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maglomanic
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 28 Jun 2004
Posts: 93
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 Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 2:17 am Post subject: Wrestling with Gentoo installation |
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Hi guys,
ok i m gona whine like bitch so my apologies in advance.
I m trying to install gentoo on sony vio laptop. 1.78 Ghz it has 802.11 b/g wireless and an ethernetcard.
Same old pain in ass Gentoo installation. I had installed it previously on my desktop in hmmmm almost 10-13 days last time. This time i decided to do it from stage 3 and using genkernel so save myself all the trauma i had to go through last time. Alas!! didnt help me much. I some how lost my compiled genkernel and had to recompile it even though it was there in /boot when i rebooted after configuring and installing genkernel. Anyways. Right now i m stuck with GNOME cause when i try
#emerge --uspkg kde
it starts lookin on internet..the very first time it did install few packages and then terminated after looking on internet. I dont have network connection cause i even didnt bother with my wireless connection at that time. Even now i m clueless what to do since it doesnt seem to be working after emerging wpa_supplicant and saving the example wpa_suplicant.conf.example file in etc as wpa_suplicant.conf.I m sure i need to make alot of changes in that file but i gave up after tryin to understand it with huge font that GNOME is showing me since i cant get my resolution to be 1024 X 768. I have added Modes "1024X768" in xorg.conf but no avail.
OK lemme try to list my questions to make all my blabbering more sensible
1)Kde wont install. I found out forums something about ALL folder not being copied to /usr/portage/packages. But hey i even dont have a package or distfiles directory in my portage directory. I have exactly what is in GRP cdrom. and it has "ALL" directory and all other packeg directories along with it. I just wanna know how to make it work? wat is wrong with my portage tree right now? how can i fix it without having to format all my partition and starting afresh(that would be such a shame compared to using windows).Why is emerge looking for network where as i m doing networkless installation.
2)"Genkernel all" i thought does it all for user and saves time. Do i need to cofigure it for my video card, sound card and wireless card support??? If so i think i was better off using manual approach like last time. Right now my soud card is not working, display i dont know why i cant set the resolution, and wireless ofcourse is 1000 miles away from starting to work. i installed cold plud by the way which uninstalled hotplud because in INSTALL.TXT i read that cold plud tries to configure everything for you. (By the way that Install guide is misleading and vague at time..It was misleading about copying sources to /usr/portage... i ended up with a wrong portage tree)
3)how do i probe for devices?? i was trying to find out horizontal and vertical sync rates but cudnt find out a way to probe my video card to find out all that information. pretty much stuck with what Xorg --configure gave me. still dont know how to get a higher resolutio on GNOME i have edited xorg.conf . do i also need to make changes to gdm.conf???what changes if so.
4)how to configure my sound?
5) how do i go about successfully instaling my wireless card. The wireless guide(howto) i would say SUCKS. it says make a choice between wpa_supplicant and wireless tools. Fine!! i go for wpa_supplicant since you say it better. make it preferable over wireless tools.goood ! did that.specify a driver for it did it.the code listing is something like this.
wpa_supplicant_eth0="-Dmadwifi"
but hey !! that eth0 is my networkcard not my wireless card. when i do lspci it lists wireless as rev05 and lists the wirless controler as rev03.
any ideas on any of the above things. I know it's alot of things and not all of them should be put here. But right now my head is just boiling
and dont know what to do about this mess
_________________
The question is always "how" and not "why" |
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kimchi_sg
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Joined: 26 Nov 2004
Posts: 2969
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| Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 4:09 am Post subject: Re: Wrestling with Gentoo installation |
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| maglomanic wrote: |
1)Kde wont install. I found out forums something about ALL folder not being copied to /usr/portage/packages. But hey i even dont have a package or distfiles directory in my portage directory. I have exactly what is in GRP cdrom. and it has "ALL" directory and all other packeg directories along with it. I just wanna know how to make it work? wat is wrong with my portage tree right now? how can i fix it without having to format all my partition and starting afresh(that would be such a shame compared to using windows).Why is emerge looking for network where as i m doing networkless installation. |
emerge will only stop looking on the internet when ALL of the following conditions are satisfied:
- You have set the PKGDIR variable, and
- PKGDIR is pointing to a valid and already exisiting directory which contains the "All" directory in which all the GRP packages (with extension .tbz2) are stored.
