Hello,

I hope this question is not a FAQ, but I don't find any information about
it.

I have installed Gentoo in my desktop computer and I would like to install
it in a laptop but I don't want to download everything again. Is it
possible to:

- copy portage directory to the lapton once instaled the basic system?
- make my desktop a server for the laptop so the laptop search packages
and portage sync in the desktop before searching in the official server?
Can it be done? How?

Thanks every body,

YMM wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I hope this question is not a FAQ, but I don't find any information about
> it.
>
> I have installed Gentoo in my desktop computer and I would like to install
> it in a laptop but I don't want to download everything again. Is it
> possible to:

I do suggest you do a proper installation on the laptop, it will take more
time, but you will most likely get better stability. To speed things up, you
can take a look at distcc, which allows you to parallel compile over a
network, the more computers you have the faster it will be to compile programs
that allows parallel compiling (Xorg/XFree won't do this).


> - copy portage directory to the lapton once instaled the basic system?

Don't copy, setup a syncd on the desktop and then modify your /etc/make.conf
on the laptop to connect to the desktop instead of an external machine.
I do use this at my local network, even if I get a lot better speed by syncing
from a external machine. There is a howto at www.gentoo.org

> - make my desktop a server for the laptop so the laptop search packages

You could share with nfs your /usr/portage/distfiles and /usr/portage/packges
from the desktop to the laptop, this way you won't download a source that you
haven't already done on the desktop (you will need other packages on your
laptop, so some of the sources the laptop will be downloading).
If you modify your /etc/make.conf so that the CFLAGS will be set to the CPU on
the laptop, this way you could build packages on the desktop and they would
work on the laptop too and you could use the -k option when you emerge on the
laptop, then it looks first for a packages that has been built first, if it
don't find the right version, it will build it itself (this requires you to
use the -b option on the desktop when emerging).


//Aho