[gentoo-user] re-activating a netbook

[gentoo-user] re-activating a netbook

[Philip Webb]

Back in 2009, I bought an Asus EEE netbook, which I called Horace,
& installed Gentoo alongside Windows, which I've never used.
Gentoo was last updated in 2015 ; the device is in good repair.

Recently, I checked Horace & he still does  1  of his intended jobs,
ie reading & editing texts of novels etc downloaded from the I/net
(the other  2  jobs are no longer required).

I wanted to replace Windows with Linux Mint or another binary distro
-- avoiding the need to update Gentoo -- , but ran into a problem :
Horace no longer boots from USB.  I can transfer files via USB stick,
but can't get a live USB version of Mint etc to start.

Also, I now use Wifi exclusively -- I no longer have a landline -- ,
but while Horace can access Wifi, his Gentoo doesn't have Wifi installed,
so there's a Catch-22 : w/o a landline, I can't install WPA etc.

One solution mb simply to copy an upto-date Mint ISO
into the partition now occupied by Windows -- which I don't need --
& set up Lilo -- which is my prefered boot manager -- to boot from it ;
Lilo currently allows a choice of Gentoo/Windows.

Does anyone know if that would work or how to trouble-shoot it ?

-- 
========================,,============================================
SUPPORT     ___________//___,   Philip Webb
ELECTRIC   /] [] [] [] [] []|   Cities Centre, University of Toronto
TRANSIT    `-O----------O---'   purslowatcadotinterdotnet

Re: [gentoo-user] re-activating a netbook

[Filip Kobierski]

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> Horace no longer boots from USB

IMO that is because you are trying to boot in uefi mode and eeepc needs legacy mode.
Try flashing something that supports the legacy mode (MBR and so on).

Also I think reinstalling Gentoo would be easier than upgrading it.
Do you still want to use it? If so, remember about the binhost.


Regards
fkobi

-------- Original Message --------
On 9/19/24 20:39, Philip Webb <purslow@ca.inter.net> wrote:

>  Back in 2009, I bought an Asus EEE netbook, which I called Horace,
>  & installed Gentoo alongside Windows, which I've never used.
>  Gentoo was last updated in 2015 ; the device is in good repair.
>  
>  Recently, I checked Horace & he still does  1  of his intended jobs,
>  ie reading & editing texts of novels etc downloaded from the I/net
>  (the other  2  jobs are no longer required).
>  
>  I wanted to replace Windows with Linux Mint or another binary distro
>  -- avoiding the need to update Gentoo -- , but ran into a problem :
>  Horace no longer boots from USB.  I can transfer files via USB stick,
>  but can't get a live USB version of Mint etc to start.
>  
>  Also, I now use Wifi exclusively -- I no longer have a landline -- ,
>  but while Horace can access Wifi, his Gentoo doesn't have Wifi installed,
>  so there's a Catch-22 : w/o a landline, I can't install WPA etc.
>  
>  One solution mb simply to copy an upto-date Mint ISO
>  into the partition now occupied by Windows -- which I don't need --
>  & set up Lilo -- which is my prefered boot manager -- to boot from it ;
>  Lilo currently allows a choice of Gentoo/Windows.
>  
>  Does anyone know if that would work or how to trouble-shoot it ?
>  
>  --
>  ========================,,============================================
>  SUPPORT     ___________//___,   Philip Webb
>  ELECTRIC   /] [] [] [] [] []|   Cities Centre, University of Toronto
>  TRANSIT    `-O----------O---'   purslowatcadotinterdotnet
>  
>  
>

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Re: [gentoo-user] re-activating a netbook

[Michael]

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Hi Philip,

On Thursday 19 September 2024 19:39:38 BST Philip Webb wrote:
> Back in 2009, I bought an Asus EEE netbook, 

Which model?  Does it have a 32bit or 64bit CPU instruction set?


[Snip ...]
> I wanted to replace Windows with Linux Mint or another binary distro
> -- avoiding the need to update Gentoo -- , but ran into a problem :
> Horace no longer boots from USB.  I can transfer files via USB stick,
> but can't get a live USB version of Mint etc to start.

If you press F2 on start up you should be able to get into the BIOS menu.  I 
think pressing Esc instead of F2 will show the Boot Order menu, where you can 
select the USB medium to boot from.  You can refer to the ASUS online docs for 
specific model buttons and options.

HOWEVER ... if the netbook CPU is 32bit, then you have to use a x86 LiveUSB, 
because an amd64 instruction set will not run on a 32bit CPU.


> Also, I now use Wifi exclusively -- I no longer have a landline -- ,
> but while Horace can access Wifi, his Gentoo doesn't have Wifi installed,
> so there's a Catch-22 : w/o a landline, I can't install WPA etc.

This is a matter of booting with a LiveUSB which has the necessary drivers/
firmware to drive the WiFi NIC on the netbook, plus configuring 
wpa_supplicant, or networkmanager with your WiFi AP authentication 
credentials.

Your Gentoo installation is too old to try to update/upgrade it, so it is best 
if you reinstall.  Given the inadequate CPU/RAM available on the netbook to 
compile software from source files within reasonable timescales, it is 
advisable you either install Gentoo using binary packages:

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Gentoo_Binary_Host_Quickstart

or install some other binary distro.

Of course, if your netbook has 32bit hardware your choices will be limited.  
You could still install Gentoo, but you'll have to build a 32bit host 
environment on a more powerful PC in order to compile all your 32bit packages 
as binaries and continue to do so each time you want to update your eeePC.  
I'd only recommend this route if you really wish to take it up as a hobby for 
a rainy day ...  ;-)


> One solution mb simply to copy an upto-date Mint ISO
> into the partition now occupied by Windows -- which I don't need --
> & set up Lilo -- which is my prefered boot manager -- to boot from it ;
> Lilo currently allows a choice of Gentoo/Windows.
> 
> Does anyone know if that would work or how to trouble-shoot it ?

Assuming you have found a LiveISO of an OS suitable for your hardware, you 
could copy the ISO on a directory in your Gentoo fs.  Then you will need to 
install GRUB2 and configure '/etc/grub.d/40_custom' to chainload the ISO from 
your disk:

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/GRUB/Chainloading

I am not familiar how to do this with LILO, but I expect you'd have to add a 
new menu entry and specify a kernel cmdline to point it at the path where the 
ISO resides.  Something like this may/might work:

root=iso:/dev/hdaX:/path/to/live_image.iso rootfstype=ext4

HTH.

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