Help with fresh Gentoo install

[Zerileous]

Ok, I followed the handbook and installed gentoo, then installed x and gnome. So far so good, but I am having some problems.

mounting a ntfs drive:

justin justin # mount -t ntfs /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1
mount: unknown filesystem type 'ntfs'

justin justin # modprobe ntfs
FATAL: Module ntfs not found.

however using make menuconfig, I recompiled the kernel with ntfs support and it did nothing.

cups:
go into system>administration>printing and I get "the CUPS server could not be contacted."
I have emerged cups.

sound (xine):
running amarok, I get "xine was unable to initialize any audio drivers"

any help would be greatly appreciated. Also I am using either an mx400 or mx500 with USB right now (lost the adapter), but I don't really expect these to work. I have tried various /etc/X11/xorg.conf files in gentoo's documentation.

 

[MRD]

After you rebuilt the kernel, did you copy it to the /boot partition, give it the right name (for the boot loader to call), and restart the PC?

Did you start the cups daemon? (/etc/init.d/cupsd start) (to do this on boot, rc-update add cupsd default)

To configure sound, set up alsa. Google the Gentoo alsa guide for this.

For USB, google the Gentoo USB guide.

 

[Zerileous]

Thanks MRD, your tips worked for everything but sound. That still isn't working after following the gentoo guide.

As far as the USB mice were working, they run fine, I was just hoping there would be a way to get the scroll whell and forward/back buttons working

 

[MRD]

I'd need more specifics to help you on the sound issues.

One simple thing to check is to make sure your sound is unmuted. Run alsamixer and unmute the important channels (such as master and pcm). Also make sure you started alsasound (/etc/init.d/alsasound start).

You can get the scroll wheel working. You need to add a line to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. Under the mouse device line, add:
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"

That usually works, though it may be somewhat different from mouse to mouse. You will of course need to restart X.

 

[Zerileous]

alsamixer looks fine, and alsasound is running. Here is some info that might help:

justin@justin ~ $ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [nForce2        ]: NFORCE - NVidia nForce2
                      NVidia nForce2 with ALC650F at 0xe8081000, irq 19
justin@justin ~ $ cat /proc/asound/version
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.13 (Tue Nov 28 14:07:24 2006 UTC).
justin@justin ~ $ cat /proc/asound/oss/sndstat
Sound Driver:3.8.1a-980706 (ALSA v1.0.13 emulation code)
Kernel: Linux justin 2.6.19-gentoo-r5 #4 SMP Thu Mar 15 21:10:37 CDT 2007 i686
Config options: 0

Installed drivers: 
Type 10: ALSA emulation

Card config: 
NVidia nForce2 with ALC650F at 0xe8081000, irq 19

Audio devices:
0: NVidia nForce2 (DUPLEX)

Synth devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Midi devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Timers:
7: system timer

Mixers:
0: Realtek ALC650F

If I try to unmute volume in the gnome panel, i get:
"No volume control GStreamer plugins and/or devices found."

I have been trying a few things in x config for the mouse, and not getting anywhere yet. I found a ps/2 adapter, so I can try that. I was hoping that at least he mx500 would be well supported, since it is pretty old. Maybe I just need to find an intellimouse.

 

[MRD]

I have no experience with USB mice, since I personally think that USB mice are the dumbest things ever invented and I don't own one, so I can't really help there. I'll leave that to someone with more experience in that department.

I think you basically have ALSA working. Have you tried playing some mp3's or dvd's or something? What happens? Can you post the error messages from mplayer or some similar app?

Also, are you using a modular config, or did you build in support for the nvidia nforce 2 sound into your kernel?

 

[splat]

ALSA and other guides: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/index.xml?catid=desktop

you need 'evdev' for the mouse: http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Advanced_Mouse

and use this for NTFS: http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_NTFS_write_with_ntfs-3g
the kernel NTFS does not have reliable Write ability, but NTFS-3G does (well, better anyway, there is still a small chance of disk corruption)

 

[Zerileous]

In mplayer "totem could not start up"
are there some libraries i need to dl, or some software layer that I could be missing?

