HOWTO coLinux with gentoo

Message

xizhao · Post by **xizhao** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 11:56 am

I installed colinux. And now I managed to use colinux boot my gentoo parition seamlessly. shiznix's post shows a way to detect if the system is under colinux. However I didn't modify the /sbin/rc. I put the code in a script file and just add one line in inittab. So before the kernenl remount the root directory, it will detect the kernel version and change fstab and runlevels/boot and runlevels/default corespondingly. Now only error I got is the clock service error.

ryceck · Post by **ryceck** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 10:18 pm

Problem: the topoenlagre binary has been removed from the location noted in the startpost... has anyone got it somewhere so I can resize my partitions...?

Thnx in advance

Edit: Got a simple workaround for my problem. Downloaded a larger blank image from: http://gniarf.nerim.net/colinux/fs/ and mounted that on my /usr, this saves me a LOT of root-space

RTFW (read the f00kie wiki)

Vlad · Post by **Vlad** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 6:35 am

Sorry for the bump, I realize this is essentially a dead thread. I was wondering if anyone else was experiencing crappy network performance from their colinux system.

I use the winpcap driver (which might be the problem) to share my LAN device. The network performance of the host system (Win2000, 100 Mb/s full duplex) is fine, but the performance of the client (colinux) is terrible, with apache/nfs/sftp performance all capping around 250 KB/sec.

Is this standard, or just because I'm using the pcap driver? What kind of speeds are other people getting? Thanks!

Vlad

slycordinator · Post by **slycordinator** » Fri Feb 04, 2005 10:37 pm

I can't get any vnc viewer to connect.

I installed gentoo in colinux and have a vnc server running. From colinux I am able to ping the IP for windows and from windows I can do the same to colinux. But when I run the vnc viewer... nothing happens at all.

This happened both when using the tightvnc client and ultravnc.

tcostigl · Post by **tcostigl** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 10:12 pm

Am I a freak of nature or something? I can't log in once it boots up !?

I am using "gentoo-colinux-stage3-x86-2004.3"

Whats going on?

slycordinator · Post by **slycordinator** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 3:25 am

log in as root. at the password just hit enter (default password is blank). run "passwd" to set the password after that.

edit:
But then again, maybe you are a freak of nature.

tcostigl · Post by **tcostigl** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 11:14 pm

I followed the instructions but I still couldnt log in.

gpeangel · Post by **gpeangel** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 10:43 pm

The default password is also "root".

It seems this image has neither dhcp or syslog installed. Trying to figure out how to connect to the network without dhcp...

royw · Post by **royw** » Mon May 02, 2005 12:10 am

Howdy,

I've tried about all the permutations from all the forums I can find on getting coLinux to work on win2k and still can't get the networking.

So for bridged networking here's what I think is needed:

Installed WinPCap 3.1 beta 4. Accepted all the defaults (including reboot).

Installed coLinux-0.6.2 with gentoo root image.
Installed swap_512Mb.

TAP-Win32 Adapter V8 (coLinux) shows in the device manager as active.

on Win2k, ipconfig /all shows the TAP-Win32 Adapter:

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 3:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : TAP-Win32 Adapter V8 (coLinux)
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-FF-5D-B1-91-46
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . :

Use the mac address above for the default.config.xml:

<network index="0" name="Local Area Connection 3" type="bridged" mac="00:FF:5D:B1:91:46"/>

This shows as good in console startup:

NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP: routing cache hash table of 4096 buckets, 32Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 131072 bind 65536)
NET: Registered protocol family 1
NET: Registered protocol family 17

created /etc/hostname

edited /etc/conf.d/net to use dhcp

ifconfig -a shows:
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:00:00:00:00:00
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:2

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:24 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:24 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1728 (1.6 Kb) TX bytes:1728 (1.6 Kb)

So eth0 is not running. Bringing it up doesn't accomplish anything.
Setting /etc/conf.d/net to use 192.168.0.40/24 and gateway of 192.168.0.1 doesn't work.
Manually setting up eth0 using ifconfig doesn't work
Changing to TAP in default.config.xml doesn't work (<network index="0" name="Local Area Connection 3" type="tap" mac="00:FF:5D:B1:91:46"/>)
Setting "Enable Internet Connection Sharing for this connection" on the physical LAN card (Local Area Connection) doesn't work.

The only error messages I can find is "Network is unreachable" when I ping anything except localhost.

I know I must be missing some key part, but I just can't see it. I also can not see how to discover what is wrong. No errors in event log, no syslog, no errors in dmesg, no errors in console log.

Any ideas?

TIA,
Roy

snl · Post by **snl** » Thu May 05, 2005 11:39 am

I've just install coLinux + Gentoo.

Do I need to install Grub?

At boot, I always get the following error

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* Failed to set system clock to hardware clock 

* ERROR:  Problem starting needed services. 
*         "bootmisc" was not started.

How to solve it?

At the moment, I'm running

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emerge --update world

for the first time. I'm not sure if it's a wise thing to do but I did it anyway. After 15 hours, it's still running. Should I stop it or keep it running?

Thanks.

Gherald · Post by **Gherald** » Thu May 05, 2005 11:41 am

snl wrote:I've just install coLinux + Gentoo.

Do I need to install Grub?

Certainly not! Grub is a bootloader. In case you hadn't noticed... if you are installing coLinux, Windows has already booted

emerge -u world is fine but you might run out of space if you are using the default 2G image... if so delete the contents of /usr/portage/distfiles, /var/tmp/portage and resume.

snl · Post by **snl** » Thu May 05, 2005 12:56 pm

Gherald wrote:emerge -u world is fine but you might run out of space if you are using the default 2G image... if so delete the contents of /usr/portage/distfiles, /var/tmp/portage and resume.

emerge -u world is still running after more than 15 hours. Does it normally take this long? Should I keep it running or should I stop it with Ctrl-C? Is it safe to stop it?

I'm using the defauly 2G image. Should I expand it? If so, which guide should I follow, is it http://wiki.colinux.org/cgi-bin/raid_solution or http://wiki.colinux.org/cgi-bin/ExpandingRoot

Thanks.

royw · Post by **royw** » Fri May 06, 2005 4:48 am

At boot, I always get the following error
Code:
* Failed to set system clock to hardware clock

* ERROR: Problem starting needed services.
* "bootmisc" was not started.
How to solve it?

see: http://wiki.colinux.org/cgi-bin/GentooTAT

HTH,
Roy

snl · Post by **snl** » Fri May 06, 2005 8:13 am

royw wrote:
At boot, I always get the following error
Code:
* Failed to set system clock to hardware clock

* ERROR: Problem starting needed services.
* "bootmisc" was not started.
How to solve it?
see: http://wiki.colinux.org/cgi-bin/GentooTAT

HTH,
Roy

Thanks for your help. I will try that. I tried searching for several days. I saw many posts mentioning about /dev/rtc but I don't have that file. Does it matter? Do I need that file?

royw · Post by **royw** » Sun May 08, 2005 8:14 pm

I just edited /etc/init.d/clock just like the tip says and the problem was solved. This is was the first and only solution I found + tried.

Now if only I could get the networking going...

Have fun,
Roy

mahir · Post by **mahir** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 4:34 pm

can someone help me locate a working copy of a recent co linux manger exe? the official site seems to be down or something

SDraconis · Post by **SDraconis** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 10:32 pm

I've been switching between booting into the Gentoo partition and using coLinux pretty seamlessly for awhile now, but I did the update and got the new baselayout (while booted into Gentoo properly) and things have gotten totally screwy with coLinux now. The method I have been using is the /sbin/rc edit to have it swap fstab's and then editing /etc/inittab to have runlevel 4 point to a special colinux runlevel which did not include things like alsasound, etc. I then have colinux have booting into runlevel 4 in it's bootparams. I made sure to replace the edits I made in both the files after the etc-update, but when I try to load colinux it doesn't appear to be doing the fstab swap anymore. In fact, I tried swapping the fstab to the colinux one manually before rebooting and it appears to be swapping it back. Any ideas?

Edit: I stuck in a couple echo's in the /sbin/rc to let it tell me which fstab it's copying into place. What happens is the first time it dies. The second time I load it, it instead tells me that it's the normal kernel and puts in the normal fstab. Here's the modification to /sbin/rc I am using:

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echo -e "Detected running kernel version `uname -r`"
echo -e "Adjusting /etc/fstab accordingly..."
echo
mount -o rw,remount /
if uname -r | grep -e "-co-" >/dev/null
then
	echo "Normal kernel detected"
	cp /etc/fstab.default /etc/fstab
else
	echo "coLinux kernel detected"
	cp /etc/fstab.colinux /etc/fstab
fi
mount -o ro,remount /

Edit2: I took a closer look at this code (taken from the colinux wiki section for converting distributions). I am no shell script writer, but to me the then and else sections looked backwards. I swapped em and it worked. I guess I swapped em last time (before the etc-update overwrote it) too.

zopilote17 · Post by **zopilote17** » Mon Jul 04, 2005 3:12 am

Forgive the totally noob questions... but I cannot even get my Gentoo Linux partition to boot correctly in coLinux. Having instructions on how to easily switch back and forth once you have it up and running is nice, but first I have to get the thing working in coLinux before I can start to get that fancy! I'm hoping one of you could help by A) posting detailed step-by-step on how you got from a regular dual-boot setup (WinXP and Gentoo) to running Gentoo from real partitions in coLinux, or B) pointing out what I am doing wrong (see details below.) Better yet, both A and B would be appreciated by myself and other people having the same problem!

First a burning question:
Where do you use /dev/cobd0 and where do you use /dev/cobd/0 ? I know that Gentoo treats it differently than Debian, and the virtual hard drive appears under /dev/cobd/0 (notice the extra slash) instead of /dev/cobd0 . However, do I have to specify them with the extra slash in my default.colinux.xml file as well? What about in /etc/fstab? Are there any other places it is used?

Now, some issues I keep running into, as I tweak various files and settings:
1. Sometimes I can boot part-way, but it stops in the middle with an error (sorry, I cannot reproduce this scenario right now and all I can remember is that it has something to do with not finding a filesystem at either /dev/cobd/0 or /dev/cobd0.. can't remember which). Then it dumps me, after logging in with root password, out to a read-only filesystem that _looks_ like my root partition. However, even if I remount it as read-write, make some changes, and remount it as read-only, the changes don't stick until the next boot.

2.Most of the time, I cannot boot. The coLinux console gets to the point where it wants to mount the root filesystem, then it bails. Here is a typical error message:

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Determining /, Found.
Mounting /mount: Mounting /dev/cobd0 on /mnt/linux failed: No such device
Installing modules for coLinux 2.6.10-co-0.6.2, Done.
Closing /, Done.
VFS: Cannot open root device "cobd0" or unknown-block(117,0)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(117,0)

Here is another run:

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VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
VFS: Cannot open root device "cobd/0" or unknown-block(0,0)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

And another:

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VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
EXT3-fs warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended
EXT3 FS on cobd0, internal journal
EXT3-fs: recovery complete.
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
VFS: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem).
Trying to move old root to /initrd ... failed
Unmounting old root
Trying to free ramdisk memory ... okay
Freeing unused kernel memory: 104k freed
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended
EXT3 FS on cobd0, internal journal
Restarting system.

And yet another:

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VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
EXT3 FS on cobd0, internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
VFS: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem).
Trying to move old root to /initrd ... kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 se
conds
failed
Unmounting old root
Trying to free ramdisk memory ... okay
Freeing unused kernel memory: 104k freed
EXT3 FS on cobd0, internal journal
Restarting system.

And more:

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VFS: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem).
Trying to move old root to /initrd ... failed
Unmounting old root
Trying to free ramdisk memory ... okay
Freeing unused kernel memory: 104k freed
Warning: unable to open an initial console.
Kernel panic - not syncing: No init found.  Try passing init= option to kernel.

Please help... it will be much appreciated!

zopilote17 · Post by **zopilote17** » Mon Jul 04, 2005 6:42 pm

zopilote17 wrote:Forgive the totally noob questions... but I cannot even get my Gentoo Linux partition to boot...

This is me again. I thought it might be useful to mention my disk layout and default.colinux.xml file.

My disk layout is as follows (in disk order, but with partition numbers of course):

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[Primary Partition 1: Windows XP]
[Primary Partition 4: Gentoo Linux Boot]
[Primary Partition 3: Gentoo Linux Root]
[Primary Partition 2: Extended Partition:
    [Logical Partition (5): Linux Swap]
    [Logical Partition (6): FAT32 Work partition]
    [Logical Partition (7): FAT32 Media partition]
    [Logical Partition (8): FAT32 Backup partition]
]

So, the main partitions to consider are 3 and 5 (the root partition for Linux, and the Linux swap partition). I obviously don't need the boot partition in coLinux.

Next, here are the important parts of my default.colinux.xml file:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<colinux>
    <!-- Linux root partition -->
    <block_device index="0" path="\Device\Harddisk0\Partition2" enabled="true"/>
    
    <!-- Linux swap partition -->
    <block_device index="1" path="\Device\Harddisk0\Partition4" enabled="true"/>

    <!-- This line specifies the boot partition for Linux, although I currently
         don't see a need to mount it or use it from within coLinux... -->
<!--    <block_device index="2" path="\Device\Harddisk0\Partition3" enabled="true"/> -->

    <!-- bootparams allows you to pass kernel boot parameters -->
    <bootparams>root=/dev/cobd0</bootparams>

    <!-- Initial RamDISK (initrd) support -->
    <initrd path="initrd.gz" />
    
    <!-- image allows you to specify the kernel to boot -->
    <image path="vmlinux" />

    <!-- this line allows you to specify the amount of memory available 
         to coLinux -->
    <memory size="192"/>

    <!-- This allows you to modify networking parameters, see the README 
         or website or wiki for more information -->
    <network index="0" type="tap" name="coLinux TAP Connection"/>
</colinux>

I tried various partition numbers to match partitions 3 (root) and 5 (swap) because, according to http://wiki.colinux.org/cgi-bin/coLinuxFAQ#A3, there are very complex rules about whether to use 0-based counting or 1-based counting, etc.

zopilote17 · Post by **zopilote17** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 4:57 am

zopilote17 wrote:
zopilote17 wrote:Forgive the totally noob questions... but I cannot even get my Gentoo Linux partition to boot...
This is me again. I thought it might be useful to mention my disk layout and default.colinux.xml file.

I finally got things working on my own. Just for the next person who may have the same problem, here is my XML configuration file:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<colinux>
    <!-- Root partition -->
    <block_device index="0" path="\Device\Harddisk0\Partition2" enabled="true"/>
    
    <!-- Swap partition -->
    <block_device index="1" path="\Device\Harddisk0\Partition4" enabled="true"/>

    <!-- bootparams allows you to pass kernel boot parameters -->
    <bootparams>root=/dev/cobd/0</bootparams>

    <!-- Initial RamDISK (initrd) support -->
    <initrd path="initrd.gz" />
    
    <!-- image allows you to specify the kernel to boot -->
    <image path="vmlinux" />

    <!-- this line allows you to specify the amount of memory available to coLinux -->
    <memory size="192"/>

    <!-- This allows you to modify networking parameters, see the README 
         or website or wiki for more information -->
    <network index="0" type="tap" name="coLinux TAP Connection"/>
</colinux>

Just to remind you, my root partition is normally /dev/hda3 in direct-boot mode, and my swap partition is /dev/hda5. Furthermore, it works with specifying "root=/dev/cobd/0" in the <bootparams> tag. (Notice the extra slash before the 0; it is odd, but it just works.)

Also, my fstab file for colinux looks like this:

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/dev/cobd0      /               ext3    noatime                 0 1
/dev/cobd1      none            swap    sw                      0 0

# NOTE: The next line is critical for boot!
none            /proc           proc    defaults                0 0

And the other odd thing: in Gentoo's fstab file, which I had been told would use the /dev/cobd/0 convention, I actually had to use /dev/cobd0 instead! So it seems backwards.

zopilote17 · Post by **zopilote17** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 6:19 pm

zopilote17 wrote:And the other odd thing: in Gentoo's fstab file, which I had been told would use the /dev/cobd/0 convention, I actually had to use /dev/cobd0 instead! So it seems backwards.

After I ran "emerge --update --deep --newuse world", interestingly, /dev/cobd0 no longer worked. Instead, I had to switch my fstab to /dev/cobd/0.

Devport · Post by **Devport** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 7:50 pm

Today I had to find out that it is not possible to run a native AMD64 gentoo partition with colinux ( yet ). Anyway I installed colinux and the stage3 gentoo, linux 2.6 preinstallation and it works out of the box and now I am happy to go on and setup a nice colinux gentoo box. Another thing I was glad to see is this free, native Windows X server : http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Xming.

I am really impressed. If I think of all the things that are possible with colinux. Run your favorite linux apps under windows and even more important use your linux partitions under Windows ( e.g. threw a samba server running on linux on windows ) ! I am glad I finally came across this and hope others are as glad as I am.

Damn its so funny to do a emerge --sync in a linux terminal running on and connected to windows.

devsk · Post by **devsk** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 2:53 am

I am trying to boot existing gentoo install. my root partition is reiserfs. would that work with coLinux?

Also my boot partition is a separate small ext3 partition.

edit: these were not issues. the issue was that the /etc/fstab needed entries like /dev/cobd/0, /dev/cobd/1 instead of /dev/cobd0 and /dev/cobd1. all is well.

devsk · Post by **devsk** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 8:47 am

for people who are using VNC: try using freeNX for a change(there is a guide on freenx in DTT). This thing just rocks with freenx server. now I really can use the KDE desktop under colinux.

NightTwix · Post by **NightTwix** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 11:54 am

i use colinux on a couple of systems now and i must admit: it rocks!

I even use it on my dual-boot system at home.
A little tip I didn't read here but one thats really really useful: use the alias parameter.
So u can access the /dev/cobd* devices through /dev/sda* (or hda or whatever)

just do something like this:

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<block_device index="0" path="\Device\Harddisk0\Partition1" alias="sda1" enabled="true"/>

There is no need to change the fstab any more

But i have a question:
Is there a sane way to create an extra runlevel 'colinux' and let Gentoo start this runlevel when its run under Colinux and start the default runlevel if its booted directly?
I could pass a bootparameter as described here but i think its too "dirty" to add an IF clause to all initscripts

HOWTO coLinux with gentoo

coLinux + gentoo + win2k can't get networking running

colinux manager anyone????

New baselayout issues?

How to get dual-boot running in coLinux in the first place

Re: How to get dual-boot running in coLinux in the first pla

Re: How to get dual-boot running in coLinux in the first pla

Re: How to get dual-boot running in coLinux in the first pla