Need recommendations for installing Gentoo on old laptop

Archaic · n00b Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 28

Tried that, but it just gave me a blank /mnt/gentoo/usr/fstab file, not my proper one.

I've just been given a copy of the i686 CD, rather than the x86 CD I've been using up until now, so once I get time later in the week, I think I'll go and do an install from scratch at stage 3 with that.

Pete_Keller · Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 4:50 pm Post subject:

Archaic,
Try it again, and type mount at the root prompt.

This will list all the devices mounted, it should show /dev/hda3 /mnt/gentoo or something like that.

Pete

P.S. Good luck reloading with i686

BitJam · Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 5:57 pm Post subject:

magrathea · n00b Joined: 26 Jul 2003 Posts: 26 Location: amsterdam

Sa you can see, it's 333mhz, not 233.
Well, Im gona see if I can get it swingin

Archaic · n00b Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 28

Well, I've done the reinstall, and everything's working now. Just finished setting up xfree86, and I'm looking for other things on the Live CD's to install. Sadly, it seems they didn't come with XFce, so that'll have to wait for now. Still, at least everything's working. ^^

Pete_Keller · Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2003 1:10 pm Post subject:

Archaic,
Read the Alternative installation guide (it has a program that tells you what files to download for packages, and how to install them on a computer that is not connected to the internet.)

What is the reason your laptop is not on the internet?

Pete

Archaic · n00b Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 28

It's annoying to put it on the network, since we have no hub, and to connect it up, I'd have to disconnect this computer (my own personal one). When I'm as busy as I am right now, I don't have the time to go through all that. The fact that I have a 3 GB/month download cap is also going to be a pain when it comes to downloading some of these modules I expect.

Archaic · n00b Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 28

Hmmm......it would seem that I still have a few kinks in the system. The following errors are mentioned in the boot up at certain times. What can I do about them?

stonent · Veteran Joined: 07 Aug 2003 Posts: 1139 Location: Texas

What's wrong with the screen? Is it shattered or just doesn't light up? You can go to my website for info on replacing the screen or just the backlight tube.

http://home.comcast.net/~stonent/screenfix.htm

Pete_Keller · Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2003 2:33 am Post subject:

Archaic,

Do you have a burner on your internet machine? If so, burn a copy of your /usr/portage/distfiles directory, this is where portage keeps all the files and patches for the sourcecode.

re: scsi errors, you have SCSI compiled into your machine, and it is trying to find any scsi hosts on your machine.

re: swap errors, did you makeswap on /dev/hd??

Pete

Archaic · n00b Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 28

Yes, I've got a burner on the desktop, though not on the laptop. While I've got no problems actually getting the files onto the laptop to compile them, with the 3GB/month limit on my downloads, it's still going to be a while until I can get much.

As faras I knew, I didn't at any point compile scsi. I have nothing on my machine that would need it, as far as I know. Any way to remove it?

With the swap, yes, I've got /dev/hda2 setup as a swap. Whe I get home tonight, I'll go through it again, run that makeswap command, and check that I didn't miss it in the initial install.

The fact that the computer is already running much faster than windows ever did, even though it doesn't have a swapfile working ATM, is very reassuring. It looks like I've made the right choice with Gentoo. =)

Archaic · n00b Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 28

Well, that seems to have fixed the bottom error, but not the one 2nd from the bottom.

Pete_Keller · Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2003 12:30 pm Post subject:

Archaic,
Good, another error down the drain.

run grep scsi /usr/src/linux/.config

run grep Acpi /usr/src/linux/.config

Are you using USB? (The uhci.c: fce0 host controller halted. very bad ... uhci is one of the usb drivers. ohci is another.)

Pete

Archaic · n00b Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 28

Tried

Pete_Keller · Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2003 1:53 pm Post subject:

Archaic,
I meant to say type "grep scsi ..." not "run grep scsi". :oops:

try booting off your install CD and see what module is loaded to support usb.

Pete

Archaic · n00b Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 28

Alright, I've put both those commands though, and it looks like that's cleared up that problem specific error.

How do I check the USB module?

