+ Manchester, 1GB Mushkin PC-3500 Black Hi-Perf Level II, Asus V9999GT 128MB |
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AaronPPC Guru
Joined: 29 May 2005 Posts: 522 Location: Tucson, AZ
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 6:06 am Post subject: |
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I started to use Linux about 18 months ago. I chose Gentoo Stage 1 install because I really wanted to learn Linux and felt the best way to do so was to go with a hard distro (sort of learning to swim by being thrown in to the deepest part of the lake).
About six months later, I knew Linux well enough that I knew how I wanted my system to be set up, so I did a complete re-install.
So, basically this a long story to say--once--although that doesn't count the times I had to do emerge -e world. _________________ --Aaron |
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Archangel1 Veteran
Joined: 21 Apr 2004 Posts: 1212 Location: Work
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 7:28 am Post subject: |
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Probably about once or twice a year on my desktop; when I feel it's getting messy. Am working on a new one at the moment, my current one has lots of GNOME cruft as dependencies for compiz which I can't be bothered getting rid of manually.
Part of the beauty of Gentoo is that you can create a new install from an existing one, so I only have to reboot into it; I don't have the machine out of action the whole time it's building.
My laptop is much less frequent (it gets quite warm, bless it) so I try not to do things like compiling an entire system on it too often _________________ What are you, stupid? |
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richard_ablitt Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 30 Jan 2006 Posts: 99
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 8:32 am Post subject: |
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I've been reinstalling every few months on average, usually after trying out a binary distribution. I think I've reinstalled Gentoo to fix problems a couple of times, but I can't remember what it was for. Getting rid on Gnome was probably one of the reasons. |
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Ctrl+Alt+Del Guru
Joined: 04 Jul 2004 Posts: 326 Location: .de
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:57 am Post subject: |
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i reinstalled once in jan 2005 trying to get framebuffer and dri working on my ati card, been running ever since... |
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danomac l33t
Joined: 06 Nov 2004 Posts: 881 Location: Vancouver, BC
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 4:32 pm Post subject: |
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I've been using gentoo since '03. I finally reinstalled my main desktop 2 months ago. The only reason I did was because I replaced all my internal hard drives with ones of larger capacity. |
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razze Apprentice
Joined: 09 Mar 2005 Posts: 161 Location: Espoo, Finland
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 4:51 pm Post subject: |
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I have been using Gentoo on two machines for about 1 1/2 years now. One of the machines (my parents') is never reinstalled, but my own desktop I reinstalled in february when I upgraded the hardware (Athlon XP -> amd 64 x2). I use mostly only stable packages and update almostt every day. _________________ --------------------------
Linux User #393524
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ @2,3 GHz, Asus A8V, VIA K8T800PRO, Nvidia GeForce 7600GS, 2 Gb Dual Channel DDR RAM, 2x Samsung SP120 200Gb, 2x WD 320Gb, Plextor PX-716A, linux-2.6.31-gentoo-r10 |
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energyman76b Advocate
Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 2048 Location: Germany
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 6:29 pm Post subject: |
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since I switched to amd64 last october/november?
none. _________________ Study finds stunning lack of racial, gender, and economic diversity among middle-class white males
I identify as a dirty penismensch. |
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chunderbunny Veteran
Joined: 31 May 2004 Posts: 1281 Location: 51°24'27" N, 0°57'15" W
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 7:15 pm Post subject: |
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Since March 2004 I have had 3 PCs which run gentoo but I've only gone through the installation process twice. On one machine I simply migrated all the data across. |
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djdunn l33t
Joined: 26 Dec 2004 Posts: 810
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 7:33 pm Post subject: |
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I rebuilt twice once because i was going from an AMD to an Intel and back to AMD again _________________ “Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the Universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is good and just and beautiful.”
― Plato |
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kettuz n00b
Joined: 25 Dec 2004 Posts: 27
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 8:21 pm Post subject: |
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I have used Gentoo now on this computer for one year, and have never rebuilt it. But I guess the install went so smoothly only because I had already used linux (FC) before for two years and practised installing Gentoo on my friends' computers |
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PowerFactor Veteran
Joined: 30 Jan 2003 Posts: 1693 Location: out of it
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 9:00 pm Post subject: |
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First successful install in this box was in spring 2002. Reinstalled in fall 2002 for the gcc-2.95->3.2 upgrade. Had some fs corruption issues so reinstalled again in Dec. '02. Haven't reinstalled on this box since. Running a mix of x86 and ~x86.
Have installed gentoo on five or six other computers since. None of those have required a reinstall. One has ben running almost full time since summer 2003. Latest is an amd64 box I just put together about a month ago. |
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NeddySeagoon Administrator
Joined: 05 Jul 2003 Posts: 54266 Location: 56N 3W
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 9:10 pm Post subject: |
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I'm still using an early 2003 install, done from stage 1 with a 1.4-rc4 liveCD. Its been migrated from a single drive to kernel raid and between two different motherboards, both with different speed AMD Athlon-XP CPUs
My /usr/portage/distfiles is about 13Gb, since I have the disk space (600GB) to not need to flush it, at least, not yet.
After 18 months not beeing used, I put the original hard drive into a new PC and brought the install up to date
A new install may have been faster at that time but not as much fun or learning.
What reinstall ?
