I need help getting connected to the 'net! please

Outrunner · n00b Joined: 10 Mar 2007 Posts: 2

Hello all, I just did a networkless install today from the livecd(2006.1 version). All is fine and dandy of course, except maybe the 'net. I still have my hopes up thought.

First of all, what I need to do is get connected to my router(TRENDNet TEW-511brp, no protection). What I get from lspci | grep -i ethernet is:

krinn · Watchman Joined: 02 May 2003 Posts: 7472

Outrunner · n00b Joined: 10 Mar 2007 Posts: 2

ok so i figured out my problem... But I need to get pciutils(i think i forgot to install it by mistake). But guess what? I can't do that because I don't have aconnection to the internet... ok, so theres another way, isnt it? You can go to /usr/portage/distfiles and copy the right pciutils.tar.gz file there that youve downloaded on your laptop? I can do that right? and then emerge pciutils? right?? nope... because i cant write to distfiles because i dont have permission. ok i can give myself permission with sudo chown whatever right? NOPE, WRONG. I dont have pciutils and hence i cant use sudo and i dont have sudo to give myself permission to modify distfiles HENCE something isnt quite right here... what do i do now?

And in case youre wondering, to get my network working i need to use madwifi(i just searched AGAIN and found that out). Well i cant do that because id ont have pciutils to use sudo so i can give myself permission... ok you get it by now

patiently awaiting youre response... hope someone can help with this mess...
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krinn · Watchman Joined: 02 May 2003 Posts: 7472

you lost me a bit...

but boot your livecd, mount your linux partition to /mnt/gentoo (don't chroot, just mount it !)
then you can copy pciutils to /mnt/gentoo/usr/portage/distfiles

timeBandit · Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 3:30 pm Post subject:

Hu · Administrator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 23491

A few things to watch out for when switching from using sudo to just su'ing to root:

sudo usually logs every command. su will log that you became root, after which the only command history you have is root's .bash_history file or equivalent.
A root shell will run every command as privileged by its nature, so be careful what you type. With sudo, a mistaken rm won't do too much damage if you left off the "sudo" prefix. When you are root, you can break anything.
The default configuration does not cause a root shell to exit due to inactivity, so leaving your console unlocked in an untrusted area (e.g. at work) is dangerous. If I recall correctly, sudo's memory of your password times out, after which someone hijacking your console could only run commands as you.

All that said, I prefer starting up a spare terminal, switching to root in it, and just leaving it open. It is far more convenient than prepending sudo every time.

Note that changing ownership of major directories, such as /usr/portage, is usually a bad idea.