Hi Scott, thank you for your answer. I consult information over the internet in three languages: Spanish (I´m mexican), English and French. I´ve studied English and French, but I never speak in those languages, I don´t have anyone to talk with.
I have a question, maybe you could help. I´m consulting Gentoo Linux AMD64 Documentation (you´re right, there is plenty of information in there, and newbie-friendly), but it recommends to get the gentoo- sources to configure the kernel: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-amd64.xml? full=1#book_part1_chap7 7. Configuring the Kernel 7.a. Timezone You first need to select your timezone so that your system knows where it is located. Look for your timezone in /usr/share/zoneinfo, then copy it to /etc/localtime. Please avoid the /usr/share/zoneinfo/Etc/GMT* timezones as their names do not indicate the expected zones. For instance, GMT-8 is in fact GMT+8. Code Listing 1: Setting the timezone information # ls /usr/share/zoneinfo (Suppose you want to use GMT) # cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/GMT /etc/localtime 7.b. Installing the Sources Choosing a Kernel The core around which all distributions are built is the Linux kernel. It is the layer between the user programs and your system hardware. Gentoo provides its users several possible kernel sources. A full listing with description is available at the Gentoo Kernel Guide. For AMD64-based systems we have gentoo-sources (kernel source patched with amd64 specific fixes for stability, performance and hardware support). Choose your kernel source and install it using emerge. Code Listing 2: Installing a kernel source # emerge gentoo-sources When you take a look in /usr/src you should see a symlink called linux pointing to your kernel source. In this case, the installed kernel source points to gentoo-sources-2.6.19-r5. Your version may be different, so keep this in mind. Code Listing 3: Viewing the kernel source symlink # ls -l /usr/src/linux lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Oct 13 11:04 /usr/src/linux -> linux-2.6.19-r5 Now it is time to configure and compile your kernel source. You can use genkernel for this, which will build a generic kernel as used by the Installation CD. We explain the "manual" configuration first though, as it is the best way to optimize your environment. If you want to manually configure your kernel, continue now with Default: Manual Configuration. If you want to use genkernel you should read Alternative: Using genkernel instead. 7.c. Default: Manual Configuration Introduction Manually configuring a kernel is often seen as the most difficult procedure a Linux user ever has to perform. Nothing is less true -- after configuring a couple of kernels you don't even remember that it was difficult ;) However, one thing is true: you must know your system when you start configuring a kernel manually. Most information can be gathered by emerging pciutils (emerge pciutils) which contains lspci. You will now be able to use lspci within the chrooted environment. You may safely ignore any pcilib warnings (like pcilib: cannot open /sys/bus/pci/devices) that lspci throws out. Alternatively, you can run lspci from a non-chrooted environment. The results are the same. You can also run lsmod to see what kernel modules the Installation CD uses (it might provide you with a nice hint on what to enable). Now go to your kernel source directory and execute make menuconfig. This will fire up an ncurses-based configuration menu. Code Listing 4: Invoking menuconfig # cd /usr/src/linux # make menuconfig You will be greeted with several configuration sections. We'll first list some options you must activate (otherwise Gentoo will not function, or not function properly without additional tweaks). Activating Required Options First of all, activate the use of development and experimental code/drivers. You need this, otherwise some very important code/drivers won't show up: Code Listing 5: Selecting experimental code/drivers Code maturity level options ---> [*] Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers Make sure that every driver that is vital to the booting of your system (such as SCSI controller, ...) is compiled in the kernel and not as a module, otherwise your system will not be able to boot completely. We shall then select the exact processor type. The x86_64 kernel maintainer strongly recommends users enable MCE features so that they are able to be notified of any hardware problems. On x86_64, these errors are not printed to dmesg like on other architectures, but to /dev/mcelog. This requires the app-admin/mcelog package. Code Listing 6: Selecting processor type and features Processor type and features ---> [ ] Intel MCE Features [ ] AMD MCE Features Processor family (AMD-Opteron/Athlon64) ---> ( ) AMD-Opteron/Athlon64 ( ) Intel EM64T ( ) Generic-x86-64 Now go to File Systems and select support for the filesystems you use. Don't compile them as modules, otherwise your Gentoo system will not be able to mount your partitions. Also select Virtual memory and /proc file system. Code Listing 7: Selecting necessary file systems File systems ---> Pseudo Filesystems ---> [*] /proc file system support [*] Virtual memory file system support (former shm fs) (Select one or more of the following options as needed by your system) Do not forget to enable DMA for your drives: Code Listing 8: Activating DMA Device Drivers ---> ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support ---> [*] Generic PCI bus-master DMA support If you are using PPPoE to connect to the Internet or you are using a dial-up modem, you will need the following options in the kernel: Code Listing 9: Selecting PPPoE necessary drivers Device Drivers ---> Networking Support ---> The two compression options won't harm but are not definitely needed, neither does the PPP over Ethernet option, that might only be used by ppp when configured to do kernel mode PPPoE. If you require it, don't forget to include support in the kernel for your ethernet card. If you have a multi-CPU Opteron or a multi-core (e.g. AMD64 X2) system, you should activate "Symmetric multi-processing support": Code Listing 10: Activating SMP support Processor type and features ---> [*] Symmetric multi-processing support Note: In multi-core systems, each core counts as one processor. If you use USB Input Devices (like Keyboard or Mouse) don't forget to enable those as well: Code Listing 11: Activating USB Support for Input Devices Device Drivers ---> USB Support ---> Compiling and Installing Now that your kernel is configured, it is time to compile and install it. Exit the configuration and start the compilation process: Code Listing 12: Compiling the kernel # make && make modules_install When the kernel has finished compiling, copy the kernel image to /boot. Use whatever name you feel is appropriate for your kernel choice and remember it as you will need it later on when you configure your bootloader. Remember to replace kernel-2.6.19-gentoo- r5 with the name and version of your kernel. Code Listing 13: Installing the kernel # cp arch/x86_64/boot/bzImage /boot/kernel-2.6.19-gentoo-r5 Since I´m running Sabayon; but this is a gentoo based distribution. Do you think it may work if I follow this steps listed above? Thank you again. To unsubscribe from this list, please email [EMAIL PROTECTED] & you will be removed. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
