Gentoo and windows

mr.brightside · n00b Joined: 13 Aug 2005 Posts: 4

Hi,iam new to Gentoo community,trying to get some answers.
Sorry if this been asked before,iam sure it was,but forums really big and iam not sure where to exactly look for solution. I was installing Gentoo 05.1 yesterday,did everything like handbook said,it went fine,but i did not finish installation,it was just too long and it was getting late so i exited it,and first question is can i go back and finish what ive done so far? I did install Kernel,did partitions and thats as far as i went,right now i have windows and trying to keep i...so how should i do it so my windows partitios would be recognized and i can dual boot...because i was doing something with linux partitions like,giving it (noatime,default) or soething like this in Nano editor,but what should i do with my NTFS partition??
And about kernel modules,i have this sound blaster from creative,and i need to install Soundcore.o module ?? I am not sure how to...
It might be stupid questions but iam new to linux,i just know some commands and stuff,not whole lot as building kernel and configuring stuff,but handbook helps alot!! I dont want to install diffirent distrtos because i want to learn from Gentoo how to do it yourself,iam not interested in next next finish distros.
I would be greatful if anyone can help me with this questions!

lnxz · Guru Joined: 03 Jul 2005 Posts: 472 Location: Earth

You can chroot back into your installation any time you like, just do like described in the handbook.
Grub doesn't read fstab, as grub starts long before fstab is even available.
To mount ntfs partitions in linux you have to have support for it in the kernel. The fstab entry for the ntfs partition should be quite similar to the other entries, just add ntfs for partition type and put defaults or something for opts. Instructions on how to dual boot are in the handbook.
To get the soundcard working, run lspci and look for your soundcard, then in the kernel config look for a driver for that card (usually in the alsa or oss section of the config, depending on what sound system you want to use).
Since you're new to gentoo you should check out the http://www.gentoo-wiki.com, as it has a lot of useful information and how-tos.

cazort · Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2005 4:45 pm Post subject:

Don't worry about restarting the installation...a lot of times I've turned off a computer halfway through...you just have to mount all the points manually (as in the handbook), chroot again, and you're good to go.

:-)

As to the sound issue...it really depends what specific model and version your sound card is. That would help me be more specific. But...in general, you don't need to install modules to get things to work: you can just build support into the kernel. People choose to compile certain options as modules (M instead of Y/* in the kernel config) instead of building them in in order to create a smaller kernel, for features that they don't use all the time. If you're going to use sound all the time, then build it in (assuming you can). Once in a while, hardware won't be supported by the kernel, and there may be third-party drivers available, and then you need to install a module. Generally it's best to avoid third-party drivers though.

As to your partitioning question, this is something you can just do with GRUB and your grub.conf file...assuming you are using GRUB. This is all in the gentoo handbook, here:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=1&chap=10

You generally don't want to put your windows partitions in /etc/fstab, unless you want to mount them as part of your linux system. If they're FAT32, this works quite well. If they're NTFS, it can work well for read-only...but this is not what you want. You want grub (the bootloader) to recognize the partition when you boot, and give you a choice between gentoo and windows.

:-)

This is all in the handbook. Just read it...most of the information is in there, and come back here if there are parts you don't understand.

mr.brightside · n00b Joined: 13 Aug 2005 Posts: 4

I just installed VMWare ,so iam thinking installing Gentoo with virtual machine running....is it possible or am i gonna hve any problems with it? Its just too boring and long installing Gentoo itself with console without looking up for right info,if i have virtual machine running that way i can look all docs and howtos from windows :roll:

JTHM · Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 6:23 am Post subject:

Edit: OMG!11! I must be getting really tired. I actually did the install in VirtualPC *slaps self* I've heard of people installing it in VMware, though. Can't think of any problems off the top of my head. Leaving the post here because some of the advice still stands (VMware images are bulky, too)

It's definitely possible. I installed Gentoo in VirtualPC a few months ago without any problems (ended up deleting it because it became redundant, but whatever :F). It's definitely handy to be able to look at the docs in an actual GUI while installing. It is good practice, but VirtualPC won't give you as fast a system as a native install will. Also, if you're already partitioned your drive, make sure to clump your linux partitions back into the windows one to have more free space available, because VirtualPC images can get bulky :F. I think that's about all the advice I can offer, though. Routine installs are so useless

Side note: I actually had a harder time installing Ubuntu in VirtualPC than Gentoo. Just thought that was comical.
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Any problem can be solved. You just need to throw enough time and ninjas at it.

mr.brightside · n00b Joined: 13 Aug 2005 Posts: 4

I just tried it,it seems to work but i cant go to cfdisk /dev/sda , it doesnt show all my partitions somehow,how can i change it,cuz i did everything already and i was about to check it just in case??

JTHM · Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 6:30 am Post subject:

If VMware is like VirtualPC (and I'm pretty sure it is in this respect), it doesn't actually see your physical harddrive. It sees a file that it THINKS is the harddrive. Because of this, I don't think you can use the partitions you made because Windows can't read them. I don't think you can actually resume your install from VMware, unfortunately. If somebody knows better, though, I'd happily be corrected :F
_________________
Any problem can be solved. You just need to throw enough time and ninjas at it.

mr.brightside · n00b Joined: 13 Aug 2005 Posts: 4

yeh thats what i was thinking,well duh,i cant resume it cuz i just created new virtual machine and thats where iam installing it...gotta do it again lol

JTHM · Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 6:39 am Post subject:

hehe, yeah, sorry. The second installation always goes faster, though. Good luck.
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Any problem can be solved. You just need to throw enough time and ninjas at it.

Kaapeli · Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 9:50 am Post subject:

In VMware you can also use actual disk partitions as hard disk, not only image files on disk. I don't know if VirtualPC allows you to use actual disk partitions as hard disk.
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shabador · n00b Joined: 02 Apr 2004 Posts: 2 Location: Bergen, Norway

When you set up VMware, you can also choose if you want to emulate SCSI or IDE harddrives... Standard is SCSI. This has caused problems for me as it needs extra configurations in the kernel, and I find it easier to just emulate IDE drives.