Now, I’ve got an operating system installed on my jumble of spare parts that has become a computer of sorts (still need a sound card and way more RAM).  Its running Gentoo Linux.  Are you surprised? I didn’t even try to do the Windows thing (as that would require another licence, right?…).  Now I tried Ubuntu, which ran but was a tad slow.  And, I’ve never really gotten used to Gnome as an interface.  It doesn’t do what I want it to do in a reasonable and ergonomic way.  I think that its the tools, as the concept is solid.  The Damn Small Linux latest live CD seemed to work, but I’ve never really gotten used to the VESA X-Server that it uses and trying to make it into a reasonable Debian system with the necessary unsupported packages to make my computer fun, was just looking like too much work.

Kubuntu was just too overloaded for 128MB RAM and it wasn’t going to install.  It should have a reduced, low RAM version of the installer so that it can be installed on lesser systems.  What happened to the OS that actually installed on a P-III?

So, I was brought full circle back to Gentoo.  I’ve not had this wonderful and frustrating OS installed on my computer for a long time (nearly a year, I think).  The thing is that, even with the new graphical installer from a Live-CD (while surfing the net with memory-hog Firefox), I had a full Gnome desktop (yes, I said Gnome) within a few hours.  I’ve removed most of the remnants and replaced with KDE, but I’m still finding cool apps every day.  Emerging ccache and using it to cache some of the gcc compilation seems to have speeded up the compilation by a lot, as well.

I used the 2006.1 Live CD to install and I must say that its getting to be a good tool if you want to do a graphical installation, or run from a Live CD, like many other good “working” distros, like SimplyMepis or PCLinuxOS.  If I get to it, I’ll fill this post with a pile of links, for those who are too lazy to use Google or Yahoo! search.

snapshot of the installerI’m writing this post from the Gentoo Live CD of the latest snapshot 2006.1. I’m trying out the new GTK+ installer to see if its better than the last one. I also want to see if I can install a binary version to get things running quickly. Its been about 20 minutes and it looks like I’m almost done. Maybe another 10 minutes. That would make this install about twice as fast as the Windows XP install I last did (without the drivers for my sound and video cards and printer, that is). We’ll see how it goes. I’ll be trying the new Freespire 1.0 as well later (to see if I should recommend it to the newbies).

Update

Its been about an hour now and it looks like there’s a ways to go yet, so I guess that even a networkless install of Gentoo is still a tad time consuming. That’s alright. I still want to find out if its worth it to do it the “easy” way.

Update 2

Its installed. That took about 3-1/2 hours. That’s longer than it takes to install Windows XP but much shorter by far than installing from source. The next “emerge –sync” will likely show a need for a serious update, but that’s all later. Its too bad that Gnome is the default desktop. Perhaps next time I’ll see if I can install with Fluxbox instead. Or, maybe there’s a binary for KDE. We’ll see how it goes. So far so good.

Update 3

Blasted the Gentoo Live CD install off the drive to see what Freespire was like. So Freespire 1.0far, this is proving to be one slick offering. There are a few things that are a bit annoying (like not getting into CnR rigght away because of a known bug setting up accounts - solved by creating another with a different email address). I’ve still got to figure out how to successfully swap the default boot order for the operating systems to make Windows boot by default on this machine. A review will follow shortly.

For anyone who cares about the progress on the old toy that I refered to here, I’ve chosen to try installing Gentoo on it because Debian wouldn’t even start the installer, for whatever reason. The checksums matched. Dunno.

I got it istalled a while ago, as far as the base system (no X server), but thought that I’d messed up the bootloader install (this is new ground for me). I had not. Seems that /etc/silo.conf had a default timeout of 30 seconds, like the old Win 98 boot screen, and I was just not waiting long enough. So, I reduced the timeout.

I then proceeded to install X (with a basic KDE install). Agter 2 days of compiling, it has finished, but the config file is still messed up, and some modules now don’t want to load. Looks like another net scour to find out what needs to be done.

All this because the original mouse was missing and I couldn’t install Solaris. I have two mice now, but I’ve invested so much time into this Gentoo install, I can’t just erase it all without a good go of it.

Stubborn, wha?

UPDATE: I’ve deleted Gentoo in an attempt to install Solaris 8.  We’ll see how long I stay away.

