Installing with GLI ... Live CD 2005.1

s7thSon · n00b Joined: 11 Aug 2005 Posts: 1

Hi there ....

i have downloaded the actual (experimental) Live CD of Gentoo with the Gli Installer and tried to install it the easy way.
I must say that i use Gentoo Linux for 4 years now. The "normal" install routine is ok but far away of to be the greatest.
When old Linuxer say it's the recommed way, then that is true. You can learn a lot with this way. BUT not everyone is a "hacker" and knows Linux in depths like users who uses linux for years. So you don't need to be a crack with linux to get Gentoo installed, because the Documention is nearly God-like.
BUT ... there are times when "normal" Linux user make mistakes in an installed system ... there are users who don't get the right information to correct these mistakes. And everyone who uses Windows for a long time lives with the fact, that a fresh install can be times faster then figure out a big mistake.
So sometimes it can be also faster to install a fresh Linux system then correct mistakes new users never understand !
Sure .. when i think of the "Journey installing Gentoo" you should think twice, but .... not everyone is the same.

So for what i have to say now .... the Gentoo Gli Install have broken up my system very badly.....

i gave it a chance for my own good reasons and have losted 3000 Mp3's (no no not stolen ones ... all of my own collection of cd's) and some other for me important infos, docs, etc.
I have a 80GB HD with Windows and hmm a lot of Mp3's ... c,d,e,f,g are my partitions in windows and the rest of 16GB are used for Linux ...

I started the installation, created the partitions and everything works fine til the end ... the Install Button laughs and me to ;-)

as i said .. i installed Gentoo a few times the old way.

At the moment i pressed the Installed button it needs only one second that i read an error message saying that something needs 2 arguments and i gave only 1. So fucked up ... i can't go back. I had no chance to change something.
So i thought ... restart the installer.
Looking at the partition table makes me nervous. There is NO partition.

I took out the CD and reboot my Pc ... nothing. No System.
Reboot with Gentoo minimal Install Cd and start fdisk /dev/hda ..... nothing.
My Partitions were lost. And i never touched my windows partitions during the gentoo install.

Don't know what goes wrong there ... but i can say for now .... when the programmer says ... use at your own risk then do it.

Only use Alphas with a blank HD or leave it.

I don't write a bug report 'cause i don't know what the error was, but i response to what i have done and learn.

Thank you and good night :-(

)

psyqil · Advocate Joined: 26 May 2003 Posts: 2767

Don't give up:

bkunlimited · l33t Joined: 18 Jun 2004 Posts: 672

yes please try it. maybe it can help you. anyway i'm feeling with you. loosing data is always not funny

micko · Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 8:04 am Post subject:

kimchi_sg · Advocate Joined: 26 Nov 2004 Posts: 3038

MickKi · Veteran Joined: 08 Feb 2004 Posts: 1179

Hi s7thSon,

This is nasty indeed. However, unless your old partitions were reformatted all your data should still be on the disk and therefore must be recoverable. There are many applications out there which may be able to get you out of trouble - google for recovery tools, recovery is possible, etc. With hindsight (no good to you right now) it would be better to have created a back up of your MBR and Master Partition Table on a floppy, using the dd command:

Rad · Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2005 2:46 pm Post subject:

I also think you should try to recover your machine. If testdisk doesn't restore your partition table, give gpart a try. And even if that fails, you can still save some files by running magicrescue...

lokoalex · Apprentice Joined: 02 Dec 2004 Posts: 194 Location: Jersey

Same thing happened to me. If you are able to get your Gentoo system up and running the original way. Using the hadnbook and commands then do it that way. The installer is a joke for now. So until it is fully functional please dont waste your time. Your system will break and die a horrible death. I lost my data, but thank god I tried it on my piece of crap machine that I never really use before I messed around with my true machine.
_________________
Gentoo and I have an On-Off relationship....

genelake · n00b Joined: 12 Aug 2005 Posts: 2

s7thSon...

I had the very same problem as you with the new Gentoo installer.

In my case, I didn't lose any data or anything, except the MBR...the MBR is the only thing that was screwed up.

I keep an updated copy of my MBR on a floppy...I restored my MBR and everything was back to normal...nothing lost or destroyed...except the MBR. Do it just like MickKi showed you.

The new Gentoo installer is pretty nice up to the point where you hit the 'install' button...then you got problems.

-Gene-

shinadul · Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2005 9:00 pm Post subject:

I had the very same problem, but I DIDNT have an active MBR copy.

Likewise, I wanted to recover my Win-XP install without dataloss.

Kudos to gpart, which is actually on the expirimental LIVECD. It saved my ass.