Comments for Review: Gentoo 2007.0

I've used Gentoo since 2002 and with the advent of Gentoo 2007.0 I thought i'd do a fresh install. Mistake! Half way through the process stalled and couldn't be restarted! I tried rebooting the livecd several times and the freeze happened every time. Without internet access I was stuffed. I eventually ended up finishing the installation via a terminal in Sbuntu which had internet access. The whole thing was a pain in the arse. However, once all was installed I had a sleek system using fluxbox and all the appliances I need and it ran fast and without a hitch. All this on a 6 year old Dell laptop with 1.2 mhz processor and 512mb ram. In short Gentoo is wonderful but this new installation procedure sucks big time and caused me much grief and a whole lot of time configuring manually what should have been automatic.

I download and tried the Live DVD, but can't get to X, even on a virtual machine. Did you not encounter any libGLcore.so errors?

I cannot understand why they have not fixed the partitioner. The partitioner also does not recognize LVM setups. This is a huge inconvenience for those that already have their existing installations set up with LVM and would like to give Gentoo a try. Besides there is also the concern that the partitioner will not properly recognize the existing partitions and want to do its own thing, thus destroying the existing installions.

I've dabbled in Gentoo since 2005, but 2007.0 has been the worst so far. I used the LiveCD (which took ~9 minutes to boot), and each screen of the intstaller took a good 30-40secs to load. Then, it just died at partitioning. I rebooted, and this time it died on starting the installer. The CLI installer didn't work either.

For me:
Pros: Nice artwork.
Cons: Everything else.

I am a linux geek. I have been using gentoo after freeBSD. freeBSD didn't have a few things that worked easily on linux. Loved the port system. To hear there's been an update is great. Personally, I think the portage system has its up and downs (trying to build something similar in c) but it's really useful.
The Xorg error comes up a lot. What you go to do is go into the xorg.conf and change the monitor driver from what ever it is to vesa. That works for me.
A big ran of any kind of graphics (E17 is great) so new artwork is great too.

I`ve got a new PC last year in summer. An maked up by part`s. It`s a Intel Core Duo 2 E6600 @ 2400 Mhz on an Asus P5b motherboard with 1 G KingMax Mars DDR2@800 mhz Dual Channel and an 120 G Seagate Hdd on PATA. The J-Micron controller was not suported in 2006.0 Release and I`d waited for 2007.0 Release to install gentoo because i`m courious how mutch time will take this core duo 2 processor to emerge/build world.
I`m a novice, begginger in *nix art or sport, but i have some computer experience in my back, so I usually handle in unix with the grafical interface, but sometimes I must use the CLI witch I don`t like it very mutch. I did an gentoo install from CLI on my old pentium III.
Now.. I`ve download the .iso image of gentoo AMD64 2007.0, verified md5sum CDburned out the CD` and booted. The good part is that the Jmicron was ok, it dose see my hdd as "hde". I tried 5 installs with the grafical wizzard but EVERY INSTALL FAILED. In the Standard mode, Networkless and ADVACED. In advanced mode if at the step with kernel I choose "custom kernel with make menu config" and the Installer simply ask me "ARE YOU SURE YOU WISH TO QUIT BEFORE THE INSTALLATION IT`S FINISHED?`" I belived that the new installer will be better but it`s even WORST in comparation with 2006.0 release. SHAME ON YOU developers. I undestand that there is an huge work to do, i undestand that there is no mutch flexibility because they` don`t know what options to put there like an Microsoft Windows developer (the windows wizards ROCKS), and they don`t have iddeas,I undestand that GRUB dosen`t see windows partition and can`t be installed in "/" if i wish only in MBR ""`` i undersand that it`s DANGEROUS TO PARTITION WITH THE GRAFICAL INSTALLER and the fact that the changed are commited to disk IMEDDIATLY (such a stupid thing), but i don`t ACCEPT the fact that it DOSE NOT WORK. Ok, if there are one bug`s or thwo are acceptable, but I`m shure 100% that they DIDN`T tryed or Tested this "graficall installer wizard". Suse has an good wizard, ubuntu, sabayon, mephis, redhat/rhel, pc-bsd, zenwalk, and many others. You konw what? Those installer`s ACTUALLY DO WORK but` gentoo`s DOSEN`T! Such a wonderfull distribution, provided from such wonderful ideeas (portage, emerge and othes util`s) but disabled by...



SHAME SHAME SHAME. The best metod for actually installing gentoo it`s from an ubuntu installed or knoppix cd, and chroot then CLI. Soryy developers but your installer sucks.`
In the networkless mode, the installaion hangs at "perl" (~50/140), if there is no internet connection, but work`s if there exist internet connection. Strange isn`t IT FOLKS?!!
In standard mode, the installation finished succesfully, but when i booted say`s that "i can not find /dev/hde it`s not an valid device please input the correct device".
So.. Whatsoever gentoo linux 2007.0 amd64 CD it`s a full with GARBAGE SOFTWARE.
When i booted the cd with gentoo acpi=on or whitout that argument the cpuscalling didn`t worked anyway, but the Intel Speed Step it`s active in bios, in ubuntu work`s just fine and in windows same.`
Advice: don`t lose your time with 2007.0 amd64 CD, The grafical wizard IT DOSE NOT WORK CORECTLY!
Simply install it from another distro with chroot and cli.


Sorry for my bad english it`s not my native language and for typos.`

I recommend trying Sabayon 3.3, it is Gentoo based and works out of the box (at least in my case). It is No 8 on DistroWatch but gets very little attention from reviewers.

Come on guys. The installer is only a convenience for people who have installed Gentoo over a dozen time. If you have never installed Gentoo before; read the fine manual (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/index.xml). Even better print it first then read it. Download the minimal install cd and just do it. Most problems and complains I've heard here only comes only from lack of understanding even the basics of Gentoo.


Those who are afraid of the command line are better off using Sabayon (http://www.sabayonlinux.org/)

Read this review to get a better understanding of how Gentoo works: http://techgage.com/article/gentoo_20070/1