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It started off ugly, but I found the solutions, so here they are, to |
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hopefully save other people some time. |
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|
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The Gentoo minimal install image cannot see the harddrive at all. |
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"fdisk -l" only showed /dev/sda, i.e. the USB stick on which unetbootin |
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had installed the minimal install. I've filed bug a report on this... |
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http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=292346 |
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|
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Knoppix, on the other hand, could see the hard drive, but wasn't able |
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to drive the RTL8101 network card. I ended up installing under a |
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Knoppix "live CD" on a USB stick. Notes regarding the installation |
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under Knoppix... |
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|
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1) Get *TWO* USB sticks, one of which has at least 1 gigabyte capacity, |
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and make sure to back up any important data on them. It will all be |
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overwritten. |
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|
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2) On a machine with a CD or DVD download and burn the microKnoppix ISO. |
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|
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3) Boot the existing computer from the Knoppix CD/DVD. |
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|
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4) Plug in a USB stick with at least 1 gig capacity. |
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|
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5) From a console, execute "flash-knoppix" (without the quotes). That's |
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it. Surprisingly easy. For people who insist on menus, the path is |
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[LXDE --> System Tools --> Install KNOPPIX to flash disk] |
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|
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6) Unmount and take out the USB stick, and reboot the linux machine. |
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You will need it a lot. |
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|
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7) Do the following in the exact order. I went around in circles over |
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this one... |
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- insert the bootable USB stick into the ACER netbook. |
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- reboot the ACER while holding down the {F2} key. This will bring |
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you into the BIOS setup. |
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- go into the boot menu and select the item which mentions your USB |
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stick. In my case it was "USB HD" (YES!!!) not "USB KEY". |
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- save changes and boot. This should bring up Knoppix |
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|
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8) Make sure that the other linux machine is up to date, and do *NOT* |
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clean out the /usr/portage/distfiles directory. |
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|
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9) Follow the regular Gentoo install instructions with these changes |
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- open 2 terminals after Knoppix boots, and "su -" in both. Later |
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on you'll be able to switch back and forth between chrooted and |
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Knoppix environments |
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- as per http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/altinstall.xml |
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- after bootup execute "mkdir /mnt/gentoo" from one of the 2 terms |
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- when setting up for chroot, mount proc system with the command |
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mount -o bind /proc /mnt/gentoo/proc |
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rather than the command given in the install documentation |
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- if Knoppix can't use the network card (as in my case) you'll have |
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to be prepared to download stage3 and portage snapshot files, etc |
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to the other linux machine, and shuttle them over via USB stick. |
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This gets painfull when the instructions tell you to emerge stuff |
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and you don't have a network card. If you followed instructions |
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in step #8, you can shuttle the necessary tarballs over from the |
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other machine's distfiles directory to the Acer's distfiles |
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directory. |
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|
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10) If you're going to be running "make menuconfig" manually *EXIT AND |
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SAVE YOUR WORK EVERY FEW MINUTES*!!! I cannot emphasize this enough. |
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There is some magic combination of keypress and dragging my fingers |
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on the touchpad, which kills the terminal you're working in. Of |
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course you end up losing the entries you've made. Save early and |
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save often. Here are the "make menuconfig" paths for installing |
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working hard drive and network card drivers... |
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|
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Device Drivers |
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Serial ATA (prod) and Parallel ATA (experimental) drivers |
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ATA SFF support |
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Intel SCH PATA support |
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|
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|
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Device Drivers |
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Network Device support |
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Ethernet (1000 mbit support) |
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Realtek 8169 gigabit ethernet support |
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|
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It's now booting properly and seeing the internet. The install is |
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done on GMT time, and then I set to local time. Since I'm in EST |
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timezone (5 hours behind GMT), it complains on bootup about certain |
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config files having dates in the future. That will disappear in a few |
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hours. It's close to finishing an update. Next is "emerge system" to |
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be followed by "emerge world". |
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|
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-- |
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Walter Dnes <waltdnes@××××××××.org> |