What problems have people experienced?

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I'm thinking about giving Gentoo a go, and I'll have to buy a new HDD if I do so I don't want to make a mistake here

I've read endless positive comments from people on this forum, and mixed reviews on the web (the main gripes coming from lack of experience with the shell and the lengthy install process), but what I really want to know is whether people on the whole have had to struggle with it, or whether it's as great as the positive comments suggest. I usually find more about a distro from negative comments than positive ones, after a point

rizzo · Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2002 8:52 pm Post subject:

That's kind of a really broad question to ask. People who use their machines for gaming will give you a lot of video/audio problems than myself who uses it for work and light-weight video/audio enjoyment.

That said I don't have many problems. I am behind an http proxy so I have to use a script to update portage rather than 'emerge rsync', but that is not a problem.

Other than that there hasn't been a single user-related problem that these forums haven't answered, or led to answers. I also do some ebuild development, and there I run into some odd problems but those usually get worked out.

Definitely give Gentoo a go. I use it for my workstation at work (Oracle DBA, Java/perl programmer) on a 1400mhz P4 w/ 512mb RAM, and as a little server at home on a P200 w/64mb RAM. The install on the p200 took a while since I started from stage1 and compile times were long, but it was worth it in the end when looking at performance compared to it's sister (same manufacturer,proc,ram) that has RedHat 7.3. The RH box is my firewall/gateway/NAT box for my home DSL, and everyday I stare at it contempt and malice deciding when I'm going to turn my Gentoo box into the router so I can wipe the RH box and put Gentoo on it also.

Anyway I'm starting to babble with life's story.

Naan Yaar · Bodhisattva Joined: 27 Jun 2002 Posts: 1549

Few minuses:

- "out of the box state". This is specifically with regard to kernel configuration and compiling. Emerge does not help you much here. If you are used to RedHat or Mandrake and not familiar with kernel configuration, expect to spend some time and effort here. I wish the kernel ebuild came with a skeleton .config file that enables everything as modules and lets you tweak some basic items to get you going. In RedHat, one does not get to recompile the kernel typically.

- cutting edge: basically everything is the latest and greatest. If you blindly do emerges to update your systems, you may end up with a little bit of bleeding (e.g., mozilla-1.0-r3 reverting to mozilla-1.0-r2 due to problems that were found). However, this also means that you benefit from the shiny new goodies.

- X configuration: probably not gentoo specific, but it is easier in RedHat/Mandrake.

ZagiFlyer · Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2002 10:13 pm Post subject:

In order to get a feel for problems others have had, you need only to scan the forums. However, keep in mind that there are inumerable variables involved when comparing other people's situations to yours.

Also, as you read the forums you may reach a point where you surmise, "all these people are having all these various problems" and wrongly conclude that Gentoo is fatally flawed. This is logically invalid due to the fact that almost no one who is running Gentoo and having no problems at all will write to forums and say "just a quick note to let you know everything is perfect".

Problems do arise, but the forums for Gentoo are mostly very accurate and very responsive.

Gentoo Linux is a little more trouble to install (no pretty GUI for installation) but:
1) It's fast fast fast when you're done
2) You will learn a lot about Linux and your computer during installation.

Install Gentoo and stay involved with the forums.
_________________
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xorbe · Posted: Sat Jul 20, 2002 5:55 am Post subject: