Re: [gentoo-user] rc.log errors
>Does OP have /var on / or is it a separate mount point? /var is on / _ Get your FREE, LinuxWaves.com Email Now! --> http://www.LinuxWaves.com Join Linux Discussions! --> http://Community.LinuxWaves.com
Re: [gentoo-user] My PC died. What should I try?
Peter Humphrey writes: On Tuesday 28 August 2012 21:57:43 Alex Schuster wrote: I wrote: Well, all I can do now is to get a new board and see if things will be okay then. [...] So I had to wait. And when it became available, I wondered if it might be the processor instead that has the problem, so I let the PC shop diagnose CPU and board. This took until today, and they confirmed it was the board indeed, not the CPU. Let me get this straight. The shop ran tests and concluded that the motherboard was faulty, not the CPU? Yes. Fine, I bought the board ...it having been tested and found faulty! Well, obviously not the defective board I already owned, but a new one of the same type. Yes. Defects happen, and because one specific board suddenly has a problem after working fine for half a year, I do not assume that all of these boards will likely fail. And it seems to be the only board having the features I want, at least in the price range of about 100€. Most have two memory banks only, so I would either have to use only 8GB out of 16 GB, or buy new RAM. And I want on-board graphics, I do not want to buy an extra graphics adapter that needs power or has a noisy fan. There were NVidia boards I think, but I prefer Radeon, that finally seems to work just fine, after having lots of trouble in the past with both NVidia and an older Radeon system. Wonko
Re: [gentoo-user] My PC died. What should I try?
Dale writes: Alan McKinnon wrote: Rule #1 in dealing with odd weird strange computer faults is ALWAYS test with another PSU of at least twice the capacity you think you need. +1 I always start with the P/S. Well, unless I see something else unrelated letting the smoke out. Even then tho, a bad P/S can cause the smoke to get out of something else too. It's good advice all the way around. Why not let the computer shop test the P/S? If it blows up something of theirs, it's bad. ;-) I would have preferred to give them the whole PC, but I cannot carry that around easily when going to work by bus and tram, so I could drop it of the store when I leave work in the evening. It was easier to just carry mainboard and CPU in a small bag. Well, not really true, I gave them the hardware on Friday, and on Saturday I could have used the car to transport the PC, but I was somewhat busy that day, and just didn't think about the PSU frying the board. And I had hoped that they would test the board right when I was there on Friday, so I could leave with the new one. Or with the new CPU, if that had turned out to be defective. Wonko
[gentoo-user] qemu-kvm and xscreensaver
Whenever I run a qemu-kvm when xscreensaver starts it stops guest os from working. Eg if I am emerging on guest or downloading a file when xscreensaver starts on the host the guest freezes. Stopping xscreensaver and guest continues where left off. I can cure this by disabling xscreensaver but should this happening and is there a way round this other than to turn off xscreensaver on host. I have disabled hibernate or sleep but this makes no difference. It seems to happen when the screen goes in pretty picture mode. I am running gentoo host with gentoo guest and desktop is xfce on host. John
Re: [gentoo-user] My PC died. What should I try?
Volker Armin Hemmann writes: Am Dienstag, 28. August 2012, 22:57:43 schrieb Alex Schuster: This sucks. Is it a faulty board again? Is something (the PSU?) killing the board once I turn the thing on? What will happen when I have the next board and try again? Argh. so - instead of changing the PSU, the obvious culprit, you got a new board AND USED THE SAME PSU? YEAH :) Thinking about this now, yes, it would have made sense to test with another PSU first. But it wasn't so obvious to me, I simply thought I had bad luck with a bad board, that died. Happens. I am just saying - one faulty PSU fried three of my boards. Enermax... will never buy again. So - instead of changing the PSU, the obvious culprit, you let it fry another board, and then... yet another one? Just saying :) I once had the opposite problem, a mainboard seemed to kill PSUs. That was weird. The fans spin, so not all hope is lost. Keyboard, ps/2? usb? It's a PS/2 keyboard. But before you do anything else, change the PSU. I tried another one this morning, same problems. I guess the board is fried. So I'll order another one, and this time use another PSU. Wow, they say it will take 2-3 weeks. So I'll see if there's another board that will fulfill my needs... and there is. Radeon 3000 instead of 4250, and I remember having big trouble with my last Radeon 3250 system... and no eSATA which I probably wouldn't miss anyway, but it also has no PATA at all. I can (and have to) live with this it seems, but it's somewhat inconvenient. Wonko
