hi linux users

i've now got a stable gentoo base but i cant seem to install any packages. this is on a differnet not internet computer to this one. i have installed quite an old version (kernel 2.4) 2004.3 but i have the 2005 packages cd. i looked at the online gentoo install handbook 2005 but it has the same instructions as the 2004.3 handbook. when is try to emerge the packages the computer tried to go online to find the packages instead of going to the cd and looking there. obviously no internet makes it fail.

it is a p3 so 86x structure.

that may not be enough detail to allow you to help but if someone could just run through from the boot what i should do to get the packages to install that would be brilliant. im not to good at base commands yet

thanks in advance

Yes Gentoo will usually assume it is conected to the internet.
but making it work without is not too difficult.

Gentoo is attempting to connect to the internet because the files it needs to install a program are missing, or not in the correct location.

have a look in /usr/portage/
there should be lots of folders containing groups of packages.. for example net-www/mozilla-firefox for example.

and also a filder called distfiles.

this is where gentoo looks for source code before installing it.

if for example firefox is missing from distfiles, gentoo will need to connect to the internet to install it.

from your CD, or a server, coppy all the distfiles of the programs you want to install into that distfiles folder.

well there appears to be alot of files in /usr/portage/distfiles. not sure how they got there!?

when i tried before i entered the commands in the handbook so i guess that must have copied the files over? it is quite possible that my command was wrong. i did something like:



but that tried to go on the internet. i did it just now and it did the same thing. is it possible that i need to be more specific rather than 'x11'?

also what order, if it matters, should i install programs. what i want to end up with is a gnome desktop. do i need to install x then gnome and when that is done will it automatically run?

many questions im sorry but this is my first linux

the --usepkg switch tells gentoo to use a pre-compiled x11.
maybe you only have the x11 source code in /distfiles/
try again without --usepkg, maybe gentoo will be able to compile xorg-x11.

normally i would be more specific, but ive just tried an emerge x11, and gentoo assumes you mean xorg-x11 which is the correct assumption.

Gentoo is vry good at resolving dependencies, if you tell it to emerge gnome, it will know what else it needs, and what order to do it in.

unlike KDE, GNOME is made up of many many optional modules.
you can either emerge the ones you want, or use a pre-defined default.

here are the gnome programs in portage


i would recoment that for your first install, you let gentoo do most of the work, and go for a default gnome setup by emerging gnome.

and always the the -pv switch before doing it for real.
-pv stands for pretend verbose.
i will tell you what it will do, and in what order it will do it.

e.g. emerge -pv x11

the verbose option tells emerge to give exttra information.

it will give a download size, because you dont have internet connection, you need every download size to be 0.

e.g.


so... in more simple words....
emerge -pv gnome
if any download sizes are NOT 0, you will need to copy them manually into the disfiles folder, making sure you copy the correct version.

they may be on your gentoo cd ?
if not you will need to download them, from a gentoo server.

hope this helps, Gentoo is a great distro, but it does assume you have internet.

thanks loads so far.

i tried that and discovered that those files are not in portage. this is more of a base command question but:

how do i scroll up and down at the command line
cp won't work for me. when i try to



it ommits the cdrom side. have i got the command wrong or is there a mounting issue. (when i mount the cdrom it says some stuff about it being read only, but that shouldnt stop copying).

i sure hope gentoo is a great distro this install has been a long part time project - i was so pleased when i even managed a base command !!! my spelling ruins .conf files constantly.

are you sure cdrom/x11-base contains distfiles, and not just ebuilds ?

ive never used the full cd, so im not sure where it keeps distfiles.

Anyways, assuming you are correct there.. you need to use the -R option with the copy command.

by default, cp will copy one file, if you want it to copy a while fiolder and its sub folders use "cp -R source destination"
the -R stands for recursive.

if you ever need to know more about a command, type "man <command>" e..g "man cp" an you will be given a that commands documentation.

When in the Linux console (not graphical mode) the best way to scroll, is to pipe the output into a scroll program.

are you familiar with the pipe ?

the symbol is the verticle line character |

it takes the output of the left command, and uses it aas input for the right command.

so, if you want to list some folders, with the ls command, but there are so many files and folders that it scrolls of the screen, then pipe the ls command into the scroll command "less"

examples...



you can then scroll the output with the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard.

In the old days, almsot every complicated task (like generating PDF files) was done by pipeing several smaller more simple programs together.

its quite fun in a geeky kind of way...
example, you need to find a file with the words "hello" and "world" in it.
but hello and world can be in any order, and you dont have a hard drive searching poogram like "locate" installed...

you can pipe the ls command, or find command, into a pattern matching command (called grep) and then maybe even scroll the results.

find $HOME | grep hello | grep world | less

oh dear. i have no idea whether they are distfiles or ebuilds. sorry about that but i guess you goning to have to explain the difference and how to find out. sorry and thanks for the help so far

Well for starters .. Ebuild are just plain scripts .Comprised of rules on how to install a software. ie where to get the source and hwo to compile it and what files to merge..and do the cleaning up etc.

Ebuild primarily reside in /usr/portage/dir/more folder where dir may be kde-base on gnome-base etc. and more is a subdirectory like kdevelop etc.

in /usr/portage/distfiles you have the source files usually tar.gz or tar.bz2 files. They are downloaded sources.

Coming back to your original problem I think it would be best for you to download the latest base and Install it ie get 2005 Live CD and 2005 Package CD. Also I am suspecting that your portage is not updated ..is that the case. Cause package-cd needs to correspond with a suitable portage

Last but not least . If you are using that system as a stable Desktop or Server I would recomend that you use Ubuntu. If a gentoo station is not on internet it looses one of its main advantage ..ie getting the latest stuff in least time.

I am a gentoo zealot. But I would probably focus on one gentoo machine (my own) and run alot of systems on a Binary Ditro like Ubuntu or Fedora.

thanks for this help. ill try something else but i have a wireless LAN gentoo install coming up so ill be back!!

u could also try emerging a new kernel as your's is old.

xboxrulz