Round 5: ABF vs Gentoo 2005.1

[abf]

You knew I couldn't resist. Recently I was fasinated with an idea of a fast distro + light desktop. So i went ahead and installed....none other but Vector with xfce. Ugh...couldn't get my mouse to work for the life of me.

So now i am trying something different. As of right now i am installing gentoo....through windows! For some reason i couldn't get the damn thing to connect when i booted the cd (i always had connection problems with taht cd, but was able to solve it before, not today...forgot how). SO anyway, i mounted my partitions in vmware, mounted teh gentoo iso file, and started install. as of right now its unzipping the latest portage snapshot.

anywho. updates will come eventually.

[abf]

i believe it installed successfuly. the problem? i can't access it, only through VMWARE.

i don't have lilo or grub installed, just windows bootloader. I heard there are options of having linx boot from NT Loader but i am not sure how to do it. after some googling i am still clueless.

that, or if i can get a easy way to install grub/lilo from a cd....i guess that might work too.

[seablade]

Err... I dont know enough about VMWare to help you really, But I thought that only set up virtual partitions, not actual ones...

Seablade

[bigtrouble77]

Err... I dont know enough about VMWare to help you really, But I thought that only set up virtual partitions, not actual ones...

Seablade
That's what I thought too. Wouldn't the drivers get screwed up being that vmware uses it's own?

Anyway, good luck. I gnome up and running. All of the speed issues I had with ubuntu were gone. The gnome gui actually responded much faster than windows.

[abf]

gentoo is installed just fine (i think) on my actual partition. now my issue is the bootloader.

i can't get gentoo installed the normal way because the livecd won't network for the life of it. i have no idea what to do to make it work. i've tried everything.

to connect i did:
modprobe sis900
net-setup eth0
>wired > dhcp
ifconfig eth0 up

no connection. ???

[seablade]

ABF does ifconfig show the port set up(After you do the configuration) with an address and all that?

If it shows it set up, but not with an address, try setting it up staticly on the same subnet as the rest of your DHCP, just with a different address and see then.

Did you add a default route?

Are you sure you set up the CORRECT port(See the BT thread on this for an example of some things that cna happen that confuse at first)?

Seablade

[Starcub]

The Gentoo Installation Handbook is included on the install CD's, but not sure about the live CD... I would guess it is. Anyway, it explains how to do these things. You can find it on Gentoo's homepage.

You'll need to boot up with your live CD and chroot into your installation.
You'll probably want to set up your kernel with genkernel or do it manually. You'll compile your kernel and install it in the "/boot" directory of your root partition. You need to configure the lilo or grub config file for your specific machines' partition scheme and whatever kernel you installed. Run the lilo or grub program and it will use your config file to install an appropriate MBR and then you can reboot into Gentoo, etc.

After you reboot into your new installation, run this to get connected:

ifconfig eth0 up (make sure the interface is "RUNNING")
dhcpcd eth0

[abf]

forget about it. lol....dumped it in favor of none other but Ubuntu

[seablade]

HehHeh ABF how many times you gonna start Gentoo and not finish it;)

Oh well at least yer happy with your distro;) I tihnk we both agree Ubuntu is a GOOD distro.

Seablade

[bigtrouble77]

HehHeh ABF how many times you gonna start Gentoo and not finish it;)

Oh well at least yer happy with your distro;) I tihnk we both agree Ubuntu is a GOOD distro.

Seablade
I thought about giving up a few times when I was having the network problems. In fact, it took me all of friday and part of saturday to finally understand what the heck was going wrong. And I'm still having some issues, but they are not severe.

The great news is that I really know how linux handles network devices and could probably fix them from the command line on any distro. I couldn't say that a few days ago.

[seablade]

Yep and that is one of the greatest things about going with Gentoo, you learn more about linux that carries over to the basic understanding of how it handles hardware in the install of it than you typically do running other distros for years.

Although ABF installing every distro under the sun probably has a decent idea of what he is doing by now, or at least I hope;)

Seablade

Still keepin an eye on how yer doin as well there BT;)

[bigtrouble77]

Still keepin an eye on how yer doin as well there BT;)
I appreciate it. I hope no one is annoyed by that thread. It's sorta my gentoo blog. I hope it can help someone someday.

The guys on this board (I don't want to start listing names because I know i'll miss a few) are amazingly helpful. It's a small group, but phenominally productive.

It's funny, I've only been using linux since this past august. Here's my break through thread: http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?p=1162017#post1162017

I've come so far in those months. I'm at the point where i'm nearly as comfortable in linux as windows. I just look as gentoo as the next step in learning what I want to know. I just kinda lost interest in windows and would rather spend my time on another os. And guys like abf that keep this group alive and moving is great.