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I successfully installed Gentoo for the first time today! (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by H2207@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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Screenshot of QEMU VM showing an ASCII Gentoo Logo + system info

I followed Mental Outlaw's 2019 guide and followed the official handbook to get up-to-date instructions and tailored instructions for my system, the process took about 4 hours however I did go out for a nice walk while my kernel was compiling. Overall I enjoyed the process and learnt a lot about the Linux kernel while doing it.

I'm planning on installing it to my hardware soon, this was to get a feel for the process in a non-destructive way.

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[-] zcd@lemmy.ca 44 points 2 years ago

Everyone should do this at least once

[-] khannie@lemmy.world 24 points 2 years ago

Agreed. It's such a great learning process. I ultimately gave up on Gentoo but learned a lot by using it for about 2 years way back in around 2005.

Linux From Scratch brings a huge leap in understanding too.

[-] DryTomatoes4@lemm.ee 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I found Gentoo more helpful than LFS because with LFS you compile about 80 packages from source one at a time but you don't learn too much about the packages.

LFS gave me much more awareness of what packages actually come with a Linux install but Gentoo taught me more about configuring and booting a Linux system.

Although I'd definitely recommend both to anyone wanting to learn. I'd do Gentoo first then LFS.

Edit: LFS is also a masterclass in cross compiling so if that's something you're curious about LFS is the way to go.

[-] fraydabson@sopuli.xyz 8 points 2 years ago

Back in like 2011 I was living out of state for college. Had decided to drop out at the time so had limitless free time for a bit. I definitely used that time to compile my own kernel and setup gentoo lol. I haven’t played with gentoo since but it was fun and helped my appreciation for Linux.

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[-] Zucca@sopuli.xyz 17 points 2 years ago

My first Gentoo install took like a week to get X running. It was my first foray into Linux (Ok, I briefly tried mkLinux).

I learnt the hard way, but I learnt. And I'm still on that same path: Gentoo. Why I don't bother switching? Because I can customize Gentoo to whatever I like, so instead of doing distro hop I just reconfigure things.

[-] Carter@feddit.uk 15 points 2 years ago

How much maintenance does Gentoo need once installed? I don't mind a complicated install but it's the constant tinkering I can't deal with.

[-] technologicalcaveman@kbin.social 14 points 2 years ago

If you've done arch, it's like long arch

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[-] Zucca@sopuli.xyz 7 points 2 years ago

It's pretty maintenance free.

The following will make the experience a bit more seamless:

  • use stable packages
  • use sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel or syskernel/gentoo-kernel-bin
  • use sys-boot/grub or better yet sys-boot/refind which auto-recognizes the latest kernel in your boot directory

I don’t mind a complicated install

After you have "installed" Gentoo there will be quite lot of installing of different programs to build your own customized distro. However if you yse systemd you'd get quite a lot in one strike, since systemd contains a whole lot of the central core components, like system logger (journald). The other route is to use OpenRC and with it sysvinit or openrc-init and choose the rest of the components.

Asking your question (the one I'm replying to) at the Gentoo forums may give you better answers and tips how to build maintenance free setup.

[-] H2207@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Afaik, albeit this system is only like 6 hours old, just an updating everything should be enough. Again though, I've still never ran Gentoo semi-permanently nor on bare metal so I can't really help you out there.

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[-] Commiunism@lemmy.wtf 15 points 2 years ago

Speaking from personal experience, see you on your old distro in a couple of days!

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[-] boonhet@lemm.ee 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

One of us!

You can join our tiny community at !gentoo@lemm.ee

I run it as my main gaming OS, no joke.

[-] demonsword@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

I run it as my main gaming OS, no joke

pics or I'll call that bullshit

[-] boonhet@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago

Do we have some kind of a remindme bot here? I'm away from home for another week and this is my desktop.

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[-] Zucca@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 years ago

You can join our tiny community at !gentoo@lemm.ee

Oh, nice!

