Gentoo Ten Live DVD Frequently Asked Questions

1.  FAQ

Introduction

The 10th anniversary Gentoo hybrid media is made by the community for the community. It was created with the help of gentoo developers from around the world and users alike. Thank you all for your contributions and suggestions! Gentoo 10 Years October 4th, 2009.

Your Gentoo Ten Team

Please note that this is simply a list of common questions. Please read the handbook and/or man pages to gain a greater understanding of how Gentoo and GNU/Linux works. For answers to questions which may not be answered here, please visit the forums and bugzilla.

Getting Started

• Download the correct iso for your hardware
• Boot options for the LiveDVD
• Default root and user password
• Can I copy the image to a usb stick?
• Can I resume the autologin?
• Can I install firmware for my wireless card?
• Can I speed up the boot process?

Trouble Shooting

• Xorg
• Restart kdm
• Raise PCM volume

More Information

• What if my question has not been answered?
• Is there a list of all the packages included?
• Is there a list of the changes from one release to another?

2.  Getting Started

Download the correct iso for your hardware

The livedvd-x86-x86_64 will work on x86 or x86_64. If your arch is x86 boot with the default. If your arch is amd64 boot with gentoo64.

The livedvd-amd64 is for x86-64 specification. Boot with the default.

Boot options for the LiveDVD

This README lists the possible command line options that can be used to tweak the boot process of this DVD. This lists the Gentoo-specific options, along with a few options that are built-in to the kernel, but that have been proven very useful to our users. Also, all options that start with "do" have a "no" inverse, that does the opposite. For example, "doscsi" enables SCSI support in the initial ramdisk boot, while "noscsi" disables it.

Default root and user password

The default user is gentoo and the password is the same.

$ sudo su -

You can use passwd to change the password for the user you are logged into. As root, you can change any user password by issuing the command passwd username For extra options and setting, please man passwd.

Can I copy the image to a usb stick?

Yes, to determine your device before you plug it in open a terminal and tail /var/log/messages.

# tail -f /var/log/messages

# dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sdb

Can I resume the autologin?

To resume the KDM autologin, you need to press the ESC key and wait for the timeout to pass or just hit the enter key to login.

Can I install firmware for my wireless card?

Sure, you just need to copy the firmware to /lib/firmware and reload your wireless cards modules. In the example below I install the firmware for a Ralink RT2501USB wireless LAN chipset, that requires non-free firmware for their operation, which can not be included on the Live DVD because of license issues. I copy the firmware from a 2GB usb stick.

First lets mount the usb stick
# mkdir /mnt/pin
# mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/pin
# cp /mnt/pin/firmware/rt73.bin /lib/firmware
Reload modules so the firmware is included.
# modprobe -r rt73usb  rt2x00usb  rt2x00lib
Time to insert modules amd load firmware.
# modprobe rt73usb
Lets restart wicd to pickup wlan0
# /etc/init.d/wicd restart

Can I speed up the boot process?

For the slow boot, that is in the process of getting some of the fat removed to speed it up. Livecd tools had not been worked on much since 2007 as it was not really needed without a Live CD or DVD. With the switch to xorg-server-1.5 and above some scripts that were needed before are not needed now. We are picking away at it little by little. One script that runs /sbin/x-setup and then calls livecd-functions.sh is going to be eliminated or revised and that should really help, so we are working on speeding it up :)

To speed up the boot try this at the boot prompt.

gentoo-nofb nox
Once you are returned to the command line.
/etc/init.d/xdm start

3.  Trouble Shooting

Xorg

The LiveDVD uses xorg-server-1.6.3 and hal-0.5.13. X.Org is well on its way to getting rid of lots of xorg.conf magic and moving it into obscure elements of HAL. We currently use a blank /etc/X11/xorg.conf and let the magic of hal do its thing. Most hardware is supported but not all.

If you can not start X then it is useful to paste /var/log/Xorg.0.log so others can view it for trouble shooting.

You can paste the log like this from the command line.

# curl -F file=@/var/log/Xorg.0.log  nopaste.com/a

Some people have reported success by creating an xorg.conf file generated from X -configure and renaming from xorg.conf.new and copy to /etc/X11 and hand editing. I would suggest removing all keyboard and mouse sections plus removing the references to modules as this is handled by xorg and hal automatically. Below is an edited xorg.conf with the driver changed to "vesa" which should work for most.

$ sudo su -
# X -configure
# cp /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/
# cd /etc/X11/
# cp xorg.conf.new xorg.conf
# nano -w xorg.conf
# /etc/init.d/xdm restart

Once edited it should be similar to the one I created below.

Section "ServerLayout"
  Identifier     "X.org Configured"
  Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
EndSection

Section "Files"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc/"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/TTF/"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/OTF"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Type1/"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier   "Monitor0"
  VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
  ModelName    "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Device"
  Identifier  "Card0"
  Driver      "vesa"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
  Identifier "Screen0"
  Device     "Card0"
  Monitor    "Monitor0"
    SubSection "Display"
    Viewport   0 0
    Depth     24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Restart kdm

On some graphic chipsets it may become necessary to restart kdm if you experience a blinking cursor in the top left of the screen or xorg-server appears to have frozen.

First lets return to the command line.
# Ctrl+Alt+F1
Now we can restart kdm.
# /etc/init.d/xdm restart

Raise PCM volume

On some chipsets (snd-hda-intel) it may be necessary to raise the PCM volume.

First lets check current values.
# alsamixer

For more information read the Gentoo Linux ALSA Guide.

4.  More Information

What if my question has not been answered?

Thats an easy one, come join us on #gentoo-ten and someone may have an answer or help us fix some bugs. :)

Is there a list of all the packages included?

Yes, please have a look at the package list.

Is there a list of the changes from one release to another?

You are in luck, here are the changes for the 10.1 release.

The contents of this document are licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution / Share Alike license.