Re: [gentoo-user] [Offtopic] Lightweight server distro for an old motherboard
On Tue, 28 Aug 2012 23:35:57 -0400 Michael Mol wrote: > On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 10:57 PM, Andrew Lowe wrote: > > Hi all, > > Anyone got any suggestions for a lightweight server distro > > for an old motherboard? I've got one of the VIA mini-ITX boards, > > SP13000, and want to whack something light onto it. It will be > > working as a file/media server and will be headless, hence will be > > fiddled via ssh. Obviously there are the usual suspects, debian, > > centos, but does anyone have any recommendations viv a vis a > > stripped down distro, sort of like Lubuntu is to Ubuntu? > > > > Any thoughts greatly appreciated, > > If you want to do something lightweight, there's not much better you > can do than with Gentoo. > Yes, there is. Well, it actually depends on what we are currently calling "lightweight". Gentoo depends on Python heavily. And it makes it impossible to use with low-memory systems. There are a number of binary distributions specially targeted at old or small systems. As for me, I use DeLi(cate) GNU/Linux on my old PC acting as a headless file-server and torrent-client. [It has 64 MB of RAM (tested with 32MB as well), Pentium CPU@200MHz (tested with AMD K5)] Before DeLi(cate) I used DeLi itself. It worked fine, but the developers dropped the support. DeLi(cate) uses Arch package management system which works very fast. It is also easy to add the new packages which are absent in repository at the moment. My impression is that all lightweight distributions are usually Slackware-based or Arch-based. But of course, there are different variants of lightweight systems. Check out these pages, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Linux_distribution http://distrowatch.com/search.php?ostype=All&category=Old+Computers&origin=All&basedon=All¬basedon=None&desktop=All&architecture=All&status=Active Regards, Vladimir -
Re: [gentoo-user] [Offtopic] Lightweight server distro for an old motherboard
On Wednesday 29 August 2012 04:41:54 Andrew Lowe wrote: > It had Gentoo on it for ages, and has not been updated in ages. It > takes "years" to do anything, with respect to compiling so I'm just > looking for a simple "point and click", binary download type of > thingy to keep it going. I've been down the cross compile route also > - once bitten twice shy and I don't care how many strides the dev's > have made in recent years, I'm not trying again on principle. Several people here run Gentoo on tiny boxes. The way I do it is to have a chroot on my workstation with identical portage config to the tiny box. First export the packages directory on the target to the chroot on the workstation, then chroot into it, run emerge and so on to build the packages. Then ssh to the target and emerge -k. With my little Atom box the whole operation is quick and simple (since I learned the routine!). I'm sure it's easier and more reliable than cross-compiling, if only because it uses just the standard portage tools with no extra complications. -- Rgds Peter
Re: [gentoo-user] [Offtopic] Lightweight server distro for an old motherboard
On Wed, 29 Aug 2012 11:41:54 +0800 Andrew Lowe wrote: > On 08/29/12 11:35, Michael Mol wrote: > > On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 10:57 PM, Andrew Lowe > > wrote: > >> Hi all, > >> Anyone got any suggestions for a lightweight server > >> distro for an old motherboard? I've got one of the VIA mini-ITX > >> boards, SP13000, and want to whack something light onto it. It > >> will be working as a file/media server and will be headless, hence > >> will be fiddled via ssh. Obviously there are the usual suspects, > >> debian, centos, but does anyone have any recommendations viv a vis > >> a stripped down distro, sort of like Lubuntu is to Ubuntu? > >> > >> Any thoughts greatly appreciated, > > > > Cripes, you're asking in gentoo-user. Of course someone's going to > > suggest Gentoo. > > > > Let it be me...and I'll explain: > > > > 1) You can put something like -Os or -O2 in your CFLAGS, whichever > > helps your performance case better. > > 2) You can target your CFLAGS to your exact processor, allowing > > generated machine code to be as efficient as possible on your CPU > > (which you'll need, if it's a low-power CPU!) > > 3) You don't have to compile on the mini-ITX board; you can > > cross-compile and use binpkgs to install. > > 4) You can use USE flags to strip out (virtually) any and every > > feature you don't use, reducing both your code size, load and > > execution time. > > > > If you want to do something lightweight, there's not much better you > > can do than with Gentoo. > > > > It had Gentoo on it for