In other words, if your GRP package .tbz2 files are located in /foo/bar/All , you would enter: | Code: | | export PKGDIR=/foo/bar |
without the "All" at the end of the path name.
You start the emerge program with either the --usepkg or --usepkgonly options.
My suggestion is to add --pretend --verbose to the emerge command when you are ready to start. The last line should read | Code: | | Size of files to download: 0 KB |
or similar. The emerge is safe to proceed without an internet connection only if that is the last line.
| maglomanic wrote: |
2)"Genkernel all" i thought does it all for user and saves time.
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That is the most dangerous myth a Gentoo installer can fall for.
Genkernel makes your kernel similar but not identical in behaviour to that of the install CD. You will have exactly the same modules as the install CD's kernel. But you will have to emerge coldplug and hotplug for the hardware autodetection to work like the CD does.
| maglomanic wrote: |
Do i need to cofigure it for my video card, sound card and wireless card support??? If so i think i was better off using manual approach like last time. Right now my soud card is not working, display i dont know why i cant set the resolution, and wireless ofcourse is 1000 miles away from starting to work. i installed cold plud by the way which uninstalled hotplud because in INSTALL.TXT i read that cold plud tries to configure everything for you.
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It's coldplug and hotplug with a ending "G", not "coldpluf" or "coldplud" or...
| maglomanic wrote: |
(By the way that Install guide is misleading and vague at time..It was misleading about copying sources to /usr/portage... i ended up with a wrong portage tree)
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You misread it.
Source code (with file extension of either .tar.bz2 or .tar.gz) on the universal CD is supposed to be copied to /usr/portage/distfiles. You will have to create the directory yourself, before copying the source code.
| maglomanic wrote: |
3)how do i probe for devices?? i was trying to find out horizontal and vertical sync rates but cudnt find out a way to probe my video card to find out all that information. pretty much stuck with what Xorg --configure gave me.
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How ironic you said that.
Xorg -configure does exactly what you wanted - probe the video card to find a set of working horizontal and vertical frequencies. If they look ugly, at least they don't destroy the monitor. 
| maglomanic wrote: |
still dont know how to get a higher resolutio on GNOME i have edited xorg.conf . do i also need to make changes to gdm.conf???what changes if so.
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Try using xorgcfg -textmode. It will edit the xorg.conf by letting you choose some resolution choices.
| maglomanic wrote: |
4)how to configure my sound?
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Start here.
| maglomanic wrote: |
5) how do i go about successfully instaling my wireless card. The wireless guide(howto) i would say SUCKS. it says make a choice between wpa_supplicant and wireless tools. Fine!! i go for wpa_supplicant since you say it better. make it preferable over wireless tools.goood ! did that.specify a driver for it did it.the code listing is something like this.
wpa_supplicant_eth0="-Dmadwifi"
but hey !! that eth0 is my networkcard not my wireless card. when i do lspci it lists wireless as rev05 and lists the wirless controler as rev03. |
Use iwconfig to see which network interface (might be ethXX, or athXX or...) has "wireless extensions". That inrerface is the one you should use in place of eth0. The guide (rightfully) assumes that you know to change "eth0" to whatever interface you are using. So stop being too quick to blame the documentation.
| maglomanic wrote: |
any ideas on any of the above things. I know it's alot of things and not all of them should be put here. But right now my head is just boiling |
Put it in a freezer then. Sounds like it needs a major cool-down first.
| maglomanic wrote: |
and dont know what to do about this mess |
Once you cool down, you'll know.
Last edited by kimchi_sg on Tue Sep 06, 2005 9:53 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Gen3
n00b
Joined: 06 Sep 2005
Posts: 19
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| Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 5:16 am Post subject: |
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emerge --uspkg kde
does not work because needed packages are missing from the packages-CD.
These packages are missing (at least these)
pcre-5.0.tar.bz2 -- 456 KB
libidn-0.5.15.tar.gz -- 1,930 KB
kdebase-3.4.1.tar.bz2 -- 21,936 KB
Genkernel all
Forget about Genkernel. It doesn't do anything for you. You are better to copy the kernel from the CD.
However, the best option is to roll your own kernel. It's easy once you have done one or two. |
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maglomanic
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 28 Jun 2004
Posts: 93
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| Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 5:38 am Post subject: |
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Ok Mr Calm as cucumber 
sorry about my very furstrated and furstrating (for you) post.
