[gentoo-user] Is Gentoo still on the right path?

[Derek Tracy]

This is a lot longer than I originally intended it to be so if you want the
jist of it skip to the end.

(DISCLAIMER: Let me start off by saying that this is truly not a flame but
more of a concern. So please do not flame me for stating my
opinions/concerns.)

I have been an avid Gentoo User for 2 and 1/2 years now. I have installed
Gentoo on many different platforms including HPPA and Sparc, not too mention
the countless x86 installs. I have never had a problem, every install has
went smooth. I have done both Stage3 and Stage1 installs (I have always
preferred a Stage1 install).

Recently, I decided that it was time to reinstall due to the numerous
packages that I had installed and different DE's / WM configurations, and I
must admit that I have recently been diving into LVM2 and encryption (I
figured that starting from scratch would be my best bet). In the past I have
always leaned toward ~x86 (I love bleeding edge). But since this was going
to be a new install I decided to do the preferred method and set all ~x86
flags via /etc/portage/package.keywords for specific packages.

Now since we have the background we will get to the questions at hand.
During this install I have run into nothing but problems. I boot from the
livecd just fine (if I append nopcmcia and dolvm2) and everything goes
smooth. NOTE: I am performing this install step by step from the online
handbook with a slight modification I am using LVM2 for /usr /usr/portage
/opt /var /tmp /home (I figured I would take advantage of some setuid
security procedures). Part way through the online handbook I noticed that
they standardized the Stage3 install. I figured that since the developers
thought it was best to use a Stage3 install then why not give it a shot. So
I installed everything according to the handbook and all went well until I
restarted.

After restarting I noticed that ipw2200 did not load properly was posted in
my boot mesg WTF. I distinctly remembered during the install that I waited
until after I installed the kernel, then I went ahead and installed the
external modules. (NOTE: I did not use the built in kernel modules for
ipw2200 or ieee80211 I had read too many horror stories about incompatible
versions of ipw2200-firmware and I have always had good luck with the
external drivers) One other thing, instead of going for pure on the edge
goodness of using a Nitro-esque kernel (one optimized for speed over
stability) I decided to use Gentoo-sources again trusting the developers
judgement. After searching through tons of articles regarding ipw2200
drivers not working with the latest "Stable" Gentoo-Sources I decided to go
with the kernel drivers and give them a shot. I recompiled rebooted and low
and behold the drivers still weren't working. After trying all sorts of
different combinations Unstable versions of this stable versions of that.
Nothing worked, so I proceeded to reboot back into the livecd and re-chroot
into my system so I could get a network connection and install the Madwifi
Drivers, for a pcmcia card that I have laying around. Also note that the
Madwifi drivers are considered Unstable. I rebooted the computer and the
drivers actually worked (Yea Unstable). So I got the network connection up,
then I decided to go ahead and install X (I thought that it would be easier
to troubleshoot the ipw drivers from a graphical environment copy, paste,
multiple xterms.). Well I compiled and installed Xorg and compiled and
installed nvidia-kernel nvidia-glx, and what do you think happened (btw I
copied over a backed up xorg.conf from the last installation so I know that
that conf file works and is correct) I went to startx...........It kicked
back saying screens were found but no usable configs......So down
troubleshooting lane I went. I recompiled, verified I did not have agpgart /
dri enabled in kernel, then with both in kernel, stable and unstable
versions of nvidia-kernel / nvidia-glx, everything a no go.. I finally
settled with using Xorg's nv driver. Now here I am with a really nice laptop
(Sony S-460) but with no video hardware acceleration, the inablility to use
the built in wireless card (NOTE: before the reinstall everything was
working).

So now I am waiting for the whole system to recompile using ~x86 (the so
called "Unstable" packages) and I will see if that works or not.

I am seriously reconsidering finding another OS to use, this whole headache
has been totally ridiculous. I could see this if I would have emerged all of
the unstable packages to begin with or even perform a Stage1 install after
the developers decided to make the Stage3 the default. But I didn't I did
everything according to the documentation (and I triple checked that I did
not skip anything).

So with all of this said if the developers do not start testing everything a
little more thoroughly then I predict there will be a serious drop in the
number of Gentoo Followers out there. Especially if a Gentoo Veteren has
this hard of a time installing the operating system that I love.

When a branch is marked stable all of the packages in that branch should
work, yes there will always be configuration glitches but the problems I
have had during this install were not from configuration glitches. They are
what looks like incompatible packages and numerous other things. If Gentoo
is going to continue to grow then we as a community need to speak up about
things like this.

--
---------------------------------
Derek Tracy
tracyde@×××××.com
---------------------------------