Gentoo Installation

[AF]

hmmm

I downlaoded the unviersal installation cd, and copied the install guide to ym laptop so i could have it open, I followed the steps onyl installing it on ym second HD (20GB), hence hdb1 etc.

I got along with ti and when i tried to extract the x86 package into /mnt/gentoo it started but after a while it gave me an error writing to hdb3 about writting to blocks then an unexpected EOF error. Then everything after that works fine untill the command chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash

After which I cant continue for obvious reasons. I followed the guide tot he letter with a 32MB ext2 boot partition, a 512MB swap partition and the rest on an ext3 root partition.

I've tried repartitioning and recreating the filesystems and starting over but I get the same results.

[Tim Blokdijk]

If this is the 1st time you install Linux I would suggest you back up !all! your work asap.
Then download Ubuntu and use that.
Gentoo is for users with a deep understanding of Linux systems.
If you just like to run and develop Spring Ubuntu will do fine and instalation is a lot easier.

[malric]

This sounds like your hard drive has bad blocks.

Could you check your harddrive for bad blocks ?

I installed gentoo twice (first time I did an amd64 install and wasn't satisfied with the result) and worked like in the manual...

But I must admit I used only linux at home for about 3 years before trying gentoo.

If your hard drive is error free you could post the erros.

[BvDorp]

isn't this supposed to be in off-topic?

[mongus]

Help and bugs is fair enough

[AF]

All my data was moved off that drive to my 80GB master drive, it's the 20GB secondary drive I've been trying to install gentoo.

I understand the installation procedure, in the past I've used fedora and mandrake, and I've messed around getting knoppix/DSL 2.0 to work on my laptop. I guess I should try ubuntu, and check for bad blocks too, how do i do that though?

[malric]

The linux command for bad blocks is "badblocks". Read the manual for more info, I used it only once long time ago. In windows it was something like "scandisk" if I remember correctly.

About gentoo, for me it was great. I mean I like hacking the system and understanding (even the hard way) how things work. It feels much better after 1-2 years using redhat.

[Someone-else]

In newest ver of Gentoo u can use graphical installer. I tried to install Gentoo manualy, but I wasnt able to chroot (/bin/bash: no such file or directory), so I used graph installer, and everything is now fine (i needed to recompile kernel few times, coz genkernel isnt perfect tool [net cards as modules, should be in kernel, no iptables etc.], but no other problems).

[Betalord]

Moved to off-topic.

[det]

If this is the 1st time you install Linux I would suggest you back up !all! your work asap.
Then download Ubuntu and use that.
Gentoo is for users with a deep understanding of Linux systems.
If you just like to run and develop Spring Ubuntu will do fine and instalation is a lot easier.

Ubuntu is great. I was a long time Debian user before I switched. Gentoo requires a deeper understanding of Linux systems but that doesn't mean a more experienced user would neccesarily benefit. Ease of use is a good thing for everyone, not just newbies

[maverick256]

Also, you might want to perform a "smart" check on hdb, just to make sure the hardware is fine. S.M.A.R.T. is the hard drive's self diagnostic tool, but you need software to interface with it, probably should use

Code: Select all

* sys-apps/smartmontools
     Available versions:  5.33-r1
     Installed:           5.33-r1
     Homepage:            http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
     Description:         control and monitor storage systems using the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology System (S.M.A.R.T.)

They have both windows and linux versions you can use.

I use gentoo too (my first and only distro) Awesomeness.