Press on or give up?

dms489 · Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 3:51 am Post subject:

make mrproper didn't materially change the outcome. I had to re-run make menuconfig after that, and didn't recognize some of the settings.

The result of uname -a is:
Linux sysresccd 3.2.19-std280-amd64 #2 SMP Sun Jun 10 07:35:22 UTC 2012 x86-64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2330M CPU @ 2.20GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

It seems my ignorance of the config process is really biting. Does anyone have a .config file that works for something similar to this Dell Inspiron N5110? It can't be that rare a bird, can it?
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BillWho · Veteran Joined: 03 Mar 2012 Posts: 1576 Location: US

dms489,

Look in /usr/share/genkernel/arch/x86_64 - there should be a file kernel-config that you can test.
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ali3nx · Last edited by ali3nx on Mon Jun 18, 2012 2:25 am; edited 1 time in total

BillWho · Veteran Joined: 03 Mar 2012 Posts: 1576 Location: US

ali3nx

Try make ARCH=x86-64

Good luck :wink:

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ali3nx · Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 3:03 am Post subject:

Something else the OP should be following given the cpu type would be

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-amd64.xml?full=1

I felt i should offer that advice given my extremely old tutorial for educational reference was primarily intended for stage 1 build installs.

Also perhaps consider doing the actual install work remotely using putty ssh client via a windows based desktop so you have access to a browser and familiar utilities to assist you with your reference requirements. All of gentoo's minimal livecd's have sshd daemon available you can login to remotely after configuring network access. you do need to set the root user password and start sshd on the livecd before you can gain remote access.

If the sysrescuecd for any reason may be hindering progress of your efforts to install gentoo this would also be an acceptable solution. Noted you do not need to use gentoo linux bootable media to install gentoo but the architecture of the bootable cdrom you use must match the stage3 base system you intend to build.

Modern Gentoo stage3 install tarballs also have a minimum kernel version requirement. The more recent the kernel version of the bootable media your using the more reliable and predictable the results will be. It's unlikely you'll find a kernel on a modern bootable media older than 2.6.30 but I would recommend using bootable media with 3.0.0 or newer due to some of the advancements with udev that have evolved in the last year.

Your bootable media does marginally affect your chrooted environment since the chrooted build environment reads /proc for some system information reference while your compiling. With this in mind the gentoo minimal iso might be the best solution if your uncertain of any compatibility issues with the bootable media your currently using.

you can locate the most recent iso and stage3 builds for amd64 at

ftp://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/gentoo/releases/amd64/current-iso/

The largest hurdle to installing gentoo i've witnessed from my efforts assisting hundreds of newbie would be gentoo users over the years has always been properly configuring the linux kernel. If you can get past that part perhaps even by using genkernel you might be able to progress with further fine tuning after you get your system booted.

I always preferred configuring my own kernel settings but ten years ago Kconfig looked extremely overwhelming for me. Getting a marginally preconfigured kernel config for your system would definitely be an enormous head start and excellent reference material to learn what menuconfig should look like for amd64.

Learning to install and work with Gentoo Linux has done more to advance my core computer science skills in ten years than anything else I worked with in my IT career. If you want to truly learn and understand Linux fundamentals it may not come easily but you will learn something from your efforts that no other binary based Linux distribution will come close to offering.
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ali3nx · Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 4:00 am Post subject:

With regards to the skeleton kernel config Pappy is definitely another highly regarded "old shoe" that provides those for the Gentoo community on a regular basis.