ages, and has not been updated in > ages. It takes "years" to do anything, with respect to compiling so > I'm just looking for a simple "point and click", binary download type > of thingy to keep it going. I've been down the cross compile route > also - once bitten twice shy and I don't care how many strides the > dev's have made in recent years, I'm not trying again on principle. There's also DamnSmallLinux but if you ask me that's going too far to the other extreme. Yeah, it fits inside 50M but cripes, it has to use weird package management to do it. If not FreeBSD, then something Arch-based is probably your best step 1. Arch is a bit like *buntu in many ways, once you've decided to go that route, there's not really much difference between all the variants. It's not the base that's resource heavy, it's KDE and Gnome. -- Alan McKinnon alan.mckin...@gmail.com
Re: [gentoo-user] [Offtopic] Lightweight server distro for an old motherboard
On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 9:20 AM, Alan McKinnon wrote: > On Wed, 29 Aug 2012 12:53:47 +0800 > Andrew Lowe wrote: > >> On 08/29/12 12:42, kwk...@hkbn.net wrote: >> > On Wed, 29 Aug 2012 10:57:07 +0800 >> > Andrew Lowe wrote: >> > >> >> Hi all, >> >>Anyone got any suggestions for a lightweight server distro >> >> for an old motherboard? I've got one of the VIA mini-ITX boards, >> >> SP13000, and want to whack something light onto it. It will be >> >> working as a file/media server and will be headless, hence will be >> >> fiddled via ssh. Obviously there are the usual suspects, debian, >> >> centos, but does anyone have any recommendations viv a vis a >> >> stripped down distro, sort of like Lubuntu is to Ubuntu? >> >> >> >>Any thoughts greatly appreciated, >> >> >> >>Andrew >> > >> > Well, if you are only going to need it as an NAS, why not try >> > FreeNAS? OK, its kernel is BSD rather than Linux, but that >> > shouldn't be a problem. >> > >> > Kerwin. >> > >> >> Thanks, I'll look into that. > > FreeNAS comes *highly* recommended. It isn't cli driven though, it's a > django framework on nginx and runs off a memory stick. Resource usage > is next to nothing and it makes an awesome media server. It ships with > NFS, CIFS and FTP support and has plugins for dlna, firefly and > transmission. With the benefit that you don't have to build any of it, > write a 160M image to a memory stick, reboot, configure storage drives > and away you go. > > I would advise that you not use ZFS on an old machine though, ZFS likes > *lots* of RAM. Rather use the FreeBSD default of UFS. > > The screenshot is one of mine, a media server running on an HP > Proliant miniserver. No matter what I throw at that thing, it just > keeps laughing at me and asking if that's all I got I will concur that FreeNAS is a good fileserving platform. It's very probable I'll use it for my storage needs once I've got the time and coin to assemble a storage box after moving+silly season. -- :wq
Re: [gentoo-user] [Offtopic] Lightweight server distro for an old motherboard
On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 9:24 AM, Alan McKinnon wrote: > On Wed, 29 Aug 2012 11:41:54 +0800 > Andrew Lowe wrote: > >> On 08/29/12 11:35, Michael Mol wrote: >> > On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 10:57 PM, Andrew Lowe >> > wrote: >> >> Hi all, >> >> Anyone got any suggestions for a lightweight server >> >> distro for an old motherboard? I've got one of the VIA mini-ITX >> >> boards, SP13000, and want to whack something light onto it. It >> >> will be working as a file/media server and will be headless, hence >> >> will be fiddled via ssh. Obviously there are the usual suspects, >> >> debian, centos, but does anyone have any recommendations viv a vis >> >> a stripped down distro, sort of like Lubuntu is to Ubuntu? >> >> >> >> Any thoughts greatly appreciated, > There's also DamnSmallLinux but if you ask me that's going too far to > the other extreme. Yeah, it fits inside 50M but cripes, it has to use > weird package management to do it. > > If not FreeBSD, then something Arch-based is probably your best step 1. > Arch is a bit like *buntu in many ways, once you've decided to go that > route, there's not really much difference between all the variants. > It's not the base that's resource heavy, it's KDE and Gnome. > > > > > -- > Alan McKinnon > alan.mckin...@gmail.com Although, if DSL *isn't* too far in the tiny direction, it's a bit much of a desktop oriented system to tweak for headless use, when a large part of that work was already done... TinyCore and MicroCore are pretty much a bare minimal desktop and a bare minimal CLI only setup, respectively, though they have very similar packaging setups to DSL. -- Poison [BLX] Joshua M. Murphy
Re: [gentoo-user] Issues with >=x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati-6.14.4: driver issue or hardware issue?
