Re: [gentoo-amd64] Re: Problem with USB-Keyboard at Install

[Mark Knecht]

On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 3:48 PM, Duncan<1i5t5.duncan@×××.net> wrote:
> Mark Knecht <markknecht@×××××.com> posted
> 5bdc1c8b0908030920p36508cf8n8b95915c367a18e6@××××××××××.com, excerpted
> below, on  Mon, 03 Aug 2009 09:20:35 -0700:
>
>> Duncan<1i5t5.duncan@×××.net> wrote:
>>> Mark Knecht <markknecht@×××××.com> posted:
>>>> Lance Lassetter<lancelassetter@×××××.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Have you tried enabling evdev in make.conf under INPUT_DEVICES?
>>>>
>>>> How could he do this when he's trying to boot from an install CD?
>>>
>>> Hmm, mount the ISO using loopback, make the change, umount, burn?
>
>>    So I guess you are suggesting that someone doing a Gentoo install,
>> and finding that the install CD fails to work, is then possibly going to
>> modify the install CD?
>>
>>    Beyond that what make.conf are we speaking about? As I asked over
>> the weekend, and as far as I can tell, there is no make.conf on the
>> install CD to modify. (With the keyboard we don't have because we're
>> running USB unless this is a completely different installation on the
>> same machine, or we're doing it on a different machine.)
>>
>>    Maybe I'm underestimating INPUT_DEVICES but I thought that was only
>> for xorg-server which isn't running when the install CD finishes booting
>> is it? Even if the OP had done what you suggested, had enough knowledge
>> of Gentoo to think about creating a make.conf file and placing "keyboard
>> mouse evdev" in it, burned a new copy, and then rebooted, what changes
>> about the environment that is running at that point?
>>
>>    I'm really confused and I know this because you are, no joke here,
>> one of my Gentoo guiding lights! Enlighten me! Please!
>
> Your points are valid (well, I'll take that guiding light thing at face
> value, thanks, but the rest anyway is valid, AFAIK), but that's not
> really what I was commenting on.

You should always assume GLS (Guiding Light Status) when conversing
with me. :-)

>
> Seeing as he had already solved the problem,

Which I had not read at the time I responded....

> I was jumping into less
> serious mode, and the bit about not writing to a CD struck my fancy.
>

Fair enough.

I'm interested in the problems of installing Gentoo, whatever they
tend to be, as I'm one of the ever dwindling number of vocal Gentoo
supporters in the pro-audio community. (They are all leaving for Arch
or Ubuntu variants it seems) One acquaintance ask me about installing
64-bit Gentoo last week and specifically asked about new hardware
issues. Seemed to me that the OP's USB keyboard issue might be fairly
common so I wanted to try to solve it here, if possible. Seems it
wasn't unfortunately.

Anyway, good to know that I'm not *totally* off base with my view of
what these little bits of software do, and your point is interesting.
One thing that would be possible would be to do the setup as you
suggest, then zcat the running config to a .config file, go to the web
and get kernel source, compile the source with any changes required,
and then (possibly) install that kernel into whatever part of the iso
image necessary to make it an option for booting.

Still, installing from some other distro that actually works seems
easier and why, by the way, does that other distro support
installation for the OP when Gentoo does not? Seems strange to me....

Cheers,
Mark