Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : Ouch! Multiple errors on boot up...


raid517
06-26-2003, 10:21 PM
Ok well this was my first mostly sucessful attempt in installing Gentoo Linux- and I'm amazed I even got it to boot. i have learned a lot over this last week trying to install it. But now when it boots up I get multiple errors about various modules or other failing to be loaded. dmesg gives no useful output in this regard, as it doesn't seem to give any kernel messages (you know, when it moves into colour and starts loading components). Unfortunately the messages all scroll past far to fast for me to really see what they are. But mostly from what I can make out they do appear to be about failed modules. On first boot it complained that my etc/modules.conf file didn't exist. So having another identical system with Mandrake on it, with a perfectly working modules.conf I opted to copy that over and see if it helped the problem. It did somewhat as this time I was able to boot fully to a prompt. However I still have a lot of modules failing to load correctly, or more often than not, not at all.

When I manually try to insmod a module I generally get an error message saying "cannot find the kernel version the driver was compiled for." Well as I only have one kernel and compiled it only with the additional support required for my hardware, and as per the instructions on the install docs docs, I really can't make out what its going on about. One clue might be that it did complain on a couple of occasions that my hand made modules conf.file was newer than my lib/modules/2.4.20-gentoo-r5/modules.dep file. Which might be a clue that I messed up the modules.conf file. I confess in this respect I'm not 100% confident I know what I'm doing.

Also I couldn't get my eth0 to start. The modules for it are loaded 8139too and I can connect via the live CD to the net no problem. But for some reason it hangs on bringing up eth0 when I boot from grub.

Here is my net configuration file.

# /etc/conf.d/net:
# $Header: /home/cvsroot/gentoo-src/rc-scripts/etc/conf.d/net,v 1.7 2002/11/18 19:39:22 azarah Exp $

# Global config file for net.* rc-scripts

# This is basically the ifconfig argument without the ifconfig $iface
#
iface_eth0="192.168.0.2 broadcast 192.168.0.255 netmask 255.255.255.0"
#iface_eth1="207.170.82.202 broadcast 207.0.255.255 netmask 255.255.0.0"

# For DHCP set iface_eth? to "dhcp"
# For passing options to dhcpcd use dhcpcd_eth?
#
iface_eth0="dhcp"
#dhcpcd_eth0="..."

# For adding aliases to a interface
#
#alias_eth0="192.168.0.3 192.168.0.4"

# NB: The next is only used for aliases.
#
# To add a custom netmask/broadcast address to created aliases,
# uncomment and change accordingly. Leave commented to assign
# defaults for that interface.
#
#broadcast_eth0="192.168.0.255 192.168.0.255"
#netmask_eth0="255.255.255.0 255.255.255.0"


# For setting the default gateway
#
#gateway="eth0/192.168.0.1"

I don't know what all that stuff about IP addresses means. Well at least I know what an IP address is, but in RedHat and Mandrake I never had to tell them where my adsl modem router was, or what the ip addess or anything for it was. All I do know is all connection protocolls are handled directly with my modem router, it has all my passwords and all my logon details for my isp stored on board. I know my IP address is supplied by my ISP each time I connect, and that my DNS (whatever that might be) is server assigned.So pretty much I don't have to deal with that side of things at all. My connection ptotocol is PPoA and I have enabled support for PPP over ATM in the kernel - as well as several other PPP related features. Indeed I believe there was another reference to ATM in the kernel and I am certain I enabled this too.

Can anyone explain to me where I'm going wrong here? I would really like to know as I am keen to learn about Linux and to finally at last begin using Gentoo.

Regards,

Q

MighMos
06-26-2003, 10:30 PM
When you compiled your kernel, did you make modules and make modules_install? Also, you specified an IP address and dhcp. Try putting a # infront of iface_eth0="192....." and see if that brings your net up.

raid517
06-26-2003, 11:37 PM
Yes thanks for that. I can now get eth0 up. Unfortunately I still can't go anywhere and all pings and attempts to get on the web using lynx are fruitless. Is this because I have a dynamic IP or something? As I said the eth0 module 8139too is loaded, I get a green light on bringing up my ether interface, but I'm stuck and unable to ping out to the internet. I don't have firewalls or anything like that. (Well not yet at least). I am using a netgear modem router that stores all my details/passwords etc on board.

And yes I did do make modules and make_modules install. It seems that copying my modules.conf file from Mandrake to Gentoo may be causing at least some of my problems.

Any input anyone can offer at all would be extremely welcome. How can I see the kernel messages that come after the output that dmesg produces? If I could see that out put, maybe I could print it here and you could see what you make of it? I don't know if its useful to know, but my Gentoo install uses metalog.

In any case thanks for the advice. It was good of you to respond.

Q

raid517
06-27-2003, 03:49 AM
Lol sometimes i guess it pays to do some research hu? Well Google can answer an awful got of questions. In any case I learned something useful. I can actually scroll back and see UNIX error messages - and in doing so attempt to resolve them. The outcome of that is that 95% of the errors I was getting have now been eliminated. It seems I inadvertantly copied over my modules.autoload file from Mandrake too, and it had several modules in it that Gentoo didn't recognise.

However there remains one or two more serious issues. The first of these being an error message I get that says the following:

Calculating module dependancies:

Failed to calculate module dependancies

And then shortly afterwards:

failed to start /etc/init.d/modules

Looking at this script, it seems pretty important if Gentoo is to run correctly. So I have no idea why it failed to start. Does someone here have a working (preferably executable) script I could use to replace this one? Or is this script user specific?

