Install Hiccups?

[dpshak]

Recently, after wandering thru these forums, I found some performance tweaks (upgrading gcc and associates as well as some optimizing CFLAGS) that I tried out on my P4 machine. There was a NOTICEABLE difference in performance on that machine! I decided I would tweak this machine (AMD64 x2 4400+) as well. I decided, as well, that it would probably be more efficient to start from scratch (read reformat the hard-drive). Keep in mind here, that I've done this more than once on both AMD and Intel machines! So using the Stage3/1 install guide and 2005.1, I went to work. Everything was going well until the 1st emerge -e system. At the install of gettext* it stopped, I don't remember the specific error but I couldn't find a way around it. So, figuring I had screwed something up somewhere prior, I wiped the root partition and started over. I got to the 1st emerge -e system and once again, something screwed up. I don't remember what the error was, or what was installing at the time, but is was NOT gettext. I fiddled around for a couple days with the same results, somewhere during that first emerge -e system some file generally a different one each time would screw up. Once, I think I made it as far as the second emerge -e system and dhcpcd screwed up! At this point, I'm pulling hair! So, when all else fails RTFM! Standard AMD64 Handbook that is! So wiping the /root partition once again, I followed the handbook and installed. Reboot, works! So, emerge --sync and of course portage needs to be upgraded. This of course installed gcc-3.4.5 (I have ~AMD64 set) and that was set as the current profile. So I adjusted my CFLAGS -O2 to -Os and a couple extras that aren't included in the -Os optimizations and did emerge -e system. DAMMIT!! Similar problems again!! One file demanded -fPIC be set, I did that. The next file looked all over the internet for a non-existant patch. I fiddled with the digest - fixed that problem. The next file seg faulted - found a bug patch for that and fixed it. And on and on... The end result is I have a SMOKIN' machine here(even have Xorg7 installed) but at the cost of almost a weeks time! The point of all this is I've NEVER had this much problem installing Gentoo on an AMD based machine (other than my own stupid mistakes) in the past!

Now, having said all that, 2006.0 is here. And coincidently, my other AMD machine(AMD64 3800+) needs to be redone. So, last night, using 2006.0 and the Handbook(with basic CFLAGS) I installed Gentoo to that machine. 2 hours later, working system! Tonight, emerge --sync leaves me with "an update to portage is available." So, emerge -u portage and long about binutils - CRASH!!!!!! Something like "can only build to one host at a time/host not found" WTF?!? Probably not a good idea but I did emerge --skipfirst --resume, somewhere further down the list something else crashed with a similar error. So, after trying a few things (whilest my blood pressure was rapidly increasing) I decided to turn it off - before I heaved it thru a window!

Yes, I do have the errors logged, I discovered the PORT_LOGDIR setting for make.conf a few installs ago - so I will be able to check out (and hopefully fix) the errors. But this is getting discouraging! I was kind of curious whether other folks are having these problems with the AMD installs? Or is it just me?

[alistair]

My installs have all gone smoothly. As a lot of ppl say on the forum optimsations dont aint a magic bullets. I probaby wouldnt move away from the standard CFlags unless I has trying to compile programs for small device (ie cellphone or something). I dont care about a 0.005% increase in performance. Only someone how is using a batch OS really should and as GNU/linux is a time share system it isnt important. I do understand why your wanted to play around with it, thats the fun of linux.
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[dpshak]

alistair, I'm glad your installs are going smooth!

I don't believe that my problems are related to CFLAGS - especially in the case of the 2006.1 install. At the point it started acting up, I was working with a by the book, bone stock (-march=k8 -O2 -pipe) installation! During the Christmas - New Years holiday, I installed Gentoo on an old Sony PCG-F680k (PIII @ 700Mhz, 128M, 20G HD) laptop. The ONLY thing I had trouble with was getting the wifi (802.11b truckstop special) to work properly and consistently. Even after tweaking the CFLAGS and doing emerge -e system, no problems!(other than the LONG compile times!) The same with the P4 a couple weeks ago. In contrast, both AMD64 machines have been a royal pain! According to the online GCC manual, the CFLAGS I'm using are compatible on both (x86 & amd64) platforms, so why only problems on the AMD machines?

This post was meant as a vent more than anything - as I'm sure the readers have figured out. Every hiccup in the process has forced me to learn more about Linux in general and Gentoo in particular - which was my ultimate goal for installing Gentoo. Mepis and Mandrake were both good, useable distros but they really didn't teach me anything about linux! Now, I'm comfortable roaming around the console, I know something about USE flags and dependancies, I can fix scripts or modify them to do what I want, etc. etc.

Now I'm off to find work, the load boards have been kind of lousy lately...

[mudrii]

Hi
My Install went well and nice on AMD 64 x2 3800+ and AMD x2 4400+. No segfault only php5 get me error in cacti but after upgrade to php 5.1 all went well and rock solid.
Motherboard with chip set nForce 4 SLI