questions before i try to install

chr1z · Apprentice Joined: 17 Jul 2002 Posts: 207

hi

i want to switch from my crappy SuSe distro to gentoo linux. i read most of the docs and manuals on this site.

i still have some questions before i will install
i want to have a multi boot system:

my first partition consists of Windows XP (5 gb)
my second is for storage stuff(45 gb)
and my second (10gb) should be for gentoo

1. whats the best way of formatting my 3rd partition and can i install lilo wihtout problems in the MBR?

2. do i have to download essential packages like xfree or kde with emerge or can i just download them in windows an burn them on a cd?

3. im connected to the internet over a router (dsl). is it difficult to get inet connection working?

4. can i still install/compile software with make or will everything be handled by the packet system?

SuSe did all the stuff by itself

i think it will be alot of hard work, but i am willing to learn

therobot · Apprentice Joined: 07 Jun 2002 Posts: 256 Location: Canada

2. Why would you want to do it that way? If you search the forum, I'm sure someone has posted how to do this.

3. It's not that hard at all, though some people seem to have problems, I guess it all depends on the circumstances.

4. But of course you can.

good luck, and welcome to gentoo

rizzo · Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2002 7:38 pm Post subject:

Re: DSL

There are a lot of posts in the forum regarding installing with pppoe. I have DSL, but I have a pre-existing linux router so installing on other boxes doesn't give me the pppoe issue. Now if I wanted to put gentoo on the (redhat) router, I might be in trouble.

chr1z · Apprentice Joined: 17 Jul 2002 Posts: 207

i have a hardware router
how do i config gentoo use the router as a gateway?

rac · Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2002 8:47 pm Post subject:

metalhedd · Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2002 9:26 pm Post subject:

For the partitioning, you're gonna need a swap partition and you'll probably want a boot partition. i'd suggest making that 3rd partition into 3 separate partitions (that would make 5 partitions, so you'll have to have one of them as an extended partition)

you'll want 50-100MB for a boot partition, I think this one has to be primary. then use your own judgement for the swap partition, some people say 2xRAM, but thats seems to be kind of an outdated suggestion.

i'd also suggest using grub as is described in the install guide instead of Lilo.

Chris W

ramon

karl11 · Guru Joined: 25 Jun 2002 Posts: 469 Location: Raleigh, NC

You're in luck, because I installed Gentoo entirely from CD-ROM (only 10 of hem) lol....i have a 56k modem, so I didn't want to wait around forever. I now emerge rsync and do small things over the modem, but new packages still get downloaded at the university if they are really large

Download packages from: ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/linuxdistributions/gentoo/distfiles

It's pretty big...between 5 and 6 GB. You can download the whole thing or only what you want...that's up to you.

Take any files you get out of that directory and put them in /usr/portage/distfiles on your Gentoo box. It doesn't exist? create it..it won't harm your system.

Now how about the dreaded emerge rsync? Almost just as easy. Go to the following location:

ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo/snapshots

and download the latest version of the portage tree...that is the only set of files in that directory. Just pick the latest date. You can put the .bz2 wherever you want. I just kept mine on a cdrom.

After this, on your Gentoo system, just do the following:

cd /usr
tar -xvjf /mnt/cdrom/portage*.bz2

Of course, you will have to specify exactly where the portage file is (in my case, /mnt/cdrom), but that code will be the same as an emerge rsync without ever having to connect to the internet. After that you should be able to do the following:

cd /usr/portage
ls

and get a nice sized list of directories with stuff like media-gfx and media-video and apps-games....basically the categories of the portage tree. After doing this you are ready to install the system. Hope this helps.

Karl Abbott

chr1z · Apprentice Joined: 17 Jul 2002 Posts: 207

ok my 3rd partition is now fat32 10gb
does the gentoo cdrom provide tools like fdisk?
i guess i have to delete the 3rd partition and make 3 new ones
for /boot /swap and 1 for the rest

for my router i can simply use the static network configuration
and use the router-ip as my gateway?

thank u guys. the support in this community is awesome !

karl11 · Guru Joined: 25 Jun 2002 Posts: 469 Location: Raleigh, NC

ok my 3rd partition is now fat32 10gb
does the gentoo cdrom provide tools like fdisk?

yes, in fact fdisk is one of the first steps in a gentoo install

i guess i have to delete the 3rd partition and make 3 new ones
for /boot /swap and 1 for the rest

--might be helpful, consider your options though and if you really want to do that. 3 seperate partitions for linux are needed though since you need boot and swap as seperate entities (to my knowledge)

for my router i can simply use the static network configuration
and use the router-ip as my gateway?

yes...detailed instructions in the manual, but the router ip would be the gateway to get you on the internet, and i do know to say for setting the gateway (i had to configure my sgi octane for dhcp this weekend!):

route add default ipnumber_of_router

most commonly: route add default 192.168.0.1

thank u guys. the support in this community is awesome !

-- that's one of the things I love about Gentoo...the community! My thanks to everyone here also!

chr1z · Apprentice Joined: 17 Jul 2002 Posts: 207

ok i am planning the gentoo installation in my head for some days now

i plan to install grub as my boot manager in the MBR
how do i get it to boot my Windows XP
i guess it is just an entry in the config file

just as it is always handled in linux :wink:

sorry for my crappy english

metalhedd · Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2002 11:35 pm Post subject:

The Install Guide tells you exactly how to boot windows alongside Gentoo.
its just a few extra lines in your /boot/grub/menu.lst