Hi,

I was wondering why it takes so long since there has been an installable
release or LiveCD from Gentoo.

The 2006.1 is about one year old (and the latest AFAIK), so I lack some
support (but not only with Gentoo ;-) from my brand new PC's I want it
to run on with a SATA HD.

Changing various SATA settings in the BIOS (like enhanced/legacy SATA
mode) don't realy help me.

I know there are a few alternatives, like working with a PATA disk and
then copying the whole bunch with a homegrown kernel that supports the
HW is possble but I'd rather not do that, since that's a bit of a PITA.

Any input is appreciated...

Wimmy

--
Being owned by someone used to be called slavery.
Now it's called commitment.

Wim Cossement <wcosseme@nospam.bcol.be> writes:
> I was wondering why it takes so long since there has been an
> installable release or LiveCD from Gentoo.
>
> The 2006.1 is about one year old (and the latest AFAIK), so I lack
> some support (but not only with Gentoo ;-) from my brand new PC's I
> want it to run on with a SATA HD.
>
> Changing various SATA settings in the BIOS (like enhanced/legacy SATA
> mode) don't realy help me.
>
> I know there are a few alternatives, like working with a PATA disk and
> then copying the whole bunch with a homegrown kernel that supports the
> HW is possble but I'd rather not do that, since that's a bit of a
> PITA.
>
> Any input is appreciated...

Well, as I understand it, the point of gentoo is to avoid these fixed
releases. In gentoo, there's no release, you upgrade the system
constantly (or when you want to). So the question is how to
bootstrap? You could do it with a non gentoo system! Or you could
boot a gentoo LiveCD (any version would do), do the basic the
installation, and right on, you upgrade it on-line with the latest
versions.



So, if you're lacking some hardware support in the distributed kernels
to do the installation, you'll have no choice than to do it
"manually", to find or build a kernel you can boot on your computer to
go on with the installation.

Note that if you can boot the LiveCD, you can download, configure and
compile any kernel you need, and prepare a floppy to boot it from, or
even, you could boot the new linux kernel from linux! or at least from
linuxBIOS. Perhaps this should be a kernel option on the next
LiveCDs...

Well, actually it's done with a kernel module, so you could even
download, compile and load it in the running LiveCD kernel:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/monte/

and then you can boot your SATA specific kernel, and proceed with the
installation on your system.


So you'd get something like:

- boot the liveCD;
- make a ram disk with some space;
- download a kernel sources, configure it for your hardware, compile;
- save the configuration to some persistent storage (floppy, network, etc);
- download the Monte module, compile it, and load it in your current kerne;
- reboot your hardware specific kernel from the current kernel with Monte;
- proceed with the installation (partition SATA disk, copy files, etc);
- retrieve the saved configuration and recompile a hardware specific kernel;
- reboot and have fun!

--
__Pascal Bourguignon__ http://www.informatimago.com/

"What is this talk of "release"? Klingons do not make software
"releases". Our software "escapes" leaving a bloody trail of
designers and quality assurance people in its wake."

So anyway, it was like, 15:41 CET Feb 14 2007, you know? Oh, and, yeah,
Wim Cossement was all like, "Dude,

[..]

> The 2006.1 is about one year old (and the latest AFAIK), so I lack
> some support (but not only with Gentoo ;-) from my brand new PC's I
> want it to run on with a SATA HD.
>
> Changing various SATA settings in the BIOS (like enhanced/legacy
> SATA mode) don't realy help me.

Any livecd (I'm sure there's /one/ out there, no?) that recognises
your hardware will work as a gentoo installation platform. Boot the
cd, set up your partitions and do the chroot thing. Follow the rest of
the regular install procedure from there and bob's your uncle.

--
Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. Perth ---> *
16:12:11 up 97 days, 13:53, 9 users, load average: 0.12, 0.18, 0.22
Linux 2.6.18.1 x86_64 GNU/Linux Registered Linux user #261729

Wim Cossement wrote:

> The 2006.1 is about one year old (and the latest AFAIK), so I lack some
> support (but not only with Gentoo ;-) from my brand new PC's I want it
> to run on with a SATA HD.

Hmm.. is it already last of August? I think they are roughly released once a
half year, so it's just a month left to 2007.0 (if my assumption is correct).

In the 2006.1 I used to install Gentoo onto a HP Pavilion dv9000, it had no
problem with the SATA, the only thing that wasn't supported in the kernel was
the webcam and the wireless, for the later I could use ndiswrapper.


> Changing various SATA settings in the BIOS (like enhanced/legacy SATA
> mode) don't realy help me.

You know what chipset your SATA uses? Do you use any kernel boot options?

You can try some of those from the following list:
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/e...-bootopts.html


--

//Aho

J.O. Aho wrote:
> Wim Cossement wrote:
>
>> The 2006.1 is about one year old (and the latest AFAIK), so I lack
>> some support (but not only with Gentoo ;-) from my brand new PC's I
>> want it to run on with a SATA HD.
>
> Hmm.. is it already last of August? I think they are roughly released
> once a half year, so it's just a month left to 2007.0 (if my assumption
> is correct).

Well, I *think* 2006.1 was from the first quarter of 2006, so should not
have there been a 2006.2. But a 2007.0 is cool too! :-)

> In the 2006.1 I used to install Gentoo onto a HP Pavilion dv9000, it had
> no problem with the SATA, the only thing that wasn't supported in the
> kernel was the webcam and the wireless, for the later I could use
> ndiswrapper.
>
>
>> Changing various SATA settings in the BIOS (like enhanced/legacy SATA
>> mode) don't realy help me.
>
> You know what chipset your SATA uses? Do you use any kernel boot options?

It's an MSI P965Platinum mobo using an Intel P965 north bridge and an
Intel ICH8R south bridge. And I'm using the default boot options, maybe
I have to look at them...

> You can try some of those from the following list:
> http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/e...-bootopts.html

The first solution with Monte sounds a bit more complicated then the
last 2 so I can boot with Ubuntu Feisty and take it from there, because
I can install that one with only a few minor problems...

But there seems to be a Wiki about those chipsets for Gentoo, I'll give
that a try 1st: http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Intel_DG965MQMKR

Wimmy

Wim Cossement wrote:
> J.O. Aho wrote:
>> Wim Cossement wrote:
>>
>>> The 2006.1 is about one year old (and the latest AFAIK), so I lack
>>> some support (but not only with Gentoo ;-) from my brand new PC's I
>>> want it to run on with a SATA HD.
>>
>> Hmm.. is it already last of August? I think they are roughly released
>> once a half year, so it's just a month left to 2007.0 (if my
>> assumption is correct).
>
> Well, I *think* 2006.1 was from the first quarter of 2006, so should not
> have there been a 2006.2. But a 2007.0 is cool too! :-)

Sorry, you mix it up with Gentoo 2006.0, from the press release for 2006.1:

Gentoo Linux 2006.1 Unleashed.

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico., Aug. 30th -The Gentoo Release Engineering team
proudly announces the release of Gentoo Linux 2006.1, the second release of the
year. It builds on the strength of previous releases with several
improvements. Featuring all of Gentoo's well-documented advantages in
flexibility, performance and portability, this release is now available
on all supported architectures. It is a compelling choice
for people desiring a flexible, powerful community-based Linux
distribution.

http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/releng...ss-release.txt
http://www.gentoo.org/news/20060830-release.xml



> The first solution with Monte sounds a bit more complicated then the
> last 2 so I can boot with Ubuntu Feisty and take it from there, because
> I can install that one with only a few minor problems...

You can check modules used and configurations, but not modules used in the
ubuntu, if you don't take the complete kernel.


> But there seems to be a Wiki about those chipsets for Gentoo, I'll give
> that a try 1st: http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Intel_DG965MQMKR

Good luck with that motherboard, other wise you could try OSx86

--

//Aho

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On Wed, 14 Feb 2007 15:41:41 +0100, Wim Cossement
<wcosseme@nospam.bcol.be> probably wrote (unless it was a Kook):
> I was wondering why it takes so long since there has been an installable
> release or LiveCD from Gentoo.
>
> The 2006.1 is about one year old (and the latest AFAIK), so I lack some
> support (but not only with Gentoo ;-) from my brand new PC's I want it
> to run on with a SATA HD.
>

There's also a time factor with 2006.1. There's been several new releases
of Portage, GCC, glibc, and many core utilties. Once you're passed the
initial install, you should "emerge -avDuN world" and be prepared to wait a
day or two as it updates... basically everything.

Come on, Gentoo! Give us a new release!

- --
eval join"",map{chomp;s/^.+?>\s*//;$_}grep{/>/}<DATA>; __DATA__
.' .' Kelly "STrRedWolf" Price -- WolfSkunk Designs
xX xX .' http://stalag99.net tygris @ same domain
"X "X X .'
_____. X" X >
XXXXXXXx. X".' >
'"XXXXXX| X >
"XXX| X" >
'XX' >
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Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFF02SKz/HaS8OXiYERAg7FAKCopLkLpo1If/O8dRCEBISqS47VwgCeJYDG
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So anyway, it was like, 19:34 CET Feb 15 2007, you know? Oh, and, yeah,
Kelly Price was all like, "Dude,
> On Wed, 14 Feb 2007 15:41:41 +0100, Wim Cossement
> <wcosseme@nospam.bcol.be> probably wrote (unless it was a Kook):

>> I was wondering why it takes so long since there has been an
>> installable release or LiveCD from Gentoo.
>>
>> The 2006.1 is about one year old (and the latest AFAIK), so I lack
>> some support (but not only with Gentoo ;-) from my brand new PC's I
>> want it to run on with a SATA HD.
>
> There's also a time factor with 2006.1. There's been several new
> releases of Portage, GCC, glibc, and many core utilties. Once you're
> passed the initial install, you should "emerge -avDuN world" and be
> prepared to wait a day or two as it updates... basically everything.

