My first Gentoo install took like a week to get X running. It was my first foray into Linux (Ok, I briefly tried mkLinux).
I learnt the hard way, but I learnt. And I'm still on that same path: Gentoo. Why I don't bother switching? Because I can customize Gentoo to whatever I like, so instead of doing distro hop I just reconfigure things.
I created a bash script which creates a custom initramfs for me every time kernel is updated. 😜
I know, I reinvented the wheel... kinda. My script actually only takes a list of files, directories, modules, firmware files and packs them into a cpio archive. The actual init scripts inside initramfs (for example) are not provided, but left for the user to write or copy from somewhere.
The following will make the experience a bit more seamless:
use stable packages
use sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel or syskernel/gentoo-kernel-bin
use sys-boot/grub or better yet sys-boot/refind which auto-recognizes the latest kernel in your boot directory
I don’t mind a complicated install
After you have "installed" Gentoo there will be quite lot of installing of different programs to build your own customized distro. However if you yse systemd you'd get quite a lot in one strike, since systemd contains a whole lot of the central core components, like system logger (journald). The other route is to use OpenRC and with it sysvinit or openrc-init and choose the rest of the components.
Asking your question (the one I'm replying to) at the Gentoo forums may give you better answers and tips how to build maintenance free setup.
Wasn't Manjaro supposed to be the stable version of Arch? That's what I've heard.
The few years I had with Arch was pretty nice, but when something broke, it was pain to get it back working because downgrading wasn't (isn't?) supported. I guess I should have used snapshots of my whole system back then.
Gentoo is a metadistro - a set of tools to build your own distro.
LFS is a documentation to build your own Linux system. And if one chooses to install some package manager and configure a repo for it, it basically becomes a distro. LFS can become Gentoo if you choose to install Portage and use Gentoo repository.
Setting Gentoo up seems to be quite simpler option compared to LFS. Sure LFS might teach you even more than Gentoo.
I know people running systemd AND OpenRC on their Gentoo installs. Gentoo is a metadistro. It gives you the tools to build your own distro.
SO in comparison to LFS, Gentoo is pretty similar. It's just the tools that differ (although one can use Portage with LFS...)
Gentoo gives you a thorough course in Linux fundamentals
I basically learned everything Linux related from using Gentoo.
Briteissä (muistaakseni) on jossain tekojärvi josta lasketaan vettä turbiinien läpi sillion kun sähkön tuotto muualta on alhaista tai kallista ja sitten se vesi taas pumpataan takaisin sinne tekojärveen seuraavalla sopivalla hetkellä. Vesipatteri.
Ratkaisuja on keksitty siis, mutta ton tyyppinen vesipatteri ei ihan joka paikassa ole mahdollista.
While one can break Gentoo, in most cases it is also fixable.