Newbie to the board and linux in general

Shinobi · n00b Joined: 09 Jul 2003 Posts: 12

i just got all the parts for my new rig in.

1GB DRR400 Dual channel ram
1 80GB Sata HD (Maxtor)
1 200 IDE HD (WD)
2.4c GHZ 800FSB HT
geforce 4400
Audigy 2 Platinum
DFI Lanparty Mobo (875P chipset)
Plextor Dvd/cdrw combo drive
Pioneer dvd/rw drive (A05)\
Intel® CSA Gigabit LAN (onboard)

i want to dual boot linux and win xp on the Sata drive. i don't have anything plug into the Raid on the board. Is everything that i listed supported by Gentoo, i'm hoping to install it this weekend. What would be the best/easiest way to setup Gentoo on my machine? thx in advance

payam · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 30 Jun 2003 Posts: 145

everything you've got is supported by gentoo to my knowledge.

1GB DRR400 Dual channel ram -- ya that'll work
1 80GB Sata HD (Maxtor) -- hmm sata is supposed to be recognized as regular ide from what i know. if it's integrated into your southbridge it should be less of a headache.
1 200 IDE HD (WD) -- ide is fine
2.4c GHZ 800FSB HT -- linux and winxp are the only operating systems to support hypertreading, so you're good here
geforce 4400 -- nvidia provides great (closed source) drivers
Audigy 2 Platinum -- supported by alsa (not sure about oss)
DFI Lanparty Mobo (875P chipset) - an interesting choice, but it shouldn't be a problem
Plextor Dvd/cdrw combo drive - atapi check
Pioneer dvd/rw drive (A05) - atapi check
Intel® CSA Gigabit LAN (onboard) - should work

there you have it. my only concern is that you're starting with gentoo as your first linux distribution. that's really great that you want to use gentoo and beleive me it's better than any other linux distribution (IMHO). you shouldn't have TOO much trouble with gentoo as your first linux distribuition but i would recommend you do the following thigns:

1) always have an available copy of the gentoo documentation when you're using your comp (ie either have another computer around with web access or print up as much as you can)
2) be active on the gentoo forums
3***) play with gentoo on a test computer for a little bit so you can get the hang of it and then install it on your main personal system.

ok that's all i have to say. post us on how the serial ata setup goes on gentoo -- i'm interested to know if there are any kinks in getting it to work.
_________________
Athlon XP 2800+ 2.08GHz 333FSB 512KB, Biostar M7NCD Pro nForce2, 1GB Crucial DDR 333, EVGA Geforce FX 5600 256MB, Hitachi 180GB 180GXP

Shinobi · n00b Joined: 09 Jul 2003 Posts: 12

will do.

thx for the info man. i should have it installed and hopefully fully function on staurday, i'll let you kno how it went then

thx again

BTW, i've been reading the forums, and i've been seeing the kernel 2.5, is this the same kernel that the install cd has? or will i need to upgrade it after the installation?

Spire · Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2003 3:10 am Post subject:

The install CD has 2.4 kernels. I don't think it has any 2.5s. You probably don't need or want 2.5 anyway for your first time using Linux, unless you've got some new hardware that doesn't have support in 2.4. 2.5 are the development kernels that you use if you want to test the newer more advanced things.

As for switching the kernel, my memory isn't very good, but I think you compile a new kernel during the installation anyway. If this is the case, you can download the 2.5 sources if you want.

payam · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 30 Jun 2003 Posts: 145

the 2.5 kernel is for developers -- it will eventually be released as the 2.6 kernel when it's stable. the current stable kernel is 2.4. i would recommend using the vanilla kernel or the gentoo kernel (aka vanilla-sources and gentoo-sources)

you can switch to another kernel an any time with about 10 mins compile time and a reboot. as far as using the 2.5 kernel -- if you want to do it then go for it, but i'd be wary of the stability, robustness etc of that branch. personally, i'm just going to wait for 2.6.

i myself am using vanilla-sources 2.4.21 -- i have also used gentoo-sources 2.4.20r5 and i haven't found it to be much faster.
_________________
Athlon XP 2800+ 2.08GHz 333FSB 512KB, Biostar M7NCD Pro nForce2, 1GB Crucial DDR 333, EVGA Geforce FX 5600 256MB, Hitachi 180GB 180GXP

Moled · l33t Joined: 09 Jul 2003 Posts: 635

make sure you install windows first then linux, otherwise your mbr will kindly get overwritten, having never used winxp I have no idea what its bootloader is like

Shinobi · n00b Joined: 09 Jul 2003 Posts: 12

but Kernel 2.4.21 should detect all mah stuff right? youguys have been a great help, thx again ^_^

jcoke · n00b Joined: 28 Mar 2003 Posts: 10

Shinobi · n00b Joined: 09 Jul 2003 Posts: 12

oooohhhhh, ok i got ya, thx. i hate my n00bness -_-

aardvark · Guru Joined: 30 Jun 2002 Posts: 576

Oh, and just in case you weren't aware:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86-install.xml

Print the above doc and follow them step by step. You should get it all working fine by doing that.
The doc should be read well. Many questions in this forum are already anderwered in there and are asked here because people are too lazy to read.

Shinobi · n00b Joined: 09 Jul 2003 Posts: 12

When i boot Gentoo from the live cd, everything works fine except for my network -_-; (go figure huh) i have an onboard NIC (82547EI Gigabit LAN CSA ). it tells me that the device is not found. now, i found the driver at intel's site, but i'm not sure as to how i'm supposed to install it. any help?

Spire · Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2003 6:23 pm Post subject:

First you should get the name of the module Intel is offering at their site. Try running 'modprobe (name of the module)', in case the support is their but the card just can't be detected. Failing that, you'll have to get (and compile?) the driver yourself, and put it on a floppy disk or something. Then I guess you would mount the floppy after booting the CD, and run 'insmod /mnt/floppy/filename_of_module' or something to that effect.

It may be easier just to stick another ethernet card in there if you have an extra, and use that until you compile your kernel later on.