Newbie Needs Help With Gentoo Install/Setup
 

so gentoo was recommended to me by a friend for a fast, customizable distro. although i'm worried about starting from scratch so i have some questions.

- is it too difficult for a newbie to set up? i've been told it's pretty straightforward to get running for basic use.

- i've been told that gentoo helps you through the install, do i need to know anything beforehand in that case?

- i have a partition that was made in windows, i have no idea how to format it or if it is named correctly for linux use. does the installation fix this?

-how do you get the desktop environment, graphical file manager, onto gentoo if you start with nothing? and how do you subsequently get it connected to the internet?

*edit* i forgot to mention, this is with the minimal install version for x86.

Awesome, welcome to the linux community :D

I can't answer most of your questions with much confidence, because i'm still rather new to linux myself -- well, i've been at it a while, but don't have time to really dedicate to learning it as much as i'd like to -- but i can try to answer about the Windows partition..

Do you want to to keep it, or are you planning on erasing windows all together? If you want to keep it, you'll have to tweak the partitions (unless you have a blank partition already), and i believe that can be done with linux, but i'm not sure exactly how. But i do know you can use a program like Partition Magic in Windows that will allow you to change partition sizes.
If, on the other hand, you simply want to get rid of windows all together, the installer will make that a very simple choice, something like "use entire FJTS120G drive" or whatever.. and that will wipe it all.

Also, you asked if its pretty straightforward. Well, that really depends on how much computer knowledge you have. If your idea of a fun weekend is doing computer forensics on your friends crashed PC, well, this will be a piece of cake. But, if you don't even have a clue what "defragmenting" a drive is, it could be a challenge -- and those are some very broad generalizations. It also varies from one distro to another; I just installed Mandriva 2007 yesterday, and it was by a good margin, the easiest distro i've ever installed. But, on the other hand, i installed Slackware a while ago, and chose some option i shouldn't have, and had to reinstall it almost directly after because of my idiotic mistake, lol.

Hope that helps, and i hope that your installation and experience at large goes well!

- No, it is not too difficult to install.

The LiveCD offers a Graphical and Text mode installation that can walk you through the installation. You can also install using command line options which is described in detail in the Gentoo Handbook

- I beleive that the Gentoo installation expects you to have available drive space to create the Linux partions.

So you may have to repartition your Windows partion to create available space for the Linux installation. I would recommend at least 10GB of space if you want to install a lot of stuff.

- After or during the base installation you can add additional applications such as X Windows.

If you use the LiveCD install script then it will ask you if you want to add extra packages. After completing an installation you can use the portage package system to add anything you want.

- During the installation it will walk you through getting ethernet TCP/IP working.


Look over the Gentoo Installation Handbook

so i tried to boot a cd, but my monitor says "out of scan range". i went through the pre-booting options, but i don't see a way to fix this. please help!

Monitor Won't Display When Booting Gentoo Live CD
 

when i try to boot the Gentoo live cd and start installing, my monitor says "Out of scan range". I can't figure out how to fix this. please help!

Have you tried other live cds?

yes, puppy and ubuntu

but with minimal install Gentoo, i can't get past the initial boot screen (the text part when you first turn on your comp)

I have merged your two threads.

Please stick with one thread in the future rather than starting off a
second one that's identical/similar/closely related.


Cheers,
Tink

Which ISO did you burn ?

the minimal install for x86

i'm told it's what you use for intel pc's right?

Yes, you can use that ... though you will not get to use the Installer and you will require internet access.

I would actually suggest getting the Gentoo 2006.1 LiveCD (i686) ... in case your network card gives you problems.

Still ... you should have been able to bootup with the Minimal CD

what do you mean i can't use the installer?

do i have to set up the internet connection manually? or does it do Auto DHCP?

If you want to use the new Gentoo Installer then use the Gentoo LiveCD.

The MinimalCD does not offer it.

* The Gentoo Minimal Installation CD, a small, no-nonsense, bootable CD which sole purpose is to boot the system, prepare the networking and continue with the Gentoo installation.
* The Gentoo Installer LiveCD contains everything you need to install Gentoo. It provides a graphical environment, a graphical as well as console based installer which automatically carries out the installation for you, and of course, the installation instructions for your architecture.


This will be taken care of during the installation if you use the Installer ... or from the instructions in the Handbook.