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-7064996.html#7064996
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dms489 · Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 8:32 pm Post subject: Mulligan #42

So I started from scratch again fumbled my way through the disk configuration stuff, and started down the kernel-seeds "Working with Kernel Seeds" material. I realized that all this time, I have overlooked the tiny little paragraph that says "Get that Source:' - so I follow the link to kernel.org and find that the latest stable kernel is 3.4.3, a bz2 file. Then I realize that somehow I'm going to use tar to put that somewhere. 11 questions:
01: is this right - I need these files?
10: is 3.4.3 the right release?
11: where and how do I uncompress them before proceeding to fumble around with menuconfig?
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John R. Graham · Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 8:53 pm Post subject:

Actually, Pappy's site says, "For the Gentoo Linux user, you have numerous choices. You can install many different kernels versions directly from portage," in addition to saying that you can get the kernel source directly from kernel.org. Simplest (and most recommended for a beginner) is to

ali3nx · Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 8:55 pm Post subject:

If you use pappy's kernel seed file it's just the base kernel configuration. after you emerge gentoo-sources you would copy pappy's kernel seed file to /usr/src/linux/.config by renaming the seed file as a part of the copy command.

The emerge gentoo-sources command will download and install the kernel sources for you so downloading the kernel tarball manually shouldn't be needed unless you lack network access.

You certainly could use the latest kernel version in the portage tree but you would have to unmask it by adding it to portage.keywords with the following command within your chrooted build environment.

John R. Graham · Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 3:43 pm Post subject:

As far as I know, Pappy's Kernel Seeds don't contain any selected device drivers. You definitely need to enable your hard drive controller and all the other usual suspects to have a working kernel configuration.

- John
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dms489 · Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 5:15 pm Post subject: Almost there ... Perl missing?

I really appreciate all of the posts that are helping to get me there. I have done the following:
1. A tried to get the ssh session thing working, but couldn't figure out how to get the public key from my Linux host back to the Windows client.
2. So then, I went all the way back to the beginning and followed all the directions with the latest sources etc (3.4.3).

make && make modules_install is not now complaining about the architecture. However,

it did fail some distance into the make with this:
[code]
MKCAP arch/x86/kernel/cpu/capflags.c
/bin/sh: perl: command not found
make[3]: *** [arch/x86/kernel/cpu/capflags.c] Error 127
make[2]: *** [arch/x86/kernel/cpu] Error 2
make[1]: *** [arch/x86/kernel] Error 2
make: *** [arch/x86] Error 2
[/code]
I presume perl is missing and I need to emerge it?
I decided to get bold and enter "emerge perl" - to my amazement, this caused the kind of frenzied activity that suggested that things were working
I restarted the make && ... stuff, and it seems to have made it past the perl problem

Does this qualify me to get out of the 'stupid beginner' category?.
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John R. Graham · Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 5:31 pm Post subject:

Perl's on the Stage3 so that error message is partly unexplained; might've been due to the path. You're still in the chrooted environment, right? Not yet self sustaining? Did you remember to do

dms489 · Last edited by dms489 on Sat Jun 23, 2012 10:29 pm; edited 1 time in total

Thank you so much for your thoughtful replies. Everything went fine all the way to rebooting, but I've done something wrong - probably in the grub config file. The symptom is an error in the big print while booting:
[code]VFS: Cannot open root device "sda3" or unknown-block(0,0): error-6
Please append a correct "root=" boot option: here are the available partitions:
[/code]
[and then no partitions show up]
This is the grub.config file:
[code]
default 0
timeout 30
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Gentoo Linux 3.4.3
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/kernel-3.4.3-gentoo root=/dev/sda3
[/code]
I think I correctly rebooted from the rescue CD and found the incantations necessary to "jump back into the pool." I checked that this is the grub.config file for the boot that failed.
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dms489 · Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 10:26 pm Post subject: Now the real work begins ...

Thank you so much for your thoughtful replies. Everything went fine all the way to rebooting, but I've done something wrong - probably in the grub config file. The symptom is an error in the big print while booting:

John R. Graham · Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 10:39 pm Post subject:

The reason it's /mnt/gentoo/boot/grub is because you haven't gotten all the way back in the chroot. This has been encountered and explained many times before, so see NeddySeagoons' Rough Guide to Chrooting for that.