[-] krnl386@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 years ago

Congrats! I bet you learned a lot along the way…

[-] degrix@lemmy.hqueue.dev 9 points 2 years ago

I remember printing out the Gentoo installation manual in the compsci lab way back in 2004. It was my first Linux distro and have fond memories of tinkering around on it. I remember leaving it a few years later for a cool new distro that was on the rise called Ubuntu. I still think portage is one of the better approaches to package management though.

[-] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 9 points 2 years ago

I installed Gentoo once. ever. I use Ubuntu now.

This was in the mid 2000's and I went so far as to compile the kernel myself and build out all the packages. I was so exhausted at the end of it all, that I'm pretty sure I put away that system and never looked back. It's quite the achievement, but I don't wish to repeat that experience.

[-] Pantherina@feddit.de 9 points 2 years ago

Dont want to offend, but this is the most environmentally harmful OS on this planet probably. Except maybe BitcoinOS or something XD

[-] H2207@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

How exactly? On idle Gentoo uses almost no resouces comapred to Windows 11 for example. If you're on about needing to compile every package, then think how often is someone actually installing a new package and for how long is the processor working to do that? Also on a binary distro, then large servers are used to compile every last package, no matter how big or small, in that distro's repos, then more machines are used to provide those binaries to the users.

The whole pipeline for Gentoo is much simpler, the end user's system is a lot simpler and uses far less resources.

[-] heartlessevil@lemmy.one 13 points 2 years ago

They are referring to the fact that Gentoo compiles everything from source rather than shipping binaries. This creates a lot of duplicated work between every user. But it's not just for nothing. You get to actually know what code ends up in your binaries and they are optimized for your system. It is a trade off.

[-] constantokra@lemmy.one 3 points 2 years ago

It's not duplicated work, because it's optimized for your system and usage. If it was actually duplicated it wouldn't be any better than Debian plus waiting 20 minutes every time you use apt.

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[-] nestEggParrot@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 2 years ago

Might as well call linux the most polluting OS. It props up old inefficient systems with high TPW and takes longer to complete tasks. Whereas microsoft and apple makes sure their users are on the latest efficient hw. Maybe a bit offset by the ewaste but who cares, Apple and MS are out savingy the earth.

[-] Archlinuxforever@lemmy.3cm.us 3 points 2 years ago

Oh I really hope this is satire.

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[-] tony@lemmy.hoyle.me.uk 8 points 2 years ago

I did it from stage 1 once.. wasn't a fast computer either. You have to compile the tools to compile the tools. Then compile the base packages, then everything else..

Alas you can't do that any more. Pity as it was fun.

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[-] PuppyOSAndCoffee@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 years ago

Congrats!

Once you get it set just so, remember it’s ok to … leave it!

[-] wewbull@feddit.uk 5 points 2 years ago

Ha

Hahahaha

Hahahhahahhahahahhaha!

Mwha Ha Haaaa!

[-] PuppyOSAndCoffee@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

This is the way

System boots, runs flawlessly.

Hmm

# emerge -deep world

[-] technologicalcaveman@kbin.social 7 points 2 years ago

I have installed it maybe 5 times now manually. These days I do a script install then mod whatever I need to afterwards. This time I'm experimenting with binaries by converting the whole system to a bin system. It's a good bit quicker and a little easier to manage. The few things I need to configure get done so through source, but most things are fine as a bin package.

[-] REdOG@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

My first Gentoo install took a weekend and about a week later I had a desktop. KDE took me like 2 days to compile. p3 800mhz Toshiba with maybe 256MB RAM I forget actually...version was 1.2 alpha I wrote 1.too on the CD

[-] mvirts@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

Worth celebrating! Time to celebrate by breaking everything 😹

[-] Zucca@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 years ago

While one can break Gentoo, in most cases it is also fixable.

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[-] hypnotoad@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 years ago

Mazel tov!

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this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
490 points (100.0% liked)

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Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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