[Jonathan183]

I just tried the amd64 live CD in a 32 bit machine ... when I tried to boot I got echo of the command selected and an error message ...

This kernel requires an x86-64 CPU, but only detected an i686 CPU.
Unable to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU.

and memtest on the same machine gave error message ...

Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format

Are you sure you have downloaded the i686 version of the CD and did you check the m5checksum?

Ed:

been through seven installs, 4 downloads, 4 cd's/dvds and lord knows how many hours out of the past few days, and still stuck at step 1. I will never be able to hear the phrase "It just works" again without chuckling to myself, lol...

I know what you mean ... it always seems to take me at least two attempts to get Gentoo installed ... I keep skipping over some vital step! Its about time they got the installer to work ... tried it again just for a laugh ... half way through and bombs out ... some things never change ... back to the handbook!

[DotHQ]

Here's a thought to ensure that the CD's are bootable. Can you try the CD's in another machine just to see if they boot okay there?

[flynismo]

Originally Posted by Jonathan183

I just tried the amd64 live CD in a 32 bit machine ... when I tried to boot I got echo of the command selected and an error message ...

and memtest on the same machine gave error message ...


Are you sure you have downloaded the i686 version of the CD and did you check the m5checksum?

Ed: I know what you mean ... it always seems to take me at least two attempts to get Gentoo installed ... I keep skipping over some vital step! Its about time they got the installer to work ... tried it again just for a laugh ... half way through and bombs out ... some things never change ... back to the handbook!

Yep, it is the i686 I have, but, I noticed that the link you provided is v.2 while my downloads are v.1 (faint glimmer of hope....here goes another 655MB download!) so I'll see if I have better luck with the link above.

Again, I really am a noob to this, and from what I understand, Gentoo isn't very kind to my ilk...in fact, while searching around, came across a lot of horror stories. So, I'm wondering that maybe there's something I'm not doing properly...specifically, when you first boot the disc and come to the screen asking you which kernel to boot, you are given the option to edit/enter commands. I've tried installing through the default kernel and through -nofb, tried editing the options in each mode (example, last attempt I included acpi=on, debug, nokeymap and nofirewire..I think I have that page of the manual memorized now ). Could I be missing something?

What really concerns me though is that either the many install attempts are screwing with my system (like I said, now I can't boot Ubuntu anymore and may have to reinstall it, plus Windows crashed horribly on me last night) or there are pre-existing conditions the are preventing the install from getting started (have several different grubs still on my computer from other distros that have been removed from my computer, so who knows what else is lurking around...)

Well, I'll keep plugging along, I'm way too stubborn to give up on this, thanks for everyone's patience.

[flynismo]

Originally Posted by DotHQ

Here's a thought to ensure that the CD's are bootable. Can you try the CD's in another machine just to see if they boot okay there?

I will definitely try another machine at some point today, because I'm pretty sure the cd's are okay, but it's my computer that I'm wondering about.

There's a little program called Magic Iso that I use to confirm the disc is bootable. It's too bad they only have Windows versions available; pretty handy little tool.

[Jonathan183]

Originally Posted by gruven

Have you ran a memtest for the memory yet? It sounds like your RAM is a likely candidate for the hanging. Memtest should be on the livecd.

One note also, is that you can install gentoo from any livecd that you can boot. It doesn't have to be an official "Gentoo" livecd, it can be ubuntu, knoppix, etc... Just boot into the live environment, and follow the gentoo handbook starting with section 4: "Preparing The Disks".

It's worth bearing in mind what gruven said a few posts ago ... that you can install from any live CD. You can use the memtest on the Ubuntu live CD to check the memory. I don't think the Gentoo live CD really offers you much advantage over others because the installer does not work.

You can run through the handbook and just emerge grub, create the menu.lst file and not install grub. That way you can still boot the system from your existing Linux install. You can add something like ...

title Gentoo grub menu (sda6)
root (hd0,5)
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

replacing the hd0,5 with your gentoo boot partition (or root if you did not create a separate boot partition) and select gentoo grub menu from your current linux menu.
That way your system will always boot, once you have a version of grub installed you only need to link the menu.lst files.

