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January 8, 2008

The Linux Project: Gentoo revisited

By Pappy

Another article in The Linux Project looks at Gentoo in a much gentler light. It is my apology to the Gentoo community for being so harsh about their distro in the first articles about it. It is also the confessions of a geek given the best toy he could ever get!

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The Linux Project: Gentoo revisited.
A correction, apology, and trip into Geek Valhalla
By Pappy McFae

Once upon a time, I wrote a series of articles about the various Linux distributions that exist on the Internet. At that time, I had tried, and condemned a distribution known as Gentoo. I gave it very low marks for just about everything I used as a means of rating Linus distros. And while Gentoo remains perhaps the most difficult operating system I have ever installed on a computer, once it gets installed, it works quite nicely.

As I said in the previous article, there are various states in which computer software can exist: source code, and executable files. Source code is the written in "English" stuff; the code used to create functional executable files. With most operating systems, what you get on the install disk is finished, pre-compiled executable files. They are copied to your hard disk, and are functional from that point forward.

Before source code can be used to make the computer do what you want, it has to be compiled. Compiling is a translation process. The final result of compilation is generally an executable file. It is the executable file that does what the program is designed to do.

While there is an executable component to the Gentoo install disk, that is only there to put the source code onto your system, and compile it thereafter. Compilation is a time consuming process. It logically follows that installing Gentoo takes a long time, in some cases, a very long time. This is as true at this point in reality as it was when I first condemned Gentoo.

However, after working with various Linux distros, I have come to a point where I realize that Linux is as much about the community behind it as it is about the actual distro itself. Most Windows users could care less about something as intangible as a community. Since just about everyone and their brother has setup Windows on their system, there is no need for community. One need only go to microsoft.com and read the voluminous information available to fix whatever problem might be happening. Who needs a community when you have access to everything you want to know about Windows from Microsoft's website? No one, course.

Linux, on the other hand, lends itself to communities that build up around the distro in question. Firstly, for the most part, Linux is the operating system for people who know a bit more about their computers than the average Windows user. It has been this way since Linus Torvalds came up with the Linux kernel. As it was when the Altair computer first came out, communities of like-minded geeks get together to figure out how to make their computers work better. Linux is the glue that holds the communities together.

Like most communities, some people are cool, some are assholes. It is the community factor, and the asshole-iness of certain people in the community for Slackware that drove me to investigate the Gentoo community.

As everyone knows who reads my stuff, I am nothing if not a rebel. I don't do things by the book and I never have. I find life infinitely more interesting when I have a challenge. And believe me, setting up Gentoo is a challenge. There are many reasons for this.

First and foremost, Gentoo is all about the truly geeky among us. Whereas certain distros, such as Ubuntu and its relatives are as easy if not easier than Windows to install, and install rather quickly, Gentoo is neither easy, or quick as far as installation is concerned.

It is this fact that has brought me to the brink of setting Gentoo up ten times...on various machines using various methods. And not until install number eleven did I get it to take.

I can't blame Gentoo for my own impatience. It is what it is and I am who I am. There is definitely a difference between unworkable and time consuming.

Gentoo is what it is, and it makes no bones about what it is. It's a high level, as Unix as you'll get outside something like SCO or Sun-OS, Linux distribution with an incredibly steep learning curve. It is not for everyone...especially the impatient, and the person who just pulled his first ever computer out of the box.

The Gentoo community is the place to find people who know computers...inside, outside, upside-down, however you want to look at it. It is clear to me that there are some seriously know their computers like the back of their hands folks that hang out there. A quick looksee at the forums will boggle the mind.

Secondly, while Gentoo does have a LiveCD installer, said CD is very buggy. The DVD version is even buggier, or so rumor has it. I used it to do a manual install, and it worked flawlessly.

The best way to install Gentoo is via the Internet, using the minimal CD installer, and a rather lengthy manual install process. The minimal CD carries only enough software system to boot the system, prepare the hard disk, get on the Internet, and grab the rest of Gentoo on line. According to most people, it is the best way to install Gentoo. I didn't do so well with it, but I admit I skimmed more than I read. My bad.

I used the LiveCD to install it this time around, and it actually worked. Now, mind you, it worked because it's last year's model. This year's model seems to only work if you want to transfer it to a USB stick drive. The version I used, 2006.1, while buggy itself, did get the job done. At long last, and after much hell, I finally had a stable, functional Gentoo setup on one of my computers. Oh, happy day!

Now, a few days have passed since I installed Gentoo. In that time, I have slowly turned the machine on which it is installed into a do-it-the-way-I-want system. That would have been impossible without something that Gentoo has in abundance: documentation.

If what you are looking for is support and how-to instructional articles, Gentoo has them on everything from setting up a print server using Samba and CUPS to working with their package installation system, and a lot in between. Anyone who has a bit of techno-savvy, the ability to read, patience or a really fast system, and a certain type of fearlessness can get Gentoo up and running...and even running well the vast amount of documentation.