Seriously, it won't take a couple of days to update the toolchain.
Well, maybe on.. I don't know what, really. That old Sparc-4 I have,
perhaps. It might need 24 hours for glibc. 36, even. On modern
hardware tho, hardly more than a few hours?

(generic amd64 for reference)
-----8<-----
Wed Feb 14 02:41:03 2007 >>> sys-libs/glibc-2.5
merge time: 2 hours, 28 minutes and 30 seconds.

Fri Sep 8 14:01:46 2006 >>> sys-devel/binutils-2.16.1-r3
merge time: 2 minutes and 56 seconds.

Tue Feb 6 10:03:39 2007 >>> sys-devel/gcc-4.1.1-r3
merge time: 39 minutes and 25 seconds.
----->8-----

There's not /that/ much stuff in the tarball, is it? Most of the stuff
you get fresh from the In-ter-web right from the bootstrap phase and
onward.

--
Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. Perth ---> *
19:49:51 up 98 days, 17:31, 7 users, load average: 0.22, 0.26, 0.17
Linux 2.6.18.1 x86_64 GNU/Linux Registered Linux user #261729

Johan Lindquist wrote:
> So anyway, it was like, 19:34 CET Feb 15 2007, you know? Oh, and, yeah,
> Kelly Price was all like, "Dude,
>> On Wed, 14 Feb 2007 15:41:41 +0100, Wim Cossement
>> <wcosseme@nospam.bcol.be> probably wrote (unless it was a Kook):
>
>>> I was wondering why it takes so long since there has been an
>>> installable release or LiveCD from Gentoo.
>>>
>>> The 2006.1 is about one year old (and the latest AFAIK), so I lack
>>> some support (but not only with Gentoo ;-) from my brand new PC's I
>>> want it to run on with a SATA HD.
>> There's also a time factor with 2006.1. There's been several new
>> releases of Portage, GCC, glibc, and many core utilties. Once you're
>> passed the initial install, you should "emerge -avDuN world" and be
>> prepared to wait a day or two as it updates... basically everything.
>
> Seriously, it won't take a couple of days to update the toolchain.
> Well, maybe on.. I don't know what, really. That old Sparc-4 I have,
> perhaps. It might need 24 hours for glibc. 36, even. On modern
> hardware tho, hardly more than a few hours?
>
> (generic amd64 for reference)
> -----8<-----
> Wed Feb 14 02:41:03 2007 >>> sys-libs/glibc-2.5
> merge time: 2 hours, 28 minutes and 30 seconds.
>
> Fri Sep 8 14:01:46 2006 >>> sys-devel/binutils-2.16.1-r3
> merge time: 2 minutes and 56 seconds.
>
> Tue Feb 6 10:03:39 2007 >>> sys-devel/gcc-4.1.1-r3
> merge time: 39 minutes and 25 seconds.
> ----->8-----
>
> There's not /that/ much stuff in the tarball, is it? Most of the stuff
> you get fresh from the In-ter-web right from the bootstrap phase and
> onward.
>
Actually if the 2006.1 cd can handle your hardware you are fine.
Instead of using the portage snapshot on the disk download the latest
from the website. Do the same for the base system image. The result
will be the same as if you had the latest live cd since your base system
will come from a CVS snapshot NOT the live cd. You would only need a
current live cd if the last one didn't support your hw in the kernel
(preventing you from accessing your hard disk or network for example).

So anyway, it was like, 00:47 CET Feb 16 2007, you know? Oh, and, yeah,
ken scharf was all like, "Dude,
> Johan Lindquist wrote:

>> There's not /that/ much stuff in the tarball, is it? Most of the
>> stuff you get fresh from the In-ter-web right from the bootstrap
>> phase and onward.
>
> Actually if the 2006.1 cd can handle your hardware you are fine.
> Instead of using the portage snapshot on the disk download the
> latest from the website.

I thought that was standard procedure. Unless you're going for an
all-out no-network install (using the packages cd too, obviously),
there's no reason not to get the latest portage during the install.

Anyroads, I've never seen a problem with the official release rate of
gentoo "versions" since I've always started from the smallest pre-made
kit available (stage 1 tarball) and gotten everything fresh from first
emerge.

--
Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. Perth ---> *
09:25:55 up 99 days, 7:07, 8 users, load average: 0.33, 0.36, 0.33
Linux 2.6.18.1 x86_64 GNU/Linux Registered Linux user #261729