This is somewhat of a part 2 thread for my Gentoo installation (part 1 can be found here). Thus far, I have managed to "install" a base system, however, it won't boot. By the time I finished setting up the bootloader it was like 11:30 PM Sunday night (and I had already rushed the kernel - built it before I really understood what was needed) so I had to shutdown and put it on hold. I didn't pay too much attention to why it wouldn't boot because it was so late, but IIRC grub didn't seem to recognize one of the partitions.

It could have been that the kernel didn't know what the LVM2 partition (/dev/sdb4) was, which wouldn't surprise me because I was pretty clueless about configuring modules in the kernel's make menuconfig, but if memory serves grub indicated the root (/) partition (/dev/sdb3) which is ext3. As you can tell, I'm not really sure where grub stands down and the kernel takes over, but after failing to boot whichever partition I was returned to the grub boot menu so I assume grub was still in control...

Either way, my current dilemma is kernel modules and determining which ones are required for my system and which ones may be used. As I understand it, certain modules need to be compiled into the kernel and others can be compiled separately and loaded after the kernel boots. I seem to be under the impression that modules built into the kernel will perform faster than those loaded outside of the kernel. If this is right should I compile all of the modules used by my system into the kernel (I guess in theory if something changed I could recompile the kernel)?

For the record, when told to add modules to /etc/modules.autoload.d/<kernel_version> I discovered that only one module existed for my kernel. I'm assuming that these were built along with the kernel, but since I didn't know what to select only the one ended up being built.

I could go the genkernel route, but I'd rather learn to understand and identify modules. When I get home tonight I'll probably reboot the installation CD, chroot back into my environment, and try again.

No, the kernel links them into the kernel in the same way a DLL is loaded. No penalties (except for loading times). In fact, you only need to store modules built into the kernel if the kernel needs those modules to access /lib/modules. In other words, you should build in your hard disk controller and filesystem, and the rest can be modules.

Genkernel won't save you form that. I actually don't really find the script that useful, it just creates a more heavyweight boot process.

Could you show what the message your system gave was, and please post /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/grub.conf?

You should be using the correct make options for the kernel:;)

make menuconfig
make && make modules_install && make install

Also, post the output of:

cd /boot/
dir * -R

You can usually just use vmlinuz, but I prefer to actually fully qualify the name.8-)

As for modules, I prefer to find out which ones I need and build those into the kernel. Why keep these out? Granted there are times when you may need to do this, but I would imagine that building them into the kernel is more secure....it is in the kernel, so who can hack it?;)::)

Edit:
Also, when you chroot, be careful that everything is correct. You can think you are chrooted, but you are not. Just be careful. If you are using the same arch (say i686), you can chroot from any Linux distro that matches that arch....(I know you can't chroot into a 64bit environment from a 32bit environment though:-/).

Edit 2:
How grub uses the different drives is in the /boot/grub/device.map file
Example:

(hd0)     /dev/sda
(hd1)     /dev/sdb

Then when you reference a drive in grub (like the /boot/grub/grub.conf file):

root (hd1,0)      //really /dev/sdb1
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.22-gentoo-r2 root=/dev/sdb3 //set root= to your actual / directory

I have updated my last post about grub...please re-read.::)

Edit:

Just one more reason to run a 64-bit environment!;D They better be 64-bit to chroot me!8-)
I remember when I first started with Gentoo and chrooted (well thought I was), I untarred the portage tarball on the livecd base system...didn't hurt anything, just a reboot...but boy, I felt stupid!;D

Gentoo will make you learn a lot of things about Linux...it is not the easiest distro by far, but that is why I like it so much.8-)

Edit 2:
What file system did you decide to take? I know that the xfs file system has some really powerful backup tools...saves the entire partition for you...and it doesn't bog down the system. You can't even tell when it is running.::)

You don't need an initrd...not normally anyway. The only time I have seen the need is when doing EVMS.:)

If that is indeed the processor you have, then yes...you can run gentoo in 64-bit mode. It is a little more of a pain to get right, not something I recommend for you just starting Gentoo. If you want in the future, I will help you with that...it has to do with the way it deals with 32-bit and 64-bit libraries. Also, no 64-bit flash player yet...:(

Yes, but you do not NEED the initrd file. genkernel is just that...a generic kernel. You could have just copied the livecd kernel for that! It is a generic kernel...it has to support everything!;) You just:

cd /usr/src/linux
make menuconfig
make && make modules_install && make install
modules_update
mc -e /boot/grub/grub.conf // or use whatever editor you have (vi?)

A sample of the packages you may find useful (When we get you up and running.:P)

I would start with mc (midnight commander: awesome), gentoolkit, pciutils, eselect, and definately euses (helps with finding out what the use flags are used for).

An example of euses:

euses doc
doc - Adds extra documentation (API, Javadoc, etc)
dev-java/gjdoc:xmldoclet - Also build support for the xml doclet that generates output in xml instead of the traditional html javadoc.
sys-apps/portage:epydoc - Generate api documentation with epydoc.
www-apps/knowledgetree:opendoc - Allow to search in opendoc documents

Yeah...and stuff. Also, if you can post the output of lspci...we could probably help you pick the correct modules to build into your kernel, so you can actually boot into it.::)

No, the problem is either the bootloader, or the kernel. Wether or not you have modules or if it's all compiled into the kernel, etc doesn't matter. The lack of modules won't affect your system's ability to boot, but missing modules that aren't compiled into the kernel can cause various hardware not to work.

I meant to say external modules. My point was the lack of stuff in his modules.autoload.d or actual external modules themselves do not affect the boot process at all (with the assumption you have the correct internal modules, but that has nothing to do with his theory that lack of external modules were causing the problem).

It appears instead to be having problems with the /boot partition, though it is somehow reading /boot/grub/grub.conf. While I was fetching the following information it occurred to me that lvm2 isn't even installed on my system... I'm sure that will help eventually.

/boot

/boot/grub/grub.conf

/etc/fstab

_{It would appear the pass numbers for /home, /opt, /usr, and /var should be something other than 1... :)}

When I try to boot the first listing (/dev/sdb)

Booting 'Gentoo Linux 2.6.22-r9'

root (hd1,0)
 Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7
kernel /kernel-2.6.22-gentoo-r9 root=/dev/sdb3 dolvm2

Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition

Press any key to continue...

Thanks for the link. I had combined this with the Gentoo Handbook to get my lvm2 partition created and to load it, etc. It seemed to be a little bit more disconnected from the Gentoo Handbook requiring me to fill in the gaps a little bit more. The one you link to seems to compliment the Gentoo Handbook so it will surely help.

Unfortunately, I'm still not sure which modules I should build into my kernel and which ones I should build into external modules. Also, grub doesn't seem to be getting as far as the lvm2 partition so I don't think that's the issue. If anything, those partitions would fail, but my base system would have booted successfully.

So I don't think lvm2 is my immediate problem.

The only things you have to build into the kernel are your file systems and any drivers required to get access to your /boot partition. The rest can be external and loaded as needed for other hardware.

I gather that the second suggestion was to verify that (hd1,0) is pointing to my slave (Linux) drive and not my master (Windows) drive?