Gentoo Linux 2004.0 [LWN.net]

Gentoo Linux 2004.0

Posted Mar 4, 2004 11:14 UTC (Thu) by ordonnateur (subscriber, #6652)
Parent article: Gentoo Linux 2004.0

" The "stages" method of installation has been superseded by the more popular Gentoo
Live CD method."

I don't think this is true. The stages method is still the fundamental way to install Gentoo,
with the live CD the preferred boot method. The other methods are a short cut for impatient
people who thereby miss, in my opinion, the major strength of Gentoo: the oportunity to
work through the install slowly and carefully and thereby end up with something both
wanted and understood.
You are of course right about the other great strength of Gentoo, the documentation is
excellent.

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Gentoo Linux 2004.0

Posted Mar 4, 2004 13:49 UTC (Thu) by ladislav (guest, #247) [Link]

You might be right, it's hard to estimate which method is a preferred way to install Gentoo for most people. I based the statement on two observations. Firstly, the "Installing Gentoo Linux" section of the release notes does not mention stages at all, it only talks about the Gentoo LiveCDs. Secondly, I believe that most people would prefer to have Gentoo up and running as quickly as possible and perhaps recompile everything later, rather than go through the tedious stages install, possibly lasting several days.

Also, the LiveCD method does not exclude using stages - it makes more sense to download the Gentoo LiveCD and use it to install Gentoo, rather than download a stage tarball and use Knoppix (or something else) to perform the installation.

I agree that the stages method is the fundamental way of installing Gentoo, but I just don't see why one would use it (except for learning purposes) now that there are other, faster and easier ways.

Gentoo Linux 2004.0

Posted Mar 4, 2004 18:08 UTC (Thu) by komarek (guest, #7295) [Link]

Reasons not to use the livecd installation:

1) I've had regular problems booting the livecd

2) Your target machine does not have a cdrom

3) Your target machine is slow

4) Your target machine is virtual

I'm sure there are many more. The reasons above are those which I regularly encounter.

-Paul Komarek