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apophysis
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Joined: 16 Sep 2021
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2021 4:27 pm    Post subject: new to gentoo Reply with quote

Hi all, just wanted to introduce myself to the forums. I'm new to gentoo, but not new to linux. I've used Slackware as my main distro since around 2002 and have used RHEL at work for the past few years, as well as testing out a number of other distros in virtualbox. Since I am finishing up my Master's Degree soon, I expect to finally have the time as well as the ability to contribute to the open source community, which has been a long time personal goal. I recently finished building a Linux From Scratch instance to gain a deeper understanding of Linux as well as knock another longtime goal off the list.

I'm not exactly sure why I've decided to change my main distro. Maybe it is to reignite that initial spark from reformatting my Windows 98 drive and jumping into the unknown. I've wiped Slackware and had arch running for about a week now, but it is not what I thought it would be. I've heard of gentoo before, but after seriously researching it I think it might be the one I'm looking for. The more I read about gentoo, the more I am reminded of why I was interested in linux in the first place. I have arch installed on LVM volumes, so I've allocated some space for gentoo and will attempt to start the build today through a chroot within arch.

I tend to spend hours researching and trying to fix things myself before reaching out for help, so alternatively I'll ask for general words of wisdom here. Is there anything you wish someone told you before you started your journey into gentoo?
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Jaglover
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2021 5:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Welcome, apophysis

I read the Handbook fully before starting Gentoo install. I can tell it helped me to understand what Gentoo is and it answered some questions even before they arose.
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alamahant
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2021 5:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Welcome to Gentoo Forums!

Quote:

Is there anything you wish someone told you before you started your journey into gentoo?

Yes.
Its not a chore.Its fun.
And keep it simple.
No need to try the most arcane complicated setup in your first try.

Use -march=native from the beginning and portage on tmpfs.
Go for openrc.
Create a script containing all the necessary commands for your daily--preferably-update.
Ideally backup your system before each update using rsync.
Have it run in the above said script.
Use USE="-bindist" in make.conf before your initial rebuild
Be aware that there are some binary packages available like rust-bin thunderbird-bin firefox-bin etc in case you'd rather not build them yourself.
Good Luck!
:)
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pa4wdh
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Joined: 16 Dec 2005
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2021 7:59 pm    Post subject: Re: new to gentoo Reply with quote

apophysis wrote:
Is there anything you wish someone told you before you started your journey into gentoo?

Don't be afraid to make choices or wrong choices. Apart for some things almost no choice in gentoo is permanent, everything can be changed later. So just go for what seems good now, if it doesn't work out you can simply change it.
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CaptainBlood
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2021 8:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

apophysis,

Welcome to Gentoo,

Jaglover is somehow right.
I can only recommend you to go for stable arch instead of unstable.
This should save from a big hassle.
Once your first shot of gentoo boots and works,
feel free to activate unstable package one by one if required in /etc/portaga.package_accept_keywords
If you have short RAM size, read the wiki on how to compile on disk on a per package basis.

Thks 4 ur attention, interest & support.
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USE="-*" in /etc/portage/make.conf here.
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NeddySeagoon
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2021 9:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

apophysis,

Welcome to Gentoo.

We try to help you to help yourself here. Like fishing. We teach you to fish but really try to avoid feeding you.

One thing to understand for the outset is that Gentoo is not a distro. Its a toolkit to let you design and build your own distro.
Every gentoo install is different but we all use the same tools.

Gentoo is the portage package manager and the ::gentoo ebuild repository. That's all. Do with it as you will.
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NeddySeagoon

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those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.
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apophysis
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Joined: 16 Sep 2021
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2021 10:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the warm welcome all! So far I was able to get to the “installing the base system” step on my lunch break, checked it after work and it’s still compiling. will check on it later tonight. I went with a simple setup as suggested (except for straying from the manual a bit and installing into LVM volumes), and with KDE since that is the desktop environment I’m most comfortable with. but once I have a functional system I might keep it as the stable build and dual boot into the experimental build so messing things up won’t matter too much :D
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nikolis
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 21, 2021 6:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Welcome to Gentoo !
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Simba7
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Joined: 22 Jan 2007
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 21, 2021 7:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Welcome! Yes, Gentoo can be a challenge, but there are several here to help you along the way.

It can be fun.. and it can take time. I've compiled Gentoo Linux on some strange architectures (currently compiling on a ARMv5tel netbook). One nice thing about Gentoo is you can tweak it to squeeze as much performance out of a specific processor as you can, even really old architectures.

But anyway, have fun.. and if you have any questions, just ask.
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apophysis
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 22, 2021 11:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Simba7 wrote:
Welcome! Yes, Gentoo can be a challenge, but there are several here to help you along the way.

It can be fun.. and it can take time. I've compiled Gentoo Linux on some strange architectures (currently compiling on a ARMv5tel netbook). One nice thing about Gentoo is you can tweak it to squeeze as much performance out of a specific processor as you can, even really old architectures.

But anyway, have fun.. and if you have any questions, just ask.


Thanks! Let us know how the ARM install goes. I have a raspberry pi 4 that is currently running Slackware ARM, was just reading up on gentoo ARM yesterday. I might give that a go and see how much performance can be squeezed out of that little machine. I was impressed with how it is running on my laptop, and how much longer the battery lasts.
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joanandk
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Joined: 12 Feb 2017
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 22, 2021 3:24 pm    Post subject: Re: new to gentoo Reply with quote

Hi and welcome
apophysis wrote:
Is there anything you wish someone told you before you started your journey into gentoo?


Yes:
You will never stop learning! Even after 26 years of heavy use of Gentoo.
The most important thing: Gentoo upgrade (stable release) works 95% of the time, without any hassle. The 5% you will need to check /var/tmp/portage/<failed_package_category>/<failed_package_name>/temp/build.log. This file gives you all the information you need to fix the issue.

Good luck!
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