Is Sabayon really for me?

[Shibblet]

I've been toying around with Sabayon since May. I have learned how to use emerge and equo pretty well. I am mostly impressed with the layout and design, as well as the functionality of drivers (especially Nvidia), but I can't ever get programs to compile from source, or ebuilds to work.

I'm not really into fiddling in order to get things to work, and don't really care for the command line much, so I guess my main question is...

Am I better off with a distro like Ubuntu, Mint, or Mandriva instead of Sabayon (Gentoo)?

[Jeff91]

Yes, if you want everything to "just work" I would recommend Ubuntu (or if you are using a 32bit OS Mint - Mint64bit has issues)

I dual boot Sabayon/Ubuntu on my main system because alot of the time I don't mind fiddling to make things work (Sabayon) and I like tinkering with bleeding edge software (Portage/Emerge). But when I need it to work right off the bat - nine times out of ten Ubuntu is your distro.

~Jeff

[Shibblet]

I am using x64, and thanks for the heads up on Mint 7 x64.

My friend said that I "graduated" from Ubuntu to Sabayon. I don't know about that... Sabayon seems like more of a developer's distro. I'm not really much of a developer, so much as a user. And I don't need to get under the hood like a hacker does.

I do like the simplicity of .DEB's, and Ubuntu's package manager. However, I have been told to run Mandriva, as it's package management is better than Ubuntu.

[Stupot]

Do you have any problems installing anything from equo? If you want things to be simpler, then stick to entropy and don't use emerge (Portage).

Past that, unless you're more specific about what isn't working, I can't give you any better advice than to just try out a few different distros and see which one(s) work best for you.

Sabayon isn't any more complicated than you want it to be. However, it doesn't limit what you can like Ubuntu does, which means you can more easily get yourself into trouble. If you're using Entropy, the main difference in everyday use between Ubuntu and Sabayon is updating config files (and the communities).

I dunno, maybe I'm missing out on what is complicated. Please feel free to elaborate if you can think of examples. The Sabayon team is always looking for ways to make it more user-friendly, as long as it doesn't take away anything from knowledgeable users.

[Shibblet]

Well, I've been trying to get Handbrake to work. First from source, then from an ebuild. I just keep coming up short. And I don't know enough about building or coding to make this work correctly.

With Ubuntu, I donwload the .deb, double click, and off it goes.

I don't really enjoy the fiddle-around process in order to get programs to work.

However, whatever is in the Portage repository to begin with seems to "Emerge" flawlessly.

[Jeff91]

With Ubuntu, I donwload the .deb, double click, and off it goes.

Yep, this is the largest advantage to Ubuntu over Sabayon - it has one of the largest software repos around, and beyond that it also has the most precompiled packages for it (meaning far fewer chances of errors) - and not that I have had any issues with the default Sabayon kernel but Ubuntu has some of the best hardware support around.

Actually the reason I still have a dual boot on my main system with Ubuntu is because boxee (which I love) I can not currently figure out how to build properly on Sabayon 64bit

~Jeff

[Stupot]

It doesn't appear Handbrake is in Entropy yet, so a package could be requested for it.

When you install something via 'emerge' it is actually making use an ebuild. It's using an ebuild that is a part of the main portage tree (or possibly one from one of your layovers like the Sabayon layover).

So, if you managed to 'emerge handbrake' all the way through without any problems, then you've installed handbrake. By installing things through entropy or portage, many little things are taken care of for you and your system can better keep track of what you have installed. This is why installing from source isn't recommended. The same thing is true for Ubuntu as well. .deb packages are specifically made to correctly install via Ubuntu's package management.

[Shibblet]

It doesn't appear Handbrake is in Entropy yet, so a package could be requested for it.

And the programmer said he didn't want to port it to any other distro. He says so in this thread. http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=7847&p=43818&hilit=Gentoo#p43818

When you install something via 'emerge' it is actually making use an ebuild. It's using an ebuild that is a part of the main portage tree (or possibly one from one of your layovers like the Sabayon layover).

Which is something I can't seem to accomplish. Either I am messing up, or there isn't a working ebuild out there.

So, if you managed to 'emerge handbrake' all the way through without any problems, then you've installed handbrake. By installing things through entropy or portage, many little things are taken care of for you and your system can better keep track of what you have installed. This is why installing from source isn't recommended. The same thing is true for Ubuntu as well. .deb packages are specifically made to correctly install via Ubuntu's package management.

Never get's all the way through.

However, my main problem is just having to fiddle endlessly and still coming up short at the end.
Sounds like I need to go back to Ubuntu. No offense to Sabayon, it's a great system. I just prefer something less "under-the-hood".

[Fitzcarraldo]

It doesn't appear Handbrake is in Entropy yet, so a package could be requested for it.

And the programmer said he didn't want to port it to any other distro. He says so in this thread. http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=7847&p=43818&hilit=Gentoo#p43818

As it happens, there is an ebuild for HandBrake in the Gentoo Bugzilla* (Gentoo Bugzilla Report No. 89432), so it would be possible to install it via Portage using a local overlay for those with Portage experience.

*Gentoo users submit new ebuilds via the Gentoo Bugzilla; this does not necessarily mean they are buggy, it is just a mechanism for users to suggest the inclusion of a package in the main Portage tree. However, users who want to use that ebuild in a Portage local overlay before it gets into the main Portage repository are free to do so if they want. I have installed several packages via my local overlay, and it's one of the reasons I really like Gentoo/Sabayon Linux. On the PC I'm writing this I have the following applications installed via local overlay: gscan2pdf (great scanner-to-pdf tool); unpaper (tidies up PDF files created by gscan2pdf); cnijfilter and emul-linux-x86-bjdeps (driver for my Canon MP510 printer); pykaraoke (guess what that's for!); ufiformat (USB floppy disk formatting tool). The Gentoo Bugzilla is a mine of user-submitted ebuilds. And then there are all the third-party overlays. Gentoo/SL FTW.

[Shibblet]

I've tried that too.

Code: Select all

 # mkdir -p /usr/local/portage/media-video/handbrake
# cd /usr/local/portage/media-video/handbrake
# wget -O handbrake-0.9.3.ebuild http://bugs.gentoo.org/attachment.cgi?id=194705
# ebuild handbrake-0.9.3.ebuild digest
# emerge handbrake


And I get nada.