Gentoo on NSLU2 (Anyone got it working lately)

Lajasha

Just wondering if anyone has gotten an install of Gentoo recently working on a slug. I am pouring over the docs ATM and when I get home I gonna give it a go. Just was looking to see if there were any recent successes in this.

[EDIT]

Well just wanted to let everyone know that the WIKI is a little off and I will be updating it, so far all is good and emerging samba and soon to get the file sharing working.

[/EDIT]
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andreas_st · Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 1:53 pm Post subject:

Yes, I started installing Gentoo on my Linksys NSLU2 a few days ago and now finally almost everything looks good. I ran into a few problems but nothing that couldn't be solved with a bit of thinking and googling.

The major problem has been the age of the initial tarball (stage3-armeb-uclibc-softfloat-2005.1.tar.bz2), making it hard to upgrade some things.

Python was blocking itself
Python-updater was blocked by the old python version and the new python didn't want to install without python-updater. Unmerging python was not an option, because portage/emerge needs python. Finally got around that by emerging python with --nodeps.
The old version of portage (2.0.x) was not happy with the portage tree and I had to calculate the digests for every new package until I got portage upgraded.
I lost one or two days of compiling by upgrading to gcc-4.1.2 which compiled fine but I couldn't compile uclibc after that. Now I'm using gcc-3.4.6 (masked gcc-4.x) and I'm almost through emerge -eav world.
Had to mask syslog-ng-2.x because it needs libiconv which isn't available for uclibc.
gawk and screen won't compile with uclibc-0.9.28. Got a workaround for gawk.

Didn't try to compile a kernel yet. I'm running the one from the flashed firmware (SlugOS, OpenSlug, whatever, I'm always confusing these names ...).

If it helps anybody I can offer a tarball of my system for download after it has finished compiling.

Andreas

Lajasha · Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 4:54 pm Post subject:

Screen wont compile, that is odd I got it working on mine.

Basicly all I have had to do thus far is:

The same Python issue you had
Used metalog instead of syslog-ng as it seemed to have some glib dep

Changed the make flag to what I used for my headless severs and also by the advise of "solar" in #gentoo-embedded

Code:

CFLAGS="-march=armv5t -mtune=xscale -Os -pipe -fforce-addr -fomit-frame-pointer"
CFLAGS="${CFLAGS} -Wstack-protector -Wformat=2 -DAI_ADDRCONFIG=0x00000400"
CHOST="armeb-softfloat-linux-uclibc"
CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"
#UCLIBC_CPU="ARM_XSCALE" <-- Seemed to cause an issue with some of the packages compiling; recommended to use by wiki
USE="${USE} -X -alsa -arts -bitmap-fonts -emboss -encode -gif -gnome -gtk"
USE="${USE} -gtk2 -ipv6 -jpeg -kde -motif -mp3 -vorbis -mpeg -ogg -opengl"
USE="${USE} -oss -png -qt -avi -quicktime -sdl -truetype -truetype-fonts"
USE="${USE} -type1-fonts -mysql"
USE="$(USE) uclibc"

So far I have two outstanding issues that I hope to fix after my emerge -e system finishes

zlib does not compile correctly
busybox does not compile correctly

Correct me if I am wrong but I dont realy need busybox correct?
Thanks for the warning on gcc as I was just compiling that to see what goes. Ill mask it and put it off for another day.
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andreas_st · Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 10:58 pm Post subject:

I'm not the only one having troubles with screen, see https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=618167
If you got it compiled I will compare the flags you are using in make.conf. Maybe I'll find the problem this way.

Zlib and busybox compile fine on my device. Emerge -e world completed without any errors yesterday. I think you are right, you should not need busybox. Here are the essential parts of my /etc/make.conf:

orvtech · Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 7:44 pm Post subject:

andreas_st · Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 8:48 pm Post subject:

Yes, here is my make.profile:

orvtech · Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 8:56 pm Post subject:

andreas_st · Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:42 pm Post subject:

I mentioned above that I'm using gcc-3.4.6.
Gcc-4.1.2 compiled fine but couldn't compile uclibc.
I have masked only the following:

Winston · n00b Joined: 05 Feb 2008 Posts: 2

andreas_st · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 2:10 am Post subject:

Thank you, I will have a look at the patch.
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Winston · n00b Joined: 05 Feb 2008 Posts: 2

andreas_st · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2008 11:14 pm Post subject:

I have not installed sys-libs/db because it is not a dependency of any of my installed packages. Orvtech mentioned that he has masked sys-libs/db >= 4.3.28. I just don't need it at the moment.

Currently I'm not using distcc. I would probably use it if I would have the same version of gcc on the NSLU2 and my dual Athlon machine but I have 3.4.6 on the slug and 4.1.2 on the server and didn't want to install another gcc version.
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slackline · Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 3:54 pm Post subject:

Hi,

Got an NSLU2 the other day and have been trying to get it up and running with Gentoo. Initially did the install on the USB drive whilst it was attached to my main comp, but quickly found it was impossible to chroot into it.

Anyway, its connected to the NSLU2 which is running SlugOS-4.8beta and I've been following the two Wiki articles and am now having a bit of a problem.

