I'm writing to this list in the hopes that I can get some resolution, insight, clarity
and to vent
in the hopes that someone understands and can possibly help symathize/empythize. Thus,
it is a
little long winded...but please take the time to readon and help get me on the right
path:) I
don't need allot of hand holding just some suggestions and some Wise Eyes.
I have about 17 questions, that should, for the experienced users, should be very easy
to see
whats happening...I very much appreciate your time.
Where am I coming from?
Well, I'm not NEW to M$,trouble shooting tcp/ip indepth,and firewalling. Having used a
product
that has basically done everything for me,... M$... (background process,programs,
kernel
wise)....M$....has kept me at M$'s mercy. Looking to broadening my Horizons and
breaking free from
the almighty M$ beast. Eventually I would like to have a firm grasp and abiltiy to
control my wild
linux animal:D
I have a friend at work that has (Gentoo linux) (At this point all linux distro's were
the same in
my mind..not knowing squat about linux at all) which had
WEB,FTP,Firewall,DNS,MAIL,SAMBA
file/print server, all on the same beefy box. I was very impressed, and most of all
impressed with
the fact that this was all FREE software. But I noticed one thing that kind-of made me
cringe...(again not know anything about linux) he did most of his configuring via
command line and
editing config files with VI. Everytime he downloaded software it would compile each
program and
spit out strange looking stuff on the screen..scary looking..... :)
WATCHING THIS and..
.. coming from an OS/Kernel that not only does everything for you but is also GUI
based has
spoiled me rotten but at the same time has held me down to the M$ level. So watching
him work with
config files and here'ing all the linux buzz words...about compiling everthing from the
source..ect..ect.. honestly intimidated me quite a bit. But I'm a rebel right...
So I installed Linux Mandrake (on my friends suggestion), for the first time about 6
months ago.
Started to get used to my new surroundings compairing to M$. All in all it was a
pretty painless
install experience. Booted off the CD, chose all packages , and suprisingliy,
everything seemed to
run smoothy. I could read cd's, listen to muisc,download email, whatch mpeg movies,
print.....And
the best part about it was that it was FREE software, did the simple things that I do
with M$, and
then-some, big-time...(THE IMPORTANT POINT HERE IS THAT MANDRAKE SEEMED TO DO
EVERYTHING FOR ME AS
WELLL....HEE.HEE...:D
Cool, I'm liking this... didn't cost me a penny, doesn't crash on me or constantly and
ask me to
download security patch's on a daily basis. IMPRESSIVE!!!!!
My very basic, basic, computer needs are met and I'm able to treverse around this new
OS without
much trouble. Getting a little more confident now,..... and wondering why I had never
used linux
before....
Everything ws running smoothly until I started to tailor the system to my custom
computer wants
and software needs. Gaim..for IM'ing, Shorewall firewall for simple secuity and
masq'ing to share
our chinsey dialup line...
Well running MDK 9.0 and needing to upgrade to 9.1 at this point wasn't a choice
because
downloading 2 gigs to get too 9.1 on a dialup is out of the question. But I needed all
the new
features that the new kernel and 9.1 offered...
RPM cookers and RPM hell...And I mean HELL...Dependency this..Dependency that..But I
didn't give
up. After two weeks of getting no where, slowly lossing my sanity and Mandrake
starting to fall
apart because of the frustrated dimwhitted attempts at blindly doing anything/stupid
things to get
things to work, I got so frustrated that I wanted to cause my computer PAIN. I'm sure
everyone
knows what I'm talking about, most seem to anyway.. :D Most of all I wanted to scream
at Linus if
he could only here me....And whats the first thing I want to do,.....of course....go
back to
M$...like a little baby..Yes, I admit it.
I go back to my friend to let him know the madness that I'm going through and he
suggested that I
goto Gentoo. He did the best that he could to explain how Gentoo differs form the RPM
based linux
distro's and how this would solve allot of the RPM frustrations that I was going
through and keep
me up-to-date and unbloated with software that I only used an not everything else. I
liked the
sound of that. Matter of fact that sounded perfect...
LiTTle did I know the journey that I embarked upon...:D
He burned me two Gentoo CD's at work for my PIII arcitecture...and said to follow the
install
guide and do a stage3+GRP install because I had dialup. For the most part I followed
this install
guide to the letter. And to be honest I didn't really understand most of what I was
doing while I
was doing it, so this proves that the doc is for the most part well written. This is
now a totally
different universe than even Mandrake was.
I can see that Mandrake (like M$ in a sense) did everything for me. I can see that
Gentoo is just
the oppisite. I have to tell it what I want it to do and how and when. UH..O...I can
tell that I'm
in for a ride now. So I'm doing my best to absorb the concepts and follow along. The
man pages
help very little for a noob but I do read them. Understanding what I'm reading is a
whole
different story. I'll get there though because I have stick-tuitiveness.
