this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023

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428

I successfully installed Gentoo for the first time today! (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year 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 40 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Everyone should do this at least once

[–] khannie@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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.

[–] fraydabson@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 year 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.

[–] DryTomatoes4@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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.

[–] fartsparkles@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

Linux from Scratch is also an immensely powerful tool for deployment of secure software. Rebuilding the entire infrastructure between releases ensures threat actors can’t stay resident for long if the compromise production systems.

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[–] Zucca@sopuli.xyz 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Llewellyn@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Because I can customize Gentoo to whatever I like

Can you customise it to support AAA videogames?

[–] GenBlob@lemm.ee 14 points 1 year ago

Yeah. Install steam.

[–] Zucca@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

Why not?

I don't have much experience on those games. I've bought around ten games from gog. And I specifically selected those which provided Linux native binaries. But there are AAA gamers among Gentoo users.

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[–] Commiunism@lemmy.wtf 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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

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[–] krnl386@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 year ago

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

[–] boonhet@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

One of us!

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

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

[–] Zucca@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

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

Oh, nice!

[–] demonsword@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I run it as my main gaming OS, no joke

pics or I'll call that bullshit

[–] boonhet@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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

[–] accesslog@lemmy.one 2 points 1 year ago

“@RemindMe@mstdn.social 7 days”

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[–] projectmoon@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There is at least a few of us. My gaming desktop, personal laptop, and work laptop are all running Gentoo!

[–] demonsword@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I remember trying to install gentoo back in 2007... gave up after 3h of endless compiling and came back running to debian

[–] projectmoon@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's very different now. Much more smooth. Of course you still configure the system manually. But following the handbook will get you a working system pretty easily.

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[–] degrix@lemmy.hqueue.dev 8 points 1 year 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.

[–] Presi300@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Good job! You should try to install a DE/WM next.

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 year 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.

[–] regalia@literature.cafe 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I remember how rewarding and satisfying it was when I finally installed Gentoo for the first time

[–] wim@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Same. Gentoo taught me so much. Wouldn't run it today, though. Ain't got time for that.

[–] PuppyOSAndCoffee@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Congrats!

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

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[–] tony@lemmy.hoyle.me.uk 6 points 1 year 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.

[–] REdOG@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year 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

[–] hypnotoad@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

Mazel tov!

[–] technologicalcaveman@kbin.social 5 points 1 year 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.

[–] spagnod@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hehe... I installed Gentoo last year and I was thrown in the deepest of deep ends after having to set up a custom initramfs for my LUKS setup... took about a week to get it running...

[–] Zucca@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago

I created a bash script which creates a custom initramfs for me every time kernel is updated. 😜 I know, I reinvented the wheel... kinda. My script actually only takes a list of files, directories, modules, firmware files and packs them into a cpio archive. The actual init scripts inside initramfs (for example) are not provided, but left for the user to write or copy from somewhere.

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