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Gentoo 2008.0 Released
Posted by
Soulskill
on Sun Jul 06, 2008 11:24 AM
from the upgrades dept.
from the upgrades dept.
An anonymous reader notes that the Gentoo 2008.0 final release is available. From the announcement:
"Code-named 'It's got what plants crave,' this release contains numerous new features including an updated installer, improved hardware support, a complete rework of profiles, and a move to Xfce instead of GNOME on the LiveCD. LiveDVDs are not available for x86 or amd64, although they may become available in the future. The 2008.0 release also includes updated versions of many packages already available in your ebuild tree."
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Submission: Gentoo 2008.0 released by Anonymous Coward
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emerge first (Score:2)
Re:emerge first (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
My experience was the same as yours. Never had a problem with minimal install, or at least if there was a problem it was hands on enough that you could work through it.
The graphical installer in 2007 didn't do gentoo any favors.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Why on earth has this been modded insightful? You people obviously have no idea.
The main feature of Gentoo is that it is a bleeding edge release. Because everything is build from source you generally have the most recent version of all the software you chose to install.
Slackware have only just recently adopted the 2.6 Kernel. It has a tradition of old stable software. They are both "geeky" releases but they approach it from a very different mindset.
I am not attempting to say which is better (although I pref
Anyone tried other source based distros? (Score:5, Interesting)
How do sourcemage and lunar compare, anyone know?
I've had the impression that Gentoo has been stagnating recently.
Re:Anyone tried other source based distros? (Score:4, Informative)
I used sourcemage a few years back. (Left because i got tired of waiting for shit to compile, hurr hurr.) I found it really nice, and absolutely LOVED the bash-script based package management. Compared to Gentoo, it's also really good at fixing itself when things get borked.
If I had more disk space, I'd probably give it a go again. It was a really nice distro.
- mantar
Parent
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Hey, that sounds kinda cool. Maybe Gentoo should consider this idea instead of
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http://paludis.pioto.org/ [pioto.org]
merits attention: I've used it since about version 0.14 with good justice.
Finally. (Score:2)
The great thing about Gentoo is that upgrading is as easy as 'emerge --sync && emerge -auvND world'.
I'm not quite sure about this installer. As mentioned above it may bring in new users... but at what cost? I suppose maybe the forum members will whip 'em into shape by telling them to RTFM.
Gentoo is about choice. Give it a try if that's what you're into. The new LiveCD should support most new hardware out of the box (important stuff, anyway -- like network and disk/chipset drivers).
I love and use it
Re:Finally. (Score:4, Informative)
That's updating, not upgrading. At the very least, you should select a new profile, to get the new default system packages and masks.
To go to 2008.0, this should bring you mostly there:
[make a backup] ._cfgNNNN files using your favourite tool or manually]
emerge --sync
eselect profile default/linux/x86/2008.0 # Adjust to your preferred profile
emerge --emptytree system
emerge --emptytree system
emerge --emptytree world
emerge --update --deep --newuse world
[merge any new
Ayup, you need to rebuild system twice to cover interdependencies, and then world, to get everything to link with the new system libraries.
On a desktop system, you might also want to update the boot splash theme to reflect the new "version", but there isn't any 2008.0 theme out yet, so that might have to wait.
Parent
Re:Finally. (Score:5, Informative)
The correct procedure is:
# Update local package repository image
emerge --sync
# Select new profile (Adjust to your architecture / preferred sub-profile)
eselect profile default/linux/x86/2008.0
# Update to latest default USE flags (which is generally all that changes with profile updates)
emerge --update --deep --newuse world
# Update config files with tool of your choice
The rest is completely useless. Even if you did want to completely re-emerge the entire system, there's little point in the 2 "emerge -e system" (if you're a ricer, you may choose to do one of them - since system is included in world, the second is completely pointless)
Parent
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A new profile might bring in new packages which has headers that affect the system toolchain.
Since you don't know whether this is the case, the only way to ensure that new changes are incorporated into the system is to rebuild system. If you don't, you may have world packages that use a different include file than the system, which can cause problems, like when a newly introduced package uses different values for #defines,
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
From your comment I can assume that either:
1) Your install is headless
2) You have been using Gentoo for less than 12 months
3) You are still running XFree86 instead of Xorg
4) Your memory is very selective
The very idea that every update goes smoothly without a single dependency block is something that most Gentoo users would laugh at. Given all of the problems with the Xorg update, or the changes in libraries that borked the tree for months last year this is laughable.
Portage is a great piece of software, and
Re: (Score:2)
I've found it very difficult to install Gentoo on a truly headless system.
