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Virtual masochism

Started by klems Jul 11, 2004 at 12:18 PM 11 replies 900+ views

Original Post

Jul 11, 2004 at 12:18 PM

Last night I discovered the virtual equivalent of repeatedly smashing your head against a brick wall - installing Gentoo linux. Being a total Linux newbie I went along with the manual, carefully reading instructions and explanations, although I apparently wasn't reading it carefully enough. Everything went fine until I came to the task of compiling the kernel, or so it seemed. The first warning sign was that /etc/timezone (or something like it) was empty, while the installation manual told me to select a timezone from that very directory. "Screw it", I thought, and went ahead to compile the kernel. That's when I gave up. Apparently there was no emerge command, probably due to an error I made an hour earlier. So... The moral of this rant: If you're new to Linux, Gentoo is probably not the best distro for you. BTW, I'm sure everyone missed me, but don't shed any more tears; I'm back!

DigitalDelusion

Jul 11, 2004 at 12:23 PM

rofl! sounds like my first Gentoo install, may I recommend RedHat as a beginners distro, Gentoo seriously rocks when you know what you're doing though.

oh, and are you the same Valderman as the one on RPGDX?

I Like Bread

Jul 11, 2004 at 12:29 PM

Hi, I'm going to get a different OS for my computer. I have WinME now and it's great! I can send mail, go in chat rooms and play Counter-Strike! Some guy told me that Slackware is totally awesome, so I'm gonna try that out. Any comments?

P.S. YAY!!

aidan_walsh

Jul 11, 2004 at 12:31 PM

OMFG dude don't install Slackware i tried it and now I can't get my AOL cds to work EVAR!!!1

Avatar God

Jul 11, 2004 at 12:32 PM

Quote:
Original post by doodle_sketch
OMFG dude don't install Slackware i tried it and now I can't get my AOL cds to work EVAR!!!1

lmao...!

klems

Jul 11, 2004 at 12:34 PM

@DigitalDelusion: Yep, I'm the same. I probably should start out with a more newbie-friendly distro... I just hope Red Hat will run on the crap computer; my main reason for trying Gentoo first was that I heard it doesn't require much from the computer, as I'm installing it on a spare machine I got from my school for $25.

DigitalDelusion

Jul 11, 2004 at 12:42 PM

RedHat (at least last time I installed it) was quite friendly and let you manually choose packages, just be smart and don't install KDE and Gnome the first thing you do, sure they're nice "desktops" but omgf they're powerhungry try doing a minimal install and add those packages later if you think you can spare the system resources.

Oh, and nice to see another rpgdx:er here :) cheers!

klems

Jul 11, 2004 at 12:44 PM

I'll have a look at it; thanks.

aidan_walsh

Jul 11, 2004 at 1:05 PM

Go for the Fedora Core 2 version, its based on the latest kernel version.

Drakkcon

Jul 11, 2004 at 1:06 PM

Mandrake here, kind of a dumbed down RedHat (licensed copy is WAY cheaper). I can't get internet access though :( ...

Lode

Jul 11, 2004 at 2:05 PM

I'm planning to install Archlinux. I've heard good things from it, and I've got someone to help me with it.
Anyone else ever tried or uses Archlinux?

python_regious

Jul 11, 2004 at 4:16 PM

If you're finding Gentoo hard to install, try Debian, thats a little easier.

QzarBaron

Jul 11, 2004 at 6:46 PM

I use Mandrake 10 but I am going to change distros pretty soon to SuSE 9.1 Pro(Free Linux Goodies deal). I have plans to play around with Slackware and Debian. I haven't really though about Gentoo. As for RedHat. RedHat 9.0 is really really old. The newest version of "RedHat" is Fedora Core 2 but I have heard some bad things about it. Mandrake 10 was a breeze to install(and I have installed it 3 times and have not had a single problem). I recommend Mandrake 10.

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