Lets do it your way..starting from the freezer.
it doesnt work. i get the error... unknown identifier (i guess)
i also tried the following command with no success.
| Code: | | export PKGDIR="/mnt/cdrom/" |
extra "/" there. It doesnt give me any errors but it doesnt fix the problem
Now this is what i did
| Code: | | export PKGDIR="/mnt/cdrom" |
| Code: | | emerge --usepkg kde |
and these commands run without any problems and errors. I did --pretend --verbose --usepkg and it gives me 139 or so MB in download size (that was a good point..thanks).
..So portage is still looking for internet connection! what do you think??
FYI, the GRP cdrom has alot of empty folders for example kde-base, app-misc[/quote] etc etc. They contain files but which have 0 bytes(more like pointers to files i presume). Then there is "All" folder which has files of extension .tbz2.
Now, the second part of the story 
i have the following directories
| Code: | | /usr/portage/distfiles , /usr/portage/All |
I presume the first one was already there. And i copied the whatever was on cdrom in portage directory.
so now portage directory has all those empty directories as well as "All" directory.
Now i tried to set the PKGDIR variable with "/usr/portage"...and that didnt work either.
Have i screwed up my portage tree?? will it work like this?? or do i need a "Package" folder for all the binaries and "distfiles"(already there) for all the source code.
And i m really amazed that i installed GNOME from the same cd. and it never looked for internet!!!!
And one last question dude!
what are those empty directories for?? i m talking about "kde-base", "app-misc","gnome-base"..i know to you it ll be a stupid question but i still am very lost about portage trees inner workings
P.S- that was coldplug and hotplug sorry about that.
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maglomanic
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 28 Jun 2004
Posts: 93
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| Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 5:57 am Post subject: |
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| Gen3 wrote: | emerge --uspkg kde
does not work because needed packages are missing from the packages-CD.
These packages are missing (at least these)
pcre-5.0.tar.bz2 -- 456 KB
libidn-0.5.15.tar.gz -- 1,930 KB
kdebase-3.4.1.tar.bz2 -- 21,936 KB
|
pcre-5.0.tar.bz2 -- missing
libidn-0.5.15.tar.gz -- 278kb
kdebase-3.4.1.tar.bz2 --missing
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The question is always "how" and not "why" |
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Gen3
n00b
Joined: 06 Sep 2005
Posts: 19
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| Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 6:13 am Post subject: |
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emerge --usepkg kde
does not work because needed packages are missing from the packages-CD.
At least these packages are missing:
pcre-5.0.tar.bz2 -- 456 KB
libidn-0.5.15.tar.gz -- 1,930 KB
kdebase-3.4.1.tar.bz2 -- 21,936 KB
Genkernel all
Forget about Genkernel. It doesn't do anything for you. You are better to copy the kernel from the CD.
However, the best option is to roll your own kernel. It's easy once you have done one or two.
Yeah there is a libidn-0.5.15.tbz2 at 279K, but that is not called for by emerge --usepkg kde.
It looks like the CD has been very sloppily put together, or it is deliberate and the Gentoo developers hate KDE.
Someone tell me what Genkernel is meant to do. It certainly doesn't do anything that I would have expected. |
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kimchi_sg
Advocate
Joined: 26 Nov 2004
Posts: 2969
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| Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 9:52 am Post subject: |
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| Gen3 wrote: |
It looks like the CD has been very sloppily put together, or it is deliberate and the Gentoo developers hate KDE. |
It looks like your post has not been very sloppily put together, or it is deliberate and you have an inexplicable hatred against the colour black.
Someone tell me what all your MULTICOLOURED text is meant to do. It certainly doesn't do anything that I would have expected. Unless you're trying to get people to ignore you after this post. 
Last edited by kimchi_sg on Tue Sep 06, 2005 10:18 am; edited 1 time in total |
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kimchi_sg
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Joined: 26 Nov 2004
Posts: 2969
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| Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 10:06 am Post subject: |
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| maglomanic wrote: |
it doesnt work. i get the error... unknown identifier (i guess) |
My mistake. 
| maglomanic wrote: |
i also tried the following command with no success.
| Code: | | export PKGDIR="/mnt/cdrom/" |
extra "/" there. It doesnt give me any errors but it doesnt fix the problem
Now this is what i did
| Code: | | export PKGDIR="/mnt/cdrom" |
| Code: | | emerge --usepkg kde |
and these commands run without any problems and errors. I did --pretend --verbose --usepkg and it gives me 139 or so MB in download size (that was a good point..thanks).