Gentoo isn't, by any stretch of the imagination, the only well documented Linux distro in existence. There are a few others that are well documented. However, in all of my travels in setting up and operating various Linux distros (currently running Debian, Gentoo, and Slackware), I have yet to find documentation as well written and useful as that which exists for users of Gentoo.

And then there are the forums. I have yet to post a problem with the forum because it seems that every problem I have found has been found (and mostly) fixed long ago by someone on the forum.

And the tone of the forums is different as well. In many forums I have read, there is a lot of people troubleshooting from the hip. They really don't know what to do, but they make suggestions just to be helpful. Sometimes they are right. Most times, well, let's just say not too much. The most often suggested thing is "reinstall " and try that. Most often, that doesn't work.

In the Gentoo forums, the people who answer questions know what they are saying. While there are some who shoot from the hip in the Gentoo forums, that isn't the norm. Moreover, because Gentoo is such a nuts-and-bolts system, what you learn working with Gentoo carries over to many other different distros.

If you can get Gentoo to run, you can get any Linux distro to run. If you can tweak Gentoo and get it to hop up and dance, you can install ANY installable Linux distro, well, except perhaps for Yoper.

Gentoo is still not for everyone. It has a really steep learning curve. No, it's not rocket science, but it is balls-to-the-wall computer science. Rare indeed is the Gentoo newbie (n00b) that hasn't had prior experience with Linux, jumped directly into the fire, and didn't get crisped. However, they do exist. I can only sit in awe of the kind of courage it takes to start out with the roughest distro in existence.

Given the availability of resources, the complete virgin n00b could really make some serious headway into having the kind of system that he or she would be proud to show off to their geek pals. That said, I admit I am not that kind of person. I had to play with Slackware for some time now before I was actually ready to dig in my heels, and see what I could make happen with Gentoo.

The story continues...

I had a realization that perhaps a Pentium II 450 isn't the best machine on which to install Gentoo. Oh to be sure, the living digital fossil of which I speak runs Gentoo, and it's running as a print and file server. Technically, I could remove all the GUI stuff, and still be able to have the machine run just fine on a diet of Gentoo.

However, now flushed with a bit of success as far as the world of Gentoo is concerned, I realized that just a taste isn't enough. Oh no, not even close to enough for me. So, I decided to move on to the next machine in my herd, the old Toshiba laptop. It's a bit faster, even if it doesn't have as much memory installed. Considering the amount of memory used by Gentoo, at least on the fossil, I don't think I am going to have a problem. Besides, as soon as I can shake a few dollars free, I'm going to buy a couple more systems just like it, so I can have lots of spare parts.

Goddess knows, tonight proved that it needed some. Gen-tosh, as it is now known, was acquired from a friend who traded it for a reinstall of Windows 2000. Now, as I am sure you are all aware from what you have read, I know a bit about computers. It stands to reason if I can install something as complex as Gentoo, Windows 2000 isn't even close to a challenge. Seriously, all you do is stick in the disk and let it install everything. Where's the challenge? Where are the bragging rights?

I can now say that I have completed a full manual install of Gentoo. Oh yes, I decided that if I was going to run Gentoo, I was going to do at least one manual install. Now I have done it...and it was a nightmare.

Oh, not because of Gentoo, or the time it takes to set it up. As far as setting up an operating system goes, getting Gentoo from the point where it was a functional, stand alone system, didn't take any longer than doing a full on proper, ready to rock Windows install. It also took far less time than the GUI install I did on the fossil.

No, that particular nightmare was brought into being because Gen-tosh's DVD ROM drive is removable. It also has a floppy that installs in the same bay. Some time long ago in the life of Gen-tosh, someone drooled on, pissed on, sweated on, or in some other fashion, got the quick drive bay's connector just a bit on the corroded side. That means the DVD ROM drive was...well, let's just say a source of some serious consternation.

Had I not made a mistake during the install, it wouldn't have mattered. However, somehow, one of the files I manually created got damaged. I am pretty sure I simply made a mistake and didn't save it after I finished editing it. Suffice it to say, because that one file got a bit whopper-jawed, I had to reboot with the DVD to be able to access the hard drive because of that flubbed fstab file.

While correcting that mistake was a simple matter of typing out a new fstab using one from another machine as a pattern, the fact that the DVD ROM was being persnickety added a new dimension of hell to the process...and three plus hours.

But, I pulled every stop out of the "Pappy can fix anything" organ: I played Tocatta and Fuege in D minor ala Dr. Phibes, did a voodoo dance, threw rune stones shook chicken bones, and threw just about everything I could at Gen-tosh. And, at long last, now it sits, running under its own Gentoo powered-steam, happily compiling all its system software. NICE! It sits here next to this machine, having achieved the state I wanted for it: functional.

