[NTLUG:Discuss] gentoo update

[Bug Hunter]

  well, I have some egg on my face... read on....

On Thu, 24 Jul 2003, JR Newsletters wrote:

> Bug Hunter wrote:
> 
> >  I put in two bug reports to gentoo. One, regarding GRUB, and one 
> >regarding their representation of the /etc/fstab file (and the one they 
> >ship as an "example".
> >
> >  Gentoo closed both of them as "WORKSFORME."  
> >
> >  I would have expected them to either try the bug, or at least improve 
> >the explanation.  I gave them the corrected GRUB example.
> >
> They probably did check your bug and are running with the original Grub 
> example, just like I am.  My grub.conf looks exactly like their example, 
> and my system boots up just fine.  It does not just return to grub.  
> Usually when that happened to me, it was because I did not specify the 
> root partition correctly.

  That is interesting.  It did not work for me at all.  when I put

root (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/bzImage root=/dev/hdax

  then under the vmware it would not boot.  However, the following did 
work:

root (hd0,0)
kernel /bzImage

  I expect that either the problem is vmware or that the root (hd0,0) 
line causes the first partition to be mounted as root, making the bzImage 
available under /, not under /boot.  I saw no reference to softlink a boot 
directory under boot, but maybe there was.  Ack!  I just saw a 
separate note on their web page that I just loaded.  It is nicely 
highlighted online.

  I missed that part on the live-cd image.  It was under the part about 
the NT Workstation, and on my 25 line b&w screen, I never really saw it.

> 
> As for the fstab bug report, Someone looked at that too.  You got two 
> responses that I'll show at the end of this E-mail concerning your 
> 'bug'.  I have to say that, again, following the instructions, my fstab 
> works just fine using their example.

  I did not see where /BOOT in their fstab meant /dev/hda1.  I'll re-read 
the instructions.    Oh, yes there is something on their web page.  It is 
on the live CD image also, and I did not connect the dots.  Their FSTAB 
file seemed to have /BOOT rather than /dev/BOOT.   Hmm, they could do some 
softlinks and make that work, even being canned.


> 
> >    As it stands, I suspect Gentoo will be for power users.
> >
> Isn't this a little harsh?  I think Gentoo is for advanced 
> users....users who also like to run Debian or Rock Linux.
> 
 
   We are saying the same thing.  To me, a power user and advanced user 
are the same thing.  

    I still don't think Gentoo is for a newbie.  All the things I did to 
make it work when I didn't understand (or missed the significance of) 
their install instructions on the cd are not usually understood by a newbie.

    It is still a very interesting distribution.  It has less "bugs" in it 
than RedHat for now.  However, RedHat can be installed by a Chinese fellow 
whose second language is English and has never installed Linux before.  
Not so Gentoo.

    I LIKE Gentoo, and will keep playing with it.


bug