Gentoo Installation Questions and Problems

[Yamaneko]

1. My internet is slow, very slow. Both my old and new computers are networked through a hub (LinkSys DSL/Cable Hub. It has a built-in firewall.) See the attachment for more details. Even when the other computer is not on, the one I'm using to view pages online is very slow. Should it not be that if I use both computers to download stuff at the same time it should obviously slow down, but why is it slow even when I'm only using one?

2. I want to share files and printers between the two computers (both are running XP Pro btw). I gave access to my Program Files directory on the new computer to everyone (just to test things out). I go to My Network Places on the old computer > Workgroup > "New Computer" > and Program Files appears just fine there. I'm able to access and copy files too.

Now accessing folders and files from the new computer to the old computer is another story. I get all the way up to Workgroup and the name of the old computer, double-click and I get a permission error. "You do not have permission to access this computer, please check with your network admin to attain permission." I gave permission to everyone on the folder and on the drive, but still no luck.

Help?

[crono_logical]

2. Check the user account you use has the same name and password on both machines. You can set it up to authenticate unknown accounts as Guest too if you can't/don't want to do this, although it's not as secure.

[Yamaneko]

They are both the same user name, but neither have passwords. Is this a problem?

[crono_logical]

No passwords is a problem, yes, since you can't log on over the network into an account with a blank password by default.

[Yamaneko]

Yup, that did the trick.

Now for my super slow internet connection.

[Peegee]

Try this

[Baloki]

If that don't work (PG's thingie) make sure all or the bulk of the network traffic is processed by the new computer, and I really don't know how to do it, try the Home Network Wizard...

[Yamaneko]

I'll use this thread for some problems I'm having with setting up an internet connection in Gentoo Linux.

I've begun the install and have just chosen my kernel type (gentoo) and booted into the console as root user. I've used "net-config" to manually configure eth0's IP address and when I check with "ifconfig", it'll show up. However, I can resolve a host (www.yahoo.com) with "ping -c 3 www.yahoo.com" and going into "links" > Help > User Manual, can't resolve gentoo.org/.

Help.

[Dr Unne]

First thing to check: are you sure your network card is being found by your kernel? Post the output of lsmod.

When you say "However, I can resolve a host (www.yahoo.com)", do you mean you CAN, or is that a typo, and you CAN'T? Describe your network setup; namely, are you using DHCP? I assume not, but if you can use DHCP, things will be much easier for you. When you say "it'll show up", do you mean eth0 shows up in the output of ifconfig? Post the output of ifconfig.

I don't know what net-config does. Did you read this: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=1&chap=3 , particularly "3.d. Manual Network Configuration".

[Yamaneko]

Sorry, that was a typo. I <b>can't</b> resolve www.yahoo.com.

I am using DHCP.

Yeah, eth0 is showing up in the output of ifconfig. I'll post the results in just a second.

net-setup, sorry. I need to get my commands down better. I tried net-setup. I had it automatically attain my IP address and everything else.

[Yamaneko]

When the console is loading:
<b>Network device eth0
eth1 detected, DHCP broadcasting for IP</b>

ifconfig gives me this:
<b>eth0 link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr
inet addr: 192.168.1.100 bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask: 255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 METRIC: 1
RX packet: 0 errors: 0 dropped: 0 overrruns: 0 frames: 0
TX packet: 0 errors: 0 dropped: 0 overrruns: 0 carrier: 0
Collisions: 0 txqueuen: 1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes: 0 (0.0 b)</b>

I also tried configuring eth1, but no luck.

I'm behind a router. I noticed that 192.168.1.100 (which also shows up in Windows), doesn't show up here at EoFF in the Who's Online List. 192.168.1.100 is the IP my router assigned to that computer? Should I try the IP that I normally see here?

EDIT: The other IP address is giving me "unknown host" for yahoo.com as well.

[Dr Unne]

192.168.1.100 should never show up at EoFF, it's a LAN address. The address of your router should show up at EoFF.

Do you have two ethernet cards? If the kernel gets to assigning an eth1, it thinks you have two network cards. If you don't have two ethernet cards, then something is getting incorrectly detected as one. You really should check the output of lsmod, and make sure a module for your network card has been loaded. That "eth0 link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr" part, the UNSPEC should be Ethernet. Try ifconfig -a, and check if eth1 is Ethernet. It probably is.

