[Company2]

Yes of course I boot of the cd but the XPS 700 won't boot to it so I decided to go to gentoo as my first distro. I'm starting to get it the biggest problem for me is installing software that I can't install in the terminal.

TO install I've tried extracting the info in the /home directory and from there I wanted to compile and install. I never got that far though because gentoo wouldn't let me because I wasn't logged in as an adminstrator (which I don't know how to do).

Also I don't know how to find out what drivers to install. I know all of them aren't installed because I can't play music. Also I need to install the linux 2.6 kernel because they told me I can't load any USB devices.

Looking at this yeah I know I have a lot of problems and I have to do a lot of study even though I've been studying for a long time.

[likwid]

Originally Posted by Company2

Yes of course I boot of the cd but the XPS 700 won't boot to it so I decided to go to gentoo as my first distro. I'm starting to get it the biggest problem for me is installing software that I can't install in the terminal.

If you want to use gentoo, you must become very good friends with the terminal lol.

Originally Posted by Company2

TO install I've tried extracting the info in the /home directory and from there I wanted to compile and install. I never got that far though because gentoo wouldn't let me because I wasn't logged in as an adminstrator (which I don't know how to do).

You should be using emerge to install most software, but if you want to compile and install something yourself, then open a terminal and type

su -

You will be prompted for the root password, enter it and cd to the directory where you have the files. Most likely you will have a .tar.gz or .tgz file. You need to unzip the contents to compile. So you would type

tar -xzvf whatever.tar.gz

This Xtracts the Zip Verbosely and F denotes that the filename follows. Once extracted cd into the directory and type

./configure && make && make install

Originally Posted by Company2

Also I don't know how to find out what drivers to install. I know all of them aren't installed because I can't play music. Also I need to install the linux 2.6 kernel because they told me I can't load any USB devices.

Well normally the easiest way to find out which module is for your specific card is to type

lspci -v

Which will show all the devices on your PCI bus. The one you want should say the chipset that runs the board rather than the marketing slogan on the box. Say you see this

02:09.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8169 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)

the chipset is RTL-8169, so you need to grep the kernel sources for like 8169 with

grep -r 8169 /usr/src/linux

If that method seems like a bit too much to handle, then just google the name of the board but add linux module to the end.

As far as installing the kernel, you need to get the source with emerge, and choose your options and compile it. This is outlined in the gentoo handbook depending on the arch you are using.

Originally Posted by Company2

Looking at this yeah I know I have a lot of problems and I have to do a lot of study even though I've been studying for a long time.

Well I think choosing gentoo as your first distro is pretty brave, and you're going to go through a lot of headache with it as you go.

[Company2]

Hey likwid thank you for the help I mean linux distros such as this are hard to do. To tell you the truth PClinuxOS and Ubuntu are easy distros which I used in Vbox.

It is a good thing I do love the terminal it is easy because I just have to type things in and it happens I mean how easy is that.

By the way how do I install drivers?

I wanted to install extra packages (which appeared to give me better preforamance) where is the archive located?

[likwid]

Originally Posted by Company2

By the way how do I install drivers?

Drivers need to be compiled from kernel source. If a driver is already compiled, you just need to insert the module by typing

modprobe <modulename>

Originally Posted by Company2

I wanted to install extra packages (which appeared to give me better preforamance) where is the archive located?

Installing packages in gentoo is done with the emerge command. To search for a package type

emerge --search packagename

To install type

emerge packagename

[Company2]

I'm trying to do that but Gentoo won't take make commands even if I put emerge in front of them first.

For example I put make menuconfig to configure the kernel and gentoo wouldn't do it said this (make: *** No rule to make target `menuconfig'. Stop.).

There was also another message

# tar xara.tar.bz2
tar: Old option `b' requires an argument.
Try `tar --help' or `tar --usage' for more information.

I don't know why but I just can't seem to get it right I try gentoo and other tutorials and gentoo won't cooperate. I have no idea what to do now and I can't configure the kernel and neither can I install any drivers.

[likwid]

Are you in /usr/src/linux when you run make menuconfig?

Your tar command needs to say

tar xjvf whatever.tar.bz2

[Company2]

To be honest I'm still having s lot of trouble in gentoo and it is not even about unpacking things but I can't do anything. I'm having trouble installing drivers and also I can't hear the sound from my computer. I can't even see my cds and usbs and I've really been trying and I just can't do anything right. I really don't understand what is the problem it seems as if nothing works right and everything is working against me at the moment. I'm not even sure if all my hardware is installed.

[likwid]

This is why gentoo isn't recommended for beginners. You need to compile the proper modules for sound as well as install the proper packages, along with every other device. You can keep screwing with it but I think you should try RedHat or something similar.

[Company2]

Hey I take what I can get and for now it is Gentoo. Though I'm slowly starting to understand I just wish they had a book I could read on the portage tree or something.

[Company2]

Likwid i thank you for the help and I'm sorry for the double post but I have a final question because I found a wiki tutorial list but I'm having problems every time I use the emerge command I get this:

!!! ARCH is not set... Are you missing the '/etc/make.profile' symlink?
!!! Is the symlink correct? Is your portage tree complete?

It happened after I tried to update the portage tree and nothing else seems to work, Please help!!!