On Fri, 13 Jul 2007 14:49:45 -0700, ds wrote: > On 7/13/07, Hendrik Boom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> A few months ago I tried installing gentoo. It mostly succeedes, but I >> was unable to boot the new system. >> >> When I boot, it fails as follows: >> >> >> Activating mdev >> >> Determining root device >> !! Block device /dev/mapper/lovesong-gentoo is not a valid block device >> !! The root block device is unspecified or not detected >> Please specify a device to boot, or "shell" for a shell >> boot() :: >> >> >> Now I originally installed this system using a chroot from a Debian etch >> system. I used genkernel to generate the kernel. As far as I can >> remember, I did specified the --lvm option. >> >> Now perhaps the kernel is not OK because I ran genkernel in a chroot >> running on a Debian kernel... >> >> Perhaps I chose the wront options... >> >> Perhaps I can fix things by rerunning genkernel with different options... >> >> Or perhaps I need to start all over from a full-fledged gentoo install CD. >> >> Please advise. >> >> -- hendrik >> >> P.S. Some Gory Details: > > hendrik - > > My gut reaction is that you should just start over and install from > scratch. I have only installed Gentoo by booting from the Gentoo > install CD in the past, so I'm not familiar with using chroot from a > Debian system. I think the best and most well documented way to do a > Gentoo install is to simply follow the handbook > (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/index.xml).
That's what I was doing, except that I chrooted from Debian instead of from the gentoo boot disk. I suspect the difference is that I was running a Debian kernel when running genkernel; if genkernel asks the running kernel what options it was compiled with (which I believe it does), it may not have gotten the information it needed. > > It is very easy to install Gentoo along with other OS's. You just need > to have a partition or two handy. In my case, when I'm rebuilding my > system from scratch I've always installed Gentoo third (Windows XP > first, openSUSE second, then Gentoo). I use two partitions for Gentoo, > a /boot partition and a / partition, and I use the swap partition that > was created for openSUSE for Gentoo as well. Then, I don't install grub > in Gentoo, I simply add a Gentoo entry to the grub menu in openSUSE. > > I haven't personally used LVM with Gentoo, but I have set up an Ubuntu > Server box with LVM and my experience is that it is best not to bother > with LVM unless you really know you're going to need it. In any case, > the documentation I was following for Ubuntu required at least the /boot > partition be non-LVM for grub to read the kernel off of it, but this may > be due to a lack of knowledge in the workings of grub and LVM. LVM works fine with Debian. I figure I just need to learn what to do to gentoo that Debian does automatically. And you're right. Booting from the installation disk will probably help. It shouldn't be necessary, but I certainly will try it. I do expect to need LVM. Lack of flexibility in partition resizing was the big problem with my previous set of OS installations on this machine (with a smaller hard disk). I suspect the problem with the kernel I'm using is that in some way it does not properly recognize lvm -- perhaps because something isn't compiled in, or because it needs an option to trigger it to look for lvm volumes. My /boot partition is an ordinary partition. It's my / partition that's LVM. Debian etch is set up in the same way, with an ordinary secondary partition for /boot, and an LVM for /. (Users' home directories are on another machine entirely; will be mounted using NFS.) -- hendrik -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
