[gentoo-user] Re: New Gentoo Laptop

[James]

Timothy A. Holmes <tholmes <at> mcaschool.net> writes:

> > Here's a random list of ideas that may ease the pain of conversion.
> >
> > 1. backup the existing system
> >
> > 2. Run lspci -vv,   lshw, and discover to document the hardware
> > under ubuntu before beginnning the conversion. USBview can be valuable
> > is you have usb devices.
> >
> > 3. Save the.config file for building a kernel or the existing kernel
> > under ubuntu
> >
> > 4. Save the hdparm settings on the existing drive, as well as the
> > /etc/fstab
> > and xorg or xfree configuration files. In fact a second backup of
> /etc/
> > and any other valuable config files is a good idea.
> >
> > 5. Boot the laptop with the most recent liveCD (gentoo) and see what
> works
> > and
> > what does not work.
> >
> > 6. Research all hardware device driver issues before making the
> > commitment.
> >
> > 7. Save a 'dmesg' log file.
> >
> >
> > hth,
> >
> > James
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > gentoo-user <at> gentoo.org mailing list
> [Timothy A. Holmes]
>
> James -- thanks so much for your help and ideas -- they all sound like
> excellent suggestions -- I will comment on each one below
>
> 1.  Thankfully -- I am actually going to be installing on a totally new
> hdd, so the backup issue is not really there, the drives will become
> interchangeable, and once the linux one is fully working, the original
> one will be reformatted as a windows drive for the rare case that the
> box would need it

Well the first thing is to keep your replies, inline, so we can follow 
the discussion.
>
> 2. Those sound good -- ive never messed with them, I'm assuming that all
> of them have appropriate man pages?
>
They are very easy to use

I'm not familiar with ubuntu, but first find the package, install it
in each case and then:

lspci -vv > lspci.results

lshw > lshw.results

discover > discover.results  

dmesg > dmesg.results.date

putting them on a floppy for example:
mcopy lspci a:
mcopy lshw.results a:
mcopy discover.results
mcopy dmesg.results.date a:

> 3. On this one - the kernel is the default one packaged with Ubuntu, I
> have done updates out of synaptic, but have not configured it at all.  I
> don't know how to get a config file for it -- can you point me to a
> reference, or give me some instructions

Not familiar with ubuntu.  uname -r should give the kernel version
then download sources (ask a ubuntu person for details)

cd /usr/src
ln -sf /usr/src/[ubuntu-kernel-source /usr/src/linux
cd /usr/src/linux
make meuconfig  (hopefully, it'll pick up your default
options from the existing kernel)

(save  menuconfig without making changes)

make  

then  copy the /usr/src/linux/.config file to the floppy
(it should look like roughly like this:

<snip>
#
# Automatically generated make config: don't edit
# Linux kernel version: 2.6.12-gentoo-r9
# Sat Sep  3 07:37:47 2005
#
CONFIG_X86=y
CONFIG_MMU=y
CONFIG_UID16=y
CONFIG_GENERIC_ISA_DMA=y
CONFIG_GENERIC_IOMAP=y

#
# Code maturity level options
#
CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL=y
CONFIG_CLEAN_COMPILE=y
CONFIG_LOCK_KERNEL=y
CONFIG_INIT_ENV_ARG_LIMIT=32
<snip>

after you build a kernel for the gentoo system, you can see
what options(trickery) the ubuntu masters used to create their
disk. Note. You may have to add steps to this, it's just an outline.

>
> 4. sounds good -- again thankfully -- it's a drive swap rather than an
> overwrite
>
> 5. Definatly will do
>
> 6. Also sounds good
>
> 7. How do I do this???

on ubuntu

dmesg > dmesg.ubuntu.date
mcopy dmesg.ubuntu.date a:

>
> Thanks again to you and all who have commented, Please keep those
> comments coming -- im loving this

good luck, and with gentoo it's all about learning and enjoying
the journey......  all things are possible, in time.

I John 4:8,9


James





-- 
gentoo-user@g.o mailing list