Finally, I got Funtoo Linux, a derivative of Gentoo Linux, installed on my desktop. Funtoo is a distribution created by the founder of Gentoo, Daniel Robbins. In his website, Daniel describes Funtoo Linux as a:
Freshly-built Gentoo Linux variant, optimized for your processor, Funtoo Portage unstable branch, includes OpenRC, dhcpcd and git.
He does not call Funtoo a fork of Gentoo though. I like that since he really wants to keep the Gentoo community intact.
Installing Funtoo, for an average Linux user such as myself, was not easy. I am not a computer geek as many may think. It took me three tries to finally get Funtoo Linux to run. This brings me back to Sept., 2003, when I first tried Gentoo. It took three long tries and I nearly gave up. The same happened with Funtoo.
I used the Funtoo stage 3 and Portage builds. You have to read the Funtoo install guide together with the Gentoo Handbook during the installation.
My first problem was that I decided to tar the Funtoo Portage build before chrooting into the system I was building. As per the manual, I needed to wait until after I chrooted into the new system. This would have saved some headaches since git did not work when I tarred the Funtoo Portage build too early.
I was able to correct this problem and move on. Using git to update Portage was a breeze. It is much faster than a month ago. I hope less buggy as Gentoo’s Portage as well. 🙂
Installing the rest of the system was easy but in past installs, my system would boot but I could not get my ethernet to work. I had to manually dhcpcd eth0 to get it to work. Well, after reviewing the Funtoo install, I realized that Daniel was using OpenRC. I found this link that explained what OpenRC was and how to get eth0 working with Gentoo/Funtoo. Daniel should add this link to his Install Handbook since I know several other guys will have issues here as well.
After I finished installing Funtoo, I rebooted. Funtoo successfully booted up the first time. It was not difficult but then again, it was not easy. This brings me back to the time of Gentoo in 2003. My goal is to create my own Gentoo-based distro using Metro, another application created by Daniel.
Right now I am compiling xorg-X11 followed by Gnome. I should have a fully working system within the week (I am quite busy this week). Funtoo’s Git-based Portage should be less buggy than Gentoo’s Portage.
The Linux community owes a big thank you to Daniel Robbins again!!!
You seem to have tried all the Gentoo flavors but not Sabayon 😉 How about an astonishing binary package manager completely compatible with Portage specifications? >> than any Funtoo, eheh.
I have used Sabayon in the past. I always broke it everytime I tried to update the system through Portage 🙂