Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Rich Freeman <rich0@g.o>
To: gentoo-dev@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] About suggesting to create a separate partition for portage tree in handbook
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:48:07
Message-Id: CAGfcS_n2qUHpWF+_YvS+wB7-ntH+yvJUd7T1=nn32U1+c4CLMQ@mail.gmail.com
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-dev] About suggesting to create a separate partition for portage tree in handbook by Alexandre Rostovtsev
1 On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 2:34 PM, Alexandre Rostovtsev <tetromino@g.o>
2 > The partitioning scheme is something that the user needs to decide on
3 > *before* getting Gentoo up and running. After the user had finished
4 > installing the operating system, it's too late to inform him about the
5 > advantages of a separate /usr/portage.
6
7 Yes and no (if you have free space, you could easily move /usr/portage
8 - some other changes are harder).
9
10 However, you could extend this line of argument to raid, lvm, and even
11 stuff like the use of systemd or an alternative package manager. All
12 of those things are much easier to implement if you just start out
13 with them.
14
15 I'm all for creating a wiki to talk about some alternative options.
16 Perhaps even link to it at the start of the handbook in the intro (if
17 you're not in a rush and want to read about more advanced
18 configurations, check out ...).
19
20 However, I tend to agree that the handbook should be a
21 nearly-foolproof no-frills Gentoo installation.
22
23 > 1. ext4, not ext3, needs to be recommended as the default filesystem. We
24 > have kernel 3.2 marked stable, there is no need to keep talking about
25 > ext4 as if it's something experimental.
26
27 I tend to agree here. Not sure we need the full discussion of
28 filesystems either. Ext4 is probably good enough for everybody, and
29 mention ext3/2 as more established alternatives.
30
31 I tend to feel the same way about stuff like LILO.
32
33 Then again, Gentoo is about choice. It just seems like we're
34 presenting users with more choices than makes sense for a newbie. If
35 there is a choice between something that 99.99% of users will want,
36 and some ancient piece of cruft that still works and is better for
37 0.01% of the userbase, does that really have to be in the handbook?
38
39 Rich

Replies