If your network card is being detected as eth1, then you just need to start the network init scripts using eth1 instead of eth0. I don't know if the LiveCD can do that, by default. Likely you'll have to fiddle with things a bit. I wish I had a LiveCD I could check stuff with, but mine is ancient and outdated; this all might be wrong. But try this:


cp /etc/init.d/net.eth0 /etc/init.d/net.eth1
nano /etc/conf.d/net

/etc/conf.d/net is the config file for the network init scripts. In that file it should say something like


iface_eth0="dhcp"

Everywhere it says eth0, change it to eth1. (Only have to worry about the uncommented lines, of course.) Then do this:


/etc/init.d/net.eth0 stop
/etc/init.d/net.eth1 start

If all that crap doesn't work, you can try manually starting dhcpcd.


dhcpcd eth1

This is all assuming that the kernel HAS detected your network card, and that it's eth1. Use lsmod before trying all this junk.

[Yamaneko]

ifconfig -a shows "tap0" as having "encap: Ethernet". Now I'm lost.

[Dr Unne]

I've never heard of tap0. From what I just read, tap0 is ethertap, which is a virtual device, i.e. software; pretty sure it's not what you want, just ignore it.

Could you post the whole output of <b>lsmod</b> and <b>ifconfig -a</b>? Getting your kernel modules straight will most likely solve your problem. If you figure out what modules you need now, it'll also be very helpful later when you have to compile your kernel.

[Yamaneko]

mii (unused)
floppy (autoclean)
sbp2 (unused)
eth1394 (sbp2 eth1394 ohci1394)
ohci1394 (unused)
usb-storage (unused)
hid (unused)
usb-ohci (unused)
ehci-hcd (unused)

Is there any way to do a print screen to a floppy in the console? It would make this a lot easier and faster.

[crono_logical]

You can tack on "> filename" on the end of a command to output it to a plain text file instead, e.g.

lsmod -a > /tmp/blahdeblah

then you can do as you wish with the file :p

[Dr Unne]

Specifically what kind of ethernet card do you have? I don't see any modules in that list you posted that look like ethernet cards. The <b>lspci</b> command will list all your PCI cards, if you need to see a list. Post the contents of lspci here, even better. If you'd like to look at the stuff that gets output at boot time, you can use <b>dmesg</b>.

Anyways, I think that eth1394 thing might be what's causing the problem. 1394 refers to firewire, yes? It might be detecting your firewire port as a network card. Do this:

rmmod mii
rmmod eth1394

to unload those modules. Then do <b>ifconfig -a</b> and see what it says; if that was what the kernel was assigning to eth0, then eth0 should go away. If eth0 goes away when you do that, then that's a good thing; then you just figure out what your ethernet card's module is and modprobe it.

If worse comes to worse, I can SSH to your machine and do it all for you. :)

(You can highlight and paste text from the console with the mouse, if you run gpm. In linux, highlighting text automatically "copies" it, and middle-clicking "pastes" it. Just remember that. Probably doesn't help you right now, but it will once your internet works.)

[Yamaneko]

NVIDIA nFORCE Networking Controller

It's part of the ASUS NVIDIA Motherboard.

Check the attachment in my first post too. Those four devices appear in my device manager.

I have two ethernet ports in the back of my machine. The top one works, the bottom one doesn't. I think the bottom one is if I want to add that gigabit ethernet card later on, which my motherboard supports.

[Dr Unne]

Did you try what I said about rmmod'ing those Firewire modules and seeing if eth0 frees up?

Onboard ethernet cards are evil. "NVIDIA nFORCE Networking Controller" sounds vague. <b>lspci</b> will give you more information, as I said. <b>ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net</b> will list all the ethernet modules on the CD. (Those are backticks around `uname -r`, i.e. the character below the ~ on the keyboard.) Find a module in there that looks like it goes with your card, and do

modprobe nforce-net

or whatever the name of the module is you want to use. Keep trying until one succeeds, and ifconfig -a shows your ethernet device. nforce-net might be the one you want, but there's no way for me to know.

[Yamaneko]

Yay! eth0 frees up!

I'll try loading modules now.

[Yamaneko]

lspci gives me this:

<b>00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Nvidia Corporation nForce ethernet Controller (rev a1)</b>

I loaded the modules, but I have no idea which one to load. There are dozens.

[Dr Unne]

Is there one called "forcedeth"? Or "nforce-net"? Or "nvnet"? Try those. ifconfig -a after you try each one, to see if you get an eth0.

[Yamaneko]

Ok, I get eth0 now with encap:Ethernet, but I still can't ping yahoo.com or connect to gentoo.org.

[Dr Unne]

Now that it's recognized, you have to enable it. Try <b>/etc/init.d/net.eth0 restart</b>.

If that doesn't work you can try <b>dhcpcd eth0</b>.

[Yamaneko]

Success! I'm using Links now!

I've already made the partitions with the correct filesystems using Partition Magic. Should I still look over them with fdisk or continue with stage3 extraction?

EDIT: fdisk is giving me the error "unable to open /dev/hda" when I run "fdisk /dev/hda".

[Dr Unne]

Post the output of

<b>mount</b>

If you run links as <b>links -driver fb</b>, it'll even load graphics and stuff. Very nice.

