Gentoo Install - make.conf

[RB]

[RB]

[RB]

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It's all a bit Reddish...
I'm just in the process of installing Gentoo and was doing ok considering I'm a n00b. Just getting to the end of stage 1 where I have to edit the 'make.conf' file.

I've hit a very large wall. I've read the docs on the install and also the section on the gentoo web site about the 'USE' flags and I'm still none the wiser.

The machine specs:

P 200MHz
128MB EDO RAM
J-656 (Jetway?) Motherboard
4.3GB HDD

(Piece of crap, I know)

The only thing I need it for is NEdit (Java for Uni) and a web browser of some sort. It was previously running redhat 7.3 (for about a week) with gnome which I later changed to fluxbox.

So the only thing I think it needs is NEdit, a web browser (Pref. Phoenix. Tried it, liked it a lot) and fluxbox.

What do I need to put the USE flags for the above system?

Thanks.

[RB]
 
Originally posted by Shak
The USE flags are basically preferences as to what you would like, its fine to leave them as they are in /etc/make.profile with this lot:

Code: 
USE="x86 oss 3dnow apm arts avi berkdb crypt cups encode gdbm gif gpm gtk imlib 
java jpeg kde libg++ libwww mikmod mmx motif  mpeg ncurses nls                  
oggvorbis opengl pam pdflib png python qt qtmt quicktime readline sdl           
slang spell ssl svga tcpd truetype X xml2 xmms xv"

The USE flags are something that is hardware independent, it doesnt matter what hardware just what your choices are. The ones that I have on this machine are the ones about as they are pretty decent choices. This is the default. TBH on my first install I didnt change those.

Shak
Click to expand...

Thanks mate. Just started the bootstrap process. Am I right in assuming this is going to take very long time on the aforementioned dog of a PC?
 
Originally posted by Mpemba Effect
You could just use the default. Where is got USE= just put in stuff you want and stuff you don't want. Mine looks like this, be sure to uncomment the USE if your going to use it:

USE="sse mmx xv dga xfs -gnome -kde -arts -nls -3dnow -nano"

A bit lower down you'll see the Host Settings and here you can specify your CHOST and CXXFLAGS. I'd say you should use something like this, which is fairly conservative:

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=pentium2 -O3 -pipe -mmmx -fomit-frame-pointer"
CXXFLAGS="-march=pentium2 -O3 -pipe -mmmx -fomit-frame-pointer"
Click to expand...

D'oh! That'll teach me!
Must press refresh more often!

Just using the defaults.

[RB]
 
Well I thought everything was going well but apparently not :(. Must have been something I've missed or done wrong!

Start the machine - ok.
Grub loads - ok.
Select option to boot - ok.

Immediately after the following pops up

Code: 
Booting 'Gentoo Linux'

root (hd0,0)
 File system type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
kernel /boot/bzImage root=/dev/hda3
    [Linux-bzImage, setup=0xa00, size=0xe91cc]

Machine reboots. Repeat ad infinitum. :(

Anything obvious or is it start again time?

Thanks

[RB]
 
Code: 
/dev/hda1           /boot       ext2	 noauto,noatime	 0 0
/dev/hda3           /           ext3	 noatime         0 2
/dev/hda2           none        swap	 sw              0 1
/dev/cdroms/cdrom0  /mnt/cdrom  iso9660	 noauto,ro       0 0
proc                /proc       proc	 defaults        0 0

Ok :confused:
No menu.lst :confused:
Done something very wrong!!!

Sorry for my n00bie-ness!
 
I think I'm gonna have to admit defeat and start again! :o

Pay a little bit attention to detail next time. Make sure everything is right.

Thanks Guys

[RB]

/edit Forgot to say:

hda1 = Boot (ext2)
hda2 = Swap
hda3 = Root (ext2)

if that's any help
 
Originally posted by Mpemba Effect
Keep at it mate, don't let it defeat you yet. Your like there, all it is, is getting it to boot. Is bzImage in /boot?
Click to expand...

Yep it's there. I'm not annoyed at all which is rather strange. I don't think I should be anyway cos I feel like I've learned a lot just by going through the install. Rather pleased actually :).

Close but no cigar!

I'll keep trying till I get it right!

[RB]
 
Originally posted by Mpemba Effect
At the most I think you'll only need to recompile the Kernel and maybe redo the grub ... although it does look ok to me.
Click to expand...

How do I go about doing that? How do I boot off the cd and make hda3 root instead of the files from the cd?

Thanks

[RB]
 
Well I'm back ast configuring the fstab and I'm asking you guys before I do anything this time!

Code: 
/dev/hda1           /boot       ext2	 noauto,noatime	 1 2
/dev/hda6           /              ext2	 noatime                   0 1
/dev/hda5           none       swap	 sw                           0 0
/dev/cdroms/cdrom0  /mnt/cdrom  iso9660 noauto,ro             0 0
proc                /proc       proc	 defaults                                   0 0

The boots hda1
Root's hda6
Swap's hda5

and hda5 & hda6 are logical drives on the hda2 extended partition.

What are the numbers on the end supposed to be? They like the ones in Grub?

Thanks

[RB]
 
Last edited:
Well sorted that out, I'd missed out creating the menu.lst. Same problem again I'm afraid.

Code: 
Booting 'Gentoo Linux'

root (hd0,0)
 File system type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
kernel /boot/bzImage root=/dev/hda6
    [Linux-bzImage, setup=0xa00, size=0xe91cc]

Then immediately re-boots.

[RB]
 
No cigar I'm afraid. I already changed it accordingly. It already looks like that.

This is really frustrating!

Thanks Anyway mate.

[RB]

/edit And in my lazyness of copying and pasting the old message before boot I forgot to change it!

The last hex code is now different

Code: 
Booting 'Gentoo Linux'

root (hd0,0)
 File system type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
kernel /boot/bzImage root=/dev/hda6
    [Linux-bzImage, setup=0xa00, size=0xddc30]
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by Mpemba Effect
Code: 
fdisk /dev/hda
p
q
Click to expand...

Code: 
Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 523 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 + 512 bytes

      Device       Boot    Start         End          Blocks        Id    System
   /dev/hda1                   1         100          803218+       83    Linux
   /dev/hda2                 101         523          3397747+       5    Extended
   /dev/hda5                 257         523          2144646       82    Linux swap
   /dev/hda6                 101         256          1253038+      83    Linux

^ That's what I get

[RB]
 
I finish Uni early tomorrow so I'll start again then :).

Thanks

[RB]

/edit Seems I've been using fdisk wrongly too! Thanks mate! :)

Infact - lol @ me! I was using the fdisk command thus:

Code: 
100 +sizeM

To get 100 Meg instead of

Code: 
+100M
 
Last edited:
Well, third time unlucky it seems. Still no joy, same problem. I'll give it a couple of more goes I think.

This time I'm going to download one of the stage3 tar.bz2 and try that way. Which steps still need to be followed in the docs when using one of the stage 3 tar's?

Thanks

[RB]

/edit :o Sorry, just found it right at the beginning of the docs! Damn my eyes!
 
Last edited:
This time I did it as 3 primary partitions and still no joy :(. I'll try installing it on my main machine to see if it's just me doing something wrong.

Thanks Guys (I'll probably be back :) )

[RB]

/edit Never used lynx before, it's kewl!
 
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