Now, on to the real error. This usually indicates either that (a) the drivers for your particular filesystem haven't been made part of the kernel config or else (b) you've misidentified the root partition in the grub.conf file. If you're sure that /dev/sda3 is right, then get into the chroot properly and then modify your kernel config with "make menuconfig" and then follow through with all the steps to build and install the kernel. :wink:

- John
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Jaglover · Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 10:51 pm Post subject:

unknown-block(0,0)

That indicates kernel cannot access the hardware, missing HDD controller support or partition table support perhaps. When kernel gets to the partition but cannot access the filesystem the error usually is printed as unknown-block(8,x) if using SCSI/SATA/PATA.
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John R. Graham · Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 12:48 am Post subject:

Arg, right, that should've been (c). Thanks. :oops:

- John
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dms489 · Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2012 12:43 pm Post subject:

Thanks again for being so persistently helpful. I think it's highly likely that I'm messing up the .config file because I have no clue what to do with menuconfig. There must be a link between the exercise where I take the results of lspci -n and paste them at http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl/. That seems to identify the devices connected to my computer. Is there a way to build a bridge between that output and the settings in menuconfig, or some alternate means of generating a useable .config file?
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BillWho · Veteran Joined: 03 Mar 2012 Posts: 1576 Location: US

dms489,

When in menuconfig you can do a search by hitting the forward slash key ( '/' ) and pasting the name of the driver. For example my ide controller is pata_atiixp

Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 IDE Controller pata_atiixp

The search returns this page
Symbol: PATA_ATIIXP [=m] │
│ Type : tristate │
│ Prompt: ATI PATA support │
│ Defined at drivers/ata/Kconfig:329 │
│ Depends on: ATA [=y] && ATA_SFF [=y] && ATA_BMDMA [=y] && PCI [=y] │
│ Location: │
│ -> Device Drivers │
│ -> Serial ATA and Parallel ATA drivers (ATA [=y]) │
│ -> ATA SFF support (ATA_SFF [=y]) │
│ -> ATA BMDMA support (ATA_BMDMA [=y]) │
│
Note the location and the prompt and navigate to it to set it

--- Serial ATA and Parallel ATA drivers │ │
│ │ [*] Verbose ATA error reporting │ │
│ │ [*] ATA ACPI Support │ │
│ │ [*] SATA Port Multiplier support │ │
│ │ *** Controllers with non-SFF native interface *** │ │
│ │ <*> AHCI SATA support │ │
│ │ < > Platform AHCI SATA support │ │
│ │ < > Initio 162x SATA support │ │
│ │ < > ACard AHCI variant (ATP 8620) │ │
│ │ < > Silicon Image 3124/3132 SATA support │ │
│ │ [*] ATA SFF support │ │
│ │ *** SFF controllers with custom DMA interface *** │ │
│ │ < > Pacific Digital ADMA support │ │
│ │ < > Pacific Digital SATA QStor support │ │
│ │ < > Promise SATA SX4 support (Experimental) │ │
│ │ [*] ATA BMDMA support │ │
│ │ *** SATA SFF controllers with BMDMA *** │ │
│ │ <*> Intel ESB, ICH, PIIX3, PIIX4 PATA/SATA support │ │
│ │ < > Marvell SATA support │ │
│ │ < > NVIDIA SATA support │ │
│ │ < > Promise SATA TX2/TX4 support │ │
│ │ < > Silicon Image SATA support │ │
│ │ < > SiS 964/965/966/180 SATA support │ │
│ │ < > ServerWorks Frodo / Apple K2 SATA support │ │
│ │ < > ULi Electronics SATA support │ │
│ │ < > VIA SATA support │ │
│ │ < > VITESSE VSC-7174 / INTEL 31244 SATA support │ │
│ │ *** PATA SFF controllers with BMDMA *** │ │
│ │ < > ALi PATA support │ │
│ │ < > AMD/NVidia PATA support │ │
│ │ < > ARASAN CompactFlash PATA Controller Support │ │
│ │ < > ARTOP 6210/6260 PATA support │ │
│ │ <M> ATI PATA support │ │
│ │
It takes a little getting used to navigating around in menuconfig

Good luck :wink:

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Good luck :wink:

Since installing gentoo, my life has become one long emerge

dms489 · Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2012 9:51 pm Post subject: Success ...