On Tue, Jun 12, 2012 at 10:33 AM, Michael Scherer wrote: > On Thu, 7 Jun 2012 16:18:02 +0200 > Michael Scherer wrote: > >> On Thu, 7 Jun 2012 04:52:35 -0400 >> Andrey Moshbear wrote: >> >> > On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 11:41 AM, Michael Scherer >> > wrote: >> > > On Fri, 1 Jun 2012 04:11:35 -0400 >> > > Andrey Moshbear wrote: >> > > >> > >> On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 11:12 AM, Michael Scherer >> > >> wrote: >> > >> > - Original Message - From: "Andrey Moshbear" >> > >> > To: "gentoo-user" >> > >> > Sent: Tuesday, 22 May, 2012 >> > >> > 08:02 Subject: [gentoo-user] Issues with >> > >> > >=x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati-6.14.4: driver issue or hardware >> > >> > >issue? >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> >> Lately, I've been having some issues with segfaults when >> > >> >> running startx and it's been pretty persistent. >> > >> >> >> > >> >> Xorg.0.log and emerge --info are available at >> > >> >> https://gist.github.com/2766926 . >> > >> >> Kernel config is available at https://gist.github.com/276943 . >> > >> >> >> > >> >> I've tried downgrading, but >> > >> >> <=x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati-6.14.2 fails to compile due to >> > >> >> incomplete structs. >> > >> >> >> > >> >> Is this more a driver or a hardware issue? >> > >> >> >> > >> > >> > >> > first thing thing is your usage of ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64 >> > >> > ~amd64". with ~amd64 you globally >> > >> > allow all packages masked for amd64. unless you are a >> > >> > developer/tester for gentoo you should remove >> > >> > this keyword, because gentoo usually has good reasons to mask >> > >> > some packages. if for some reason you >> > >> > really need a masked package, you can do this easily only for >> > >> > that package. global unmasking alone might be the reason for >> > >> > half of your troubles. >> > >> > >> > >> > second, it is advisable to use kernel modesetting, which is >> > >> > obviously not enabled. gentoo has a detailed >> > >> > howto for this under >> > >> > http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/xorg-config.xml. this gives you >> > >> > all necessary details. >> > >> > >> > >> > just a quick shot for the moment. your kernel config doesn't >> > >> > under the link you give, I'd like to see that >> > >> > too, and maybe /etc/X11/xorg.conf or the contents >> > >> > of /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d, if you have any of these, >> > >> > >> > >> > regards, nichael >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> >> > >> Well, I added radeon drm & modesetting and the kernel is crashing >> > >> right after the microcode is loaded, but without any signs of >> > >> panic, be it flashing keyboard lights or kernel backtrace with >> > >> register values. >> > >> >> > >> Also, the segfault was caused by the DRI code interpreting a DRI >> > >> opcode as a pointer, hence 0xa4 or similar in the back trace. >> > >> >> > >> -- >> > >> m0shbear >> > >> >> > > >> > > in any case, I'd need some more information: >> > > the link to your .config is broken, I only get an empty page. >> > > if the kernel is involved, output of dmesg and rc.log would >> > > be needed to. >> > > >> > > by the way, did you anything with your ACCEPT_KEYWORDS? >> > > if not, the best thing would be set it simply ="" (and >> > > afterwards --update world, --depclean and revdep-rebuild), >> > > but that's up to you. >> > > >> > > please send me the requested information, otherwise it's >> > > difficult to find out what's wrong. >> > > >> > >> > Also, I've noticed that that radeon.ko autodetection configures it >> > as a RS780, whereas, according to motherboard documentation, it >> > should be RS880 (780G vs 785G). >> > This may be a reason for crashing, since the video card dies due to >> > being supplied bad microcode. >> > >> >> according to the gentoo manual, under "device drivers-graphics- >> support for framebufferdevices" you should uncheck >> -everything- except "enable video mode handling helpers". >> instead of uvesafb in the kernel parameters you may use >> "radeondrmfb", if anything at all. >> >> from the Xorg radeon page: >> "First of all check that you don't load radeonfb, uvesafb or vesafb >> module. This includes no vga parameters for kernel when using KMS. >> Console is provided by fbcon and radeondrmfb frame buffer console. So >> it is best to make sure that fbcon module is loaded" >> >> disabling vesa also should rid you of uvesa messages in Xorg.0.log. >> >> the rs880 and configuring as rs780 is indeed probably at the root >> of your troubles. seems that you got the wrong firmware. I have >> found other postings with the exact same problem, but as yet >> no clear solution. I'll see what I can find and let you know. >> >> > > if you haven't solved your problem already, there are two > possibilities you coud try: > one is using the Radeon R600-family RLC microcode: radeon/R600_rlc.bin > (without something else). this should include the rs880. > another option might be to download firmware-linux-nonfree from > http://packages.debian.org/de/squeeze/firmware-linux-nonfree > some people seem to have used it
[gentoo-user] mdev and lxde
I am installing a new system and would like to go udev/systemd less. I have dumped gnome3 for lxde and find it a lot more usable and stable but I would like to know if anyone has gone down the mdev and lxde path? BillK