..So portage is still looking for internet connection! what do you think?? |
Did you run "emerge --sync" after your first reboot, and before trying to "emerge --usepkg kde"?
You may try forcing portage to look only in the PKGDIR directory for binary packages, by replacing the "--usepkg" option with the "--usepkgonly" option (without quotes). Remember to check the "size of files to download" with the --pretend and --verbose options too.
| maglomanic wrote: |
FYI, the GRP cdrom has alot of empty folders for example kde-base, app-misc etc etc. They contain files but which have 0 bytes(more like pointers to files i presume). Then there is "All" folder which has files of extension .tbz2. |
This is the way portage builds it, and the way it'd like the directory to be.
| maglomanic wrote: |
Now, the second part of the story
i have the following directories
| Code: | | /usr/portage/distfiles , /usr/portage/All |
I presume the first one was already there. And i copied the whatever was on cdrom in portage directory.
so now portage directory has all those empty directories as well as "All" directory.
Now i tried to set the PKGDIR variable with "/usr/portage"...and that didnt work either. |
My suggestion is to copy the GRP CD stuff into a new directory /usr/portage/packages as the following commands will do: | Code: | # mkdir /usr/portage/packages
# cp -a /mnt/cdrom/* /usr/portage/packages
# export PKGDIR=/usr/portage/packages |
| maglomanic wrote: |
Have i screwed up my portage tree?? will it work like this?? or do i need a "Package" folder for all the binaries and "distfiles"(already there) for all the source code. |
You should have already copied everything in the Universal CD's /mnt/cdrom/distfiles to /usr/portage/distfiles .
| maglomanic wrote: |
And i m really amazed that i installed GNOME from the same cd. and it never looked for internet!!!!
And one last question dude!
what are those empty directories for?? i m talking about "kde-base", "app-misc","gnome-base"..i know to you it ll be a stupid question but i still am very lost about portage trees inner workings
P.S- that was coldplug and hotplug sorry about that. |
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maglomanic
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 28 Jun 2004
Posts: 93
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| Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 5:22 pm Post subject: |
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Gen3 is right. There is a corrupt package libidn. emerge reports error for that before trying to connect to internet.
kimchi_sg:
buddy thats the first thing i wud have told someone. to check their media!!! i told you GNOME emerged without a problem. if the approach was wrong that shudnt have been the case. i emerged another usepkg "zip" and it emerged fine.merge--sync again tries to conect to rsync servers.no connection here
I m not gonna waste anymore time trying to install from this GRP and probably burn another one.
Now lets get to wireless. i guess i need that badly.
thats what iwconfig shows
| Code: |
lo --no wireless extensions
sit0 --no wireless extensions
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so i ll have to replace eth0 with sit0 while setting my driver ???
or is that (sit0) my ethernet card??
how can i make my wireless card to show up??
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The question is always "how" and not "why" |
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kimchi_sg
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Joined: 26 Nov 2004
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| Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 11:05 pm Post subject: |
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| maglomanic wrote: |
Now lets get to wireless. i guess i need that badly.
thats what iwconfig shows
| Code: |
lo --no wireless extensions
sit0 --no wireless extensions
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so i ll have to replace eth0 with sit0 while setting my driver ???
or is that (sit0) my ethernet card?? |
Neither one is your wireless card. Both do not have any wireless extensions.
| maglomanic wrote: |
how can i make my wireless card to show up?? |
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maglomanic
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 28 Jun 2004
Posts: 93
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| Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 12:16 am Post subject: |
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cool man you have been alot of help ..Thanks.
you pointed me in exactly the right direction by telling me that both of em are not my wireless cards.
and the rest of the part where you explained how to find it and configure..that was loads of fun readig all that..cant thank you enough enjoy using the "Quote" tag in your posts you are doing a great service.
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maglomanic
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 28 Jun 2004
Posts: 93
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| Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 2:39 pm Post subject: |
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just incase nonone noticed the above comments are sarcastic and i really didnt mean it.
Still very much in need of good advice and help
[SOLVED]
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Installing Gentoo
