Gentoo minimal install x86 & wireless

Enfield

Enfield

Enfield

Soldato
Joined
8 Nov 2003
Posts
7,409
Location
UK
Hello,

I want to install Gentoo on my old Dell laptop (P3 500Mhz, 256MB RAM) which I use just for messing about.

So far all I have done is boot from the CD... and have come across a few problems straight away.

First, it's not recognising my BT Voyager 1055 USB wireless adapter which uses the Broadcom 4320 chipset. (The green light is lit up). iwconfig tells me that there are no wireless extensions and ifconfig only displays 'lo'.

As I'm typing this I have disconnected the USB wireless adapter and am trying out another which is PCMCIA (have used gentoo dopcmcia). It's a Netgear MA01 and the green link light is flashing but Gentoo seems to have a problem with this too.

livecd root # hermes @ 00010100: Card removed while waiting for command 0x0002 completion.
eth0: Unable to disable port while reconfiguring card
eth0: Resetting instead...
Click to expand...

I have not removed the card at all and Gentoo has been resetting the card for quite a while now but doesn't seem to be getting anywhere.


Second, there is a problem starting gpm. It says:

* Starting gpm ...
/sbin/start-stop-daemon: Unable to start /usr/sbin/gpm: Input/output error (Input/output error)
Click to expand...

I get the above message when using both wireless adapters but receive another error when using the PCMCIA card

* ERROR: cannot start nfsmount as rpc.statd could not start
Click to expand...

Am I able to do some jiggery pokery with Knoppix to get my USB stick working? I've noticed this on Gentoo's page:

docache
This caches the entire runtime portion of the CD into RAM, which allows you to umount /mnt/cdrom and mount another CDROM. This option requires that you have at least twice as much available RAM as the size of the CD.
Click to expand...




Thanks
 
I have rebooted for the umpteenth time and haven't received and error about gpm this time! Interestingly I used gentoo docache...
 
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let us know how u get on! Gentoo has always seemed a step to far for me. Arch has been my most geeky so far.

May try gentoo when i got some time at xmas or next summer.
 
At the moment I am trying to install Gentoo via Knoppix LiveCD. I downloaded the latest one and that didn't work at all, got an error straight away. So I tried one of my old Knoppix LiveCD's and that is working fine.

However, it doesn't pick up the wireless so I am having to use NDISWrapper... I've installed the driver and it has worked, but, I still have no wireless extensions! No bloody wlan0 - only 'lo'!

What a pain in the backside. I'm stuck...

EDIT: Getting somewhere now.

I've had to go into /sys/bus/usb/devices/1-1 and edit a file there called bConfigurationValue which is blank and enter in a '1' and save it.

iwconfig now returns wlan0!
 
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Wow, i stopped using gentoo a year ago as i could never get wireless working (and portage wasnt up to date at all with 3d drivers amoungst other problems).

Have you got all the wireless tools installed? When i last looked there was alsorts of confusion about getting the right bits to get onto secure networks :s

On the positive side have you given x ago yet? (and some sort of windows manager), i had a really good gentoo install on an old gatway pc (p2 300 with 128 meg or ram) which ran xfce like a dream boat
 
Well I can't offer much help on your exact problem, but I can suggest using sysrescuecd to install your base system.
I use it all the time and it's a little more useful and up to date than the official live disc.

Also I assume you've already fired off a few posts regarding this problem on the official Gentoo forums.
 
Well I stayed up till 4am this morning installing Gentoo from Knoppix waiting till I had a bootable environment.

It didn't work on first attempt because in the grub file I had used hda (as per Knoppix) rather than sda and same with fstab and mtab. But now it works perfectly, no errors at all!

Don't need to use ndiswrapper, but do need to setup a wifi manager to log me in automatically. I did have a problem installing ndiswrapper (didn't know that I wouldnt need it at the time) because it needed to install two other packages: -

wireless-tools-29
and something else :p

Wireless-tools-29 wouldn't work so I had to patch it but that didn't work so I just edited the .ebuild myself but had problems at first using it as what I was doing was overwriting it with one from the internet. Managed to get around this using emerge and manifest I think (am very tired).

Anywhoo, just need to setup a GUI now. Quite pleased that it's working.


Sorry to bore.
 
Ah awesome news! (and a bit of congratualtions there too as it sounds like you've navigated some of the really hard bits rather well)

GUI should be simple in comparison :D
 
Good job. Gentoo is a rockin' distro to learn about linux.

With the specs on that lappy, I would strongly recommend looking into distcc though... before you start compiling X + gui + other apps....
 
Thanks .walls (glad I looked back on this thread before I got started!) Think I shall have a look at that tomorrow as I don't want my laptop left on over night as it will keep me awake!
 
Enfield said:
Thanks .walls (glad I looked back on this thread before I got started!) Think I shall have a look at that tomorrow as I don't want my laptop left on over night as it will keep me awake!
Click to expand...

lawl... on that spec machine... if you choose Gnome/KDE... it will be a lot longer than a night ;)
 
I'm pretty sure you would get more help on Gentoo forums. There are lot of experienced users there, and some devs are always around to help.

For wireless UI, you can try NM. It's makes life easier on laptop.
 
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