lenovo w500 laptop and gentoo

[elninio]

Whenever I try to install gentoo (latest version) from liveCD it fails to load X telling me that either the screen is not found or that there are no drivers for it. So far the only distro that I have tried that has worked with my hardware ( intel mobile 4 series and ati mobility fireGLv5700) is ubuntu (from liveCD). My biggest issue has been getting the wuxga resolution. I did a linuxfromscratch install that could support my hardware (sorta) , but it didnt allow me to get wuxga, only wxga.

How do I get gentoo with wuxga on a w500 (intel mobile 4 series integrated graphics only - i've disabled the ATI graphics in the bios)? Is it possible?

[szczerb]

The liveCD packages are not really that new. A lot of people have problems with a too old kernel on it and such.

I'm pretty sure you can get you desired resolution (since Ubuntu can). Just do a normal install (that is with the handbook and not the installer) but use system rescue cd instead of the minimal. It's gentoo based (so you won't have any problems installing from it), always has a recent kernel and has both 32 and 64 bit on one disc (type rescue64 for 64 in the boot prompt).

[elninio]

where can i find the rescue CD?

[szczerb]

http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=pl&q=system+rescue+cd&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

When you have a running system (after the reboot, sync of tree and update) emerge sys-apps/hwinfo and do 'hwinfo --framebuffer' (you might need to run hald and dbus - '/etc/init.d/hald start && /etc/init.d/dbus start'). It should tell you the vga modes (including the wide screen that only intel cards can handle) for your resolutions. Add 512 to it and put in grub's config vga=mode (yes you can use the normal vesafb with intel since GM965 with wide resolutions).

[DONAHUE]

http://www.sysresccd.org/Download.en.php found using google

[elninio]

I'm kinda confused with what your telling me, but perhaps it will help to mention that I have a working LFS system on the w500 - can't I just do lspci? I think grub already has the proper video modes - but I'm ony getting wxga. My plan was to install gentoo and then update via portage in order to get the latest drivers.

What are we trying to do here? (i.e your instructions?)

[szczerb]

ok....so you're actually going to use that LFS? Or you want to install Gentoo from it? (I just got a bit confused)

The hwinfo part should allow you to have a 1920x1200 (if I'm wrong then whatever-other-resolution-WUXGA-is) framebuffer using the simple vesafb driver instead of the ugly trick with uvesafb and v86d.

And as for X I'm pretty sure it'll work nicely with xorg-x11-7.4 xorg-server-1.5.2 and xf86-video-intel-2.5.1

[elninio]

[elninio]

[szczerb]

I would suggest instaling with the rescue system cd - it has an X server and gparted and firefox so it's really good to use. It will ensure that all the tools needed to install gentoo are there in the right versions and are working right.

I'm pretty sure that you will get WUXGA both in VT's and in X. Also recent X doesn't really need an xorg.conf. Unless you have a touchpad (need to load the synaptics module) or need some custom resolution (xorg usually sets the native of the LCD) or multihead setup.

And please read the handbook while installing without skipping anything - it will probably save you time. And when you're done with the install part read the one about using portage (ofcourse just reading all four parts of the handbook would be best).

[elninio]

thanks i'll give that a try

[elninio]

[szczerb]

What sources? Did download the (proper for your arch) stage and portage snapshot)?

At what particular step (they're all numbered) do you have a problem? (and please don't tell me you didn't follow the handbook from the beginning - it won't save you time)

[elninio]

I downloading the gentoo sources since the linux recovery CD doesn't have them - then I'm going to install with the book from the linux recovery CD (thats why I needed the sources)

[szczerb]

I still have no idea what sources are we talking about. To set up gentoo just boot from the cd and go through this step by step:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-amd64.xml

Ofcourse if you have a different arch (or language) just choose the right handbook from here:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/index.xml

[d2_racing]

Hi, you need a Stage 3, that contain the directory of your current installation and a snapshot that contain the Portage tree.

[szczerb]

d2_racing, it's in the handbook, right? So telling him to just go through this (somewhat great) piece of documentation (from the beginning to the end) seems like the best thing to do (if not , please tell me why).

Newcomers to gentoo tend to get a lot of problems just because they decided to skip half a page somwhere in the handbook...

[elninio]

I thought that to have it build everything from source I would have to use a stage1 - but the handbook only describes stage3...

[elninio]

[elninio]

[elninio]

[pilla]

AFAIK, all core 2 duo systems can do 64 bits.
_________________
"I'm just very selective about the reality I choose to accept." -- Calvin

[elninio]

[szczerb]

1. An intel EM64T system (such as my poor Pentium Dual Core T2370 and your cool C2D) are compatible with amd64. Actually it's x86_64 but amd first launched x86_64 processors - from what I remember at that time intel was trying to crawl out of the Pentium 4 sh*t hole.

2. Using stage 3 you start with a basic compiled system and set it pretty quickly. At this point it can boot and has some basic programs, networking, make.conf and is generally usable. Then it is wise to 'emerge -e system' to rebuild the toolchain with your new custom flags and then 'emerge -e world' to rebuild everything with your new flags, using your new toolchain. So after you're done with the handbook 'emerge -e system && emerge -e world' and your system is as nice as if you did from a stage one but you don't have to get your hands so dirty (and from what I've heard the system is a bit cleaner also).

So just go with the handbook and use the amd64 arch - I have an intel based lenovo (with an intel graphics) and amd64 works great for me.

If there are any more questions (that I missed) state them clearly, please.

Since you did a stage1 at some point, it's obvious that you know how gentoo works in general (althogh might not be up to date - stage1 is not supported for a loong time), it might be usefull to read those before (and use during) the install:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/utf-8.xml
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/guide-localization.xml

[d2_racing]