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addr
n00b
n00b


Joined: 31 Oct 2006
Posts: 23

PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 9:34 pm    Post subject: Tedious introduction Reply with quote

Hi everybody,
I'm a lurker.
I am a 62 year old retiree with a four year history of Linux - strictly GUI.
My workhorse is Mandriva and all my 'must haves' GnuCash, Gimp,Inkscape, Fx and Tbird are functioning well.
I have my old office computer, a fairly sorry object, set up beside my main box and this is for learning on.
My lurking rather surprised me in that I expected to see a lot of RTFM replies on such an experts' forum but I haven't seen any.
I had a crack at installing Gentoo from a live CD but ended with a list of error messages which I am hopeful of fixing with a run through xorgconfig. (I have never had Gnome, which is what I installed and I don't even know if xorgconfig applies). Pathetic isn't it? That's why I have the practice computer.
Apart from introducing myself to you guys and gals I have to say that I am a bit worried about asking dumb questions.
Secondly I have delusions of grandeur and want to have a crack at installing the minimal Gentoo on the breakable box and hopefully learn something.
I have been all over your Wiki and can't find the answer to these basic questions.

cat /proc/cpuinfo gives me what I think I need on the CPU but what are the commands for video,monitor and mouse?
I am on dialup (no choice) and have finally trained my friends to burn the iso's I ask them for as an image, but is this the case for the non-live installers like the minimal one (I know that name's wrong but you know what I mean).
With my lack of knowledge should I even attempt a CLI install?
Can I continue to ask dumb questions?
Sandy
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xoomix
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Joined: 02 Jan 2003
Posts: 489

PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 9:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Q. cat /proc/cpuinfo gives me what I think I need on the CPU but what are the commands for video,monitor and mouse?
A. Is this being asked for the configuration of Xorg? To answer your question specifically, looking at the output of 'lspci' and 'dmesg' will show you what you have installed as far as hardware. As far as X is concerned, just run 'Xorg -configure' and it will auto-detect all your stuff for you and create you a handy-dandy config file for starting X with.

Q. I am on dialup (no choice) and have finally trained my friends to burn the iso's I ask them for as an image, but is this the case for the non-live installers like the minimal one (I know that name's wrong but you know what I mean).
A. Is what the case? Are you just trying to ask which image you need to be downloading to do a stage 1 (or 2, 3) install?

Q. With my lack of knowledge should I even attempt a CLI install?
A. Forgive MY ignorance, but what is CLI ?

Q. Can I continue to ask dumb questions?
A. What dumb questions? I haven't seen you ask any yet.
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geniux
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Joined: 19 Feb 2004
Posts: 1400
Location: /home

PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

xoomix wrote:

Q. With my lack of knowledge should I even attempt a CLI install?
A. Forgive MY ignorance, but what is CLI ?

Command Line Interface, installing the Gentoo original way from text mode :wink:

Hi and welcome addr. Ask as much as you want no question is to dumb, and if you don't ask you're not getting any answers
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Gentoo - BeyondSources 2.6.19-20
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xoomix
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Joined: 02 Jan 2003
Posts: 489

PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Command Line Installer -- ahh yes! To answer your question addr just print out the install document (link to it starting on the front page of http://www.gentoo.org) and have at it! It's awesome fun!
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mose
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Joined: 04 Jun 2005
Posts: 313
Location: Piacenza

PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi addr and welcome!
Don't worry about asking, you'll always find someone who'll answer. And in my opinion there are no silly questions, only silly answers!
I'm a bit worried about the dialup connection, because with Linux and expecially with Gentoo linux having a flat connection helps a lot.
The most important commands that you can give to investigate your hardware are:
Code:

lspci

Code:

lsusb

and if you want more there's also
Code:

lshw
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bubbl07
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Joined: 06 Feb 2005
Posts: 237
Location: New York City

PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:20 pm    Post subject: Re: Tedious introduction Reply with quote

addr wrote:
cat /proc/cpuinfo gives me what I think I need on the CPU but what are the commands for video,monitor and mouse?
I am on dialup (no choice) and have finally trained my friends to burn the iso's I ask them for as an image, but is this the case for the non-live installers like the minimal one (I know that name's wrong but you know what I mean).
With my lack of knowledge should I even attempt a CLI install?
Can I continue to ask dumb questions?
Sandy

First, welcome to gentoo, Sandy.