(Be sure to remember what module you used for your network card, so you can put it in your kernel later when you compile your own.)

[Yamaneko]

tmpfs on / type tmpfs (rw)
none on /dev type devfs (rw)
devfs on /dev type devfs (rw)
/newroot/dev/cdroms/cdrom0 on /mnt/cdrom type iso9660 (ro)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
none on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)

[Dr Unne]

According to your blog, you have SATA HDs, right? Does /dev/sda exist? Or /dev/hd[anything]? Maybe /dev/hde or /dev/hdg. Or do <b>dmesg | more</b> and look for what it called your hard drives.

[Yamaneko]

Here's the output of "fdisk /dev/hde":
The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 14593.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,

and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
That shouldn't be a problem, right?

[Dr Unne]

Mine says that too. Not a problem.

[Yamaneko]

Partition Magic did a good job. I know exactly

[Dr Unne]

I think you got your last post cut off.

[Yamaneko]

Haha, yeah. It takes some time to get used to navigating with a keyboard.

Anyway, I've written down the setup of the HDs, so I'll be ready to write the partition table to the HD later tonight. I have to go for a bit. Thanks for the help. :)

[Yamaneko]

Before I do anything though, I would really appreciate it if you could reassure me in this setup:

hde = 1st HD
hdg = 2nd HD

/dev/hde5 (boot partition)
/dev/hde6 (root partition)
/dev/hde7 (home partition)
/dev/hde8 (tmp partition)

/dev/hdg5 (backup partition)
/dev/hdg8 (swap partition)

All of those partitions are logical. Is that ok?

Is it neccessary that I deflag hde1 (my Windows partition) and flag hde5 for booting? Will problems arise if I have both hde1 and hde5 flagged?

The /home directory I can setup after I have the OS installed, right?

Should I go with ext3 or ReiserFS? From what I've read ReiserFS is superior to ext3. Does ext3 have any advantages over ReiserFS?

[Dr Unne]

Logical partitions are extended partitions, right? I don't really think it matters. My XP and boot partition are primary partitions, and the rest of mine are logical. The limit for primary partitions is 4 per drive, I think, so if you want more than 4, you need to use extended anyways.

Honestly I don't know if you really needed /tmp on its own partition. Especially since you're just using a home desktop computer, security isn't all that important. Not that it's going to hurt anything. What partition scheme you use really doesn't matter that much, so long as there's enough room for everything. It's all personal preference, so there is no right or wrong way to do stuff. You can fix it later if you don't like it, so long as you figure out what you want before you completely fill up your partitions with files.

I read a lot of conflicting statements about the bootable flag. On my system only the Windows partition is flagged as bootable. You're using grub/lilo anyways, and I think grub just ignores the bootable flags. If you have a Windows partition you want to boot Windows off of via grub, then make sure it has the bootable flag, otherwise I don't think it matters.

Dunno what you mean about setting up /home. If you mean adding new users and stuff, then yeah, you do that at the very end once the OS is working.

ext3 vs. reiserfs is a huge debate, like most things in Linux-land. ext3 is apparently better able to be recovered if it gets corrupted. reiserfs is apparently faster for desktop use. I use reiserfs, it gives me no problems. There's also xfs, which I don't know much about, but some people swear by it.

[crono_logical]

Logical partitions are physically inside extended partitions - they're not the same. As far as I know, you can only have one extended partition per physical disk too, causing all logical partitions on that disk to have to be adjacent to each other. The limit of 4 is the total primary plus extended partitions, and because of this hard limit, this is why logical partitions usually start at /hdx5 and onwards regardless of if you're using all 4 of these slots or not. I don't know if there's a limit for the number of logical partitions though.

[Dr Unne]

You're right. An extended partition is a meta-partition, and a logical partition is a sub-partition of an extended one. Computers are so archaic sometimes.

[Yamaneko]

I'm having trouble extracting the stage3 tarball. I've created and mounted all my drives and directories and I'm in the /mnt/gentoo directory. When I download CONTENTS-stage3 it should download to that directory, correct? Well, when I try to extract using tar -xvjpf CONTENTS-stage3.tar.bz2 I get "no such file or directory" errors. And when I look in make.conf using nano, there's nothing in there, it's blank.

Any help?

[Dr Unne]

How are you downloading it? What program are you using?

A slow but sure-fire way to find the file once you download it is

<b>find / -iname '*stage3.tar.bz2'</b>

[Yamaneko]

I'm using links.

I'll try that.

[Dr Unne]

You can use wget. Just type <b>wget URL</b> from the command line, with the URL being any FTP or HTTP URL, and it'll download the file into the current directory. It also supports resuming unfinished downloads. wget is incredibly useful and powerful.