My problem is that I don't understand allot of these initial base Gentoo concepts. And
I've
already messed some stuff up not knowing that I did. Everything is still working for
the most part
but I dare not go any further until I get some help. So this is the reason that I am
asking for
some clarity here..before I set myself up for failure.. :D
The CD came with Kernel-2.4.20-gentoo-r5 and I used Grub as my bootloader and
Genkernel to compile
the kernel.
# emerge sync (this command is explained and the concept understandable)
# emerge xfree (Understandable)
[1]
# env-update && source /etc/profile (have no clue what this is doing but did it
anyways)(I would
like to know though):D When do I know when to invoke this command?
[2]
# rc-update add xfs default (not sure what this is doing but I'm assuming that this is
needed
before I can install KDE or GNOME or any other windowing/gui stuff..)(maybe this is
telling the
kernel to add xfee at bootup..again not sure exactly)
[3]
# /etc/init.d/xfs start (not sure...)
# startx (This is obvious)(Started Xfree server)3 ugly ass windows...see
ya..ctrl<backspace>
Then...the mouse...this is fine upto....
[Quote:]
Don't forget to add the modules that your mouse uses to modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.4.
Code listing 2.10: Adding entries to modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.4
[4]
# nano -w /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.4 (not sure what this file is used for and
what I'm
doing here..looks as though I'm telling the kernel to load hardware settings about my
mouse and or
other hardware that I have)
# We will add the following lines to the file.
mousedev
hid
usbcore
input
[Unquote:]
I didn't add anything to this file because I didn't understand what they wanted me to
add and why.
I have a "IMPS/2" mouse and made the appropriate changes to the /etc/X11/XF86Config
file. But my
mouse buttons and scroll wheel work fine even after reboot.
Next.....
[Quote:]
Make sure that "qt" and "kde" are in your USE variables in make.conf.
Make sure that (optional) "-gnome" and "-gtk" are in your USE variables in make.conf.
[Unquote:]
[5]
Now this is an area that really confused me even after reading the USE doc.. They give
examples of
what you put in thier and lead me to beleive that for every peace of software that I
install that
I should add the name here...Not to sure...even after reading the USE doc...I think
some better
examples would help maybe.
[6]
Now the strange thing is that I didn't do anything as far as a video card and sound
card
configuration and these just seem to work. I don't know how so I just leave it alone
for now. But
eventually I would like to have Gentoo optimizing any features that these devices have.
SoundBlaster Live adition Soundcard
64M AGP ATI RADEON vid card.
I eventually got Xfree and KDE installed using the Gentoo desktop doc. Again the guide
was great
because I didn't really understand allot of what I was doing but it seemed to
work..COOL....
Whoooo....Hooooo...some light at the end of the tunnel:D
Configured net access with Kppp dialup utility and started to follow the Portage users
doc to get
my Gentoo upto date.
Now this is where I think that I might of done something wrong.
[Quote]
Updating Portage�
Before using our Portage tree, it's important that you update Portage by doing the
following:
Code listing 1.3: Updating Portage
This will show you what packages are going to be updated
# emerge -up system
This will update the necessary packages
# emerge -u system
[Unquote:]
#emerge sync
[7]
But the next part right after this command is where I need to get a better
understanding:
Cut&Paste:
* NOTICE: PLEASE *REPLACE* your make.globals. All user changes to variables
* in make.globals should be placed in make.conf. DO NOT MODIFY make.globals.
* Feature additions are noted in help and make.conf descriptions. Update
* them using 'etc-update' please. Maintaining current configs for portage
* and other system packages is fairly important for the continued health
* of your system.
>>> Regenerating /etc/ld.so.cache...
>>> Auto-cleaning packages ...
>>> No outdated packages were found on your system.
* GNU info directory index is up-to-date.
* IMPORTANT: 3 config files in /etc need updating.
* Type emerge --help config to learn how to update config files.
bash-2.05b# etc-update
Scanning Configuration files...
The following is the list of files which need updating, each
configuration file is followed by a list of possible replacement files.
1) /etc/dispatch-conf.conf
/etc/._cfg0000_dispatch-conf.conf
2) /etc/make.conf
/etc/._cfg0000_make.conf
3) /etc/make.globals
/etc/._cfg0000_make.globals
Please select a file to edit by entering the corresponding number.
(-1 to exit) (-3 to auto merge all remaining files)
(-5 to auto-merge AND not use 'mv -i'): -3
[8]
(I WASN'T SURE WHAT TO DO HERE AND I CHOSE -3 BECAUSE THIS SEEMED LIKE THE LOGICAL
CHOICE)
(wHAT SHOULD I BE CHOOSING AT THIS POINT?)
