Thread: Gentoo

Development on Gentoo began close to a decade ago. Gentoo Linux is a distribution which supports some of the widest range of system architectures. Other than x86, there are also builds for PowerPC, IA64, SPARC, PowerPC and even the Sony Playstation 3's Cell processor. Saboyan Linux and SystemRescueCD are two well known distributions that are extracted from Gentoo.

Gentoo Linux is a distribution that many fear and some others love. Many would say it's supposedly meant for the more enthusiastic lot. It is known to be highly customisable and the user gets complete control over the operating system. This would also mean that those installing Gentoo for the first time might find it a difficult to use. For someone who has graduated from Ubuntu to another distribution and then on to Gentoo, it's considered to be at the pinnacle.

Installation

The installer isn't as difficult as is expected. With the CD popped in, you simply press Enter to start the installation. Just before the user interface loads, you'll be asked to enter the keyboard layout. Press Enter to continue at this point. The interface will then load and you'll notice that it looks a lot different than the other KDE and Gnome based environments. There are two ways to install interface or the terminal based. The GTK interface one works just fine unless you have a really low-end configuration.

The first step in the installation is the partitioning. You can allow Gentoo to setup partitions for you but it's best if you manually do so if you have other partitions and operating systems on the drive. Creating partitions is simple. A large ext3 partition and a 500 MB to 2000 MB swap partition is recommended. A small /boot partition is also recommended. Other distributions ask you to select the mount point for the partitions during the creation itself. In Gentoo, the next step is meant for that very reason. Set your largest partition's point mount to / and the small partition to /boot. The swap partition requires no mount point.
.
The installation should then start. At the end of the files being installed, you'll be asked to enter a root password and then the timezone. The next step is configuring the network adaptor. Select whether your network uses DHCP settings or a manual IP is to be allotted. Click on Save and click on Next. Some additional packages will then be installed.

Your login information for Gentoo needs to be entered after this. You can add multiple accounts in the same manner and also include the path to your home folder. Next, the list of packages you want to installed must be selected. Gentoo has the applications put into neat categories into a single page. Select the ones you need and click Next. The installation process will then begin.

Once Gentoo is completely installed, you're asked to select the service you want to load during startup. Think of it like Windows services you don't need that you shut down to save memory. The last step is selecting the window manager and other system components. There are quite a few alternatives that come installed with Gentoo. You need to choose which ones. Fluxbox is a.great window manager to tryout if you're bored with the usual ones. It's light, minimalistic, highly configurable and it looks very attractive. After this, exit the installer and reboot the computer.
When Gentoo boots for the first time, you'll have to login usmg the root username and password that you set during the installatIon. Use the command startx to start Xwindows.