There are nothing provided install-wise to let you do a network boot -- you have to create your own setup for that, even initially. And trying to use cu on a terminal line against an install CD is an exercise in futility -- it assumes that you have a head.
Other distros might be just as bad, some are better, but none are worse.
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This is changing, pretty soon world will not contain system packages. So you'll have to update them separately.
Awesome news... (Score:5, Funny)
...but I'm still compiling 2004.3.
It's got what plants crave. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:It's got what plants crave. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
that's because they were destroyed in the process of mutilating your thirst.
Global Warming - why?? (Score:4, Interesting)
A bit tongue-in-cheek, but I'm also serious here - what is the benefit of having thousands of geeks compiling the same code over and over, when you can download 1 binary distribution and be done? If you sum up the manhours of all this compilation, the power consumed by countless hard drives and processors churning away, whats the point? Just so you can have a 64bit Firefox that Flash won't run on? A 686-optimized kernel, connected to the Internet via 768 kbit DSL?
None of your business (Score:4, Insightful)
It is none of your business how I decide to spend my day or what I decide to do with my computer. If I feel like compiling my Linux distro from scratch, I'll do it. Take your environmentalist rants elsewhere.
Parent
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Re:Global Warming - why?? (Score:4, Informative)
what is the benefit of having thousands of geeks compiling the same code over and over, when you can download 1 binary distribution and be done? If you sum up the manhours of all this compilation, the power consumed by countless hard drives and processors churning away, whats the point?
Speed. Now a binary distro can install things quickly but not run them very quickly. If you have a nice dual-core CPU setup and 1 GB of RAM the binary distros will serve you well, but if you have an aging desktop such a a low-end Pentium 4, or a high-end Pentium III, with RAM maxed out at 512 MB, Gentoo will run faster then even Xubuntu. Now, it might take a week to get everything installed, but once it is installed you have the fastest system you can get on that hardware.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Xubuntu is slow because it has like 30 daemons loaded at startup. Provided you get rid of daemons you don't use, you'll find minimal speedups when something is optimized for a generic i686 compared to something optimized for core2, except maybe some video player/editor that isn't mplayer/mencoder based. Archlinux/Crux/Frugalware basically runs on this philosophy, and provides i686 generic binaries, which run on Pentium II and up.
Re: (Score:2)
You'll only get minimal speedups compared to a binary *optimized* for core2, yes - but you'll likely get fairly good speedups if you're willing to let gcc use processor-specific instructions and whatnot (meaning you can't move the binary to another x86 unless it's the same as yours).
In other words, generic binaries are compiled with -mtune=generic (or -mtune=core2 or whatever) so they'll work on basically any x86. If you want every possible speedup, you'll need to use -march=cputype where cputype is your c
Re:Global Warming - why?? (Score:4, Insightful)
what is the benefit of having thousands of geeks compiling the same code over and over, when you can download 1 binary distribution and be done? If you sum up the manhours of all this compilation, the power consumed by countless hard drives and processors churning away, whats the point?
Speed. Now a binary distro can install things quickly but not run them very quickly. If you have a nice dual-core CPU setup and 1 GB of RAM the binary distros will serve you well, but if you have an aging desktop such a a low-end Pentium 4, or a high-end Pentium III, with RAM maxed out at 512 MB, Gentoo will run faster then even Xubuntu. Now, it might take a week to get everything installed, but once it is installed you have the fastest system you can get on that hardware.
It's not about speed, at least from my point of view. - It is all about configurability. - Almost no users ends up with the same system as the other one.
Since one is in full control and there are hundreds of decisions to make it is very unlikely that any user ends up with the same system as another one.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
"...it might take a week to get everything installed..."
Do you save that week in performance later?
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Unlike ubuntu, you can actually keep using the system while it is installing packages :-)
The blocking in apt seems a bit excessive.
My cronjobs (in gentoo) used to run when I was sleeping, so it didn't matter much.
Re: (Score:2)
I had been using gentoo for about 4 years, and migrated over to ubuntu about a year ago. I miss a lot of things, but I never really noticed any changes in speed.
What I miss is USE flags. Things like "smartcard" and "cjk" etc, and especially all the use flags you can tweak in apache and php etc. They let you compile in experimental patches and extra features, while letting you cut out all the bulk you don't need.
The main reason I left was lack of signed packages, and complete lack of any automatic update
Re:Global Warming - why?? (Score:4, Insightful)
> Speed.
No, not speed, reliability and (startlingly) ease. Yes, you have to wait for the silly thing to compile, but almost without exception, once you've done that, stuff just runs.