I’ve stayed away from RedHat products since I tried unsuccessfully to install Redhat 7.3, years ago. I tried again with Fedira Core 1, via floppy installer, but it was also a disaster. Couldn’t even get a module from my common network card. Ironically, Debian was my first sucessful Linux install (supposedly one of the hardest at the time). Don’t worry, I won’t abandon Gentoo. But, I’ve got a craving to try Fedora Core 5. I want to see what the mainstream looks like. I’ve always been curious but never had it on my hard drive. Now seems to be the time. I’m downloading all 5 iso images (I know, why bother - just download it - but I have a plan). My problem is that I’ve tried 3 mirrors so far and the md5sums don’t match, so I’ve got a bunch of potential coasters here. I guess its bittorrent, with its built-in hash checking. I didn’t want to have to upload a lot, since my opressive ISP likes to choke off upload on a lot of bittorrent. They’re jerks. Anyhoo.

update: I’m not so observant at 2am, I guess.  The md5sums don’t match because they’re not md5sums! They’re sha1sums! Different encryption! No wonder the calculated numbers were wrong! So, for those who need to calculate a hash of an iso image, or whatever (to find out if the file downloaded has been corrupted), you might want to try a nice graphical tool called hashcalc.  It’ll calculate 12 of the most popular algorythms.  Very handy.  It’d be nice to have a small “compare” window, like winmd5sum has, though.

Shamelessly ripped from the Gentoo CD a few years ago (the xorg.conf file is mostly the same)

I’m beginning to wonder if I should bother keeping this page here because of its age…

# $XFree86: xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/XF86Conf.cpp,v 3.45 2003/02/20 04:05:12 dawes Exp $
#
# Copyright © 1994-1998 by The XFree86 Project, Inc.
#
# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
# copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”),
# to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
# the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
# and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
# Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
#
# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
# all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
#
# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
# IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL
# THE XFREE86 PROJECT BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
# WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF
# OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
# SOFTWARE.
#
# Except as contained in this notice, the name of the XFree86 Project shall
# not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or other
# dealings in this Software without prior written authorization from the
# XFree86 Project.
#
# $XConsortium: XF86Conf.cpp /main/22 1996/10/23 11:43:51 kaleb $

# ********************************************************
# This is a sample configuration file only, intended to illustrate
# what a config file might look like. Refer to the XF86Config(4/5)
# man page for details about the format of this file. This man page
# is installed as /usr/X11R6/man/man5/XF86Config.5x
# *********************************************************

# The ordering of sections is not important in version 4.0 and later.

# *********************************************************
# Files section. This allows default font and rgb paths to be set
# *********************************************************

Section “Files”

# The location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like “.txt” or “.db”). There is normally
# no need to change the default.

RgbPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb”

# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (which are concatenated together),
# as well as specifying multiple comma-separated entries in one FontPath
# command (or a combination of both methods)

FontPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local/”
FontPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/”
FontPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/”
FontPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/”
FontPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/”
FontPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/”
FontPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/”

# ModulePath can be used to set a search path for the X server modules.
# The default path is shown here.

# ModulePath “/usr/X11R6/lib/modules”

EndSection

# **********************************************************
# Module section — this is an optional section which is used to specify
# which run-time loadable modules to load when the X server starts up.
# **********************************************************

Section “Module”

# This loads the DBE extension module.

Load “dbe”

# This loads the miscellaneous extensions module, and disables
# initialisation of the XFree86-DGA extension within that module.

SubSection “extmod”
Option “omit xfree86-dga”
EndSubSection

# This loads the Type1 and FreeType font modules

Load “type1″
Load “freetype”

EndSection

# *********************************************************
# Server flags section. This contains various server-wide Options.
# *********************************************************

Section “ServerFlags”

# Uncomment this to cause a core dump at the spot where a signal is
# received. This may leave the console in an unusable state, but may
# provide a better stack trace in the core dump to aid in debugging

# Option “NoTrapSignals”

# Uncomment this to disable the VT switch sequence
# (where n is 1 through 12). This allows clients to receive these key
# events.

# Option “DontVTSwitch”

# Uncomment this to disable the server abort sequence
# This allows clients to receive this key event.

# Option “DontZap”

# Uncomment this to disable the / mode switching
# sequences. This allows clients to receive these key events.

# Option “DontZoom”

# Uncomment this to disable tuning with the xvidtune client. With
# it the client can still run and fetch card and monitor attributes,
# but it will not be allowed to change them. If it tries it will
# receive a protocol error.

# Option “DisableVidModeExtension”

# Uncomment this to enable the use of a non-local xvidtune client.

# Option “AllowNonLocalXvidtune”

# Uncomment this to disable dynamically modifying the input device
# (mouse and keyboard) settings.

# Option “DisableModInDev”

# Uncomment this to enable the use of a non-local client to
# change the keyboard or mouse settings (currently only xset).

# Option “AllowNonLocalModInDev”

# Set the basic blanking screen saver timeout.

Option “blank time” “10″ # 10 minutes

# Set the DPMS timeouts. These are set here because they are global
# rather than screen-specific. These settings alone don’t enable DPMS.
# It is enabled per-screen (or per-monitor), and even then only when
# the driver supports it.

Option “standby time” “20″
Option “suspend time” “30″
Option “off time” “60″

# On some platform the server needs to estimate the sizes of PCI
# memory and pio ranges. This is done by assuming that PCI ranges
# don’t overlap. Some broken BIOSes tend to set ranges of inactive
# devices wrong. Here one can adjust how aggressive the assumptions
# should be. Default is 0.

# Option “EstimateSizesAggresively” “0″

EndSection

# *******************************************************
# Input devices
# *******************************************************

# *******************************************************
# Core keyboard’s InputDevice section
# ******************************************************

Section “InputDevice”

Identifier “Keyboard1″
Driver “keyboard”

# For most OSs the protocol can be omitted (it defaults to “Standard”).
# When using XQUEUE (only for SVR3 and SVR4, but not Solaris), comment
# out the above line, and uncomment the following line.

# Option “Protocol” “Xqueue”

# Set the keyboard auto repeat parameters. Not all platforms implement
# this.

Option “AutoRepeat” “500 5″

# Specifiy which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1)).

# Option “Xleds” “1 2 3″

# To disable the XKEYBOARD extension, uncomment XkbDisable.

# Option “XkbDisable”

# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults). For example, for a European
# keyboard, you will probably want to use one of:
#
# Option “XkbModel” “pc102″
# Option “XkbModel” “pc105″
#
# If you have a Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
#
# Option “XkbModel” “microsoft”
#
# If you have a US “windows” keyboard you will want:
#
# Option “XkbModel” “pc104″
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
#
# Option “XkbLayout” “de”
#
# or:
#
# Option “XkbLayout” “de”
# Option “XkbVariant” “nodeadkeys”
#
# If you’d like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
#
# Option “XkbOptions” “ctrl:swapcaps”

# These are the default XKB settings for XFree86
#
# Option “XkbRules” “xfree86″
# Option “XkbModel” “pc101″
# Option “XkbLayout” “us”
# Option “XkbVariant” “”
# Option “XkbOptions” “”

EndSection

# ******************************************************
# Core Pointer’s InputDevice section
# ******************************************************

Section “InputDevice”

# Identifier and driver

Identifier “Mouse1″
Driver “mouse”

# The mouse protocol and device. The device is normally set to /dev/mouse,
# which is usually a symbolic link to the real device.

Option “Protocol” “Microsoft”
Option “Device” “/dev/mouse”

# On platforms where PnP mouse detection is supported the following
# protocol setting can be used when using a newer PnP mouse:

# Option “Protocol” “Auto”

# When using mouse connected to a PS/2 port (aka “MousePort), set the
# the protocol as follows. On some platforms some other settings may
# be available.

# Option “Protocol” “PS/2″

# When using XQUEUE (only for SVR3 and SVR4, but not Solaris), use
# the following instead of any of the lines above. The Device line
# is not required in this case.

# Option “Protocol” “Xqueue”

# Baudrate and SampleRate are only for some older Logitech mice. In
# almost every case these lines should be omitted.

# Option “BaudRate” “9600″
# Option “SampleRate” “150″

# Emulate3Buttons is an option for 2-button mice
# Emulate3Timeout is the timeout in milliseconds (default is 50ms)

# Option “Emulate3Buttons”
# Option “Emulate3Timeout” “50″

# ChordMiddle is an option for some 3-button Logitech mice, or any
# 3-button mouse where the middle button generates left+right button
# events.

# Option “ChordMiddle”

EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Mouse2″
Driver “mouse”
Option “Protocol” “MouseMan”
Option “Device” “/dev/mouse2″
EndSection

# Some examples of extended input devices

# Section “InputDevice”
# Identifier “spaceball”
# Driver “magellan”
# Option “Device” “/dev/cua0″
# EndSection
#
# Section “InputDevice”
# Identifier “spaceball2″
# Driver “spaceorb”
# Option “Device” “/dev/cua0″
# EndSection
#
# Section “InputDevice”
# Identifier “touchscreen0″
# Driver “microtouch”
# Option “Device” “/dev/ttyS0″
# Option “MinX” “1412″
# Option “MaxX” “15184″
# Option “MinY” “15372″
# Option “MaxY” “1230″
# Option “ScreenNumber” “0″
# Option “ReportingMode” “Scaled”
# Option “ButtonNumber” “1″
# Option “SendCoreEvents”
# EndSection
#
# Section “InputDevice”
# Identifier “touchscreen1″
# Driver “elo2300″
# Option “Device” “/dev/ttyS0″
# Option “MinX” “231″
# Option “MaxX” “3868″
# Option “MinY” “3858″
# Option “MaxY” “272″
# Option “ScreenNumber” “0″
# Option “ReportingMode” “Scaled”
# Option “ButtonThreshold” “17″
# Option “ButtonNumber” “1″
# Option “SendCoreEvents”
# EndSection

#***********************************************
# Monitor section
# **********************************************

# Any number of monitor sections may be present

Section “Monitor”

# The identifier line must be present.

Identifier “Generic Monitor”

# HorizSync is in kHz unless units are specified.
# HorizSync may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY. REFER TO YOUR MONITOR’S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.

# HorizSync 31.5 # typical for a single frequency fixed-sync monitor
# HorizSync 30-64 # multisync
# HorizSync 31.5, 35.2 # multiple fixed sync frequencies
# HorizSync 15-25, 30-50 # multiple ranges of sync frequencies

# VertRefresh is in Hz unless units are specified.
# VertRefresh may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY. REFER TO YOUR MONITOR’S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.

# VertRefresh 60 # typical for a single frequency fixed-sync monitor

# VertRefresh 50-100 # multisync
# VertRefresh 60, 65 # multiple fixed sync frequencies
# VertRefresh 40-50, 80-100 # multiple ranges of sync frequencies

# Modes can be specified in two formats. A compact one-line format, or
# a multi-line format.

# A generic VGA 640×480 mode (hsync = 31.5kHz, refresh = 60Hz)
# These two are equivalent

# ModeLine “640×480″ 25.175 640 664 760 800 480 491 493 525

Mode “640×480″
DotClock 25.175
HTimings 640 664 760 800
VTimings 480 491 493 525
EndMode

# These two are equivalent

# ModeLine “1024×768i” 45 1024 1048 1208 1264 768 776 784 817 Interlace

# Mode “1024×768i”
# DotClock 45
# HTimings 1024 1048 1208 1264
# VTimings 768 776 784 817
# Flags “Interlace”
# EndMode

# If a monitor has DPMS support, that can be indicated here. This will
# enable DPMS when the monitor is used with drivers that support it.

# Option “dpms”

# If a monitor requires that the sync signals be superimposed on the
# green signal, the following option will enable this when used with
# drivers that support it. Only a relatively small range of hardware
# (and drivers) actually support this.

# Option “sync on green”

EndSection

# ****************************************************
# Graphics device section
# ****************************************************

# Any number of graphics device sections may be present

Section “Device”

# The Identifier must be present.

Identifier “Generic VGA”

# The Driver line must be present. When using run-time loadable driver
# modules, this line instructs the server to load the specified driver
# module. Even when not using loadable driver modules, this line
# indicates which driver should interpret the information in this section.

Driver “vga”

# The chipset line is optional in most cases. It can be used to override
# the driver’s chipset detection, and should not normally be specified.

# Chipset “generic”

# Various other lines can be specified to override the driver’s automatic
# detection code. In most cases they are not needed.

# VideoRam 256
# Clocks 25.2 28.3

# The BusID line is used to specify which of possibly multiple devices
# this section is intended for. When this line isn’t present, a device
# section can only match up with the primary video device. For PCI
# devices a line like the following could be used. This line should not
# normally be included unless there is more than one video device
# intalled.

# BusID “PCI:0:10:0″

# Various option lines can be added here as required. Some options
# are more appropriate in Screen sections, Display subsections or even
# Monitor sections.

# Option “hw cursor” “off”

EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “any supported Trident chip”
Driver “trident”
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “MGA Millennium I”
Driver “mga”
Option “hw cursor” “off”
BusID “PCI:0:10:0″
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “MGA G200 AGP”
Driver “mga”
BusID “PCI:1:0:0″
Option “pci retry”
EndSection

# ******************************************************
# Screen sections.
# *****************************************************

# Any number of screen sections may be present. Each describes
# the configuration of a single screen. A single specific screen section
# may be specified from the X server command line with the “-screen”
# option.

Section “Screen”

# The Identifier, Device and Monitor lines must be present

Identifier “Screen 1″
Device “Generic VGA”
Monitor “Generic Monitor”

# The favoured Depth and/or Bpp may be specified here

DefaultDepth 8

SubSection “Display”
Depth 8
Modes “640×480″
ViewPort 0 0
Virtual 800 600
EndSubsection

SubSection “Display”
Depth 4
Modes “640×480″
EndSubSection

SubSection “Display”
Depth 1
Modes “640×480″
EndSubSection

EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “Screen MGA1″
Device “MGA Millennium I”
Monitor “Generic Monitor”
Option “no accel”
DefaultDepth 16
# DefaultDepth 24

SubSection “Display”
Depth 8
Modes “1280×1024″
Option “rgb bits” “8″
Visual “StaticColor”
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 16
Modes “1280×1024″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
Modes “1280×1024″
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “Screen MGA2″
Device “MGA G200 AGP”
Monitor “Generic Monitor”
DefaultDepth 8

SubSection “Display”
Depth 8
Modes “1280×1024″
Option “rgb bits” “8″
Visual “StaticColor”
EndSubSection
EndSection

# *******************************************************
# ServerLayout sections.
# *******************************************************

# Any number of ServerLayout sections may be present. Each describes
# the way multiple screens are organised. A specific ServerLayout
# section may be specified from the X server command line with the
# “-layout” option. In the absence of this, the first section is used.
# When now ServerLayout section is present, the first Screen section
# is used alone.

Section “ServerLayout”

# The Identifier line must be present

Identifier “Main Layout”

# Each Screen line specifies a Screen section name, and optionally
# the relative position of other screens. The four names after
# primary screen name are the screens to the top, bottom, left and right
# of the primary screen. In this example, screen 2 is located to the
# right of screen 1.

Screen “Screen MGA 1″ “” “” “” “Screen MGA 2″
Screen “Screen MGA 2″ “” “” “Screen MGA 1″ “”

# Each InputDevice line specifies an InputDevice section name and
# optionally some options to specify the way the device is to be
# used. Those options include “CorePointer”, “CoreKeyboard” and
# “SendCoreEvents”. In this example, “Mouse1″ is the core pointer,
# and “Mouse2″ is an extended input device that also generates core
# pointer events (i.e., both mice will move the standard pointer).

InputDevice “Mouse1″ “CorePointer”
InputDevice “Mouse2″ “SendCoreEvents”
InputDevice “Keyboard1″ “CoreKeyboard”

EndSection

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “another layout”
Screen “Screen 1″
Screen “Screen MGA 1″
InputDevice “Mouse1″ “CorePointer”
InputDevice “Keyboard1″ “CoreKeyboard”
EndSection

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “simple layout”
Screen “Screen 1″
InputDevice “Mouse1″ “CorePointer”
InputDevice “Keyboard1″ “CoreKeyboard”
EndSection

This list often changes:

I have two hard drives.  One is an 80 Gig Maxtor Diamond Max 9.  Hopefully, it will last for a long time.  The other us a 16 Gig Seagate U-series drive that I bought for $5.

The large drive houses my main distro, Ubuntu (currently Hardy Heron, somewhere around Alpha 4-5) and the smaller one houses whatever I want to play with.  Right now, its got Arch, running e17.

ALSA Progress

Recent Changes With KDE, Kernel 2.6, Gentoo, and ALSA
(Anyone who has recently lost sound in their latest upgrade should read this)

I recently upgraded from KDE 3.3 to 3.4. When I did, many other things were upgraded as well. It seems that I lost sound at that point. This was not a problem with whether or not a driver was loaded, but rather whether the mixer level was stored. I tried

alsactl store

after setting the mixer and PCM sliders where I wanted them. On reboot, I was back to “mute”. This is not the best situation, for sure. So, I started searching (scouring, actually) the web, as anyone would, for an answer. Nothing was to be revealed. Finally, I remerged alsa-utils and the answer came in the install verbiage. With the Gentoo package, there were some compile messages that caught my eye, and, afterwards, I’m wondering why this isn’t a tutorial yet. With a few careful search queries on Google, I see that there is mention of a problem with alsasound in the initscripts. Fortunately, for those running Gentoo, the fix is quite easy:

rc-update add alsasound default

For other distributions, you’ll have to manually add alsasound to /etc/conf.d/ or its equivalent, so that alsa will start on boot and find your sound card. As I gather info, I will update this page.
More to follow, perhaps…

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