How can I see errors that fly off the screen on boot

mindjoy · n00b Joined: 18 Oct 2009 Posts: 5

I installed Gentoo AMD64 from the LiveDVD. Now I have two problems:

(1) I cannot boot into the new system and I don't know what the problem is since all the messages fly off the screen. Is there a way to see these messages? Are they saved in some log? If so, where and how can I see them?

(2) If I reboot into the LiveDVD, it logs in automatically into gentoo/gentoo and I cannot gain access into root since I don't know its password. How can I get to su to root to check my installation on the hard drive?

Any help is greatly appreciated,

John

Hu · Administrator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21706

(1) Maybe, depending on what is failing. Generally, only the last couple of screens of text will be useful for this problem anyway. You might be able to page backward, unless your problem is that you get a kernel panic on boot. Start with providing us everything that is on the screen when the system ceases to produce more output.

(2) How did you gain root access to mkfs a filesystem the first time? However you did it, that is probably how you need to gain root this time. Be careful not to mkfs your system again, since that will destroy any existing content.

mindjoy · n00b Joined: 18 Oct 2009 Posts: 5

(1) I uploaded an image of my screen after Gentoo boot fails, you can see it at http://vigord.com/gentoo/boot-screen-messages.jpg.

Please note that I configured GRUB in such a way to boot either Window XP, which was on my hard drive from before or newly installed Gentoo. Booting into Windows works fine.

(2) The problem is that I don't remember how I gained root access the first time. I tried again, but I can't recreate the same thing. I tried interactive boot, but it didn't help. Everything appears like a "twilight zone" right now.

What would be a normal way to install Gentoo from the LiveDVD (made from "livedvd-amd64-multilib-10.1.iso")? I definitely like what I see when I boot the LiveDVD, what is the easiest way to install the same system to the hard drive?

whiteghost · Guru Joined: 26 Jul 2009 Posts: 374 Location: north dakota

superuser on live dvd is
[code]sudo su[code]

have to go by handbook to install gentoo. with livedvd is a lot easier, you can copy and paste a lot of commands.
boot error may be because kernel is lacking drivers to see your drive.
something similar here
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-701092-start-425.html

and look at this
http://www.kernel-seeds.org/working.html[/code]

Ant P. · Watchman Joined: 18 Apr 2009 Posts: 6920

mindjoy · n00b Joined: 18 Oct 2009 Posts: 5

Could this be a problem because my Linux partition is of type xfs (although I think I installed xfs support according to the Handbook)?

Mike Hunt · Watchman Joined: 19 Jul 2009 Posts: 5287

You need to be certain that you enabled xfs file system support in your kernel, because it is disabled by default.

BTW did you forget to set the passwd for root? Chapter 8. Configuring your System

mindjoy · n00b Joined: 18 Oct 2009 Posts: 5

Thank you everybody who tried to help! The problem was in the missing of SATA drivers (nVidia based) that were not configured into the kernel. Everything else was done properly. This was pointed out in this posting: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-785486-start-0-postdays-0-postorder-asc-highlight-.html.
(BTW: The Scroll Lock does not work on my box.)

Gentoo Linux rules!

mindjoy · n00b Joined: 18 Oct 2009 Posts: 5

Forgot to mention interesting peculiarity about how LiveDVD AMD64 10.1 boots. If you switch to verbose mode during boot it boots all the way to the KDE with gentoo/gentoo user and then you can't get root access to proceed with the hard drive installation (I haven't tried "sudo su" as somebody suggested here). On the other hand, if you leave it to boot without switching into verbose mode, it will get stuck and stop in the middle of starting the KDE. Then you need to press Alt+F1 to get the command line with root. Just type startx to get into KDE/X Window system. Now you have full blown GUI with root login and, therefore, you can install Gentoo on the hard drive by following the Handbook.

Thank you for your attention, I hope this will help somebody!

Kingoftherings · Guru Joined: 04 May 2008 Posts: 328

Hu · Administrator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21706

Shift+PageUp / Shift-PageDown. The scroll lock key serves as an alternative to Ctrl+S/Ctrl+Q, in that it temporarily inhibits the generation of additional output.

ReeferMac · Guru Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 389