Andrew Gaffney Email: agaffney@gentoo.org IRC: agaffney (on Freenode)

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Gentoo Linux Installer FAQ This page attempts to answer all of the questions (even the stupid ones) that people ask over and over. Questions 1. I'm installing Gentoo (not using the installer) and I have a problem... 2. Will the installer run from the 2005.0 LiveCD? 3. Is the installer done? 4. When will the installer be done? 5. Can I use it yet? 6. Does/will the installer support architecture X? 7. Why can't I create a ReiserFS filesystem with the installer? 8. Does/will the installer support LVM/RAID? 9. Why doesn't the installer do such and such? 10. I like the manual install. Why are you forcing me to use a graphical installer? 11. Gentoo is too hard to install and I feel like whining. 12. Will the gentoo installer configure my such and such hardware for me? 13. Where can I find more information about the installer? 14. What's wrong with the current installation method? 15. What language is the installer written in? 16. Does the installer have localization support? 17. How can I help? Answers 1. I'm installing Gentoo (not using the installer) and I have a problem... What does this have to do with the installer? Oh, that's right, nothing. Go to #gentoo or bugs.gentoo.org. 2. Will the installer run from the 2005.0 LiveCD? No. At the minimum, the installer requires parted, pyparted, and pythondialog which are not on the official LiveCDs. 3. Is the installer done? No, it will be done when it's done. 4. When will the installer be done? See 3. 5. Can I use it yet? Yes, it is usable but not without a custom LiveCD. There will be an alpha version available very soon along with an experimental X LiveCD. 6. Does/will the installer support architecture X? The first release of the installer is only planned to support x86 and amd64. There are plans to support sparc, hppa, and ppc in the future. 7. Why can't I create a ReiserFS filesystem with the installer? Because reiserfs == teh suck...and libparted doesn't support it very well. 8. Does/will the installer support LVM/RAID? If you are using true hardware RAID, the installer will see the array as a normal drive (because the kernel sees it this way too). As for LVM and fake RAID/md, the installer does not currently support them but it will in the future. 9. Why doesn't the installer do such and such? It's an alpha for crying out loud. 10. I like the manual install. Why are you forcing me to use a graphical installer? The current install method will always be an option. The installer will be distributed on a true LiveCD that contains xorg, Gnome, fluxbox, mozilla, and other goodies. There will still be a minimal LiveCD that has just enough stuff to boot and install by hand. 11. Gentoo is too hard to install and I feel like whining. See 1. 12. Will the gentoo installer configure my such and such hardware for me? No. The installer will only do what is covered in the install guide. 13. Where can I find more information about the installer? Currently, there is no documentation. You can either read the source or ask in #gentoo-installer. If you ask any questions covered by this FAQ, you will most likely be ignored. 14. What's wrong with the current installation method? Absolutely nothing. The goal of the installer is to make installations faster, not easier. The original intention was to make an installer for doing automated deployments. While we still have this in mind, the end user aspect took precedence (mainly because it's prettier). 15. What language is the installer written in? COBOL, of course! (it's actually python) 16. Does the installer have localization support? Some basic code for localization of the frontends has been written, but it has not been integrated yet. 17. How can I help? At the current time, we need testers (an alpha will be available shortly). If you are good with python, take a look at the various TODO lists in the latest CVS snapshot. In the near future, we will also need people to write documentation.