LiveCD not booting / Knoppix

Senso · Last edited by Senso on Wed Nov 26, 2003 3:47 am; edited 1 time in total

I'm already running Gentoo on 2 recent computers but I'm trying to install it on an old PII 200. Plainly, it doesn't boot when I'm using the LiveCD. I burned two of those, just to be sure (the x86 stage1-only and the full-blown set-of-2 LiveCD) to no avail.
The BIOS can boot from CD and as a matter of fact, it does boot from the Windows, FreeBSD, Knoppix and DamnSmall Linux CDs. So is there a big difference between say, Knoppix and a Gentoo LiveCD?

I removed the floopy drive to make place for a second hard drive (don't ask) so if there's a solution not involving a floppy, I'd be glad to hear it. But if the only obvious solution is to first run a boot floopy, I could replug the drive.

Thanks.

Senso · Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2003 9:59 pm Post subject:

Just a thought... I have 2 ext3 partitions on that computer and I'm currently using the Knoppix bootable CD on it. Would it be possible to download an ISO of stage1, mount it and start the installation?

cyrillic · Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2003 12:25 am Post subject:

If you have KNOPPIX working, you don't need the Gentoo CD at all. Just download a stage tarball, open a terminal window, and follow the usual Gentoo installation instructions.
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo/releases/x86/1.4/stages/

Senso · Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2003 9:59 pm Post subject:

Yes thanks, I was able to install from stage 1 using Knoppix. I had to reset the root password with sudo in order to "su -" - then I was able to run fdisk, mke2fs, emerge sync, etc.

Pete_Keller · Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2003 12:49 am Post subject:

Senso,

The Alternate Installation Instructions tell you to also perform a few extra steps.

Pete
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Senso · Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2003 1:21 pm Post subject:

Not good, I'm stuck. I've followed the Alternate guide but I can't "usermod -d /root -m root" - I get "usermod: cannot lock shadow password file". I'm logged in as root, I don't see where the problem is.

Also, I can't "chroot /mnt/gentoo" - I get "Illegal instruction". Since I'm using Knoppix, do I really have to create the /mnt/gentoo dir, mount all my partitions to /mnt/gentoo/usr, /mnt/gentoo/var, etc. and chroot to it? I don't know what the problem is, maybe Knoppix doesn't allow chrooting...

Pete_Keller · Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2003 5:33 pm Post subject:

Senso,

I do not know why you are getting the cannot lock shadow passwd file, have you tried changing root's passwd?

the Illegal instruction makes it seem that knoppix was compiled using the wrong type of cpu.

Pete
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cyrillic · Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 1:51 am Post subject:

Senso · Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 3:42 am Post subject:

Neje · n00b Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 71 Location: Netherlands

i686 should be ok for a Pentium II, and chrooting should work (are you chrooting with "chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash"?). Also, I'm often wondering why people make such a fuss in the documentation about sudo'ing and su'ing in Knoppix when there's a menu option for "Root shell" (at least, it was there the last time I checked).
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Neje · n00b Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 71 Location: Netherlands

Senso · Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 4:58 pm Post subject:

In any case, I've downloaded the x86 stage1 tarball instead of the i686 stage2 tarball and it works, currently doing the "emerge -u portage" phase.

About the illegal operation... I'm pretty sure the partitions were mounted correctly as I didn't change anything and it's now working with the x86 tarball. I guess it has something to do with Gentoo/Knoppix lib/binaries incompatibilities as I'm using Knoppix 3.1, not the most recent 3.3 version (doesn't boot, I guess cdrecord is doing something wrong).
By the way, 3.1 doesn't have a 'Root Shell' button, at least not when using fluxbox, that's why I had to "sudo passwd root".

Neje · n00b Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 71 Location: Netherlands

Senso · Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 9:56 pm Post subject: