Alternate Operating Systems Adventures

[Computer Hobbyist]

Well having wasted a couple of weeks trying to intall gentoo, I decided to chuck gentoo until I can figure out how to find the internet from the LiveCD.

In the meantime, I installed FreeBSD and am in the process of figuring out how to find my nic. I think this is a different issue from the problem with gentoo. Both Knoppix and RedHat have no problem with the network.

I have a weekend coming so I should have some time to work with the problem.

My first impression of both gentoo and FreeBSD is less than satifactory. The problem with gentoo seems to be the most difficult. You would think the gentoo people would put out a LiveCD that would allow the machine to hook up to the network without any additional effort. Particularily since so much of gentoo is downloaded from the net. The problem is not with my hardware, with my network, or with my router. I am not hidden behind a firewall. It can be done. Knoppix does it straight from the CD. No problem.

I don't think my problem with FreeBSD is the same. I also think it is something I can work out, but the install has the same look and feel as RedHat 6.0. Very clunky.

[kilgoretrout]

I've got to hand it to you for diving in the deep end. Gentoo and FreeBSD are two of the toughest installs with Debian running a close third. Unless you have a good familiarity with linux and the command line, the chances of a successful install are slim to none and slim's out of town. Before you get totally frustrated, you might want to give redhat or mandrake a try.

[Computer Hobbyist]

I have Mandrake installed on my regular machine.

I had RedHat running on my test machine.

I jumped in to learn. Frustration is part of learning, so my plan is to get frustrated. Anyway, I got FreeBSD up and running last night and early this morning. Configuring X was a pain in the ars. Took about 30 minutes to get the mouse to run. I just need for FreeBSD find my NIC so I can log on to the web. After that I will need to configure some of my services. I don't know what I will do after that. Probably kill it and install an older distribution of gentoo (I am not much of a dual boot guy.) I read on one of their forums that others are having the same problem with their current LiveCD but older versions work fine. Somebody told me that I could use KNOPPIX to help install gentoo, but I get lost in the chroot and sudo su business. That will require more study.

My biggest problem is that I don't have any formal education in Unix, so I don't have a good theoretical framework. Lots of small defeats and victories.