Michael Dolan Dot Com

Sunday, August 14th, 2005

Gentoo GUI Install?? Yes, with 2005.1 Experimental

It would seem to contradict anything you’ve ever known about Gentoo, but the Gentoo Linux Installer project has released with 2005.1 a brand new, version 0.1 of its graphical installer, GLI. It’s not just a livecd with Gnome – there is a GUI for installing Gentoo – (i.e. pick a stage, next)! Just check out the /experimental tree on the mirrors.

There are a few concessions made in taking this short cut:

* no /etc/portage support in the frontends
* no way to modify runlevels in the frontends
* only supports x86 and probably amd64 (other arches are in the works)
* the GTK frontend’s make.conf screen only offers a few options
* no way to custom configure a kernel without a premade .config
* no lvm or software raid support

Of course a stage1 install will get you maximum performance and maximize your customization opportunities, but this new install CD is targeted at bringing the value of portage to those with … well let’s just say less time on their hands… While I applaud Gentoo’s innovative approach, I wonder what this will mean as many new users will lose out on the traiditional, trial by fire install method. I know a number of newbs who never really understood Linux until they tried a Gentoo install. Knowing the Gentoo culture, I’m sure stage 1 tarballs won’t be going away anytime soon.

Try it out and let the developer team know what you think.