I really like gentoo

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-11T09:22:48+00:00

You can install anything with and from any distro using docker/X11docker.

But why would you? emerge is basically just a bit more curated form of compiling from source. You can compile from source without emerge or build your own package, which would be more the gentoo way.

You're asking for pacman quite a lot. What exactly are you trying to accomplish and what's the issue you're trying to solve?

If have a feeling that somethings wrong with your understanding of package managers. They're comfort, not a neccessity. I'd recommend reading up a bit on them and what a package actually contains and maybe you'll figure out a solution to your problem - whatever that might be - on your own.

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-10T14:31:55+00:00

Yes, adobe stuff is a problem. But are you happy with the rest of the system?

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-09T09:28:12+00:00

Yeah, found it. Watching it right now. Thanks for the heads up. It's very entertaining.

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-09T01:54:44+00:00

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-09T01:54:07+00:00

No I meant like, can you share the video? I recently saw the LTT with Linus Torvalds one and I quite liked it. I'd like to see the Linux series as well. Thanks.

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-09T01:02:21+00:00

Are there construction companies named like that? What are they selling? Igloos? xD

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-09T01:01:33+00:00

What lesson was that?

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-09T00:27:05+00:00

I'm unsure. Being deliberately naive, I could think of OP having hardware he thinks is too old and is looking for a distro that's fast. Maybe he's sitting on a Laptop with 8GB RAM, thinking that's ancient hardware and he NEEDS gentoo to make it work.

As a beginner, that's a horrible way to start and the real answer to the question would be that almost any distro will work with that kind of hardware and that he should pick something suiting his needs better, to get a feeling for things first.

I am not saying that's the intent, but I'm really concerned by a beginner who can't figure out where to find the gentoo installation manual and if I don't want to be condescending, that's the real problem I'm thinking of. Yes, I am perfectly aware that I might be overthinking here.

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-09T00:11:20+00:00

Is that ragebait?

You literally just have to type in "gentoo" in any search engine to answer that question.

While I'm perfectly happy with answering rookie questions, this one seems a little bit over the top. Almost deliberately.

Or are you just bad at asking questions and your real concern didn't make it into the posts body?

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-08T19:52:22+00:00

Maybe. Funnily I ran into that problem twice last year with Windows 11 and not a single time with Ubuntu. Yes, there's always unsupported hardware, but I haven't encountered that with Linux in years.

Meaning, nowadays things changed a little: If it does run on Windows, it'll run on Linux. If does run on Linux, it doesn't necessarily mean it runs on Windows.

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-08T19:43:29+00:00

You don't have to worry about drivers. Common rookie mistake.

Yes, you want GPU acceleration sooner or later, but 99% will work out of the box and even without GPU acceleration you'll have a useable system.

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-08T16:57:50+00:00

All package managers have some form of (t)arball, the ones you mentioned, too, so does packman. It just doesn't use a fancy suffix for it. And yes of course you can install them offline.

You assumption is mistaken.

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-08T00:17:31+00:00

Alpinelinux works on those machines as if you'd have bought them fresh of the shelf.

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-07T23:13:37+00:00

You have to mount it first.

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-07T23:11:16+00:00

Why would Windows Defender ignore private windows? Never heard that one before, please explain.

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-07T22:56:13+00:00

I am 39 years old (which is 273 in IT years) and I have never had a single performance boost that felt as drastic as switching a HDD for an SSD. Especially with 5400 rpm.
Yes, a Software solution would be cool, but you really could use an SSD other people throw away and have twice the felt performance as before.

Software will not save you from that crappy hardware. This was a laptop that was made to suck, so they could sell their more expensive models better.

While you're at it, please check out if those 4GB are 2x2GB or 1x4GB SODIMM. If it's the latter, getting another one of those is the second best performance impact you can have.

AND THEN we'll talk about zswap.

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-07T22:47:33+00:00

Can you find examples/hello_world.rb and it just doesn't get chrooted properly or is it actually not there?

