SATA problem

Zeppelin_ii · 12-27-2005, 06:31 PM

Hi everybody!

Just got this sweety (AMD64 , 6600GT) for xmas and immediately wanted to install gentoo on it.
Only problem is that no matter how hard I try I fail to make my Gentoo boot in properly to the newly installed OS (I'm following the instructions in the AMD64 handbook from documentation site and I have already made succesful installations on other kind of systems):

Situation 1:

menu.lst in /boot/grub :

Code:

title=Gentoo
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.14 root=/dev/sda1

If I use manual kernel editing the following problem occours:

Code:

!! The root block device is unspecified or not detected.
   Please specify a device to boot, or "shell" for a shell...
boot() ::

---

Situation 2:

menu.lst in /boot/grub :

Code:

title=Gentoo genkernel
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/genkernel root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/sda1 udev
initrd /boot/initramfs

If I use genkernel Linux loads in but before loading INIT it prints out like 30 error messages reporting that it failed to remove some files.
---

I am able to install Ubuntu and other Linux distributions wich have a preconfigured kernels, so there must be some way to solve my problem I'm just yet too unexperienced with the kernel.

I have an Asus A8N-E motherboard and a Samsung winchester connected with SATA. Only using 1 partition (/dev/sda1) with Ext3 filesystem.
What should I do with my Kernel or something else is wrong ??

(other not-so important questions: )
1. How to disable the "freezing" of the terminals if pressing the button "scroll lock" ? It's realy irritating. :?
2. Is it worth trying to use Reiser4 ?

Thank you for your time!

G'bye

Electro · 12-29-2005, 03:43 AM

I recommend that you do not use genkernel because it does make it hard to trouble shoot. The best way to setup the kernel in Gentoo is doing it manually. After you compiled the kernel, make sure you run mkinitrd and make a directory named /initrd. I do not know why the Gentoo developers did not include the initrd directoy because it is required to boot up. The kernel have to have ramdisk and initrd support. If you compiled your SATA controller as a module, you need to include the --with option that will include the SATA module when running mkinitrd.

I had problems with ReiserFS so Reiser4 will also give problems. I use XFS for all my partitions (/, /var, /home) except for /boot which is ext3.

For speed on an AMD Athlon64 system, I suggest using -sse -sse2 USE flag for most multimedia programs because these systems perform poor with SSE instructions. I suggest using 32-bit compiling instead of 64-bit compiling for ease of use, but it is up to you.