Re: [gentoo-desktop] System problems

[Lindsay Haisley <fmouse-gentoo@fmp.com>]

Thanks, eamjr56!

On Tue, 2011-03-22 at 07:43 +0000, eamjr56@gmail.com wrote:
> Now that you explained more fully the situation  and why and what led
> to your problems I understand some of your frustrations. Sometimes
> wanting to fix one thing leads to other complex issues. Maybe (being
> Gentoo-specific) would be first to build your toolchain
> (linux-headers, glibc, binutils,and gcc) to today's versions then a
> "emerge -e world" so all of your stuff will be new and
> compatable-(your original problem).

The box is scheduled for replacement, as I've noted.  The hardware is
old, relatively, and has limitations.  Additionally, Gentoo has its
limitations as a desktop environment, although it's much easier to
maintain on servers.  As Linux has to some extent penetrated the
marketplace, manufacturers are distributing drivers for things like
printers as .deb or .rpm files - no joy for Gentoo users :-(  My sweetie
bought such a printer a while back, and I can't use it for this reason.
Pulling packages apart and installing the contents manually is possible,
but not simple, and I have other things to do.

I'm reluctant to "emerge -e world" on the box because X is seriously out
of date, and I've been trying to avoid having to deal with the issue.
revdep-rebuild takes days!  And it bails if _any_ ebuild fails, so I
have to go to the office, figure out the problem, and restart the
process.  When I get the box so it'll boot properly with a more recent
kernel I can at least move in that direction.


>  All of this can be done in the background while you keep working.
> This is only one option. Feel free to use it or not. Sometimes I cuss
> the Gentoo devs for things they do that screws up my installs too.

Gentoo is substantially more complex as a distribution than are others.
Subtle screw-ups in ebuilds are more than just an annoyance on my
servers, where things break in the background after an emerge and I
don't find out until one or more customers calls me and says "**** isn't
working!"

>          As to your kernel question as to "default" switches in Gentoo
> kernel I really don't think there are. Gen-kernel is one answer, but
> it never worked for me, I always had to get dirty with "make
> menuconfig".

I tried genkernel for a while and didn't like it.  For one thing, I
recall that it installed an initrd, which introduced a level of
complexity that I didn't feel was necessary.  I use an initrd on our
SOHO gateway box since the root filesystem is managed by EVMS, but I had
to manually re-write the initrd filesystem at one point pursuant to a
glibc upgrade!  Too much work.

I assume that there must some mods to or initial setting of the default
kernel switches, somewhere, to avoid things such as enabling CONFIG_IDE
in a kernel build where it conflicts with recent releases of udev.

When I get a few moments to work on it again I'm starting with a new,
much more recent kernel and _not_ massaging my .config from a previous
kernel for it.  I assume the default settings will at very least produce
a bootable system and I need only add drivers/modules for my hardware -
NIC, sound cards, etc. to get it up and running.  I can go in and add
stuff later as needed.

>          Hope you figure it out.  Cheers

Thanks, really.  I mean it!  With a cooler head and a verified back down
plan for any changes I may make (plus the few points of light I received
on this list in spite of the misunderstandings), I'm 99% sure I can jump
in an fix the problem myself.  If I post here with it again, I'll have
my presentation of the issue MUCH better organized and thought out.

-- 
Lindsay Haisley       |"Windows .....
FMP Computer Services |    life's too short!"
512-259-1190          |
http://www.fmp.com    |              - Brad Johnston