Tips for some erratic problems

[FxChiP]

Problem: Gentoo won't run any of the rc-scripts in any of the runlevels
Solutions: make sure the scripts exist, and that your system time is up to date. Also that Linux can read the system time. Believe it or not, Gentoo wouldn't run rc-scripts for me until I updated the system time.

You can also edit /sbin/rc to run the scripts directly. It's a hassle, but... whatever works.

Problem: I have Windows XP and I want to keep it for (insert reason here - preservation of data, support of hardware, any reason is actually good)
Solutions: Make sure the MBR uses GRUB. For config file editors, the script to boot Windows XP from GRUB is right here:

rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive


I'll post more later. My stepbrother wants the computer and won't stop bitching until he gets it. Until then, you can post erratic problems here.

[FxChiP]

Problem: My CD drive won't eject after rebooting.
Solution: I have the same problem... make an effort to unmount the CD before you shut down. Sometimes, however, if you're in the actual OS, it might break your CD drive so it'll never eject again... so watch out.

Problem: Kernel keeps panicking when I do "gentoo cdcache"
Solution: I've found that sometimes the kernel does this. Don't cdcache in those instances...

Problem: GRUB gives me the wrong info when I type in root (hd0,3) (when /dev/hda3 is the boot partition)
Solution: Not really a big problem, but remember that GRUB is zero-based. /dev/hda1 will be (hd0,0), and /dev/hda2 will be (hd0,1) and so on.


I can't think of any more. Post some.

[nbg]

Problem: My Nvidia card is giving me errors about not having permission to access /dev/nvidiactl whenever I try to run an OpenGL program.
Solution:At or near the bottom of /etc/security/console.perms is this line:

[repugnant]

Problem: emerge sync complains about

[FxChiP]

Problem: GRUB has an error loading!
Solution: Is grub.conf still where it's supposed to be? If you're going to uninstall Gentoo but you still want Windows 2000/XP, make sure you do "fixmbr" or "fixboot" in the Windows OS, then use your Gentoo install disc to do the actual uninstalling.

Problem: My CD won't unmount, even on restart! (i.e. CD drive will not eject, but there's nothing wrong with it)
Solution: !!!!!!TEMPORARY WORKAROUND!!!!!! This is a severe problem that the Gentoo guys haven't worked out yet. I hope they find this soon. THIS IS A VERY REAL PROBLEM!


Forcibly turn the power off (i.e. use the damn button), and turn the computer back on. If your CD doesn't eject, or if you can't boot, unplug your CD drive from the IDE cable and consider getting a new one (that's what I had to do). I have this exact same problem and am praying to God that it gets fixed soon. One of their bug guys brushed it off as a hardware failure, but it affected my friend's computer (that has NO HARDWARE FAILURES WHATSOEVER) as well, so I assume there are at least 100,000 more that it affects.

Anyway, here's how to prevent it. If installing gentoo, put this in the "boot:" prompt: