[Nottingham] Nottingham Digest, Vol 290, Issue 5
Benjamin McLaughlin
benjaminbunnyrabbit at hotmail.com
Tue Apr 21 11:52:10 UTC 2009
Hi, its been AGES since I looked at this egroup but I thought I would just
give you a quick advice.
If on some dormant server somewhere you can find an ISO epios then all the
work is already done for you.
Likewise http://freepia.org/ is also a good one to play with.
The groundwork already having been done on both of those.
Just a heads up, (Seeing as I used to work for epiacenter)
--------------------------------------------------
From: <nottingham-request at mailman.lug.org.uk>
Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 3:44 AM
To: <nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk>
Subject: Nottingham Digest, Vol 290, Issue 5
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: Nottingham Digest, Vol 289, Issue 3 (Joshua Lock)
> 2. Re: Nottingham Digest, Vol 289, Issue 3 (Michael Leuty)
> 3. Re: Nottingham Digest, Vol 289, Issue 3 (Camilo Mesias)
> 4. Gentoo fun on an old VIA Epia C3 (Martin)
> 5. Re: Gentoo fun on an old VIA Epia C3 (Graeme Fowler)
> 6. Re: Gentoo fun on an old VIA Epia C3 (Jim Moore)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:03:34 +0100
> From: Joshua Lock <incandescant at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Nottingham] Nottingham Digest, Vol 289, Issue 3
> To: nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk
> Message-ID:
> <a4764afc0904201003k3f5d2829y631d6176b7aa929f at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> 2009/4/20 Martin <martin at ml1.co.uk>:
>> Graeme Fowler wrote:
>> [---]
>>> "Never argue with idiots, they will drag you down to their level and
>>> beat you with experience."
>>
>> That one is very true!
>>
>> (Note: General comment and not applicable to this thread. Constructive
>> critique and suggestions always welcomed!)
>>
>>
>> Aside: A certain Beeston Beers regular has since suggested that we split
>> the list into a "techie & help" list and an "announcements" list... Good
>> thought but do we really have so much 'noise' on the list? I think
>> better is for the list users to go to the (small) trouble of filtering
>> on the title headings however they might wish. For example, filtering on
>> '\[(social)|(food)|(beer)\]' (case insensitive) should remove most of
>> whatever 'noise'...
>
> Agreed. I don't really get separate "announce" lists. Email titles on
> this list are generally pretty descriptive.
> Anyone that doesn't want to read lots of mail about where to go for
> food should be less obsessively about reading *every* email they
> receive... Do such people also read their spam and reply asking for
> more sensible emails?
>
> Grumpily,
> -J
> --
> Joshua Lock
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:27:45 +0100
> From: Michael Leuty <mike at leuty.net>
> Subject: Re: [Nottingham] Nottingham Digest, Vol 289, Issue 3
> To: nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk
> Message-ID:
> <1c353cac0904201027l3cbedfe6sb1a95a8e0891e53d at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> 2009/4/20 Martin <martin at ml1.co.uk>:
>> Aside: A certain Beeston Beers regular has since suggested that we split
>> the list into a "techie & help" list and an "announcements" list... Good
>> thought but do we really have so much 'noise' on the list?
>
> Not an aside at all. I think the burden of the original post in this
> thread was that this list is all about fixing up meetings rather than
> computing matters.
>
> As a lurker who has never (yet) been to a meeting I'm quite happy with
> just the one list.
>
> Computing stuff appears on the list quite regularly, and frequently
> shoots way above my head. But I've had helpful advice here, and it's
> fascinating studying the different approaches to life shewn by the
> list-members. (I just have to remember not to let my cage get
> rattled.)
>
> --
> Michael Leuty
> Nottingham, UK
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:47:32 +0100
> From: Camilo Mesias <camilo at mesias.co.uk>
> Subject: Re: [Nottingham] Nottingham Digest, Vol 289, Issue 3
> To: nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk
> Message-ID:
> <d551e0e20904201047gfcc1790g8d987da605fc9132 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Hi,
>
> I read a few lists because I'm interested in the technical content,
> and like to help out if I can. I rarely go to lug events, even in my
> home town (Leics) as it's hard to find the time.
>
> The Cov lug has a separate beer and tech list IIRC.
>
> Whilst I'm not offended by the social stuff, I wonder if it would be
> worth aggregating the tech lists into one humungous Midlands super-lug
> tech list? Problems shared and all that..
>
> -Cam
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:43:16 +0100
> From: Martin <martin at ml1.co.uk>
> Subject: [Nottingham] Gentoo fun on an old VIA Epia C3
> To: NLUG <nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk>
> Message-ID: <49ECEC74.30003 at ml1.co.uk>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Folks,
>
> As mentioned earlier:
>
> > Meanwhile, as a background task/experiment, I'm chewing through some
> > Gentoo...
> >
> > ... And tripping up on root=/dev/sda1 not being found. Grub is on
> > /dev/hda1, and I've got USB and SCSI compiled into the kernel (and not
> > as modules).
> >
> > "VFS: Cannot open root device "sda1" or unknown-block(0,0)"
> >
> >
> > By the wonders of chroot, I've got it running another recompile from
> > the live (minimal) install cd with a few more tweaks and will next try
> > adding a rootwait to the kernel line.
> >
> > At 533MHz on a "VIA C3 Samuel 2", the compile is going to take a
> > little while...
> >
> >
> > (It can run Ubuntu but hideously slowly!)
>
>
> Well, well, well, what a whole load o' fun! So...
>
> One thing to note about the "VIA C3 Samuel 2" is that it identifies
> itself as an i686 except that it has no CMOV instruction. Quite a vital
> omission the relegates it to i586 compatibility.
>
> See:
> http://radagast.bglug.ca/epia/epia_howto/index.html
>
> That means that the installer for my favoured Mandriva distro cannot be
> booted up. (A syslinx problem? Whereas isolinux works ok...)
>
> An Ubuntu livecd runs ok but is unusably slow, even for a reduced screen
> resolution. The video shares the system PC133 RAM and so steals a
> significant fraction of CPU bandwidth at higher resolutions and higher
> colour depth. Selecting a 80x40 char display speeds things up a bit!
> Anyone got any (two ;-) ) 512MByte PC133 memory modules laying around
> idle, please?... ;-) )
>
> So, all a good excuse to try Gentoo on an 'interesting' test...
>
>
> Good instructions for what to do are given step-by-step on:
>
> Gentoo Linux x86 Quick Install Guide
> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86-quickinstall.xml?style=printable
>
> A few hints from my fun:
>
> Don't try changing the CHOST variable until AFTER you have a working
> installation. More on that later.
>
>
> My test system is:
>
> C3 Samuel/Ezra (Via EPIA)
>
> processor : 0
> vendor_id : CentaurHauls
> cpu family : 6
> model : 7
> model name : VIA Samuel 2
>
>
> # cat /proc/cpuinfo
> processor : 0
> vendor_id : CentaurHauls
> cpu family : 6
> model : 7
> model name : VIA Samuel 2
> stepping : 3
> cpu MHz : 533.345
> cache size : 64 KB
> fdiv_bug : no
> hlt_bug : no
> f00f_bug : no
> coma_bug : no
> fpu : yes
> fpu_exception : yes
> cpuid level : 1
> wp : yes
> flags : fpu de tsc msr cx8 mtrr pge mmx 3dnow
> bogomips : 1066.69
> clflush size : 32
> power management:
>
>
> # free -m -t
> total used free shared buffers cached
> Mem: 494 139 355 0 31 83
> -/+ buffers/cache: 24 470
> Swap: 488 0 488
> Total: 983 139 843
>
> (All in MBytes)
>
>
>
> Use:
>
> lspci -v
>
> lsmod | egrep -v '0 $'
>
> to see what hardware there is and what kernel modules are used.
>
>
>
>
> For the step-by-step guide, I used:
>
> /etc/make.conf:
>
> # These settings were set by the catalyst build script that
> # automatically built this stage.
> # Please consult /etc/make.conf.example for a more detailed example.
>
> #
> # Warning: Do not use any stages or packages containing i686
> # instructions (such as cmov) with the Samuel 2 and Ezra versions of
> # the C3.
> #
> # The Ezra doesn't have any special instructions that you could optimize
> # for, just consider it a K6-3 - basically a Pentium 2 with 3DNow.
> # Note: The Mini-ITX EPIA-SP features a VIA C3 Eden processor, even if
> # /proc/cpuinfo answers: model name: VIA Nehemiah
> #
>
> CFLAGS="-march=c3 -mmmx -m3dnow -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"
> CXXFLAGS="$CFLAGS"
>
> # WARNING: Changing your CHOST is not something that should be done
> # lightly. Please consult http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/change-chost.xml
> # before changing.
> CHOST="i586-pc-linux-gnu"
>
> # Set j to be number of CPUs + 1 for best compile performance
> MAKEOPTS="-j2"
>
> USE="-cups -ipv6 -isdnlog -pppd -midi -v4l -v4l2 3dnow mmx"
>
> GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://gentoo.virginmedia.com/sites/gentoo
> http://mirror.bytemark.co.uk/gentoo
> http://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/os/linux/gentoo
> http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/www.ibiblio.org/gentoo"
>
>
>
> Note: No line breaks in the mirrors list, the sites are space separated.
> Look on:
>
> http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/mirrors2.xml
>
> for the full mirrors list.
>
> You can also use:
>
> emerge mirrorselect
> mirrorselect -s3 -b10 -D -o >mirrors_selection
>
> to install a mirrorselect utility to automatically detect, test, and
> output a selection of mirrors that you can then add to the
> /etc/make.conf file. The "-s3" selects the fastest three mirrors.
>
>
> You can also use:
>
> emerge vim
>
> if you prefer to use the vim editor rather than the default nano editor.
>
>
> # more /etc/fstab:
>
> # /etc/fstab: static file system information.
> #
> # noatime turns off atimes for increased performance (atimes normally
> # aren't needed; notail increases performance of ReiserFS (at the
> # expense of storage efficiency). It's safe to drop the noatime options
> # if you want and to switch between notail / tail freely.
> #
> # The root filesystem should have a pass number of either 0 or 1.
> # All other filesystems should have a pass number 0 or greater than 1.
> #
> # See the manpage fstab(5) for more information.
> #
>
> # <fs> <mountpoint> <type> <opts>
> <dump/pass>
>
> # NOTE: If your BOOT partition is ReiserFS, add the notail option to opts.
> #/dev/BOOT /boot ext2 noauto,noatime 1 2
> #/dev/ROOT / ext3 noatime 0 1
> #/dev/SWAP none swap sw 0 0
> #
> LABEL=boot /boot ext2 noatime,noauto 1 2
> LABEL=root / ext2 noatime 0 1
> LABEL=home /home ext2 noatime 1 2
> LABEL=var /var ext2 noatime 1 2
> LABEL=misc /mnt/misc ext2 noatime 1 2
> LABEL=swap-sdb2 none swap sw 0 0
> #
> /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom auto noauto,ro 0 0
> #/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto 0 0
>
> # glibc 2.2 and above expects tmpfs to be mounted at /dev/shm for
> # POSIX shared memory (shm_open, shm_unlink).
> # (tmpfs is a dynamically expandable/shrinkable ramdisk, and will
> # use almost no memory if not populated with files)
> shm /dev/shm tmpfs nodev,nosuid,noexec 0 0
>
> # procfs (already mounted during init)
> #none /proc proc defaults 0 0
>
> # initial consoles?
> #none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0
>
>
>
> To format partitions with labels or to add labels, use:
>
> mk2efs -L labelname /dev/sdX
>
> or
>
> tune2fs -L labelname /dev/sdX
>
> to set a label on an existing formatted ext2 partition.
>
>
> Sooo.... Why use ext2 and noatime for my example? The three drives used,
> hda, sda and sdb are all flash SSDs and the hope is that ext2 and
> noatime will help to minimise the write counts on those devices to
> reduce "wear". Flash devices have a very limited number of writes
> compared to HDDs.
>
>
>
> A few hiccups along the way were:
>
> When emerging, I would get:
>
> openpty failed: 'out of pty devices'
>
> The solution is to use, before the chroot-ing:
>
> mount --rbind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev
>
> The "--rbind" is needed to bind "/dev" and also "/dev/pts".
>
>
> I just had to go and optimise and so I followed the instructions on what
> to do after changing CHOST from 486 -> 586...
>
> Changing the CHOST variable
> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/change-chost.xml
>
>
> You should additionally check what:
>
> perl -V:cc
>
> returns. In my case I incorrectly got:
>
> cc='i486-pc-linux-gnu-gcc';
>
> That was fixed by re-emerging Perl:
>
> emerge perl
>
>
> If the perl cc is wrong, you can get 'strangeness' with emerges such as
> repeated blocking of packages. The example I blundered into was:
>
>
> [blocks b ] <sys-fs/e2fsprogs-1.41 ("<sys-fs/e2fsprogs-1.41" is
> blocking sys-libs/e2fsprogs-libs-1.41.3-r1)
> [uninstall ] sys-libs/com_err-1.40.8
> [blocks b ] sys-libs/com_err ("sys-libs/com_err" is blocking
> sys-libs/e2fsprogs-libs-1.41.3-r1)
> [uninstall ] sys-libs/ss-1.40.8
> [blocks b ] sys-libs/ss ("sys-libs/ss" is blocking
> sys-libs/e2fsprogs-libs-1.41.3-r1)
>
>
> The re-emerge of perl fixed that on the next attempt.
>
>
>
> I installed from:
>
> gentoo-install-x86-minimal-2008.0.iso
>
> burnt to a CD.
>
> eg:
>
> wget
> ftp://gentoo.virginmedia.com/sites/gentoo/releases/x86/2008.0/installcd/install-x86-minimal-2008.0.iso
>
>
> Read the comments and instructions and links above first!
>
> Format your partitions as appropriate and mount:
>
> mount -o noatime LABEL=root /mnt/gentoo
> mount -o noatime LABEL=home /mnt/gentoo/home
> mount -o noatime LABEL=var /mnt/gentoo/var
> mount -o noatime LABEL=misc /mnt/gentoo/mnt/misc
> mount -o noatime LABEL=boot /mnt/gentoo/boot
> swapon LABEL=swap-sdb2
> cd /
> mount -t proc proc /mnt/gentoo/proc
> mount --rbind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev
> cp -f -L /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/gentoo/etc/
> chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
> env-update && source /etc/profile
>
> # Setup the various config files and do whatever emerges
>
> cd /usr/src/linux
> make menuconfig
>
> # In menuconfig, ensure that support for usb, usb mass storage,
> # scsi devices and all filesystems are built in to the kernel '*'.
> # That is, NOT as modules 'M'. Also, for any specific hardware needed.
> # Get a working kernel and then afterwards experiment in excluding
> # extraneous bits. Likely won't speed up the kernel but it may speed
> # up future compiling
>
> time make -j2
> make modules_install
> cp -v arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/kernel
>
> # Edit grub menu.lst
>
> exit
>
> sync
> umount /mnt/gentoo/boot
> umount /mnt/gentoo/mnt/misc
> umount /mnt/gentoo/var
> umount /mnt/gentoo/home
> umount /mnt/gentoo/dev/pts
> umount /mnt/gentoo/dev
> umount /mnt/gentoo/proc
> umount /mnt/gentoo/
>
>
> reboot
>
> # Upon reboot, remove CD and see your new gentoo kernel start up
>
> # THEN is the time for optimising and updates and installs!
>
>
> EXCEPT... The USB memory sticks weren't found! That was fixed by adding
> a rootwait on the kernel line.
>
> Next, I got:
>
> Warning: unable to open an initial console
>
> Followed by a kernel panic.
>
> The actual problem was that sda and sdb were transposed between the
> livecd kernel and the compiled kernel. Also, eth0 and eth1 were
> transposed.
>
> Fixed by just replacing root=sda1 with instead root=sdb1
>
>
> So, the grub lines are:
>
> title kernel rootwait sdb1 (Gentoo compiled)
> root (hd0,0)
> kernel /boot/kernel root=/dev/sdb1 rootwait
>
>
> There's various other (out of date?) comments in forums about needing
> initrd, or "mknod /dev/console c 5 1" or add into /etc/fstab "none
> /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0" to populate /dev before udev gets to set
> things up. Note also that DEVFS is 'obsolete' and initrd is preferred if
> you need to go that route. None of those were needed for this example.
>
>
> Curiously, the kernel line "root=LABEL=root" didn't work :-( ...
>
>
>
>
> To do a full update, a wise sequence is:
>
> emerge --update portage
> emerge --sync
> emerge --pretend --update system
> emerge --update system
> emerge --pretend --update world
> emerge --update world
>
>
> Special note for config files:
>
> From:
>
> man emerge
>
> When Portage installs a file into a protected directory tree like /etc,
> any existing files will not be overwritten. If a file of the same name
> already exists, Portage will change the name of the to-be-installed file
> from 'foo' to '._cfg0000_foo'. If '._cfg0000_foo' already exists, this
> name becomes '._cfg0001_foo', etc. In this way, existing files are not
> overwritten, allowing the administrator to manually merge the new config
> files and avoid any unexpected changes.
>
> In addition to protecting overwritten files, Portage will not delete any
> files from a protected directory when a package is unmerged. While this
> may be a little bit untidy, it does prevent potentially valuable config
> files from being deleted, which is of paramount importance.
>
> Protected directories are set using the CONFIG_PROTECT variable,
> normally defined in /etc/make.globals. Directory exceptions to the
> CONFIG_PROTECTed directories can be specified using the
> CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK variable. To find files that need to be updated in
> /etc, type
>
> find /etc -iname '._cfg????_*'.
>
>
>
> Next to try is to see whether the compiler option "Os" is better or not
> than "O2"... Anyone tried a comparison on a C3?
>
>
> Phew!
>
> First impressions are that "emerge" and the very fine grained control is
> tremendous. Rather neat! It also seems to make the C3 a bit more
> responsive, even if compiles might take all night! All for further
> experimenting.
>
> Hope that's of interest to anyone dabbling into Gentoo for the first time.
>
>
> Have fun!
> Martin
>
> --
> ----------------
> Martin Lomas
> martin at ml1.co.uk
> ----------------
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:05:25 +0100
> From: Graeme Fowler <graeme at graemef.net>
> Subject: Re: [Nottingham] Gentoo fun on an old VIA Epia C3
> To: nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk
> Message-ID: <1240265125.16048.36.camel at ernie.internal.graemef.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain
>
> On Mon, 2009-04-20 at 22:43 +0100, Martin wrote:
>> As mentioned earlier:
> <snip>
>
> I respectfully reserve the right to point out in a non-combative
> uncomplaining way that I wanted a description of noodles, spring onions
> & chicken with black bean sauce in your long and well produced message,
> and didn't get any.
>
> Pah. You just can't get the staff these days ;-)
>
> Graeme
>
> PS You, sir, have a well known medical condition known as "old hardware
> perversity"! Well done getting it running though. I'd never have managed
> it with my distro of choice (Fedora)...
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2009 03:43:55 +0100
> From: Jim Moore <jmthelostpacket at googlemail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Nottingham] Gentoo fun on an old VIA Epia C3
> To: nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk
> Message-ID:
> <e24b97890904201943u7cd25e85tc21e43d22d5dadae at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> I love Knoppix/Debian 5.1-i586 on my Via Epia-M 10000 board (1.0GHz
> Nehemiah)... makes for a perfect addition to the living room (the VCR
> is noisier!) and is more than capable of handling capture through a
> Pinnacle composite capture card (which occupies the sole PCI slot),
> 512MB of PC133 (which occupies the sole DIMM slot), onto the 40GB
> notebook drive (OK, not so huge for a DVR but it does the job for
> 15.75 hours of DVD-quality video...).
>
> Only real issue I had with setup was the Unichrome graphics (fixed by
> using VGA and outputting via composite to the TV, but that did drop me
> to 8MB of RAM for video rather than the maximum 32MB which would have
> been preferable, but I got it working OK through the TV so I wasn't
> about to mess with it!), and the Realtek sound driver(!) which did
> eventually and quite miraculously, start working on its own (while I
> was messing with the graphics setup, as it happens. Go figure).
>
> Yea to old hardware!
>
> (Plus the fact that the board cost me a tun, as did the case, so I
> ain't about to bin it, not while it's still working...!)
>
> On 4/20/09, Graeme Fowler <graeme at graemef.net> wrote:
>> On Mon, 2009-04-20 at 22:43 +0100, Martin wrote:
>>> As mentioned earlier:
>> <snip>
>>
>> I respectfully reserve the right to point out in a non-combative
>> uncomplaining way that I wanted a description of noodles, spring onions
>> & chicken with black bean sauce in your long and well produced message,
>> and didn't get any.
>>
>> Pah. You just can't get the staff these days ;-)
>>
>> Graeme
>>
>> PS You, sir, have a well known medical condition known as "old hardware
>> perversity"! Well done getting it running though. I'd never have managed
>> it with my distro of choice (Fedora)...
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Nottingham mailing list
>> Nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk
>> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/nottingham
>>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Nottingham mailing list
> Nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/nottingham
>
> End of Nottingham Digest, Vol 290, Issue 5
> ******************************************
>
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