stageX-tarball, different architectures and all that jazz

[LoTeK]

hi,

I remember when I first installed gentoo 6 month ago. I couldn't configure a kernel, I even had problems with genkernel, my internet connection didn't worked, of course I had problems with the X-server. Now I'm able to install gentoo without major problems on a x86_64 architecture with everything I need. So I've recognized that I'm a bit like a mac-user (ok, thats exaggerated): nearly everyday I type in

[khayyam]

LoTeK ...

First comment ... its not about the optimisation, so the question of "speed improvements" is not something I think is central to the use of gentoo. There is also the question of design, flexibility (useflags, etc), and the knowledge aquired by being at the helm of the ship. In short, you are less fixed by the whims of the provider, and (knowledge permiting) opperate more as the distribution provider yourself.

Second comment ... that knowledge doesn't come cheap, you generally have to work for it, but your helped by the community, documentation, and of course the (mostly) transparent relation to the OS your building. It being 'transparent' doesn't help if the landscape is unfamilair, but at least you aren't blinkered, and so can at least gain some understanding of your environs.

Third comment ... gentoo makes possible things which other beers can not reach. A case in point, the mips target: these stages were built by someone most probably on a machine of a different architecture using a 'crossdev' toolchain. You can do likewise and build your perfectly targeted stage4 for your yeeloong. I'm not sure the status of the mips arch, but I imagine that its not heavily developed and so stage's will lag behind package updates ... hence your having many updates. One solution would be to use a crossdev environment and update/modify the stage before transfering it to the target. There is no doubt some knowledge curve to all this ... but that can be seen as either positive or negative, dependent on what your expectations are. In a sense gentoo is a tool to make your own tool, distribution, specifically targeted mips stage, etc.

That said, I sympathise with anyone who's just starting out, we were all there at some point or other, but as I've said once or twice before (either here, or in #gentoo) .. its better to be at the bottom of a ladder you want to climb than half way up one you don't.

best ... khay