[Lancaster] Fwd: boot from a external hard drive

[jonath]

Hmmmm. I wasn't aware of these conversations. I take it they've been taking 
place outside of LLUG. Must make it to the Britannia one day . . .

There is indeed quite a learning curve to installing Gentoo but there is an 
incredible amount of information and help available on the internet. By far 
the most important document is the previously mentioned Gentoo handbook. Once 
you've installed Gentoo a dozen times or so, it becomes fairly second nature.

Rik (or anyone) if you need help with Gentoo, installing or maintaining, let 
me know.

regards,

Jonathan

On Wednesday 29 April 2009, Wayne Ward wrote:
> Yes we have had conversations about the learning curve involved in the
> gentoo install
> Its a bit of a task but pays of in knowledge gained :-)
>
> regards
> wayne
>
> jonath wrote:
> > AH HA!
> >
> > I've worked it out! I was sending messages from j at jonath.co.uk and not
> > from lug at jonath.co.uk, which is what I was subscribed as. It all makes
> > sense now.
> >
> > Still not sure whether my previous messages are gonna be 'approved' or
> > not. Anyway . . . moving on.
> >
> > The moment's probably long since gone regarding Rik and his query
> > about Gentoo but, nonetheless, I don't think anyone's yet touched on
> > the difficulties of Gentoo. Not to put anyone off, mind, but rather as
> > a reminder that nothing worth having ever came easy . . .
> >
> > jonathan
> >
> >
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > From: jonath <j at jonath.co.uk>
> > Date: 2009/4/26
> > Subject: Re: [Lancaster] boot from a external hard drive
> > To: lancaster at mailman.lug.org.uk
> >
> >
> > Rik,
> >
> > I've been using Gentoo for over 6 years now and have it installed on my
> > main PC (which, poor thing, is used as a desktop machine, a database
> > server and a web server), my lap-top (which doesn't do a lot these day
> > but works fine with its wireless ethernet and what-not) and my living
> > room 'shuttle' PC (or whatever you call them, basically a quiet, tiny,
> > inobstrustive,
> > AMD-based 'multimedia' PC).
> >
> > I say all this not as some idle boast but rather to lend credence to the
> > following: I have some experience with Gentoo.
> >
> > The thing with Gentoo is that it can be a bitch to set-up right but, once
> > it's working, you'll have a pretty rock-solid system, configured exactly
> > as you want it. From experience, I would say that this level of
> > configuration comes at a cost: your time. You need to invest a lot of
> > your time to get Gentoo set-up right.
> >
> > Thing is, though, if you want to install Gentoo, as with any Linux
> > distribution, you'll need either a dedicated virtual or physical PC. Live
> > CDs don't really cut it, not if you want a proper installation of Linux.
> >
> > It is possible to install Gentoo virtually using any decent
> > virtualisation application, such as VMware (although, I believe, only
> > available on a free 30-day evaluation license) or VirtualBox. As may be
> > obvious from the above, I've only installed Gentoo on physical PCs but
> > there's no reason why it shouldn't work fine on a virtual PC. I'm a big
> > fan of VirtualBox, so I would personally give that one a try. I've been
> > able to run virtual instances of Windows XP and Debian fine through
> > VirtualBox.
> >
> > Once you've got a physical/virtual PC available, boot from a Gentoo CD .
> > . . a x86 version is available here:
> >
> > http://distfiles.gentoo.org/releases/x86/current/install-x86-minimal-2009
> >0422.iso
> >
> > and then it's 'just' (he laughed) a matter of following the installation
> > instructions:
> >
> > http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml
> >
> > Seriously. Read and follow the instructions. It's the only way. I've
> > learnt this from bitter experience and many wasted hours.
> >
> > I would also say, if you're happy with RedHat/Fedora/SuSe/Ubuntu/Debian
> > then I wouldn't bother with Gentoo. Life's too short. Personally, I tried
> > all of them, hated them, and then found what I was after in Gentoo, but
> > to use that tired old cliche, your milage may vary.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Jonathan Machell
> >
> > On Saturday 25 April 2009, Rik Boland wrote:
> >> Hi
> >>
> >> I want to get started on Gento but I don't have another machine to work
> >> with, nor do I want on, so is it all possible to use a external hard
> >> drive in a caddy and to boot it up that way?
> >>
> >> I hope that makes sense and I hope you can.
> >>
> >> If you can how easy is it to do it?
> >>
> >> Shalom