[gentoo-user] Re: Installation problems

[Hendrik Boom]

On Fri, 13 Jul 2007 14:49:45 -0700, ds wrote:

> On 7/13/07, Hendrik Boom <hendrik@××××××××××.com> wrote:
>> A few months ago I tried installing gentoo.  It mostly succeedes, but I
>> was unable to boot the new system.
>>
>> When I boot, it fails as follows:
>>
>> >> Activating mdev
>> >> Determining root device
>> !! Block device /dev/mapper/lovesong-gentoo is not a valid block device
>> !! The root block device is unspecified or not detected
>> Please specify a device to boot, or "shell" for a shell
>> boot() ::
>>
>>
>> Now I originally installed this system using a chroot from a Debian etch
>> system.  I used genkernel to generate the kernel.  As far as I can
>> remember, I did specified the --lvm option.
>>
>> Now perhaps the kernel is not OK because I ran genkernel in a chroot
>> running on a Debian kernel...
>>
>> Perhaps I chose the wront options...
>>
>> Perhaps I can fix things by rerunning genkernel with different options...
>>
>> Or perhaps I need to start all over from a full-fledged gentoo install CD.
>>
>> Please advise.
>>
>> -- hendrik
>>
>> P.S.  Some Gory Details:
>
> hendrik -
>
> My gut reaction is that you should just start over and install from
> scratch.  I have only installed Gentoo by booting from the Gentoo
> install CD in the past, so I'm not familiar with using chroot from a
> Debian system.  I think the best and most well documented way to do a
> Gentoo install is to simply follow the handbook
> (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/index.xml).

That's what I was doing, except that I chrooted from Debian instead of
from the gentoo boot disk.  I suspect the difference is that I was running
a Debian kernel when running genkernel; if genkernel asks the running
kernel what options it was compiled with (which I believe it does), it
may not have gotten the information it needed.

>
> It is very easy to install Gentoo along with other OS's.  You just need
> to have a partition or two handy.  In my case, when I'm rebuilding my
> system from scratch I've always installed Gentoo third (Windows XP
> first, openSUSE second, then Gentoo).  I use two partitions for Gentoo,
> a /boot partition and a / partition, and I use the swap partition that
> was created for openSUSE for Gentoo as well. Then, I don't install grub
> in Gentoo, I simply add a Gentoo entry to the grub menu in openSUSE.
>
> I haven't personally used LVM with Gentoo, but I have set up an Ubuntu
> Server box with LVM and my experience is that it is best not to bother
> with LVM unless you really know you're going to need it.  In any case,
> the documentation I was following for Ubuntu required at least the /boot
> partition be non-LVM for grub to read the kernel off of it, but this may
> be due to a lack of knowledge in the workings of grub and LVM.

LVM works fine with Debian.  I figure I just need to learn what to do to
gentoo that Debian does automatically.  And you're right.  Booting from
the installation disk will probably help.  It shouldn't be necessary, but
I certainly will try it.

I do expect to need LVM.  Lack of flexibility in partition resizing was the
big problem with my previous set of OS installations on this machine (with
a smaller hard disk).

I suspect the problem with the kernel I'm using is that in some way it
does not properly recognize lvm -- perhaps because something isn't
compiled in, or because it needs an option to trigger it to look for lvm
volumes.  My /boot partition is an ordinary partition.  It's my /
partition that's LVM.

Debian etch is set up in the same way, with an ordinary secondary
partition for /boot, and an LVM for /.

(Users' home directories are on another machine entirely; will be mounted
using NFS.)

-- hendrik

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