Replacing /etc/dispatch-conf.conf with /etc/._cfg0000_dispatch-conf.conf
mv: overwrite `/etc/dispatch-conf.conf'? y
Replacing /etc/make.conf with /etc/._cfg0000_make.conf
mv: overwrite `/etc/make.conf'? y
Replacing /etc/make.globals with /etc/._cfg0000_make.globals
mv: overwrite `/etc/make.globals'? y
Exiting: Nothing left to do; exiting. :)
I then did:
#emerge -u world
Cut&paste:
>>> /usr/src/linux-2.4.20-gentoo-r6/COPYING
>>> /usr/src/linux-2.4.20-gentoo-r6/REPORTING-BUGS
>>> /usr/src/linux-2.4.20-gentoo-r6/CREDITS
* After installing a new kernel of any version, it is important
* that you have the appropriate /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-X.Y
* created (X.Y is the first 2 parts of your new kernel version)
[9]
(I thought that this was created automatically when the kernel is compiled)
So I check that directory to see whats listed.
#ls /etc/modules.autoload.d/*
/etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.4 /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.5
[10]
(Not sure what to do next so I do etc-update because this seems to be the standard
operating
proceedure after doing an upgrade or a sync. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
bash-2.05b# etc-update
Scanning Configuration files...
The following is the list of files which need updating, each
configuration file is followed by a list of possible replacement files.
1) /etc/init.d/hdparm
/etc/init.d/._cfg0000_hdparm
2) /etc/kernels/genkernel
/etc/kernels/._cfg0000_genkernel
Please select a file to edit by entering the corresponding number.
(-1 to exit) (-3 to auto merge all remaining files)
(-5 to auto-merge AND not use 'mv -i'): -3
[11]
(again..I chose -3 like I did last time. Still don't know exactly what I should be
choosing or how
to unfix what I've done the last two times.) :D
Replacing /etc/init.d/hdparm with /etc/init.d/._cfg0000_hdparm
mv: overwrite `/etc/init.d/hdparm'? y
Replacing /etc/kernels/genkernel with /etc/kernels/._cfg0000_genkernel
mv: overwrite `/etc/kernels/genkernel'? y
Exiting: Nothing left to do; exiting. :)
[12]
Now it looks as though I have a new kernel to compile but I don't know what steps
SPECIFICALLY IN
ORDER considering that I used Genkernel to compile last time. And what effects this is
going to
have on the software that I have emerged so far and exactly where the new kernel is
actually
located.
All of these were loaded using standard "emerge <package name> as they are named below.
xfee...this is working
kde....this is working
gaim...this is working
ethereal..not working
shorewall..not working
[13]
Ethereal... Not sure whats happening with this one. (worked in Mandrake fine) I know
that when I
compiled this in Mandrake I had to have ethereal plus libpcap. And libpcap is
installed and
up-to-date.
When I'm logged in as a normal user and type:
bash-2.05b$/usr/bin/ethereal (not sure if I need to be root or normal user) Most times
I try to
run programs as Root Gentoo won't let me. Mandrake was never like this and matter a
fact I thought
thats how you needed to run most programs anyways..shows you what I don't know and
where I'm
coming from.
Anyways, Ethereal opens but when I goto capture traffic I don't have any network
interfaces to
choose from to start capturing traffic. Eth0 (local lan) or PPP0 when I'm dialed up.
Everythings
plugged in and I can ping from eth0 to a Win98 machine and I can ping from ppp0 out
to the
internet. Im missing something small I'm sure..:D
[14]
So I thought that I needed to be "su". This is what's spit out.
bash-2.05b# /usr/bin/ethereal
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified
Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :0.0
bash-2.05b# exit
exit
[16]
When I emegre a package, how can I tell after I have emerged that package everything
that was
installed along with the specific package?
[17]
Shoerwall firewall
It looked like it install the iproute package and the neccessary modules but I'm
unsure.
when I issued the Shorewall "start" command this is whats spit out:
bash-2.05b#shorewall start
Starting Shorewall...
Initializing...
Shorewall has detected the following iptables/netfilter capabilities:
NAT: Not available
Packet Mangling: Not available
Multi-port Match: Not available
Connection Tracking Match: Not available
modprobe: Can't locate module ip_tables
iptables v1.2.8: can't initialize iptables table `filter': iptables who? (do you
need to insmod?)
Perhaps iptables or your kernel needs to be upgraded.
Processing /etc/shorewall/stop ...
(I've obviously missed something here)
Thanks,
JBanks
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