Thats a bad habit userer get coming to Gentoo form otherOses. _________________ Regards,
NeddySeagoon
Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail. |
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asiobob Veteran
Joined: 29 Oct 2003 Posts: 1375 Location: Bamboo Creek
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:19 pm Post subject: |
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Since early 2004, so 2.5 years-ish |
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Abraxas l33t
Joined: 25 May 2003 Posts: 814
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:48 pm Post subject: Never reinstalled my current system |
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I have been using the same install for 3.5 years now. This install was done from the 1.4rc2 LiveCD. My install has seen the transition from kernel 2.4 to 2.6, devfs to udev, gcc 3.2 to 3.3 to 3.4 and now on to 4.1. I've changed my installation to unicode (and I'm still working some of the bugs out of that), added support for hal, undergone a myriad of wireless device driver changes, changed my windowmanager from sawfish to fluxbox to iceWM, back to fluxbox, onto metacity, and settling on Windowmaker. I've witnessed a good portion of applications transitioning from GTK1 to GTK2. Until recently I still had a ".phoenix" directory in my home folder. Bascially I've rebuilt my entire system many times over and I've managed to maintain a relatively stable system through it all. I've had much better luck maintaining Gentoo than any binary distribution. Sure, I've had my issues, but most of them got worked out relatively quickly. A majority of my problems are probably due to the large percentage of unstable packages that I have installed anyway. Through it all I've learned to love Gentoo and I can't possibely think of using another operating system, given the choice.
I almost forgot to mention, I also installed Gentoo on at least seven other computers in that 3.5 year time frame. |
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Ian l33t
Joined: 28 Oct 2002 Posts: 834 Location: Somerville, MA
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Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 2:24 am Post subject: |
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Heh...I just reinstalled Gentoo from scratch...
I tend to break computers. Badly. So when I broke my dad's MythTV box I set up for him last summer (well, more, never got it really working in the first place...) I decided I'd fix that. Just got everything, except for the remote control, up and working perfectly, in the space of about 3 or 4 days (working nights mostly, as I work full time). I have to say, I'm...quite impressed at how easy it was to reinstall everything and bring it up. Last year when I set up this box it took me weeks to just get MythTV to work, this time it came right up with no problems!
My personal Linux computer I've had since about this time last year, I think it's still the original install. Could probably do with a reinstall, I have some stuff like RAID 1, that I don't *really* need, but that computer is currently out of service due to a crappy "heatsink retention clip" for my amd64. Not sure if I'll have time to redo it before school starts anyways, so it may just go another year.
All in all though, I've done more Gentoo installations than I can remember. It's a rare time when I decide I'm better off trying to rescue an installation, especially when it's become so easy to install Gentoo now! |
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mikegpitt Advocate
Joined: 22 May 2004 Posts: 3224
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Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 3:54 am Post subject: |
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I've been using the same install since sometime in 2003. I keep up to date by every so often (maybe like twice a year) go though an entire system upgrade (emerge -Du system && emerge -Du world). In between I install/upgrade any packages I have been looing for.
I typically do things in stages and knock off some of the major parts of the upgrade in parts, so if something goes wrong I know where to look. I have done many installs since 2003, but on other machines.
If you follow the gentoo documentation, use caution, and stay as stable as you can then gentoo can last forever. |
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sageman Guru
Joined: 04 May 2005 Posts: 363 Location: New Hampshire
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Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 6:06 am Post subject: Re: Never reinstalled my current system |
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Abraxas wrote: | I have been using the same install for 3.5 years now. This install was done from the 1.4rc2 LiveCD. My install has seen the transition from kernel 2.4 to 2.6, devfs to udev, gcc 3.2 to 3.3 to 3.4 and now on to 4.1. I've changed my installation to unicode (and I'm still working some of the bugs out of that), added support for hal, undergone a myriad of wireless device driver changes, changed my windowmanager from sawfish to fluxbox to iceWM, back to fluxbox, onto metacity, and settling on Windowmaker. I've witnessed a good portion of applications transitioning from GTK1 to GTK2. Until recently I still had a ".phoenix" directory in my home folder. Bascially I've rebuilt my entire system many times over and I've managed to maintain a relatively stable system through it all. I've had much better luck maintaining Gentoo than any binary distribution. Sure, I've had my issues, but most of them got worked out relatively quickly. A majority of my problems are probably due to the large percentage of unstable packages that I have installed anyway. Through it all I've learned to love Gentoo and I can't possibely think of using another operating system, given the choice.
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Ah, how nostlagic, makes me smile I'm a 1.4rc2 starter too, haven't reinstalled since mid 2003.
Don't forget switching to modular KDE and (now) modular Xorg. Heck, even switching from XFree86 to Xorg.
Now, if we can just get a modular openoffice build! |
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playfool l33t
Joined: 01 Jun 2004 Posts: 688 Location: Ã
rhus, Denmark
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Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 6:09 am Post subject: |
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To many times to count as being sane. I used to do it once a wekk just for the hell of it. |
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Sedrik l33t
Joined: 08 Apr 2005 Posts: 655 Location: Uppsala, Sweden
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Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 6:20 am Post subject: |
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I finished my install a couple of weeks ago (around the time I started showing up as a good poster here on the boards ^^) Now as this is my last week at work for the summer I will have a look at it again to see if I can fix my rather crippled system. Also I'm going to start maintaining all the old computer stuff I got lying around at home so I suspect that I will install a couple more gentoo systems and buy some nice stuff to uppgrade them and get them all working =)
I'm also in a mood to do som eheavily modification on my chassi (thermaltake skull, worst crap ever bought..) but that is another story _________________ From Gentoo with love |
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mirojira l33t
Joined: 18 Feb 2006 Posts: 685
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Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 9:34 am Post subject: |
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I have installed gentoo in May 2005. After that eight month I did not make emerge world but only emerge system. So my first update world ( I updated kernel too ) looked like rebuild of the system but not from scratch. |
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rodoke Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 01 Jan 2005 Posts: 87 Location: So. Ill.
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Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 1:57 am Post subject: |
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Only once, my story is somewhere between filterpunk's and AaronPPC's. _________________
Bill Watterson wrote: | If we wanted more leisure, we'd invent machines that do things less efficiently. |
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