Gentoo Forums
Gentoo Forums
Gentoo Forums
Quick Search: in
Install on a machine with wifi but no ethernet
View unanswered posts
View posts from last 24 hours

 
Reply to topic    Gentoo Forums Forum Index Installing Gentoo
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
trueriver
n00b
n00b


Joined: 03 Jan 2013
Posts: 17
Location: Manchester, England

PostPosted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 4:16 pm    Post subject: Install on a machine with wifi but no ethernet Reply with quote

Friends,

I am going round in circles here and not getting anywhere. Some years ago I installed Gentoo on this laptop, which has wifi but no working ethernet. I only vaguely remember the install process I used that time, but I do remember I used wicd as the wifi interface, because that offers three facilities that I want

1. It can scan available networks and let you choose one of them
2. It does this from command line (with the wicd-curses interface)
3. Once you tell it to remember a network it will re-connect to it even if you are not running X or the gui.

I also remember that I got wicd working before I emerged the gui. That was then.

Now, it does not seem so easy. I have just given up on my second install, and will wipe it and start again. I'd like your advice, please, on whether each of the following approaches are workable, and which you would prefer.

The laptop is currently running a Ubuntu derivative which is connecting fine on wifi.

A. Install from the "foreign" linux, using the Ubuntu wifi networking in the prep and chroot steps, and emerge wicd fro m the chroot environment.

This is what I have been trying, and though I've been assured it is workable I am beginning to wonder. One of the issues is that Ubuntu seems to organise its networking files differently so it is harder to copy stuff over from the preparatory environment to the gentoo native environment.

B. Install from "foreign" linux, but use wpa_supplicant first, and only think about wicd once that is working

C. Instead of working from the existing install, work from the Gentoo Minimal Install iso on a usb stick, getting wicd working in the live environment and then again in the installed environment. This has the advantage that the chroot environ,ent is not contaminated by any oddities from Ubuntu (but then my understanding was that th
e whole point of chroot was that there was no such cross-contamination providing the kernels were compatible

D. Working from the Gentoo install, get wpa_supplicant working both in the live environment and then in the installed system before trying to install wicd.

So, tell me, with this requirement, which of A B C D would you use? Or something different again?

Where do I re-start? Thanks for your thoughts and advice
River~~

Thanks, River~~
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
DONAHUE
Watchman
Watchman


Joined: 09 Dec 2006
Posts: 7651
Location: Goose Creek SC

PostPosted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 4:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

choice A
Code:
sudo su -
mkdir /mnt/gentoo
follow the handbook except do not create net.eth0 net.wlan0 net.* symlinks; instead use http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Wicd for networking; check that wpa_supplicant gets emerged;
_________________
Defund the FCC.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
NeddySeagoon
Administrator
Administrator


Joined: 05 Jul 2003
Posts: 54028
Location: 56N 3W

PostPosted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 4:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

trueriver,

Choice A.

The Gentoo minimal CDs have little or no wireless support but as none of the code from your boot media goes into your install, you can use any Linux that provides the tools you need to do the install.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
bedtime
n00b
n00b


Joined: 19 Dec 2012
Posts: 71

PostPosted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 9:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You could use the Gentoo livedvd to do a chrooted install. This way you'd be able to use the wireless provided by the livecd and pass it through to your install:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-947396-highlight-.html

I've done this install several times with wifi and its worked great! No need for an old wired connection if you follow that guide!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
BillWho
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 03 Mar 2012
Posts: 1600
Location: US

PostPosted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 2:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

trueriver,

I always go choice A - it's the easiest way to go.

All my computers are running gentoo and lmde (mint/debian). I install lmde first then gentoo is a proverbial walk in the park :D

It's also conducive for fixing anything that might go awry in gentoo, although that rarely happens :roll:
_________________
Good luck :wink:

Since installing gentoo, my life has become one long emerge :)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
trueriver
n00b
n00b


Joined: 03 Jan 2013
Posts: 17
Location: Manchester, England

PostPosted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 6:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

hi Thanks everyone: it seems that A still seems the best approach.

Do you recommend installing wicd (P) before or (Q) after the GUI? Before seems feasible, not least because I had wicd running on this machine with no GUI at all some years back.

P: wicd without/before GUI: In this option, after the stage3 I'd leave the profile as it was, set a USE flag of ncurses. This means that gtk would no9t be set (neither in the profile nor in my make.conf). The intent would be to then produce a CLI system that connects via wicd. Later on I'd change to the desktop profile, and install LXDE/LXDE-base

Q: after the stage 3, emerge LXDE/LXDEbase from the chroot environment, boot into it to confirm I have a working GUI, then go back to the chroot environment to emerge wicd

I have not got anywhere trying to emerge several packages at once, so now I want to do it one at a time and test each separately. Which order?

A specific question about USE flags for wicd:

The wicd page in the gentoo wiki - thanks DONAGHUE for the url - says that gtk is a flag, and next to the description of that flag it says that gtk is the default as that is the "intended" behaviour. Does that mean that to do the inital install without the gtk interface I need to have a package-specific USE -gtk flag? And is the word "intended" a hint that I should not really be doing that? I had assumed that if there is no gtk listed when I do an emerge --info that the flag would not be used.

Thanks
River~~
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
cwr
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 17 Dec 2005
Posts: 1969

PostPosted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 6:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I recently installed from scratch using a wireless connection; I booted off a Mint 14 CD which
found everything wireless with no difficulty, and then chrooted and installed from that.

I hated the way nm messes with everything in sight, so stripped it out and just used wpa_supplicant
to connect. That's fine for the limited set of wireless APs I use, but I'll have to find some more
flexible solution in due course.

Will
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Gentoo Forums Forum Index Installing Gentoo All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum