Gentoo 2007.0 GUI Installer is buggy

Message

billydv · Post by **billydv** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 11:39 am

Look, I Love Gentoo but if the installer doesnt work, Well what can you do, I pulled out the old 2006.1 and used that and updated, no big deal

wangzilla · Post by **wangzilla** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:50 pm

maartenlambrecht wrote:Thanks NeddySeagoon
I'm going to give it a try!
First I'll download the minimal cd and read the manual. Tomorrow I will do the install.
I don't have mirc any more so I will post my (future) questions in a topic on this site.
See you there!

its not too bad with a little patience... using the handbook and some help on the forums i was able to get gentoo up and running using command line (used 2007.0 livecd but gui didnt work due to lack of ati drivers so i just hit alt-f1 and switched to command line).

my first linux experience started a few days ago when i started the gentoo install

lol.

learned a lotttttttttt!!

desultory · Post by **desultory** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 4:23 am

wangzilla wrote:its not too bad with a little patience... using the handbook and some help on the forums i was able to get gentoo up and running using command line (used 2007.0 livecd but gui didnt work due to lack of ati drivers so i just hit alt-f1 and switched to command line).

You could have used X during the installation process by manually modifying the configuration to [post=4069188]use the vesa driver[/post] instead.

ukti · Post by **ukti** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 1:50 pm

I tryied to install 2007.0 on laptop asus-v6j with the graphical-installer on the live-cd. It crashed several times at different points for no reproducible reasons.

At least I was successful with the install-x86-minimal-2007.0-r1 CD without any problems.

wangzilla · Post by **wangzilla** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 2:25 pm

desultory wrote:
wangzilla wrote:its not too bad with a little patience... using the handbook and some help on the forums i was able to get gentoo up and running using command line (used 2007.0 livecd but gui didnt work due to lack of ati drivers so i just hit alt-f1 and switched to command line).
You could have used X during the installation process by manually modifying the configuration to [post=4069188]use the vesa driver[/post] instead.

ya, tru, but i feel i learned a little more this way

being a noob and all

billygotee · Post by **billygotee** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 3:29 am

Hey folks,

It's been a couple of years since I ran Gentoo, but I got the odd nerve to do so since I needed to re-build the laptop again today, and just lost a fair amount of work with the new installer.

I'd installed windows first on a small partition to go through the install. Did all my updates and got it precisely the way I wanted it and then started the Gentoo LiveCD. When I started the GTK+ Gui installer (very nice), I decided to mess around with the partitions. When I clicked the empty space the first time, a partition config window came up fine and I was able to make a boot partition. After deleting that partition (too big), however, when I clicked the empty space on the primary disk, it wouldn't bring up the GUI to make a partition anymore. I exited the installer (deleting the install content as it was asked), restarted it, and once again, clicking the empty space wouldn't bring up a partition config window.

Turns out, the MBR is fubar, because I can't boot it to the Windows install I just finished with. What the heck? I believe I'll be using the terminal program to do it next time, after installing windows again (I won't be so retarted as to fully configure Windows this time, however).

Can I recommend that the GUI partition manager not change anything on the disk until the user has worked everything out first? I'm not asking for sympathy, it's just a suggestion to throw somewhere on the list of things to do (even if it's near the bottom). . .I know it throws up a dialog saying "Are you sure???" but still, that just seemed a little too easy.

desultory · Post by **desultory** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 4:19 am

Merged the above post.

pbrianf17 · Post by **pbrianf17** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 2:03 am

all i get is a gnome desktop?? how do i launch the installer? Please help! im sitting here with my thumb up my ass.

Post by **NeddySeagoon** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 2:33 pm

pbrianf17,

Click on the icon labeled Installer, on your desktop.
If you don't have any desktop icons, thats a bug

Silver FOX · Post by **Silver FOX** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 3:23 pm

Hi there,

Been a slack user myself, I decided it was time to give Gentoo a try.

Too bad, I´ve just reached this topic after downloaded the LiveCD version. And the GTK+ Gui is indeed buggy... Just could not install anything...

It lead me to the command line installer... but also to some questions:

1) I was able to partition the disk normally. After that, the installer asked me what portage tree to use. Picked the Cd one. Is that the most updated (2007 iso)?

2)After that, it asked me what stage I´d want to use. I picked the CD too...but I think that´s a x86. Is that a i686 ou even newer? I´ve a Athlon XP 2.4+ and would not mind downloading it again... Or even better: Is there a way so the stage is also compiled with my use flags? Will it have any impact in performance?

3) Now, the Kernel. I picked the default one because I want to compile a vanilla one. It was taking too long.... was already late at night.. so I give up at this point. But where do I edit the USE flags in the installation? After the kernel?

Thank you,

Post by **NeddySeagoon** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 4:41 pm

Silver FOX,

Welcome to gentoo.

The portage snapshot on the CDs dates from around April 2007. The snapshot on the mirrors is updated daily.
Get the most recent snapshot, install it then do

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emerge --sync

to have a portage tree that is less than 30 minutes old.

To get your system up to date and compiled with your USE and CFLAG settings, do

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emerge system -e

at the end of the stage 3 install, or when you boot into your own kernel but before you install much else.

Its all in the Gentoo Handbook

Silver FOX · Post by **Silver FOX** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 6:34 pm

NeddySeagoon,

Thank you so much.

I thought the command to update the system was:

emerge --ask (to ask first) --deep(to include dependences) --newuse (when you change the USE´s) world.

Could you tell me the diference?

Thanks,

desultory · Post by **desultory** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 3:16 am

Silver FOX wrote:I thought the command to update the system was:

emerge --ask (to ask first) --deep(to include dependences) --newuse (when you change the USE´s) world.

Could you tell me the diference?

To update the set of software that the package manager is aware of (known by various references, most commonly the portage tree or simply the tree), run emerge --sync (there are exceptions to this, but you need be concerned with them yet). To update the software installed on the system with respect to the software that the package manager is aware of, run emerge -avuND world (the options respectively expand to --ask --verbose --update --newuse and --deep).

Post by **NeddySeagoon** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 11:55 am

Silver FOX,

emerge -e system expands to be

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emerge --emptytree system

--emptytree pretends that absolutely nothing is installed, so everything (in system) is rebuilt.

emerge -uDN rebuilds things that have updates, their dependancies and things that have changed USE flags.
It does not catch things that were compiled with different CFLAGS as the CFLAGS used for a build are not recorded anywhere.

You should rarely use --emptytree. Perhaps once at install time, if you know what you are doing with CFLAGS and want everything built with your own optimisations and again as instructed in various update guides. Normally emerge -uDNav world is plenty good enough.
They both need emerge --sync beforehand.

emerge --sync updates all the 'recipies' for building software. Adding new ones, deleting old ones. It does not actually update any software itself. emerge -uDNav world applies the new 'recipies' that you fetched with --sync to your system. Not all of them, only those that apply to your own install.

mark.curtis · Post by **mark.curtis** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 1:17 pm

Well im a newbie to Linux totally, I started with Gentoo (some may say i was brave) i managed to get it up and running using a 2006 live installer disc, i even managed to stumble through getting my sound working. Then i decided to try installing KDE (i didnt select it as part of the CD install), thats when it all went wrong. I then thought seeing as my 2006 version is out of date and the emerge sync command wasnt working for some reason (it did before but not on this day), i downloaded tohe 2007 CD. Oh well it just went from bad to worse, the graphical installer partitioning didnt seem to work properly and if you got it wrong you couldnt re-do the partitions, you kept getting an error. Finally I got everything setup and ready to install and the install started off, it was chugging along nicely then it failed (or rather got stuck) at

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...emerging app-text/libpaper-1.1.20...

it sat here for about 5 hours (i was being very patient)

So I gave up on this. I couldnt get around this and couldnt install. I was reading on this forum and elsewhere that gentoo is not the easiest linux distribution to setup so I decided to shelve the gentoo discs and try out another one. So folks im really sorry to say, ive boxed up those gentoo discs, and headed off elsewhere. Since then ive found more success in suse10.2 (even though that still has some niggly problems). So good luck with your installs folks. I may return one day when Ive finally attained greater knowledge and feel up to the challenge. Good luck to all of you!

Munin · Post by **Munin** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 12:47 pm

I had a similar problem, dunno what app it was though... anyway, there simply was a problem with the server; I canceled the emerging process, deleted the server Gentoo tried to use from the list of possible servers, re-emerged and things went just fine - things are not always as complicated as they seem (I assume emerge --resume would have been even faster but hey, I'm still n00b)

windtalker · Post by **windtalker** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 10:45 pm

Spent an entire day attempting to install with the live 2007 cd. Had to get the gparted disc out a few times and wipe the entire hard drive to get the installer to partition again as "recommended". Never did get Gentoo to install. I read the handbook and even went to the trouble of printing it out. Didn't help me whatsoever. . Reading the handbook really didn't make a lot of sense to me as it didn't tell me what was needed or not needed for the install per the graphical installers log at the end. There were two places that packages could be installed. I tried installing with what was already selected and tried installing with various packages I knew I would use or need. At the end I selected the gnome desktop with a window manager. I had also selected the grub bootloader earlier in the procedure. I selected ALL recommended packages. . Each and every time I got the install failed. I did however have the option of finding the file that stated why,,,,packages unecessary for the install selected. ?????????????? Maybe someday I'll get to try Gentoo out. I made it through a Debian install (which required hitting the Valium and Jack Daniels) but I sure ain't able to make it through a Gentoo install. Someday maybe.