Back in my old rpm days, it seemed like I would find an interesting package and find that it has an rpm available. The I'd find that I was missing a library, or had the wrong version, and I'd have to go searching for another rpm. Then another search to find the rpm that would satisfy the requirements for that lib, etc. Every now and then, I'd get to the bottom of my search and find an incompatibility, and it was time to give up, at least for the moment.
Gentoo has a wide range of ebuilds, a wide range of overlays that increase the options, and finally since a complete build environment is part of every system, building a non-ebuild tarball almost always works, too. ( ./configure --prefix=/usr/local && make , etc )
By far, most of my problems have been with stuff only available in binary form.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
While people tend to say speed (which is generally true as far as older hardware and optimizations are concerned), I just like the simplicity and the ease of configuring ALL of my system in one folder: /etc/conf.d, pretty much.
Another thing I like about gentoo is the simple fact: if it compiles, it runs. I've had debacles in the past where when you try to use some obscure program's binary it just won't run because you've got newer lib versions installed, etc, etc. Compiling stuff to work on your system mea
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Not much benefit, but show me a distro with packages as up to date as Gentoo, and I'll switch over. I think most choose Gentoo because it's bleeding edge and for customization. Compilation and speed are just by-products as far as I'm concerned.
Re: (Score:2)
It's only bleeding edge if you unmask everything and if you're willing to deal with all of the Gentoo team's patches which may be unstable. I'm considering switching to an unmasked vanilla-sources instead of gentoo-sources just so I'll always have the newest version of the Linux kernel and have it be exactly what Linus and friends intended to distribute.
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Do not want! (Score:4, Insightful)
I've been waiting for this release, but after one of the higher-access Gentoo devs was caught using dev servers to attack a competing distro [wordpress.com] (and resorting to name-calling afterwards) I'm not sure if I can trust them any more.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I'd say I trust the overall distro that much more for dealing with the situation appropriately.
Obligatory Advertising (Score:2)
Yes folks !! download our latest and greatest version of Gentoo, hurry and you to can get it compiled and installed before our next great release in 2009.
Re: (Score:2)
LiveDVD is not available for x86. I stumbled on that sentence also. Seems there will be a LiveCD though; In which case I'll be burning a copy of that for a few hours fun.
From the linked site:
# Xfce instead of GNOME on the LiveCD: To save space, the LiveCDs switched to the smaller Xfce environment. This means that a binary installation using the LiveCD will install Xfce, but you're still free to build GNOME or KDE from source.
# No LiveDVDs on x86 or amd64: In the interest of getting the release out, the release engineering team decided to postpone LiveDVDs because of problems in their generation. They may show up laterâ"if so, we'll let you know.
Apparently I'm not supposed to submit yet? (What are the limits on posting? WTF?)
I am looking forward to trying this out btw.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
No love for MIPS (Score:2)
Lockout chip business model (Score:2)
Looks like they don't have a new MIPS install CD. That makes me sad.
Might that be because virtually all MIPS computers sold to residential users in North America over the past 24 months are subsidy-locked to run only software approved by the hardware maker? (Sony hasn't made a Linux-compatible PS2 since the Slimline was introduced in 4Q 2004, and the PSP has never had an official Linux. The PS3's Cell is PowerPC, not MIPS.)
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Re: (Score:2)
There are new MIPS stages however under /experimental/. Go and bug the MIPS team if you want a CD as well.
Re:Major problems with Firefox 3 on Gentoo 2008.0. (Score:5, Funny)
One advice to n00bs using Gentoo - RTFM.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I was wondering if he was an embittered guru or a seasoned novice, myself. That seems to be the way they differentiate users.
Re: (Score:2)
I just checked my production box...
I can install up to PostgreSQL v8.3.1. v8.0.15 is still marked as stable so if you want newer you have to know how to use the portage system. Once you know how to use portage it takes just a second to get v8.3.1 available for your system.
Re: (Score:2)
Once you know how to use portage it takes just a second to get v8.3.1 available for your system.
For generous enough definitions of the word "second". ;)
I forget the name of it, but there is a plugin for APT that helps gentoo users convert to Debian. All it does is spew out a bunch of random compilation messages for a while before installing anything.
Re: (Score:2)
Postgres v8.3 yes:
http://packages.gentoo.org/package/postgresql [gentoo.org]
KDE v4 no (not outside the KDE overlay)
http://packages.gentoo.org/package/kde-meta [gentoo.org]
OpenOffice 2.4 yes
http://packages.gentoo.org/package/openoffice [gentoo.org]