Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Walter Dnes <waltdnes@××××××××.org>
To: Gentoo Users List <gentoo-user@l.g.o>
Subject: [gentoo-user] Acer Aspireone AO751h install hints
Date: Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:11:57
Message-Id: 20091108081115.GA7871@waltdnes.org
1 It started off ugly, but I found the solutions, so here they are, to
2 hopefully save other people some time.
3
4 The Gentoo minimal install image cannot see the harddrive at all.
5 "fdisk -l" only showed /dev/sda, i.e. the USB stick on which unetbootin
6 had installed the minimal install. I've filed bug a report on this...
7 http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=292346
8
9 Knoppix, on the other hand, could see the hard drive, but wasn't able
10 to drive the RTL8101 network card. I ended up installing under a
11 Knoppix "live CD" on a USB stick. Notes regarding the installation
12 under Knoppix...
13
14 1) Get *TWO* USB sticks, one of which has at least 1 gigabyte capacity,
15 and make sure to back up any important data on them. It will all be
16 overwritten.
17
18 2) On a machine with a CD or DVD download and burn the microKnoppix ISO.
19
20 3) Boot the existing computer from the Knoppix CD/DVD.
21
22 4) Plug in a USB stick with at least 1 gig capacity.
23
24 5) From a console, execute "flash-knoppix" (without the quotes). That's
25 it. Surprisingly easy. For people who insist on menus, the path is
26 [LXDE --> System Tools --> Install KNOPPIX to flash disk]
27
28 6) Unmount and take out the USB stick, and reboot the linux machine.
29 You will need it a lot.
30
31 7) Do the following in the exact order. I went around in circles over
32 this one...
33 - insert the bootable USB stick into the ACER netbook.
34 - reboot the ACER while holding down the {F2} key. This will bring
35 you into the BIOS setup.
36 - go into the boot menu and select the item which mentions your USB
37 stick. In my case it was "USB HD" (YES!!!) not "USB KEY".
38 - save changes and boot. This should bring up Knoppix
39
40 8) Make sure that the other linux machine is up to date, and do *NOT*
41 clean out the /usr/portage/distfiles directory.
42
43 9) Follow the regular Gentoo install instructions with these changes
44 - open 2 terminals after Knoppix boots, and "su -" in both. Later
45 on you'll be able to switch back and forth between chrooted and
46 Knoppix environments
47 - as per http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/altinstall.xml
48 - after bootup execute "mkdir /mnt/gentoo" from one of the 2 terms
49 - when setting up for chroot, mount proc system with the command
50 mount -o bind /proc /mnt/gentoo/proc
51 rather than the command given in the install documentation
52 - if Knoppix can't use the network card (as in my case) you'll have
53 to be prepared to download stage3 and portage snapshot files, etc
54 to the other linux machine, and shuttle them over via USB stick.
55 This gets painfull when the instructions tell you to emerge stuff
56 and you don't have a network card. If you followed instructions
57 in step #8, you can shuttle the necessary tarballs over from the
58 other machine's distfiles directory to the Acer's distfiles
59 directory.
60
61 10) If you're going to be running "make menuconfig" manually *EXIT AND
62 SAVE YOUR WORK EVERY FEW MINUTES*!!! I cannot emphasize this enough.
63 There is some magic combination of keypress and dragging my fingers
64 on the touchpad, which kills the terminal you're working in. Of
65 course you end up losing the entries you've made. Save early and
66 save often. Here are the "make menuconfig" paths for installing
67 working hard drive and network card drivers...
68
69 Device Drivers
70 Serial ATA (prod) and Parallel ATA (experimental) drivers
71 ATA SFF support
72 Intel SCH PATA support
73
74
75 Device Drivers
76 Network Device support
77 Ethernet (1000 mbit support)
78 Realtek 8169 gigabit ethernet support
79
80 It's now booting properly and seeing the internet. The install is
81 done on GMT time, and then I set to local time. Since I'm in EST
82 timezone (5 hours behind GMT), it complains on bootup about certain
83 config files having dates in the future. That will disappear in a few
84 hours. It's close to finishing an update. Next is "emerge system" to
85 be followed by "emerge world".
86
87 --
88 Walter Dnes <waltdnes@××××××××.org>

Replies

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Re: [gentoo-user] Acer Aspireone AO751h install hints Mick <michaelkintzios@×××××.com>