Thinking of Moving from gentoo any advice

xpd259 · 2007-12-31 03:21:15

Im thinking of moving from gentoo to ArchLinux as I have a few pet peeves about gentoo that won't go away
but I can't go to suse, fedora etc etc tried them and its AOL all over again ..too much hand holding

has any body had any exp moving from gentoo to Archlinux?
and use a luks encrypted root , home & swap

also are things like Nvidia drivers, Mp3 , dvd stuff in the distro or do i have to go hunting add other repo's (fedora style )
does the Gnome build include things like hald dbus auto magically

any other things to expect
like not bugs persay but diffences that I might not expect

regards Dick

Last edited by xpd259 (2007-12-31 03:24:36)

lilsirecho · 2007-12-31 03:43:41

One note of interest to all users...

January 11, 2008 will be release date for KDE4. Ubuntu has already dropped kbuntu because of the impact of that release.

I suggest it may be a while before archlinux can stomach all the changes but it is in the offing.

I don't think any linux OS will weather these changes without many glitches.

Just a note to be aware of the coming changes......

Other than that, come on in the water is fine!!!

vitalstatistix · 2007-12-31 03:47:37

xpd259 wrote:

Im thinking of moving from gentoo to ArchLinux as I have a few pet peeves about gentoo that won't go away
but I can't go to suse, fedora etc etc tried them and its AOL all over again ..too much hand holding

has any body had any exp moving from gentoo to Archlinux?
and use a luks encrypted root , home & swap
also are things like Nvidia drivers, Mp3 , dvd stuff in the distro or do i have to go hunting add other repo's (fedora style )
does the Gnome build include things like hald dbus auto magically
any other things to expect
like not bugs persay but diffences that I might not expect
regards Dick

Look around the arch repos and how they are setup (most of your questions regarding the packages you mentioned will be answered): you might want to spend a few minutes on the arch wiki. Take a look also at aur.archlinux.org

xpd259 · 2007-12-31 03:48:02

im on my 2nd reading of the Beginners guide so I have ever thing sorted in my head before i start
and every thing looks good so far. and i know I can just build anything my self
I do have to say i'm very impressed with the website as a whole

Thaks for the heads up on kde4. while I prefer gnome I do use amarok & K3b under gnome not kde
but fingers crossed for the KDE users out there

having problems accessing the repo's at the moment I think this is due to my laptop is on its last legs
but I will have a look . thank u for the tip
and yeah i spotted the gnome part in the guide

Last edited by xpd259 (2007-12-31 03:58:00)

twhayes · 2007-12-31 05:05:10

Can't give any specific advice regarding a switch from gentoo, but my experience moving from Kubuntu was extremely positive. Like you I read the Beginner's Guide several times before taking the plunge. It's the clearest explanation I've been able to find for any distro. I had a couple of minor problems, but was able to quickly resolve them with help from the Arch Forums, which to me is one of the best reasons to switch. The Arch users are really responsive, know the distro well and normally help get any problem you might have resolved quickly.

I also use Yaourt, a front-end for Pacman, to make accessing all the apps in AUR much easier. That has really helped me find any app that wasn't in the standard distro.

I know you're using Gnome, but I've found KDEmod to be great, especially it's basic load, which is quite light.

Arch is fun. Hope you make the plunge.

somairotevoli · 2007-12-31 05:23:26

If you search the forum for gentoo to arch posts, you will find a huge number of user that migrated from gentoo, I being one of them. I do have gentoo to thank for arch being easy to set up for me.

Arch's repos contain nvidia drivers, codecs and "stuff". Can't find something, check out AUR and ABS in the wiki or search the forum as someone may have a repo setup containing what you're looking for, such as kde4, kdemod, themes, etc.

any other things to expect
like not bugs persay but differences that I might not expect

You might get bored after awhile once things are to your liking. Things seldom break, but when they do, they get resolved pretty quickly.

Last edited by somairotevoli (2007-12-31 05:24:10)

jacko · 2007-12-31 12:41:16

Here is my experience with the two distro's. I tried gentoo before finding arch linux. I was looking for a OS that I could have more control over the setup, that was my criteria.

Gentoo fit that bill exactly. So I started in on the installation guide for gentoo. When I was done I rebooted my pc only to find that gentoo didn't install right the first time. Somewhere I made a mistake and things went ape sh*t on me.