I went carefully back over the install process, ending up using a consistent 3.4.4 version of the kernel, still not really comprehending menuconfig, but my machine now boots successfully with my brand spanking new Gentoo - it even mirrors the lap-top display on an external hdmi monitor.
Could somebody now point me to a discussion of how to wake up the Gnome UI? Never mind - Google to the rescue.

Through this whole agonizing (for you all) process, I have appreciated the fact that the experts(you) are still active and interested in getting the word out. Thanks to all. I'm sure there will be other issues - I will open new threads in the appropriate forums.

One last question: I assume the same tools used to develop my first configuration are available now at the command line? Or do I need to chroot or something to keep things from falling over each other?
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John R. Graham · Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2012 10:54 pm Post subject:

Even though Goggle is definitely your friend, I'm going to give in to the temptation to give you just a few more pointers. Gentoo doesn't have anything you don't install, so there's no Gnome desktop lurking in your base install, waiting to be turned on. You emerge it, just like anything else. But there are enough nuances that there are guides for each of several major graphical subsystems. Read on. :wink:

From the Gentoo Documentation Resources, follow these guides in order:

Gnome depends on X, so. follow The X Server Configuration HOWTO.
If you have either an nVidia or ATI/Radeon video card, there are guides for that. See
- The Gentoo Linux nVidia Guide, or
- The Gentoo Linux ATI FAQ.
Otherwise, the X configuration HOWTO will have taken care of you.
Finally, there's the The GNOME Configuration HOWTO.

The guides don't really make the point that there's a proper order in which to do these things, but I do.

It's also worth mentioning that Gnome isn't your only choice. There's KDE, Fluxbox, Xfce, Openbox, Lxde, and other (harder to discover) choices. For each of those, you'll find a guide.

Regarding chroot and tools, a base Gentoo install is not as complete an environment as the install CDs in some ways. Any tool you don't have can be emerged. If you're missing something and can't find out what to emerge, just ask and we'll help. Typical usage of an up-and-running Gentoo does not need a chroot, although there are special cases. If there's something specific you have in mind for a chroot, then please describe it.

- John
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dms489 · Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 4:23 pm Post subject:

Just when I thought I understood everything ... (sigh!) I presume that the instructions for installing X are missing some rudimetary stuff - it skips straight fromsetting configurations to "try startx." I am assuming that i need to do the make && make module-install stuff, copy the bootable file into /boot and make sure grub is happy with me, then boot from the hard drive, log in a root, all before typing 'startx' as we do for the rescue system?
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John R. Graham · Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 5:15 pm Post subject:

Once you get to the point of a running Gentoo installation, and thus have experience with configuring, building, and installing a kernel, then, yes, I guess it's implied that, if a guide says your kernel configuration may need to change and, if you discover that it does need to change, you need to build and install the kernel once you've changed the configuration. And, yes, how you build and install the kernel is the same as it's described in the Handbook.

Even so, the The X Server Configuration HOWTO does not skip directly from setting configurations to trying startx. Look at the guide again starting at Code Listing 2.6.

- John
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dms489 · Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 9:01 pm Post subject:

So the latest hole in my understanding, and I'm sorry I over-caricatured the X Server installation, is the emerge doesn't actually rebuild the whole boot image - after doing the emerge xorg-server, I need to make && whatever, copy the boot image etc, boot from the hard drive and then enter 'startx', right?
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Jaglover · Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 10:38 pm Post subject:

You make it sound like Xorg was a part of Linux operating system. It's not. Xorg is merely an application that runs on Linux. Has not much to do with your kernel, except the kernel must be configured properly to co-operate with graphics driver and input drivers.
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