[flynismo]

Originally Posted by Jonathan183

It's worth bearing in mind what gruven said a few posts ago ... that you can install from any live CD. You can use the memtest on the Ubuntu live CD to check the memory. I don't think the Gentoo live CD really offers you much advantage over others because the installer does not work.

You can run through the handbook and just emerge grub, create the menu.lst file and not install grub. That way you can still boot the system from your existing Linux install. You can add something like ...

title Gentoo grub menu (sda6)
root (hd0,5)
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

replacing the hd0,5 with your gentoo boot partition (or root if you did not create a separate boot partition) and select gentoo grub menu from your current linux menu.
That way your system will always boot, once you have a version of grub installed you only need to link the menu.lst files.

See, that's the problem w/ the live cd though, it is having the exact same problem that the other installs are having...it just freezes up on me. But I may be misunderstanding you; are you saying that it is still possible to install Gentoo (assuming it passes the memtest) through Ubuntu, even though I'm having these problems?

I will reinstall Ubuntu tonight, and give 'er a shot...hope this works out a little better, because what you're saying does make sense to me, it's just a matter of getting these cd's to cooperate.

[Jonathan183]

Some alternate install methods are listed here.

But I would fix the Ubuntu install you have first.

You will need to mkdir /mnt/gentoo and I'm not sure if mirrorselect will be available so the gentoo mirror and sync information in make.conf you may need to copy from the make.conf.example file.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Gruven - I know from previous posts you have done installs from other live CDs ... can you add a post if I have missed something significant off this or you have a better link

[gruven]

I usually do installs from other livecd's because I use wireless cards in most of my computers. Just boot into the live environment, and follow the handbook starting from step 4. You will have to create the "/mnt/gentoo" directory though. The "altinstall" documentation is outdated and deprecated. Use the official handbook.

I do not recommend using the Gentoo livecd installer (either one, the graphical or the command line "automatic" installer). I recommend you follow the handbook and do the install manually because seriously, if you don't get through the manual install with the handbook, you probably won't be able to maintain it.

If you are having this many problems though, and you can only get one or two distros to even boot, I would be looking at what kernel they are using, and what patches they are using. Then, I would install what distro I wanted using the livecd that would boot. Either that, or you should look into hardware problems.

[flynismo]

oh boy....
Funny you say something about hardware, because I think that's exactly what's going on. I reinstalled Ubuntu earlier, and everything seemed ok again. So I boot up Windows XP to finish up some work...and Windows froze up on me once again. I couldn't even bring up task manager with c-a-d. This is the third time in the past couple weeks this has happened. First time it happened I had Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and several windows open, as well as listening to music...so I thought nothing of it, figured I was asking for it (even though it has froze up on me this bad only once before, and that was quite a while ago.) But the last two times, particularly tonight, I only had one browser open, Dreamweaver and was listening to music. I went to check email, as soon as I clicked inbox, it happened. So, between that and the Gentoo ordeal, not looking too good.
Just wondering, because I don't know much about the mechanical aspects of computers...my brother says it could be a RAM issue, but didn't specify what exactly he meant. The computer I have isn't very old, I bought it new 15 months ago. And I really doubt I'm overworking it, because even though I run it hard at times, it has plenty of RAM (4 GB max) and runs quickly @ 3800Mhz, so running a couple programs and checking email shouldn't be locking it up; especially since I've never had this problem before (come to think of it, until I started trying to install Gentoo). Drivers are up to date. CPU temp was running at 190 degrees a few minutes before it froze (have no idea if that is high or within normal operating temperatures)...anyway, I'm not going to shake you guys down to help me out with this one, you all have been very patient and don't want to press my luck, lol...but if you could point me in the right direction, I'll take it from there.

[gruven]

I thought it may be the ram earlier, and that is the reason I recommended running memtest86 from a livecd. I have had a computer with bad ram before, brand new, and ran memtest and found a LOT of errors.

Anyway, you don't boot completely into the cd to run memtest, just boot the cd, and select memtest86 from the menu options. I know for a fact that ubuntu has that option.