Was it worth it? Well, let me say this about that, YES, it was SOOO worth it! Even now, the feeling of giddiness is unparalleled. I finally came to the summit of my own personal Everest...ok, maybe not, but my geeky tecno-woody tells me I did something really freakin' awesome...twice. And I am getting the feeling that number three's conversion is drawing nigh.

So, to sum it all up, I was right about Gentoo. It isn't the distro for the average Linux n00b. It has an incredibly steep learning curve. it can be maddening and frustrating setting it up and getting it out of the chute. Even for those who have some amount of experience with computers, Gentoo presents a real challenge. I know that it is only a matter of time before this machine gets the same treatment. From the itch in my fingers, I think the time is growing nigh.

And I was wrong. There is more to Linux than the software. Without the commuity, it's just a program. Gentoo definitely has a strong community behind it. Because of that reason, Gentoo might actually be good for the n00b, especially the one that wants to get a crash course in alternative operating systems.

And it bears repeating that their documentation is truly second to none. From how-to's, to wikis, to other resources, no one compares to Gentoo for sheer volume of documentation. And for the most part, it's well written, very detailed, and easy to use. It truly is the counterbalance to the complexity of Gentoo.

I never thought that anything would diminish my love for Slackware. However, some of the irritations in Slackware, and in its forums became too much to deal with. And although I know I could have gone down the Debian path, I knew that I had to try Gentoo. I had to give it a fair hearing. I knew there was something more to it than meets the eye.

So, on my ratings scale, I give it a five. Manual installation is the way to the cross. It takes a while, and misspellings mean mistakes. However, if you know how to read, know a bit about computers, and don't need to have your hand held by a "pretty" installer, installing Gentoo is workable.

LiveCD GUI installers are available, buggy, and are a fairly big source of irritation for many. It seems that the best installer to use is the 2006.1 LiveCD, Its GUI installer can get the job done. However, if you use the GUI installer and let the screen go black one time, you miss watching your computer's progress. your system will install, however, the progress screen simply won't refresh. I'm sure when it's done, you'll know. Still haven't had the patience to truly find out.

As far as basic system operation, it's a bit better than what I expected, so I give it a five. While there are a lot more bugs to iron out with Gentoo, fixing them will be very interesting, and educational. If you take your time, read the plentiful documentation, you will wind up with a strong, stable system. I know I did, twice.

The networking setup was incredibly simple, even though I told Gentoo I wanted a static IP address. I was expecting to type in a lot of data telling the computer all kinds of information encoded with numbers and periods. Instead, all I had to do was enter the IP address and a simple statement in one file, and the networking was done. Had I chosen to use a dynamic IP address (the kind most people have by default) I'd have had to do nothing. Frankly, I was amazed! Of all the things I never expected from a distro as complex as Gentoo, simple networking setup is on top of the list.

As far as device support, it supports all the hardware on both systems I currently have running it. Therefore, it gets another solid five. While most device support is a function of the kernel, the install CD's found every piece of hardware, and set up the initial kernel such that it worked with everything the system has installed.

As far as the fourth criterion, look and feel, it's on par with every other distro I have tested. However, I do note that the initial boot screen is very clean. It doesn't overload you with superfluous information...unless you tell it to. I like the clean look, so it stays! Therefore, I'll give it a five

Finally, for the fifth, over all impression, I give it another five. Gentoo Linux is more than a computer operating system, it's an experience. From the time you first boot that CD, until the time you finally declare your system in the state which you desire, you will learn more about Linux than you ever thought you could.

For myself, I have truly learned much in the past few weeks as I have been trying out Gentoo to see what it does, how it operates, and how to tweak it to within inches of it's life. It has been nothing but fun! As a matter of fact, it has eaten my time like nothing else. I love it!

It's still not for a total neophyte, unless you know a bit about computers and seriously love a challenge. Even knowing what I know and what I have learned since I jumped back into the Linux world by playing with PHLAK 0.2.1, Gentoo was there to make me jump through hoops, type out commands, and do other things that heretofore I hadn't done. Thanks, Gentoo

It is only a matter of time before I turn this system into a Gentoo machine. I think I'll install it manually. There is something ethereal about doing a manual install. It reminds me a bit of the days when DOS ruled the earth.

In conclusion, I humbly apologize to the Gentoo Linux community for giving you such a bad rap in previous articles. I was wrong. Gentoo is lots of fun, probably more fun than should be allowed. As Linux distributions go, it is surely not the worst. That would be Yoper.

Blessed be!
Pappy



Authors Website: http://www.bear-upstairs-studio.com

Authors Bio:
Harpist, unemployed blue collar worker, and Bush basher living deep in the heart of Texas.

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