When I first mounted and chrooted to the Gentoo install I got the following error when trying to do anything with portage/emerge...

Lajasha · Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 7:57 pm Post subject:

Well I really dropped gentoo from my slug and am just running SlugOS 4.8 on it. Worked OK just got tired of waiting days for a compile on it to finish.

However what stage files and what not are you using? It should not matter, but I was using SlugOS 3.10 when I did mine.

I also ran into a python problem, but my end solution was to manualy install it and rip out the others, then from there emerge worked for me. I would hope this has been fixed by now though.

Also are you getting any other errors on your emerge-sync?

I'll try ta give ya a hand, but as I said dont have gentoo on it anymore =(

<EDIT>

I also forgot to mention that you may end up having issues trying to load kernel modules too, If i remember correctly there was a way to get them into the flash, but then you had to be careful not to store too much on it or you will brick it. In my case I needed the tun device for a vpn and just could not find a clean way to do it.

</EDIT>
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andreas_st · Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 9:37 pm Post subject:

I still have Gentoo on mine. Yes, the initial install and compiling of everything needed a lot of time but since then it just runs and I have not changed much lately.

Emerging python with --nodeps was not the only thing I had to do to come across that initial problem but I don't remember what else I tried. I think I had to emerge python twice or something like that. Your error messages don't look familiar for me. After the successful installations of python and portage the hard part was over.

If it helps I can make a tarball of my installed system. I was running emerge -e world with an up to date portage tree at the end of December or start of January. I have different CHOST and CFLAGS settings and I'm using "arm", not "~arm". If that is OK for you and you can download maybe 200MB I will upload it to one of my web servers.

Andreas
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slackline · Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 10:46 pm Post subject:

Thats cool, thanks for the replies.

Part of the problem was that I'd messed up the config files somehow, I had tried to prep the USB HD from my desktop/server whilst awaiting delivery of the NSLU2. Changed some key system files and the error is caused because I changed CHOST too early so things were linked against glibc instead of uclibc.

Will hopefully get things working by installing from source and doing everything myself (thanks for the offer andreas_st), but might encounter some problems along the way and if I can't find a solution might post here.

Cheers,

slack
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slackline · Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 2:32 pm Post subject:

Hi,

Well, I'm making head-way with this. Had to emerge --nodeps python and then make the digest for each package until I had portage updated. Am now forging ahead with emerge -uDN world, but hit a problem with zlib (will return to that later). But have now hit a problem whilst trying to update uclibc...

andreas_st · Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:03 pm Post subject:

I can't give you any direct help but I know that there have been issues with the floating point unit. That's probably the reason why the tarball I started with had the CHOST set to "armeb-softfloat-linux-uclibc". I didn't change this and you might probably also need it if you use uclibc with software FP compiled into it.

Andreas
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slackline · Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:47 pm Post subject:

slackline · Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:09 pm Post subject:

Hi,

So I started again from scratch with the correct stage3, and have upgraded everything (excluding those packages mentioned here as needing to be masked). I plumped for metalog as opposed for syslog-ng too as per comments in this thread.

However, when I come to reboot from the Gentoo install (with SlugOS-4.8-beta as the firmware on the flash memory) I get activity from the disc, but it then just hangs, with the Ethernet light on green and the Ready/Status light on amber.

I have to unplug the USB drive, and then power-cycle the slug as the reset button won't do anything. It will reboot fine from the SlugOS in the flash, and I can plug the drive in again and mount it. I've been poking around in /var/log/ to see if there is anything informative, and I've found /var/log/dmesg but can't see any obvious errors with it...

andreas_st · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 12:54 pm Post subject:

I had a similar problem after I rebooted before I had upgraded everything. I booted SlugOS, reattached my disk, entered the chroot environment again and finished the updates. After that it booted as expected. Have you upgraded everything? Maybe you need to run revdep-rebuild. Sorry, I can't help more than that. Debugging the boot process without a monitor or at least a serial console is terrible.
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slackline · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 1:09 pm Post subject:

Hi andreas_st,

Yep, I've upgraded everything reported by emerge -uDN world (thought this would maybe be a bit quicker than emerge -e system).

Portage is up-to-date, as is uclibc. gcc is masked up to >=sys-devel/gcc-4.

Hadn't thought about trying a revdep-rebuild, good shout, will try that out this evening when I get home (haven't left it up and running today).

Cheers for the input,

slack

<edit>

Just came across this post which points to settings in /etc/conf.d/rc to get more information out during the boot-process, so will be trying this too.

</edit>
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andreas_st · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 1:27 pm Post subject:

One more thing: after finishing the updates I executed

slackline · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 1:41 pm Post subject:

Thanks for that andreas.

I may just end up doing that anyway, and cross my fingers. Hopefully it will work, if not I can then try working out whats wrong.

Thanks again for the input,

slack
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orvtech · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 10:23 pm Post subject:

haven anyone manage to get metalog working on the NSLU2, i get the daemon started but it does not log anything, no errors, nothing ... syslog-ng was uninstalled during last week emerge -uDvN world since it was not suported any more (that version).
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