Web server setup - 369Chapter 13Running Gentoo LinuxThe Gentoo CommunityThe open source
369Chapter 13Running Gentoo LinuxThe Gentoo CommunityThe open source spirit of Gentoo pervades its community. The size and activity ofthat community is best reflected in its forums (http://forums.gentoo.org), inwhich there are literally hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of new posts perday. If there s something about Gentoo you can t find using Google, try searchingthe Gentoo forums. To get a sense of the activity levels on the forums, check out the board statistics(http://forums.gentoo.org/statistics.php). You can see how many posts, topics, and users there are in the forums per day. You can also see, and visit, themost active topics in the forums. Many Gentoo enthusiasts seem to live on the forums. Although most of the postsstick closely to Linux, nobody seems to blink an eye when someone posts questionsabout the existence of God or what to do when a guy s wife has left him. The forumsverge on the feel of a coffeehouse at times. It never hurts to start with the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) forums. However, I think most will want to start with the Installing Gentoo forum (becauseyou are likely to get hung up on installation when you first try installing it). If youare interested in live communications about Gentoo, try the Gentoo IRC #gentoochannel at irc.freenote.net(you can use xchatin most Linux systems to accessIRC channels). Another good starting forum is the Documentation, Tips, & Tricksforum, where you can find cool little tricks to tweak your system. Building, Tuning, and Tweaking LinuxGentoo is sometimes referred to as the build-from-source Linux system. Most otherLinux distributions give you a set of prebuilt packages to install and never expectyou to build the whole system yourself. While you can get Gentoo with packagesprebuilt for you, the distribution was made for you to be able to build the Linux kernel and all packages right on the machine where you will install it. When you install from prebuilt binary software packages, which is expected withGentoo and most other Linux distributions, many decisions have already been madefor you about what each package includes and what it is tuned for. By building aGentoo distribution from source code, you can create a distribution that specifi- cally takes into account the following about your situation: .What processor you are running on.Most distributions choose a particulararchitecture (such as x86, PowerPC, or Sparc) and a generic selection of settingsfor using the processor. With Gentoo, however, you can choose the exact typeof processor you re using and compile all software to take advantage of featuresfrom that processor (while not including features specific to other processors).