Hello All

ImageJPEG · Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 8:42 am Post subject: Hello All

So I've been playing around with Gentoo for about the past two weeks. I'm really starting to get the hang of it with the USE flags and all. Currently the operating systems I use on physical hardware are Debian Squeeze 64 bit (on a server), Debian Sid 64 bit as my desktop and OS X on my MacBook Pro (which I also dualboot with Debian Sid 64 bit). I'm really thinking about switching to Gentoo on my MBP lately. Currently I've been doing everything in a VirtualBox machine just to play around with it. I currently have a full featured KDE desktop too

...although I wouldn't mind having my MATE Desktop :/.

Anyway, is there anything I should know about before making the switch? The only issue I've really had with Debian on my MBP is that pommed seems to stop working after about 10 seconds (controlls my keyboard backlight). I'm just hoping that's not an issue with Gentoo.

audiodef · Advocate Joined: 06 Jul 2005 Posts: 4986

The best way to proceed is to proceed.

You can multi-boot if you want to keep your other operating systems around for a while. Grub2 makes this easier, as it will auto-find other kernels for you. If you decide to ditch Debian later, you can boot with sysresccd, wipe the Debian partition and add it to the end of your Gentoo partition (always back things up first, though).

Go right ahead with the real thing and post on these forums if you get stuck on anything.

_________________
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A cloud is evaporated water in the sky, thanks.

ImageJPEG · Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 7:10 pm Post subject:

Ok, now before I proceed, I have one issue that I thought of.

I think I'll just completely erase Debian and start from scratch. Here's the issue, you normally install GRUB 2 on hd0,0 (I believe that's just /dev/sda, right?). Anyway, I currently have five partitions. My EFI boot partition (which I do NOT want GRUB to touch. Labeled as /dev/disk0s1 in OS X (/dev/sda1 in Debian)). OS X on another (I deleted my Recovery HD partition since I have a Mountain Lion disk), and Debian has the other three.

When I'm in the GRUB shell, would I install it on hd0,2 or hd0,3? I ask because I don't know if hd0,0 = /dev/sda or /dev/sda1...I'm not for sure. I want to install GRUB on /dev/sda3 but I do not know what that would equal in the GRUB shell.

I'm using rEFIt to dual boot between the OSes which is why I don't want the EFI boot partition touched.

audiodef · Advocate Joined: 06 Jul 2005 Posts: 4986

As far as I know, both Grub Legacy and Grub2 should be installed into the MBR by installing it into /dev/sdX, where X is the primary boot drive in your BIOS. Grub by itself doesn't erase anything except the previous bootloader on the MBR. You might want to ask around, because I'm not an expert, but I use Grub2 and I'm guessing it will auto-find all your operating systems for you. I don't know how and if it detects MacOS, though.
_________________
Gentoo Studio: http://gentoostudio.org
Pappy's Kernel Seeds: http://kernel-seeds.gentoostudio.org
Linux 'Tude Tees: http://skreened.com/geektudetees

A cloud is evaporated water in the sky, thanks.

ImageJPEG · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 7:47 pm Post subject:

Well, I know that when I first tried installing Debian, it installed it to /dev/sda and it removed my Mac's MBR. It listed OS X but it would KP when ever it would try to load it, so that's why I don't want to do that and keep using rEFIt.

lost+found · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 9:12 pm Post subject:

You're safe, when backing up the MBR and partition entries... Easy to restore the original, when things go wrong.
http://www.partimage.org/Partimage-manual_Backup-partition-table