Gentoo to another computer?

[gnardog777]

Hey guys, this is a pretty stupid question, but before I get to it, let me explain my situation first. So at the moment, I have Linux Mint 12 KDE installed on my PC along with Windows 7. At the moment I'm installing gentoo in a virtual box, and it's going well. Right now, I'm compiling and installing (emerging) essential programs. Anyway, here's the question. If my gentoo installation becomes fully functional, I may want to use it natively and not in a virtual box. Now, honestly, compiling and shit takes a fair amount of time, so here comes the stupid question. If I recompile a kernel optimized for gentoo on my PC, will I be able to copy the other stuff on top of it? My guess is absolutely not, but I have a feeling that maybe it's possible.

 

[jonathonball]

that was one ugly block of text

why don't you just install Gentoo on the PC? if you're worried about borking it, make a clonezilla image of the disk in it's current state and then just go for it.

 

[brucedeluxe169]

I dont really see why it would be a problem.... as long as you include enough drivers in the kernel that you compile for the VM image, you might not even need a kernel recompile..... and most of the base system is included in the stage 3 tarball anyway, which is most likely the kind of install you'd be doing...

Either way, if you get your Gentoo install working, by that point, you'll know enough about linux to answer this question/figure it out yourself... so I'd highly recommend just diving in anyway.... you really don't have much to lose....

 

[nOrVow]

yeah, i'd do what jonathonball said. Before doing so, you may need to use GParted and make clean partition on your main OS drive before restoring your image from the destination drive. Or else, Grub will throw a bitch fit if not, i think.

 

[_brew]

your kernel should be optimized for your hardware, not an OS or your "gentoo."

If for some reason your virtual box doesn't mirror its hardware sepcs from your actual computer's, you can still set the variables in gentoo so it will compile it correctly. You don't have to recompile the kernel on the computer after you've got a working one in virtual box. It should just copy over with the rest of the stuff.

The thing you need to verify is correct is in your fstab. It's been a while since I used gentoo but it should be in /etc/fstab. Then you need to set up grub to boot from the correct place.