 

[kel_p]

mplayer said Totem could not startup?

 

[MRD]

That makes no sense, why would mplayer give a totem error?

 

[Zerileous]

ok, mplayer is running, and playing sound! When I typed totem, I think I meant xine, or I confused something else. Still not really familiar with the base of progs in linux. I don't even have totem installed.

Amarok gives me "xine was unable to initialize any audio drivers", and I still have the gstreamer error from the volume control in the gnome panel.

As a separate issue, I can mount my ntfs file system, but I only have permission to access it as root, even after a <chmod 755 /dev/sda5>

 

[Misfit138]

ok, mplayer is running, and playing sound! When I typed totem, I think I meant xine, or I confused something else. Still not really familiar with the base of progs in linux. I don't even have totem installed.

Amarok gives me "xine was unable to initialize any audio drivers", and I still have the gstreamer error from the volume control in the gnome panel.

As a separate issue, I can mount my ntfs file system, but I only have permission to access it as root, even after a <chmod 755 /dev/sda5>

Sounds like you may need to add your user to the 'storage' group(?)

 

[MRD]

For the ntfs issue, change the permissions of the mount point before mounting, not the device. If you are mounting to /windows, chmod 777 /windows. If it's /mnt/windows, make sure you chmod both /mnt and /windows.

Try to run xine and see if you can play stuff.

 

[Zerileous]

Ok, I did <chmod 777 /mnt> and <chmod 777 /mnt/sda5> which did not help amarok or mplayer access the drive. Also, every time I boot I have to modprobe ntfs and then manually mount the drive (even though it is listed in my fstab). Tried <rc-update add ntfs defualt> which didn't work.

How would I go about running xine? Its not in my panel.

Thanks,
Z

 

[MRD]

You built the kernel wrong. You should have built it into the kernel instead of as a module (put a * next to ntfs instead of an M). Then you won't have to load the module. In general you don't want to build filesystems in as modules, as it may try to mount the filesystems before it loads the modules on boot. I suggest you just rebuild the kernel correctly and copy it to the boot partition, then reboot.

You would need to emerge xine (emerge xine-ui).

 

[Zerileous]

I rebuilt the kernel with ntfs. Now, mount wont accept a ntfs file system, and modprobe ntfs (naturally) also wont work. I have not done anything beyond the basic kernel ntfs support, because all I need is read.

root@justin justin # mount -t ntfs /dev/sda5 /mnt/sda5
mount: unknown filesystem type 'ntfs'

xine will not play sound using an .mp3, but it will "play"...just no sound comes out. Mplayer can get sound out of a dvd though. Also, I noticed on reboot this message
"could not detect custom Alsa settings: loading all drivers." (or something close to that, I didn't have much time to write it down).

z

 

[MRD]

You did something wrong... I'm not sure what. All you need to do is put a * before the ntfs option in the kernel menu config tool, make && make modules_install, copy the kernel to your boot directory (make sure the boot directory is mounted before you do this and that you are copying to the correct name), and reboot the pc. It WILL work if you follow those steps correctly.

If it doesn't, you didn't follow those steps correctly. Check again. Once you get that working we can revisit your xine issues.

 

[splat]

i still suggest ntfs-3g. link was posted above.

 

[MRD]

He still needs to get comfortable with building kernels correctly if he wants to use Gentoo. After he gets kernel level ntfs support, then he can goof around with add ons.

 

[Zerileous]

I am still not getting ntfs supported natively in the kernel. I have tried a few times, even starting with a fresh download from portage. Then I did the following:

cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.19-gentoo-r5
make menuconfig #just to double check
make && make modules install
mount /boot && make install

alternatively, I tried manually copying the kernel

 cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/linux-2.6.19-gentoo-r5

I also tried compiling the kernel from the /usr/src/linux directory, with no apparent change in result. I am pretty sure I am in the new kernel, because modular ntfs support isn't there now.