[SOLVED] Network card problems installing Gentoo 2007 on HP

[FFighter]

Hello,

I'm having some serious issues while trying to set up networking with the Gentoo 2007 x86 minimal live cd on my dv6500 se HP laptop.

Here's what happens: When I connect the ethernet cable's plug, the "socket" shows that it has connection by turning a green led light on. When the minimal live-cd finishes booting, this light just turns off suddenly as if something in the kernel has deactivated the network card.

However, strangely enough, when I take a look at ifconfig's output, eth0 is there. I then tried setting it up with net-setup and using DHCP to get the IP (as I do with all the other machines in my LAN), but DHCP just hangs.

If I try static IP addressing, I still can't reach any of other IPs on the LAN. It really seems that the network card doesn't function while the live cd is in memory.

The notebook is a HP dv6500 Special Edition, Core 2 Duo 1.50Ghz T5250, 250GB HD, 2GB RAM. It is Centrino-certified.

The wired network card is a Realtek RTL8101 PCI-Express Fast Ethernet.
The wireless network card is an Intel Pro/Wireless 3945

I really need some help figuring out what happens and how to fix it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

-Marcelo.

[NeddySeagoon]

FFighter,

Welcome to gentoo

You need a newer kernel that the kernel provided on the Gentoo liveCD for either of those network interfaces.
You can install Gentoo with any liveCD that supports your hardware by following the handbook with the additional steps for Knoppix here
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[NathanZachary]

As NeddySeagoon mentioned, you will need to use a different live CD to install Gentoo. My recommendation would be the SystemRescueCD. If you need any help installing from the different installation medium, please don't hesitate to ask.
_________________
“Truth, like infinity, is to be forever approached but never reached.” --Jean Ayres (1972)
---avatar cropped from =AimanStudio---

[FFighter]

Thank you NeddySeagoon for the reply and the warm welcome!

[NeddySeagoon]

FFighter,

I would use the 64 bit install. There are a few challenges on a 64 bit system, like flash but why buy a 64 bit CPU then only use the bottom 32 bits. That would be like buying a Ferrari to only drive to the shops.

You must have a 64 bit install CD to do a 64 bit install as you cannot run 64 bit applications on a 32 bit kernel. The reverse is not true.
The default 64 bit Gentoo install provides multilib support so 32 bit software can be run too.

The extra Knoppix steps apply to any non Gentoo LiveCD, its just the Guide was written using Knoppix as the example.
You would need the amd64 stage 3
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[FFighter]

Hello NeddySeagoon, thanks for the reply, I appreciate your help!

[NathanZachary]

There is 64bit support on the SystemRescueCD. You have to use rescue64. For more information, see the fourth heading down ( 0.4.0) 2007-10-04: ) on the changelog. If you don't want to do that, though, you can use any 64bit live environment (such as Fedora) and install from there.
_________________
“Truth, like infinity, is to be forever approached but never reached.” --Jean Ayres (1972)
---avatar cropped from =AimanStudio---

[FFighter]

[NathanZachary]

WOW, that lack of support is unreal. Laptops and I don't get along all that well, because of quirks just like the one you're experiencing. There MUST be a way to disable that so-called "feature," and hopefully you can figure it out. I've never seen a laptop that will turn on when the QuickPlay buttons are pressed. Are you sure the laptop isn't just sleeping or hibernating; it is actually powered off? I'm sorry if that's a stupid question; I'm just baffled at the possibility that the QuickPlay buttons could actually turn on the laptop.
_________________
“Truth, like infinity, is to be forever approached but never reached.” --Jean Ayres (1972)
---avatar cropped from =AimanStudio---

[FFighter]

Yes, indeed. The support is awful. I tried to be polite with this guy but it is a difficult thing to do. They act like robots: "Rene: Sure, I'll help you with this. " Oh yes, you will.

Anyways, I posted something in the notebookforums.com: http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?p=2864767#post2864767

Hope someone there gives me some light regarding this issue.

[FFighter]

Another failed attempt...

[FFighter]

Ok, I've given up on trying to disable this thing.

On to installing Gentoo!

Guys, I wonder if you could help me on the partition scheme and space distribution for the partitions, since this laptop has 250GB, it is difficult to decide where how much each partition will get.

The Gentoo installation handbook (amd64) suggests the following:

* boot (32MB)
* swap (512MB)
* root (the rest of the space).

For swap I think I will use 4GB (following the swap = 2xRAM formula).

However, I find that this schema is not too optimal. Almost 250GB to the root partition? Hmmm...

Maybe creating a home partition and put the rest of the space there? Do you think I should also create different partition for music and movies? How much space for root ? Do you lso think I should let some unnalocated space?

Also, for root and home I'm thinking about using raiserfs filesystem. What do you think?

Thanks for helping!

Marcelo.