Suresh · Post by **Suresh** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 9:55 am

lucky for me i just did a stage1 install from minimal and it worked great!

2handy · Post by **2handy** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:30 am

I first tried the minimal 64bit install, but after 2 days I still could not get X to work. So I thought I'd download the 32bit Live CD, which I did, to find that it gets stopped at a black screen.

I had a few days away from the problem, spending one of them on installing & completely setting up Kubuntu 7.10 on my 2nd machine. This was understandably a refreshing experience.

I really have enjoyed most of the Gentoo installation process, my Linux based knowledge grew a lot in those two days, I made multiple kernels & explored areas that I had had no need to in the past. I just don't want to spend another three days to find that I should have installed another distro' instead.

Anyway, after reading much of this thread, I think I'll pass on Gentoo at the moment, I'll keep my eye on it in the hope that reliable installs become the norm for those that follow the Handbook's instructions, soon.

I wish Gentoo the very best, & hope to be amongst its users in the near future.

Post by **NeddySeagoon** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 9:50 pm

2handy,

The minimal install really is the way to go. Others have seen and solved Xorg problems.
Stick with the minimal install and ask here about problems.

See you when you come back to Gentoo

Xerionn · Post by **Xerionn** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 11:49 pm

So i decided to go for a fresh install of 2007.0 but i never managed to get GUI or GLI to work. For various reason as it says the installations fails.
Tested the Live Dvd and the live cd.Live Cd stuck at file 50 i think it was perl and as it was said here it happened to lot users. Live dvd on the other hand most times it failed after i selected cron deamon or when i asked it to built the kernel from sources.These 2 were the most common parts that i got a failure after doing them.Only once i managed to get through via GUI but i selected optional packages and it got stuck.. guess i should not have selected any at that time and use emerge to get them afterwards.Via GLI it failed after selecting to be built from sources most times and only once i managed to pass through to select optional packages where i selected less but i think it got stuck at to app-text/libpaper if i remember correctly.

I wanted to use gui/gli just to be a bit quicker but i guess i ended up consuming lot more time hehe than from what i would had done if i went for the minimal installation. Is there any solution for the problems mentioned and in general the failure of the installer ? Will be doing tomorrow the minimal installation but i am just asking just for my knowledge.

Post by **NeddySeagoon** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 8:30 pm

Xerionn,

These failures are not as general as you may think. The installer works for a lot of people.
Its just not possibile to test it with every combination of hardware.

There is no immediate fix as the installer is only updated every time new install media is released. The next update will be on 2007.1 or 2008.0, or whatever it is called. Of course, Gentoo does not have versions, you do e

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merge --sync 
emerge world -uDNav

and you have todays Gentoo.

wildhorse · Post by **wildhorse** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 11:40 pm

Besides the installer problems, I downloaded the 2007.0 x86 LiveDVD because I have to do a networkless installation on one machine without Internet connection and expected that all files would be on the DVD. It turns out that most files in /usr/portage/distfiles are obsolete and the versions needed are mssing on the DVD. So now I downloaded all files and transfer them via an USB-attached portable disk. Not exactly what I expected.

Post by **NeddySeagoon** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 12:51 pm

wildhorse,

As I have said, the installer CD/DVD provides the versions of things that were current at the time the snapshot on which the installer is based was made. Thats the same as any binary distro and its as close as Gentoo gets to providing binaries.

wildhorse · Post by **wildhorse** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 3:32 pm

NeddySeagoon wrote:wildhorse,

As I have said, the installer CD/DVD provides the versions of things that were current at the time the snapshot on which the installer is based was made. Thats the same as any binary distro and its as close as Gentoo gets to providing binaries.

No, the LiveDVD does not provide the right versions. The files expected by emerge and the ones in /usr/portage/distfiles are not the same and far too many files in distfiles are missing. In fact I cannot find all of them even on distfiles.gentoo.org. For example, to build X11, emerge tries to fetch randrproto-1.2.0.tar.bz2, but the only versions available are 1.2.1 and 1.2.2.

Gentoo 2007.0 GUI Installer is buggy

4 hours of work down the hole

hai

Distribution files on LiveDVD missing