Alright... Linux install... not quite

XMEN Ashaman DTM · Post by **XMEN Ashaman DTM** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 7:22 pm

Well... I went and downloaded Gentoo 2006.1 live cd. That took some effort to get the dang thing (about 2 days worth of waiting for the download via bittorrent). I've got two harddrives in my system.

I partitioned my extra drive with boot, swap, and space (100 MB / 2 GB / 27 GB), and started the install process. I really like Gentoo's installation process.

However, the documentation is not exactly well-defined. That's alright because if things get screwed up you can load the live cd up, go online, read about your problem, and fix it. Pretty nifty. Plus I like Emerge.

The only issue is that I can't figure out how to bring nvidia drivers into the mix so that I can do things like, oh, I don't know... load gnome and stuff.

Any hints?

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 7:25 pm

Erk. Trying to remember how I did it. (Of course, I didn't use the LiveCD, I installed 2005.1) Let's dig up the extensive manual I printed out from gentoo.org/doc/handbook.

(pause)

.... And, I don't see it. So, check google, and voila!
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/nvidia-guide.xml

I generally love Gentoo docs. Wonder what's up with that LiveCD install - I did it the hard way.

(stage 2, actually)

Incidentally, you don't need the binary nVidia package for Gnome. All of the mainline desktops work fine with the 2d-capable free drivers.

And I prefer KDE.

XMEN Ashaman DTM · Post by **XMEN Ashaman DTM** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 7:40 pm

Hmm...

It's bugging me about not having the ability to load opengl. I figured it was a problem stemming from the fact that I didn't download the nvidia drivers.

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:10 pm

I think the mesa libraries will work even with the basic vesafb drivers. Very slowly, of course, if making 3d calls. Got the mesa stuff installed? Probably easiest just to go ahead and install the nVidia blobs tho, since you may need 'em later.

XMEN Ashaman DTM · Post by **XMEN Ashaman DTM** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:48 pm

I read that the nividia driver has ALL of the headers that you need when getting your 3d going.

After looking over what I wrote down for the errors, I've got two things going: a network error (probably cause I didn't set up networking stuff, but I can do that); and the video error.

It's weird to me because it says that gdm is running, but there's no window to bind it to. I am pretty sure that gnome was supposed to install all the x stuff when I told it to install gnome. I would have done kde, but gnome had a precompiled binary on the cd, and I was trying to get everything up and running asap, then recompile any modules that I thought needed it.

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 7:15 pm

I read that the nividia driver has ALL of the headers that you need when getting your 3d going.

It does. The Mesa OpenGL drivers exist so people without 3d hardware (using, for instance, the VesaFB driver) can use OpenGL calls.

I suggest you get your network config going, then you can point your system at an online repository and try re-installing gnome. Or installing the nVidia blobs.

XMEN Ashaman DTM · Post by **XMEN Ashaman DTM** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:35 pm

Oh and I've read that KDE has been sped up quite a bit. Is that the case?

And if I remember correctly, gnome is built on GTK?

Post by **XMEN Gambit** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 7:21 pm

Re GTK: believe so. Uses it, certainly.

I saw an article recently by someone who compared KDE and Gnome, and said that KDE actually opened some Gnome applications faster than Gnome did. I didn't read it in depth, but I can say it sure seems snappier than it used to. My favorite advance in recent years was the decision to open-source the Qt toolkit it's built on (with restrictions). The license used to be way more restrictive, and KDE was hobbled because of it.