Hello to all.

The headline tells everything. Is it really worth to install Gentoo on the new generation machines. To spend time to compile it ? Is the gentoo the best rolling-release distro out-there? I tried to install Gentoo and when I finaly succeed didn't find my network card and I got mad and formated my drive.

So can you guys tell me your opinios about that and if you have any suggestions of good rolling distro please share it.

I think if you use funtoo instead, you can skip compiling the kernel and hence the needed drivers for your hardware
(the installation process can make use of other kernels, for example the debian one).

Gentoo takes its time and some knowledge to set it up probably, like other distros such as ArchLinux. However, once if you are willing to spent that time and go through the process, you are rewarded with a customized and reliable system, as you want it.

If you lack the experience or maybe don't want to get into all that, some derivatives, such as the above mentioned funtoo are probably the better alternative.

IMO, the major deciding factor is I rarely use my computers for more than an hour at a time, before turning off. So for me, my machines simply don't spend enough time turned on at any one time to stay up to date with Gentoo, so I choose not to use it.

The thing is that I did everything on the Gentoo Handbook and finaly when i reboot, the gentoo wont boot. I used genkernel all and manual config and with both ways same results. First i thought my bios is broke, then I follwed a video tutorial in youtube that most of the steps in the Handbook were gone and with that video i finaly installed but then my network card was gone so no internet. I read about re-compile the kernel to load modules and when i did that again no internet. That was the point that i got really mad so much time spend for nothing. Maybe i did something wrong i dont know... I will read about funtoo and will decide what to do. Currently i use Slack and i like it but i want a rolling release.

Gentoo is one of those distros, that are great but that take a lot of time to set up, as well as to get things to work on it afterward. Hence it is generally not recommended for the average user, or for people that are not doing anything special with their computers. It is more directed towards Linux geeks or experts, that want a maximum amount of personalization and who love the idea of playing around with such systems.

I have been running ArchLinux for a while (which is similar), and it took forever to get it working and even being a Linux professional, using my system hours every day, I did not like the workload connected to it, even though it was an awesome distro and if it works, it just works.

If you want to learn, Gentoo is your distro.

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It can be a pain, but the customization is unlimited... If you need to use some really old software, or something bleeding edge chances are it will work on Gentoo. Like the other day, someone wanted to use compiz still on Ubuntu but it was not supported and could not be installed because of broken packages. But in Gentoo, you can rebuild the packages to make it work.

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Hi&welcome wovoka! #5>"Currently I use Slack"
Cool! LQlovesSlack (but I thot one had to be a Guru-way-beyond-ME to Slack[?])
I guess it depends whether you want to be a deepGuru or GUIuser...

There seems to be a few ..., from my web-search: pre-installed gentoo (my fav: OSboxes.org VMs)

BootRepairDisk -might- automagically fix it
(unless 'bad' kernel/initrd ... is there a way to 'grab' a good one? Like Slack's huge.s)

Sounds like I should go learn GenToo (but I haven't Slacked yet! Shame on NuTyX-CLI-me!)

#8/7>... Gentoo sounds like a real 'winner'! Don't give up! Best wishes! Enjoy the 'puzzles'

I had exactly these problems on my 1st installation these days:
I could not boot until I disabled frame buffer in kernel (it is clearly stated in Nvidia chapter that it has to be disabled) and when I booted I had no internet. But this was my fault too because I thought the name of my network was eth0 but ifconfig showed that the name was enp5s. When I changed it there was no problem.


PS After using Arch linux the last years, Gentoo seems totally different. I like it a lot till now and it is sure that I will learn a lot of things!

1 members found this post helpful.

Gentoo has a quality distro and well worth your effort to try it. If you aren't happy then move on, there are more choices.

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There are a few phases you go through when using gentoo.
firstly...its a nightmare to install, seems overcomplicated, very confusing, and you dont really know what is going on .

if you persist, you may eventually do a second or third install, if you made notes on all your installs, you will find that gentoo is not really that difficult to install, but you have been keeping your system a little bit untidy, and could have done things better, maybe next time. You now have a bit of an understanding of portage, and are seeing that gentoo is if anything a bit elegant, and you hit a few serious issues, and fumbled your way through until you break your system.

thirdly (this is the critical phase) you start to think, omg i have installed gentoo several times, and now i just cant be bothered doing it again, gentoo seems tedious, and surely you may as well use another distribution...so you start investigating other distributions..just for the speed of getting things done.
you find many distributions are ok, and some are really quite decent for what you want...but none of them give you the control you had with gentoo..even arch linux can break a lot and have to reinstall if you get stuff from the AUR...
so now you are at a crossroads....do you go thorugh the bind of installing again, or just use another distro.
some people at this juncture start to use another distro, others say well surely i have learned so much about gentoo now, may as well stick to it and keep the knowledge, as i now know it more than i know ubuntu or arch or debian or suse....
these are the gentoo boys...and they will persist for another gentoo install, but this time they keep their system tidy, they know the pitfalls of autounmask, they are familiar with their systems hardware, and how to keep the system clean.

This time gentoo, gives them exactly what they need, the install is straight forward, they keep the system super elegant and ordered, and know what to avoid doing, these gentoo boys will have a perfect experience, after which they will not be able to ever use another distro, just because they now rest in the knowledge that they have a decent stable system, leading edge, tidy clean and super flexible and now that they know how, pretty easy to maintain. Their system is just the way they want it, and will probably not throw many surprises, they will have a good grasp of operating systems and the command line, and whatever they need to do they will find quite straight forward...why would they sacrifice this competency for something inferior...and their system will be running smoothly until hardware failure.

so yes gentoo is worth it...as eventually you will realise, there is one distro that stands head and shoulders above all other distros, and that distro is GENTOO !


for these people ...anything other than gentoo is just ridiculous.

2 members found this post helpful.

Your live cd's are useful for seeing what kernel modules are installed and the 'lspci' command will list you devices.
You will then know your hardware better, which will improve your troubleshooting skills on other destros.

Keep trying you'll get there!

Howdy sidewinder040, welcome to LQ.

Usually we try to get new member to write up a bit in the new user forum. Maybe gentoo mod may move it.

I'd assume the original poster (OP) has this solved.

1 members found this post helpful.

How long to built gentoo without xorg or gui? On older atom netbook?