Two more errors I get are

You need to set /etc/hostname to a valid hostname.

(I am not on a domain so I can't see why I need a hostname).

And

xargs: environment is too big for exec.

And of course the most crucial fault of all being that I can't get on the net even though eth0 has now started. (Again do I need to do anything special to get gentoo to automatically configure eth0 to use a dynamic IP and discover my IP at boot time? It might be worth mentioning that I didn't make the entries for the servers above, all I did was uncomment an already prexisting line in that file). Can anyone suggest what else I might have to do to get my net connection to work?

Q

raid517
06-27-2003, 09:17 AM
Anyone? :confused:

Q

Hayl
06-27-2003, 09:25 AM
Originally posted by raid517

Calculating module dependancies:

Failed to calculate module dependancies

And then shortly afterwards:

failed to start /etc/init.d/modules

do you have a "linux" symlink to your linux source code?

you should have /usr/src/linux ---> /usr/src/whatever-your-kernel-sourcecode-is-called

Two more errors I get are

You need to set /etc/hostname to a valid hostname.

(I am not on a domain so I can't see why I need a hostname).

did you follow the Gentoo install guide?

setting the hostname is part of the guide.

it has nothing to do with being on a domain. every computer has a hostname.

And of course the most crucial fault of all being that I can't get on the net even though eth0 has now started. (Again do I need to do anything special to get gentoo to automatically configure eth0 to use a dynamic IP and discover my IP at boot time? It might be worth mentioning that I didn't make the entries for the servers above, all I did was uncomment an already prexisting line in that file). Can anyone suggest what else I might have to do to get my net connection to work?

the instructions on how to configure a nic are in the gentoo install doc. in addition, the /etc/conf.d/net file(s) are self-documented.

just an observation, but most of these errors look like they were caused by the install doc not being followed.

raid517
06-27-2003, 10:42 AM
Well first let me say I appreciate your response. But I'd be very keen to know exactly what step it is you think I missed? Here are the steps I tried: BTW number 3 was taken straight from the live CD just for certainty - and there is no doubt that the live CD is working.

1

# /etc/conf.d/net:
# $Header: /home/cvsroot/gentoo-src/rc-scripts/etc/conf.d/net,v 1.7 2002/11/18 19:39:22 azarah Exp $
iface_eth0="192.168.0.2 broadcast 192.168.0.255 netmask 255.255.255.0"
#iface_eth1="207.170.82.202 broadcast 207.0.255.255 netmask 255.255.0.0"
# For DHCP set iface_eth? to "dhcp"
# For passing options to dhcpcd use dhcpcd_eth?
#iface_eth0="dhcp"
#dhcpcd_eth0="..."
#alias_eth0="192.168.0.3 192.168.0.4"
#broadcast_eth0="192.168.0.255 192.168.0.255"
#netmask_eth0="255.255.255.0 255.255.255.0"
#gateway="eth0/192.168.0.1"

dhcpcd eth0

This creats an error waring that goes on at great length about not reporting errors directly to the developers.

2

# /etc/conf.d/net:
# $Header: /home/cvsroot/gentoo-src/rc-scripts/etc/conf.d/net,v 1.7 2002/11/18 19:39:22 azarah Exp $
#iface_eth0="192.168.0.2 broadcast 192.168.0.255 netmask 255.255.255.0"
iface_eth0="207.170.82.202 broadcast 207.0.255.255 netmask 255.255.0.0"
# For DHCP set iface_eth? to "dhcp"
# For passing options to dhcpcd use dhcpcd_eth?
#iface_eth0="dhcp"
#dhcpcd_eth0="..."
#alias_eth0="192.168.0.3 192.168.0.4"
#broadcast_eth0="192.168.0.255 192.168.0.255"
#netmask_eth0="255.255.255.0 255.255.255.0"
#gateway="eth0/192.168.0.1"

dhcpcd eth0

This creates a long pause and then no response. Cannot use net.

3

# /etc/conf.d/net:
# $Header: /home/cvsroot/gentoo-src/rc-scripts/etc/conf.d/net,v 1.7 2002/11/18 19:39:22 azarah Exp $
#iface_eth0="192.168.0.2 broadcast 192.168.0.255 netmask #255.255.255.0"
#iface_eth1="207.170.82.202 broadcast 207.0.255.255 netmask 255.255.0.0"
# For DHCP set iface_eth? to "dhcp"
# For passing options to dhcpcd use dhcpcd_eth?
iface_eth0="dhcp"
#dhcpcd_eth0="..."
#alias_eth0="192.168.0.3 192.168.0.4"
#broadcast_eth0="192.168.0.255 192.168.0.255"
#netmask_eth0="255.255.255.0 255.255.255.0"
#gateway="eth0/192.168.0.1"[/code]

dhcpcd eth0

This creates a long pause and then no response. Cannot use net.

As for there being a symbolic link in user/src/ there are two linux.2.4.20.etc (cant recall the exact extension, I think its the Gentoo gaming kernel or something) and the usual shortcut called "linux" that leads to this. Is this what you mean?

I followed the instructions to the best of my ability - but even when I haven't followed instructions and attempted to elliminate human error by using GLIS the Gentoo Linux automated installer, these errors still happen. So whether I install Gentoo manually or not, I still get these problems. I'm sure you are trying to be helpful by reminding people that they should read the manual, however I have done nothing but read that manual for the past 7+ days. Pretty soon I think I shall be able to recite it off by heart.

If you (or any one) have any other genuinely helpful advice, I'd be very keen to listen.

Q