Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo linux packages

[George Shapovalov]

29.03.02 11:13:18, "Michael & Malania Copeland" <mcopeland@××××××××.com> wrote:
>I have some newbie questions that I would like to
>respectfully ask.  I learned about Gentoo linux through Jack
>Kolesar's article about the Shuttle AK35GTR motherboard.  I
	gentoo users are on a rise :-).

>Anyway, my home internet connection is not broadband, so
>downloading XFree, KDE, gnome etc. would take a
>prohibitively long time.  I noticed that Linux System Labs
	In fact with gentoo it is POSSIBLE to have a nice up to date system even without any 
broadband. Unlike other distributions (Red Hat, Mandrake, even debian to lesser extent) you can 
only fetch sources that you absolutely need on a per package basis. 
The install CD is only 16MB (~ 1.5 download). Bootstrap will require more time, but you are likely 
to do it overnight, aren't you? (expect good 2 hrs for compile only, add about 3 more to fetch 
files). Generally my estimate is that on an average PC (think 450MHz/128MB - normal for year old 
system) downloads over 33,600 modem link will increase you install time by amount similar to what 
compile will take. So in short do all large packages overnight, small are Ok even while you are at 
it.
	If you have broadband somewhere else, you can definitely speed things up. Download sources 
(look at ebuild file names and sometimes inside to figure out what source is called), bring them 
home on any media and then put them under /usr/portage/distfiles. To see what packages are going to 
be installed (including all dependencies!) do: "emerge --pretend category/package" (same will do 
for emerge system, etc.)).
Another trick to speed-up initial "emerge rsync": download portage tree (see FAQ) tarball and untar 
it under /usr/portage (4MB download instead of 20!).

>has the latest Gentoo linux CD-R.  I was wondering if that
>CD-R included other applications and if not, which CD should
>I get that has gnome, kde, XFree, mozilla or opera, star
>office etc. applications?
	I do not know what is included on that CD, but I bet it is allready out of date :-).
With gentoo there are no big releases in terms of what packages are included (this is still similar 
to this for portage code though). Everyday new ebuilds are submitted and old ones are updated. You 
can contribute to!! (and this is the nicest thing about this distro).


>I'm sure you are very busy, so please bear with my newbie
>questions.  I know that getting the source code and
You are definitely welcome.
BTW, questions of this kind are more appropriate for gentoo-user and gentoo-newbie mail-lists. You 
should probably subscribe to those.

Sidenote to developers:
I think this question should be incororated into a FAQ since it appears so often. 
There is "What if rsync doesn't work for me?" but no "Where do I put the sources after I downloaded 
them at other location?".
Do you think "Is it realistic to use this distro without any broadband?" should be there to?
I'll submit it via bugzilla sometime unless anybody tells me not to.

George