[NeddySeagoon]

FFighter,

I would use
/boot 32 Mb ext2
swap 512 Mb Something is broken if you need more than that
/home 180G ext3 makes reinstalling easy so your data and user settings survive
<extended> Rest of drive
/ ext3 inside extended partition (thats about 70G)

You can break out /tmp /var and /usr is you want but how mucg to allocate where depends on the exact use the machine will see.
So, create the extended partition now or you will not have the primary partition table entries to do it later but for this install, use it all as root.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[FFighter]

Thank for the reply, NeddySeagoon.

[NathanZachary]

Yes, the extended ext3 will be the root partition.
_________________
“Truth, like infinity, is to be forever approached but never reached.” --Jean Ayres (1972)
---avatar cropped from =AimanStudio---

[NeddySeagoon]

FFighter,

The partition table was a dirty hack introduced when hard drives reached the 32 Mb that DOS could address in a single partition.
Some spare space at the end of the MBR was pressed into use as the partition table. It can hold at most 4 entries. Today these entries are called Primary partitions.

Later, when hard drives reached 128Mb, the partition table hack was extended by adding the concept of the extended partition.
Thats how we got to where we are today.

If you define 4 primary partitions now, you cannot add an extended partition later unless you delete one of the existing partitions to free a primary partition table entry for the extended partition.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[slycordinator]

FFighter,

I'm curious:

Did you actually try and do what the tech support guys said to do rather than questioning them?

Lets say I make a laptop. And I pre-install Windows on it but I also pre-install a driver that functions to cause the computer to go into a sleep state whenever the user tells it to shut down. So then that user presses a key and suddenly windows comes up.

In fact, on a computer I got cheap at compusa (going out of business sale), if I press the power button while running VISTA it doesn't shut off but instead goes to "sleep."

And if it is a bios function that needs disabling... many BIOS manufacturers now have some access to tweaking the BIOS from windows anyway so maybe the tech guy was right in that case too. But otherwise, it would be as simple as disabling the feature in the bios.

[FFighter]

@NeddySeagoon,kalos: Thanks for the explanation! One last thing: Could I use raiserfs on this partition? What would be the benefits? (I've heard raiserfs is the last and greatest thing in what comes to filesystems in Linux).

@slycordinator: Yes, I did do what he told me to do. The result was the "QuickPlay" buttons disabled on Vista. However, the "computer off-you-touch-the quickplay-buttons-it-turns on" thing is still up and working. Anyways, I've discovered that it is a common behavior, maybe I'm just over-stressing about it. The laptop is great, but could be better if a BIOS option existed to disable this thing.

About the BIOS tweak through Windows, I've never heard or saw anything similar. Could you elaborate on that?

Thanks.

[NeddySeagoon]

FFighter,

You can use riesersf (version 3.6) for root if you wish. Whats in its favour?
rieser provides 'tail packaing' which reduces the wasted space at the end of a file, so it makes better use of disk space than some other filesystems. It comes with a health warning ... its recovery tools are not as well developed as are the tools for ext.

Speedwise, ext3 and rieser are very close as long as you do not the default options for ext3.

Gentoo is about choice, I choose ext3 for root. I do a few other odd things too, like ext2 for /tmp as /tmp is always expendable. Other users make a partition for /usr/portage and make that rieserfs to take advantage of the tail packing.
Its also expendable, since it can be replaced by downloading.

Providing, you make your extended partition now, you can try out all of these things and many more, without reinstalling.
You shrink your /dev/sda5 (which will be your root) and make some more partitions to play with.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[slycordinator]

[FFighter]

[NeddySeagoon]

FFighter,

My explaination was not complete. Sorry for that.

The extended partition is a container for logical partitions. You cannot use it itself and it takes up no space. Its a software trick to work round the real partition table limit.

Go back to fdisk and ask to create a logical partition. This is how you you make partitions inside the extended parttion.
You must make at least one logical partition before you can actually use the space inside the extended partition.

Regardless of how your primary partition entries are used, logical partitions are always numbered from 5, thus /dev/sda5 is always the first logical partiton.

[Rhiakath]

damn i was hoping to find some solution here for a common problem. i too have a dv6000 laptop, and it boots also as i just lightly touch the quickplay keys.... (no windows here)

also, i've been unable to have the wireless card working so far.... getting a bit tired.... any ideas, neddyseagoon ?
_________________
pc-rhiakath ~ $ emerge -s happiness
Searching..
[ Results for search key : happiness ]
[ Applications found : 0 ]

-------------------------------------------

I see dead pixels...

[NeddySeagoon]

Rhiakath,

What wireless card chipset ?
lspci or lsusb will show it. Many laptops have USB wireless chpsets now.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[Rhiakath]

It's an intel 4965. It shows as an unknown device
_________________
pc-rhiakath ~ $ emerge -s happiness
Searching..
[ Results for search key : happiness ]
[ Applications found : 0 ]

-------------------------------------------

I see dead pixels...