Braindump

The AMD64 edition of the 2004.2 release is best described as poorly tested -- following the installation instructions did not produce a working operating system for me, but I was able to figure out some ways around the mistakes in the documentation thanks to some tips on the Gentoo forums. The LiveCD, as it has done for all previous versions, did not properly detect and install the kernel module for the 3Com Gigabit Ethernet LAN chip integrated into the ASUS K8V Deluxe motherboard (curiously, the x86 edition does not have a problem with this). Fortunately it loads properly via modprobe, and from previous experience I already knew that the module name was sk98lin. On my first attempt to get the AMD64 edition installed on an Athlon 64 system using the above-mentioned mainboard, I was not successful -- I'll try again when I have some spare time, but for now I can't recommend the AMD64 edition to any but the most experienced GNU/Linux or FreeBSD veterans who are able to trace and resolve errors in configuration and compiling. You can also scour the forums for help if you have another working machine with a Web browser. You'll probably find everything you need after an hour or so of searching and reading, but one should not have to read forums, newsgroups, or mailing lists to install an operating system. The documentation should be accurate and the software should be properly tested and fully functional, and in the instance that it is not fully functional, it should at least be predictable.