Moving from Gentoo Linux to Kubuntu Linux

[jonfr]

I am considering moving to Kubuntu Linux from Gentoo Linux. Because I find that development of Gentoo Linux has become rather fragmented as of late (last few years). What I am not clear on in Kubuntu Linux is how I connect my second hard drives and network shares as virtual hard drives as I now do in Gentoo Linux. I also might have issue with my nvidia graphic on the driver level. Here are information about my video card, 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G98 [GeForce 8400 GS] (rev a1).

I am not a newbie to Linux, as I have been using Gentoo Linux since 2003. But it does not mean that I know everything about Kubuntu Linux.

Thanks for the help.

[wizard10000]

Re: Moving from Gentoo Linux to Kubuntu Linux

I am considering moving to Kubuntu Linux from Gentoo Linux. Because I find that development of Gentoo Linux has become rather fragmented as of late (last few years). What I am not clear on in Kubuntu Linux is how I connect my second hard drives and network shares as virtual hard drives as I now do in Gentoo Linux. I also might have issue with my nvidia graphic on the driver level. Here are information about my video card, 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G98 [GeForce 8400 GS] (rev a1).

I am not a newbie to Linux, as I have been using Gentoo Linux since 2003. But it does not mean that I know everything about Kubuntu Linux.

Thanks for the help.

Welcome

For the most part the only real difference between Linux distributions is how you acquire and install softwatre - the utilities are all the same. Coming from gentoo you'll probably find *buntu's ease of configuration kinda neat - I ran gentoo years ago but I got better

*Most of* your gentoo configuration will port over to *buntu nicely - just back up /etc and your home directory before you migrate and you'll have pretty much all the configuration files you'll need to set stuff up the way you had it before. Just back up your *buntu configuration file before you overwrite it with a gentoo file and you should be fine.

You'll have no trouble with the nVidia driver - I run a 9500GT and the closed-source drivers are available in Hardware Drivers after you install.

Enjoy!

[el_koraco]

Re: Moving from Gentoo Linux to Kubuntu Linux

Possible useful tip when handling services - due to the Upstart takeover of most of init's tasks, most of them can be handled with a simple sudo service <service name> <desired action> - you don't necessarily need to know the directories the service scripts are in. Further reading:
http://upstart.ubuntu.com/

[Telengard]

Re: Moving from Gentoo Linux to Kubuntu Linux

I find that development of Gentoo Linux has become rather fragmented as of late

Can you please provide examples of what this means? A few links would be fine. I don't want to drag the thread off topic, but am quite curious to know more.

[jonfr]

Re: Moving from Gentoo Linux to Kubuntu Linux

I find that development of Gentoo Linux has become rather fragmented as of late

Can you please provide examples of what this means? A few links would be fine. I don't want to drag the thread off topic, but am quite curious to know more.

I am mostly speaking about software fragmentations. Lack of update in some packages and so on. I don't really have links handy. But I can take a good look for recent examples of this if needed.

[el_koraco]

Re: Moving from Gentoo Linux to Kubuntu Linux

deleted idiocy
brain freeze, sorry

[jonfr]

Re: Moving from Gentoo Linux to Kubuntu Linux

I also want a desktop that just works. I don't want to spend four to five hours just to fix a problem. As often happens in Gentoo Linux. I am a computer guy, but I have became a less computer nerd then I used to be.

[el_koraco]

Re: Moving from Gentoo Linux to Kubuntu Linux

You shouldn't have any trouble. Kubu Natty is rock solid except for a few beta-leftover bugs here and there. Apt is also very conservative and good at resolving problems, and rarely does a freak-out. The packages are maintained according to extremely high standards, Kubu is a stable release distro, and the hardware detection and support is outstanding. If you do run into trouble, you'll find this forum a very good reference point. Unlike ubuntuforums, this forum is not so big, so the background noise doesn't interfere with top notch support you get from the mods and users.

[ardvark71]

Re: Moving from Gentoo Linux to Kubuntu Linux

You'll have no trouble with the nVidia driver - I run a 9500GT and the closed-source drivers are available in Hardware Drivers after you install.

Hi...

I'm not so sure. The OP on this thread has the same exact chipset but has a problem with the propritary driver being able to detect it.

I would certainly advise trying out Kubuntu in "live" mode first before installing it to make sure the chipset is detected properly and that Jockey offers a driver for it.

Regards...

[jonfr]

Re: Moving from Gentoo Linux to Kubuntu Linux

The live DVD works without problem. But for some reason Kubuntu did not figure out the dns servers that my dhcp server broadcasts for some reason. This was not a issue in the 64bit version. I do not know why this was a problem in the 32bit version.

Now is the question. Kubuntu 32bit or Kubuntu 64bit.

[wizard10000]

Re: Moving from Gentoo Linux to Kubuntu Linux

...Now is the question. Kubuntu 32bit or Kubuntu 64bit.

My own

32-bit Linux can only assign 3gb RAM to any userspace process even with PAE enabled. This is sufficient for most users and if you're web browsing and word processing it's probably fine. There's a definite performance advantage to 64-bit if you're rendering video, encoding audio or doing something else that can benefit from 64 bits of address space.

That said, 64-bit binaries tend to be larger than their 32-bit counterparts which slightly increases application load time. The only version of Flash available in Ubuntu is the 32-bit binary - 64-bit systems use the 32-bit binary and ia-32libs. If you want true 64-bit Flash you have to get the experimental plugin from Adobe although several folks have packaged it and made it available in personal archives.

If your hardware's a little on the older side or you don't do any multimedia encoding or both 32-bit may be just fine. I run 32-bit on my netbook and 64-bit on my desktop PC but I do a fair bit of video rendering.

As always, YMMV though