Pete_Keller · Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2003 6:59 pm Post subject:

Archaic,
Boot off the install CD, type "lsmod" (without the quotes), it should tell you which usb module it loaded, then compile that into the kernel.

Pete

nalin · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2003 4:17 am Post subject:

This is such a cool thread...
Archaic I applaud you, f**k th boot errors, I was working on redhat for two or three on and off years before I found gentoo and it stuck. In that time I had little expirience compiling kernels and the like, but the gentoo install (this was over a year back but the install save automation with module loading, is almost identical) was a mammoth.
I dont know if its nievity, or that linux has grown into something much more user friendly then I was aware of, but reading this thread has brought a smile to my face, particularly the misinterpretation of run...

Anyway, a great investment would be a knoppix disk. Alas its too large for your isp cap, if you can get your hands on one though it will prove very useful in telling you what hardware to compile into your kernel and what not. Its similar to the gentoo boot disk but arguably with better support of different hardware, which is often supported in gentoo but not necessarily detected by the boot disk.
Additionally linux on laptops (i forgot the url but a google will know it) and tuxmobile.org are both great resuorces to find information on problematic laptop hardware (or lack thereof). These are not specific to gentoo but often you can find an old kernel .config file (this is what you create when you "make menuconfig" during boot) and see, in your case, which
usb (the uhci.c in your dmesg is usb) module to use.
Also a good way to figure out problematic stuff is to compile things such as modules <M> or and then try "modprobe XXXX" where XXXX is generally listed in kernel help for a specific thing (but sometimes or often only at the top of help where it says CONFIG_XXXX).
With usb for instance you want to

Archaic · n00b Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 28

Sadly, I lent my friend the boot disk yesterday, and I haven't got it back yet, so I can't boot off it yet.

Just as sadly, when I booted the laptop today, I noticed the "Unable to find swap-space signature" again. I'm not sure if I just missed it last time, or if it's turned up since then, but it's certainly there.

Thanks for the support nalin. I should be able to get a Knoppix disc ISO from my ISP's file download mirror, so it'll only be a problem of getting the CD's.

I ran what you said, and it looks like my kernel already had all that USB support you indicated in it, so that doesn't seem to be the problem. When I did modprobe ehci though....it said it couldn't locate the module.

Pete_Keller · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2003 11:55 am Post subject:

Archaic,
You might have a hard disk going bad due the the swap space error.

Loan out copies of boot CDs, keep one for yourself - they are a great troubleshooting aid.

What ISP are you with that limits bandwidth?

Pete

Archaic · n00b Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 28

If the HDD has gone bad, what do I do to fix the problem? Format that file table again and start over?

I'm with Telstra Broadband.

Pete_Keller · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2003 1:06 pm Post subject:

Archaic,
If the Hard drive is dying, you need to replace it. You only have one item that points to a hard drive going bad, it probably is not dying however.

Try fixing the swap space signature again, and reboot to verify it works. Then it should not get changed again. If it does, then start worrying about bad hdd, or possible corruption from something else (do you run another OS on this laptop?)

Pete

Archaic · n00b Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 28

No, there's no other OS. I'll try it again tomorrow sometime, when I have some time to really sit down and have a look at it.

Archaic · n00b Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 28

Well, it looked fine that time, but I have to admit, the code was scrolling pretty fast.

In any case, I've decided to wipe my computer again and start from scratch. I'm certain I must have done something wrong in the initial install (I've been doing a lot of things as the root user, and I've got a feeling I should've been doing them as my own user all this time), so hopefully I can fix that this time. With the GRP install fully detailed now as well, I should think I can get somewhere with it this time, with minimal errors.

Archaic · n00b Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 28

Well, I've just recieved an error in the install, so maybe I had this originally, and this is where all the problems have come from.

After mirrorselect seemed to fail (I put in the command, and I never got the interactive menu to select a mirror), I went on with the installation until I got to env-update

cdimage / # env-update
!!! Invalid token (not "=") a
!!! Parse error in /etc/make.conf
!!! Incorrect multiline literals can cause this. Do not use them.

Now, I'm an absolute n00b, so I'm not sure what it means by multiline literals, however I went into nano and had a look at /etc/make.conf, but I couldn't find anything wrong with it.