My next attempt was at arch linux, again, I just started in with the installation guide and things seemed to go smooth, sorta like gentoo. All seemed well, but I did not get my hopes up. When I rebooted my pc after the install of arch I was pleasantly surprised to see it had booted to the command line. WOOT! I was hooked, what can be more easier then diving into something completely blind, a newb at that, and still come out on top with a working, fast, reliable system. Plus its bleeding edge, which just makes my day.

I am not saying one is better then the other, but I find arch linux to be right up my alley. AUR is one of the best features of this site. But, my favorite section is still the wiki. I have linked to this wiki plenty of time even for others using different distro's. The amount of knowledge in the arch wiki is a godsend for any newb like me wanting to understand linux. Gentoo has a great wiki, but half of what they say and discuss is way over my head ATT.

aapzak · 2008-01-06 11:28:29

I'm using both. They're both great.

I find it easier to add packages to arch than to Gentoo. So if you're using software which is not in the repos, arch might be easier than Gentoo. I mean creating ebuild versus creating PKGBUILDs , for compiling from source.

The biggest difference between Gentoo and Arch is that you don't have control over the features which are build in your software. For instance, installing php with oracle support is going to be so much easier in Gentoo than in any other distro. So you probably have to check your use flags and see if you're doing stuff which is not default in Arch. Gentoo is more flexible in some ways (besides the use flags, also in platforms).

Apart from that I have to say I like Arch a lot. It's clean, the configs are clean and very easy to maintain. Just like in Gentoo you're expected not to be affraid of cli configuration, there are no wizards. Arch is very good (and just as fast as a tweaked Gentoo box).

Last edited by aapzak (2008-01-06 11:30:08)

Dheart · 2008-01-06 13:14:02

aapzak wrote:

For instance, installing php with oracle support is going to be so much easier in Gentoo than in any other distro. So you probably have to check your use flags and see if you're doing stuff which is not default in Arch. Gentoo is more flexible in some ways (besides the use flags, also in platforms).

Well... Here I'll have to disagree.
While you do have the choice to install a certain software (like php for instance) from the repository with the vanilla setup, you can simply download the PKGBUILD, (which is as simple as gentoo ebuilds) and add any custom patches/compiler flags, compile the package yourself and then setup pacman to ignore this particular package during upgrades.

xpd259 · 2008-01-06 14:35:56

after a few days of use . i have to say I like what I'm seeing .
While Archlinux lacks the useflags to config every single feature of the packages your installing
I found 99% of the time i didn't need that much flexibility and more often then not I would miss something important and have to rebuild lots after many hours of hair pulling out

I have also found the forums more helpful here

I have yet had to use the PKGBUILD but from the look of it it will suit my needs as there isn't much software i want/need that isn't already set up .. the way I like

my biggest "pet peeve" with other distro's was that the keyring is always enabled on gnome *grrrrr*
but I have yet to bump in to the evil keyring manager on Arch's gnome set up

japetto · 2008-01-08 01:29:13

Just for future reference on can find a simple comparison between the two (and other distros) on the wiki.

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arc … _vs_Gentoo

F · 2008-01-10 00:54:11

Just mentioning that I have my partitions, including swap, encrypted and working flawlessly. (LUKS implementation)

Arch Linux

#1 2007-12-31 03:21:15

Thinking of Moving from gentoo any advice

#2 2007-12-31 03:43:41

Re: Thinking of Moving from gentoo any advice

#3 2007-12-31 03:47:37

Re: Thinking of Moving from gentoo any advice

#4 2007-12-31 03:48:02

Re: Thinking of Moving from gentoo any advice

#5 2007-12-31 05:05:10

Re: Thinking of Moving from gentoo any advice

#6 2007-12-31 05:23:26

Re: Thinking of Moving from gentoo any advice

#7 2007-12-31 12:41:16

Re: Thinking of Moving from gentoo any advice

#8 2008-01-06 11:28:29

Re: Thinking of Moving from gentoo any advice

#9 2008-01-06 13:14:02

Re: Thinking of Moving from gentoo any advice

#10 2008-01-06 14:35:56

Re: Thinking of Moving from gentoo any advice

#11 2008-01-08 01:29:13

Re: Thinking of Moving from gentoo any advice

#12 2008-01-10 00:54:11

Re: Thinking of Moving from gentoo any advice

Board footer