Linux  and Free Software :: Trying Gentoo



I am trying Gentoo for the first time.
I chose a Stage3 install, because i thought that would be easy enuf for a beginner. The documentation on how to do this is very straight forward and easy to comprehend. They did a good job on that. Kudos.
However, i have been working on this for two solid days. Holy crap, Batman! That does not include downloading the .iso either. The compiling takes  f o r e v e r. Compiling the kernel took ~2.5 hours. When i went to "emerge" Xorg, i walked away from the box after 3 hours. That was last night, I hope it's done by now, but didn't check it.
Talk about time consuming! No difficulties so far, but for crying out loud, it's slow. This may be due to the box I'm running it on:
Intel PII 350Mhz, 220Mb RAM
Kernel: 2.6.12-gentoo-r6

I had no idea which modules i want loaded at boot so i picked a couple and went for it. It worked on reboot. Got network and a functioning CLI. So that's good. So then, on with a GUI.
Has anyone had similar experiences with Gentoo?

My +firend said it took him like a week to install gentoo on a old system... I dont think he was joking either lol
Last time I did a stage1, it took me over 100 hours to complete, but the result was a stable, stupid-fast system.

Only reason I don't still have it is that my hdd died.

-J.P.

Personally I'd rather spend half an hour installing a system that is stable and a bit less than stupid fast.  If I ever decide to torture myself for the sake of a little added speed, stability and security I'll go all the way with LFS....but that ain't gon' happen. =o)
Quote (SaidinUnleashed @ Aug. 15 2005,13:17)
Only reason I don't still have it is that my hdd died.

I bet you were one pissed off mug.
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