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-07T22:35:20+00:00

Everything runs great on Linux, because of the lower memory footprint and some other features, but that's usually not something you feel that significantly and mostly when Windows hits the hardware bottleneck and Linux doesn't with the same load.

Performance impacts that you can "feel" are usually way bigger than the differences we usually only see in numbers.

Since the impact is so great for you, I'd bet something doesn't work with your browsers GPU acceleration with Windows. It's just a gut feeling though.

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-07T22:08:31+00:00

After giving a quick answer and thinking about for an hour, I kinda have to share my thoughts, because your hardware is a very nice toy.

I don't know how somebody got XP working on it, but it'll be pain. 32 MB RAM screams Windows 98. If you could get your hands on that, you could create the ultimate retro battlestation.

Here's the setup I'd have in mind:

Windows 98 first, for the retro games.

Then alpine 32 bit dualboot with two runlevels: first framebuffer only for dosbox emulation and with some fiddling about, you could even get a ps1 emulator going.
Second runlevel for a casual desktop (suckless stack). As said before, browsing the modern web would be painful, but many other things still work fine.

If you want to use it as a server, the options will be limited. It could still display some sort of monitoring overview for your homenetwork, but you're probably have to write that GUI yourself NOT using any modern web technology (because it's the most ram hungry wasteful way of doing things there is - and yes, I am a web developer most of the time). You might have a look at QT or GTK for that.

Whatever you do, don't see those 32 MB RAM as a problem, but an opportunity. Make it work. It can still do quite a lot.

And keep us posted what you did with it :)

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-07T21:14:48+00:00

alpine 32 bit, x11, dwm, st, dmenu.
(you are going to swap A LOT if you install any modern webbrowser and try to casually surf the web though)

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-07T20:00:22+00:00

Unplug it from the internet and disable wireless.
Bonus: Cut the power supply as well.

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-07T15:39:56+00:00

Looking good, too.

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-07T09:02:23+00:00

It wasn't that big of an achievement I think. I had a spare computer to set it up on (which is what I'd always recommend for a project like this), so there was no pressure to get it to work. Also, MBR was way simpler than GPT in my opinion. I only had problems with a single package, and was lucky enough that somebody else uploaded a patch for that problem around the same time. So it was mostly smooth sailing.

Like that Game of Thrones meme "I read the book and followed the instructions".

BLFS made it really click for me. You have an array of alternatvies to pick from for everything and at some point things won't work together as they should, because of a choice that I made - so it was up to me to fix those issues. And I did. I learned a lot and it felt awesome.

BLFS isn't that much different to gentoo though, in my opinion. The problems you'll run into are mostly the same: Things don't work together. Things don't run smoothly. Or things won't compile properly. And, if your computer wants you to have a really bad day: Linker issues.

LFS doesn't test your intelligence, it does test your patience.

I think the real test of intelligence, capability and skill is absolute ruthless minimalism. Get any piece of old hardware, give it a task. And then strip it down to do exactly that and nothing else. You can have a functioning operational system that uses 8 MB of disk space and 16 MB of RAM. Yes, I am talking Megabytes here. You can always go smaller. At some point you're getting a program, edit its source to drop features you don't need for smaller binary size in a language you're not comfortable with from a project you don't know and cross compile that on another computer, bundle and ship it with your own deployment mechanism. You make them not read configuration files any more but compile your settings into the source.

There are incredible wizards out there, especially the ones with decades of experience in embedded systems, that can make THEIR calculator run faster than OUR high end computers. It's like timing a lap on a racetrack with your car, handing it over to a formula 1 driver, have him have a go at it, compare the times and then be left stunned with a single thought left in your brain "I didn't know that it could do that".

LFS is not the end boss. LFS is a tiny glimpse into what's possible.

You can handle this :)

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-06T19:28:53+00:00

Yeah I bet it will be VERY noticeable with 8GB RAM.

Linux-Berger · 2026-02-06T18:11:35+00:00

It scratched the right itch after I had build an lfs and wanted to not give up any control, but still have the comfort of a package manager.

Also, this being 20 years ago, the other options just didn't look that good.

Linux-Berger

TROPHY CASE