LiveCD and LiveDVD boot into grub prompt

ridler77 · n00b Joined: 31 May 2008 Posts: 3

I'm booting off an external USB dvd/cdrom onto an embedded intel core2 duo system.

I tried both livecd-i686-installer-2008.0_beta2-r1.iso and livedvd-i686-installer-2008.0_beta2.iso, which MD5 checked out OK. Both of them boot into a plain grub prompt, "GNU GRUB version 0.97 (637K lower / 251776K upper memory)"

This is my first attempt at using gentoo, and am an intermediate linux user. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks.

NathanZachary · Moderator Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 2605

I know this isn't the "best" solution, but please check to see if you can boot the SystemRescueCD (newest version as of this post is 1.0.3). It is based on Gentoo and might help us narrow down the problem. You can also try the minimal installation disc, which is the preferred method of Gentoo installation.
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“Truth, like infinity, is to be forever approached but never reached.” --Jean Ayres (1972)
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zyko · Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 10:17 pm Post subject:

Also note that a Gentoo installation doesn't require a Gentoo-CD at all. You can use any LiveCD you want. In my experience, Gentoo's LiveCDs have always been a little tricky when it comes to hardware support. Ubuntu et al. are more likely to "just work out of the box".

NathanZachary · Moderator Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 2605

zyko makes a very good point. I've had a couple machines that worked much more smoothly using the newest version of another distro (like Mint, PCLOS, *ubuntu, et cetera).
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“Truth, like infinity, is to be forever approached but never reached.” --Jean Ayres (1972)
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ridler77 · n00b Joined: 31 May 2008 Posts: 3

I don't have network access to this particular board, so was hoping to do a stand alone install. I tried Ubuntu server and it installed very quickly and painlessly.

My goal is to have as low of power requirements as possible, coupled with fast boot times and as many spare cpu cycles as possible. This is an embedded application wither very stringent power requirements and sporadic cpu intensive tasks.

Is there a way to do a stand alone install without using a livecd?

ridler77 · n00b Joined: 31 May 2008 Posts: 3

Tried the minimal install cd and it does the same thing.

zyko · Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:21 pm Post subject:

You can create a gentoo installation on (almost) any linux system and then move it over to your actual target system.

Make a folder anywhere on your filesystem, for example /home/mynewgentoo, extract the stage3 and portage tarballs in there, chroot into /home/mynewgentoo and continue with the handbook. Once you're done installing and emerging all your needed stuff, you can simply copy your gentoo installation over to the actual machine you want it to run on. You would start at this point in the handbook, just that you're using /home/mynewgentoo rather than /mnt/gentoo (and that you don't actually mount anything yet).

Just don't forget that you can't mix up architectures (at least not without further preparation). If your new gentoo system is supposed to be i686 (32bit), you need an i686 host to create it on. On the other hand, sub-architectures don't matter as far as I know. Example: you can compile with CFLAGS="-march=pentium-m" on an amd-k8, as long as the overall architecture is identical.

This might sound complicated if you have never done a gentoo installation before, so feel free to ask for clarifications.

Maliwik · Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:27 pm Post subject:

My suggestion, since you're having hardware troubles, would be to use the SystemRescueCD with the docache option added to the kernel prompt. This will cache the contents of the CD to RAM (shouldn't be a problem as the CD is only ~115mb). You would then insert the Gentoo 2008 beta2 LiveDVD and proceed the installation from there. The LiveDVD has all the distfiles in order to complete a successful Gentoo installation without access to the internet.
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