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[satan_claus]

Hi,
I'm a very long time Microsoft products user and developer for their platforms with both hardware and software knowledge; I'm writing this so that I make clear from the beginning that I like technical and precise answers/reasonings as I am not a beginner.
Due to the gradient of the path Microsoft (and the market it powers) is walking and due to the increasing frustration with poorly or half done things (read: tools, services, documentation, technical support, various resolutions, and so forth and so on) I decided that I should try something new. Ubuntu was a first try and while it does a great job of offering a free and useful alternative to a Windows/Office/etc environment (at least for the average Joe), I'd like to get my hands dirty (or dirtier) in order to actually learn something.
I sifted through some other distributions and for some reasons I've choosen Gentoo as a good starting point for my new learning journey.

For the moment, because I decided to invest time in this and do not want to jump from one distribution to another, I have a few questions:
1. How stable and reliable is the Gentoo Foundation? Is there enough man power to both maintain and advance this distribution ? In other words, is it here to stay?
2. Is there a comprehensive repository of information for the many problems that could be encountered? Similar to the Microsoft's knowledge base? It'd be much faster to solve a problem than using the forums.

While I am still trying to find some spare time to read the documentation, please feel free to offer any advice that you think it might be of use to me at this point. Also, please take into account that I am not a native english speaker and excuse any mistakes I might have made.
Thanks.

[Jaglover]

Welcome to Gentoo!

1. I do not see any problems here. Even if Gentoo should vanish - which I consider very unlikely - your Linux/POSIX knowledge gathered here will be more than usable just anywhere in *NIX world. In fact, Gentoo is not a distro, it's a framework to build your own Linux. As such, most of what you learn in process is generic knowledge.
2. The documentation and community support for FOSS is absolutely incredible compared to the closed source software.
Good starting points:
http://www.google.com/linux
http://tldp.org/

Gentoo
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/index.xml
http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Main_Page

[monsm]

Welcome to Gentoo.
I agree with the previous post. Actually what got me interested in Gentoo was the documentation. I was on fedora before and found I could use Gentoo documentation on my fedora system.

I would recomend making a double sided print-out of the Gentoo Handbook (bit too much paper otherwise ), and burn a minimal CD. Follow the instructions and you'll have a gentoo system up in no time.

Mons

[Rexilion]

I would recommend building the gentoo chroot inside your current linux system. That way, you will still be able to do everyday tasks while building the gentoo system. The other advantage is that you don't have to mess around with booting other systems. I build gentoo from Ubuntu, works fine.

[Mike Hunt]

... and besides, it's highly unlikely that Gentoo will disappear any time soon - even if the entire staff and development teams were suddenly and simultaneously beamed up or something.

[DONAHUE]

Concur with Rexilion.
ubuntu should be same bitness as intended for gentoo install.
Terminal window, sudo su - , mkdir /mnt/gentoo
open a browser (beside the terminal window) to the appropriate gentoo handbook - no need to print - copy and paste convenience

[JC99]

You may also want to checkout the Gentoo Wiki. It's full of information on how to configure Gentoo to do different things.

[NathanZachary]

Welcome to Gentoo! Firstly, I'm going to move your thread into the "Gentoo Chat" subforum, as you might get a better response there. Secondly, and to answer your questions:

1) Gentoo is a distro that, like any other, has its problems. However, it has been around for a very long time, and that will likely not change as it appeals to a particular niche.
2) Google searching also helps with these problems, but I find that the fora tend to be VERY useful for help.

If you have any questions along the way, please don't hesitate to ask.
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[satan_claus]

Thank you all.


I did manage to get a working kernel, including ethernet and ext2. I then emerged Xorg and gnome (gnome & co. took quite a lot to compile) all acording to the Gentoo Documentation. After that i started X and it worked flawlessly from the first time (i've had some ugly experiences with RedHat Linux 5 & 6 many years ago).
The only problem is that Gentoo runs in a virtualbox (ver 3.1.4 r57640). The Xorg was compiled with VIDEO_CARDS="virtualbox vesa" in /etc/make.conf and it worked because I've emerged some stuff as i've seen on an article on gentoo wiki (emerge virtualbox-guest-additions xf86-input-virtualbox xf86-video-virtualbox). However, I got a warning concerning video acceleration (version mismatch between the installed virtualbox guest additions and the virtualbox itself) everytime Xorg was starting (the virtualbox software has "enable 3d acceleration" set). Also, I did not have mouse pointer integration.

That being said, I unmerged the three older packages (virtualbox-guest-additions, xf86-input-virtualbox and xf86-video-virtualbox) and after doing a little research I've found that there is another version "app-emulation/virtualbox-ose-additions-3.1.2" which would be appropriate but which cannot be emerged because "emerge --pretend app-emulation/virtualbox-ose-additions" would say that all ebuilds are masked by a PUEL license.

After doing some reading I added ACCEPT_ KEYWORD="~x86" and ACCEPT_ LICENSE="*" into /etc/make.conf and tried to emerge again. Same results with the PUEL license. I'd like to have this version of guest additions installed as I kinda like mouse pointer integration

More details: virtualbox is in 32bit emulation mode because the cpu does not support hardware virtualization; the host os is a windows 6.1 build 7600 enterprise. if there's anything that can help you help me and it is not here, just ask.
thanks!

[d2_racing]

Welcome to the Gentoo world

You will see that installing a Gentoo box is something the first time, but the forum is there and we can help you.

Like my friends used to say : There ain't no way but the hard way, so get used to it at least when you start...
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[cwr]

Mouse pointer integration comes from running the GuestApplication (or ClientApplication
or something like it) script inside the _guest_ once you've got it running. The script
itself is on the clientapplication.iso file which is part of the virtualbox-bin package;
I don't know where it is in virtualbox-ose.

Will

[satan_claus]

thanks, but my question was how to emerge masked packages, because i'd like to install the latest guest additions even if they're still in the testing stage.

[The Earth]

[Sven Vermeulen]

[cwr]

[whiteghost]

my 2 cents.
set it stable and stay that way or set system to unstable.

mixing gives me problems.
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[d2_racing]

In fact, and if it's your first install, then stick with the stable branch and one day you may try the testing branch.

One step at the time
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