Second, "lspci" "lsusb" and "lshw" should help you figure out your computer components. You don't have to know too much about your monitor and mouse as X can help you sort that out.

Third, I highly recommend a CLI (command line interface) install -- especially if you have a test box with which to work -- for two reasons.
1) The graphical installer isn't very consistent :roll:
2) You'll really learn a lot about how everything works, and it seems as if that's what you want.

I personally started with the CLI install and had to start over a few times the first time I tried installing it on my own, but it was very satisfying once I rebooted and it worked.

The guide is your friend, and as long as you stick to it your problems should be minimal (and most of those can be solved on these forums). Best of luck.
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addr
n00b
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Joined: 31 Oct 2006
Posts: 23

PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Blimey,
All those replies in minutes!
Well hold on, youse guys, and I'll copy the page and study the answers for a wee bit, 'cos I'm old and slow and shaky.

zoomix
Q. I am on dialup (no choice) and have finally trained my friends to burn the iso's I ask them for as an image, but is this the case for the non-live installers like the minimal one (I know that name's wrong but you know what I mean).
A. Is what the case? Are you just trying to ask which image you need to be downloading to do a stage 1 (or 2, 3) install?
I only meant burn as image or data?
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steveL
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Joined: 13 Sep 2006
Posts: 5153
Location: The Peanut Gallery

PostPosted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 1:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

addr wrote:
Blimey,
All those replies in minutes!
Well hold on, youse guys, and I'll copy the page and study the answers for a wee bit, 'cos I'm old and slow and shaky.

Welcome to gentoo! The best support forums anywhere. Don't forget IRC when you are online (and you will be a lot); FEATURES="parallel-fetch" in you /etc/make.conf will help you a lot when you are emerging software; it means the src files will be downloaded in the background, so you can switch the connection off sooner.
Personally I have FEATURES="parallel-fetch collision-protect"; the latter stops pkgs from overwriting each other's files.
Quote:
Are you just trying to ask which image you need to be downloading to do a stage 1 (or 2, 3) install?
I only meant burn as image or data?
Burn as image.
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BrummieJim
l33t
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Joined: 22 Jul 2005
Posts: 683

PostPosted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 2:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi,
Welcome to Gentoo, it's a steep learning curve, but well worth it, and the people here are friendly, hardly ever seen a rtfm in 2 years.

I can heartily recommend http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Index when you've got the system installed.

If it's an old machine, I recommend avoiding Gnome, it's undeniably a beast. Try XFCE (which I've not used) or Fluxbox, which with a bit of effort looks fantastic.

Assume it's going to take a couple of installs to get right, but I think the main thing is to avoid being clever first time round. Trying to put / and /usr on different partitions cost me 3 days first time round.
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gerard27
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Joined: 04 Jan 2004
Posts: 2377
Location: Netherlands

PostPosted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 3:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Sandy,
I joined 3 yrs ago and i'l be 80 next month.
Before Gentoo I used "readymade" distro's like Suse RedHat Mandrake etc.
Gentoo is difficult at first but once you get the hang of it you'll never want
to go back to the others.
Like others said in this thread the forums are GREAT!

Having only a dial-up connection is indeed a problem.
Maybe someone you know is willing to dl and burn the livecd which contains a lot
of programs.
G
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cwr
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Joined: 17 Dec 2005
Posts: 1969

PostPosted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 6:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I use Gentoo over a dialup connection, and have for a few years. I've found a local
computer store that lets me use their broadband for a couple of hours pretty cheaply,
and I use that to download the large packages - pretty much anything over 5MB.
The rest can come through the dialup.

However, I don't build packages on line; I use emerge --pretend --verbose whatever
to find out what files are needed, and then download them to a local directory before
running emerge for real. This can be tedious, but it saves time on line.

And I don't generally update the distribution between releases (ie. 2006.0 to 2006.1).
If I hit a bug, then I move to the latest package, but not otherwise. Gentoo and Gnome
are now sufficiently complete that there's really no need to continuously update them.

The result is a setup which runs pretty well on my laptop. I'd recommend Gentoo more
strongly, though, if the 2006.1 installer hadn't tried to wipe my partition table; fortunately
it crashed instead.

Will
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