Install arch on emachine laptop

Hello,
Here is my problem. I am trying to install arch on an emachines amd64 laptop. The 0.6 install disc boots a working 2.6 kernel from which I can get networking started. If I then install a 2.6 kernel, it freezes loading the kernel at the point where the dmesg says: "NET" Registered protocol family 2". If I install a 2.4 kernel it will boot fine after adding acpi=off and agp=try_unsupported parms. However, I cannot get networking to work with the 2.4 kernel. The modules will load but I will always timeout during network start. I've run network start using bash -x and I am getting the correct parms to dhcpd. It just doesn't want to work. So my question is this. How do I get a 2.6 kernel to boot? I know it will work because install uses it. Is there a way to use the install kernel? Should I try to build a kernel during install and how do I do this?
Thanks,
Jason

Ok, Got the 2.6.3 kernel working. There is an excellent resource here.
The 3 things which helped me were:
1.) Using the config file listed on the page linked above as a basic guide.
2.) Using ext3 as my filesystem.
3.) Adding "pci=noacpi noapic psmouse.proto=imps" to my kernel boot parms.
Also on the page linked above there are links to 2 other resources. "thither's page" and a gentoo forum link. Thither's page is worth checking out and the gentoo forum is a long read but provides some background on the problems.
The link also provides misc patches. I have not tried those yet.
As far as I know the wireless card does not have working drivers yet and the ati card will not run 3d due to lack of drivers. If I find solutions to either I will post here.
p.s. Sorry about the OT in the posts above I am the only person I know who can get OT in a dsicussion with themself.
Thanks,
Jason

Similar Messages

Installing arch on old laptop without internet

i've been playing around with linux for the past month, mostly using mandriva and for a very short time slack and ubuntu. mandriva works well and was definitely a smooth change for a long time windows user. due to a dying harddisk i even learend some of the basics pretty damn fast . now my machine is back up and running with w2k, mandriva and (soon) arch.
i have an old laptop (hp omnibook with a 600 mHz celeron, 10 gb hdd, 128 mb ram, s3 graphics card and no internet connection). it's being used as an OFFLINE INFOSYSTEM (which is a simple but quite extensive webpage) for my clients, running mandrake 10.1 for the past year without problems. the only drawback is the long boot time and the bad font rendering. to speed things up i'd like to try arch.
in short: i need a fast booting system with basically only a webbrowser running my webpage offline. NOTHING ELSE! would you recommend arch for that? remember, i can't update any packages online, because there's no possibility to connect that laptop to the internet.
what do you suggest? what packages do i have to install from the cd to get a small, fast system? obviously the base system and xorg. but then what, and is everything to be found on that cd?

Larch LiveCD construction kit mat give you a way to do what you want.
To use it normally it requires downloading via the internet so you probably would have to use another machine to create the LiveCD with larch. The parameters loaded would have to fit your laptop and it requires kernel26beyond to be functional.
The details are in USER CONTRIBUTIONS forum if you are inclined to study it.
The download of Larch 0.9.9 or later includes verbose readme files. It would seem you could build it on another machine and use it on the laptop assuming your laptop is i686 compliant.
Best to you...

Before I Install Arch on My Laptop...

I have a couple of questions. I have a Dell 1420 that I take onto campus for notes in class and something to do between classes. I've gotten Arch working beautifully on my Desktop with FVWM finally all set. But I'd like to be sure that everything (at least almost certainly) work before I go to the trouble of resizing the windows partition and setting everything up. So, here are my questions:
1) I know this question is kind of ridiculous, but my university has these instructions for XP (https://hdc.tamu.edu/reference/document … ion_id=729) for connecting to the on campus wireless network. I've had difficulty in the past connecting to those networks with Ubuntu and Fedora because of the need for a username and password. I've never really known how to configure everything to make things work. So, will wicd (which I really like) support the correct configuration? Or will I need to find a new wireless network tool?
2) I have an Intel 3945 wireless card in the laptop, and the on campus network is WPA2, are both of those pretty well supported?
3) Is suspend/resume supported pretty well on the laptop? I've had (unresolved) difficulties with it on my desktop, and it's much more important on the laptop.
thanks,
progrock

1) Check out netcfg (in core) http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Netcfg
2) The 3945 card works fine here.
3) http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Suspend_to_Disk shows you a couple options to try (pm-utils takes the least setup). I've had problems getting an ATI video card to work coming back from a suspend to disk on a desktop, but none of the laptops I've tried have problems suspending (I'm just lucky?)

Install Arch over Mint on laptop

So I decided to dabble with Arch in Virtualbox and now I've decided that I want to install my .iso of Arch over my Mint partition. So I know there is a tutorial on the wiki on how to make my version into an .iso which shouldn't be an issue for me, but I just want to verify with you folks if I'll be doing this right on my laptop.
I have 3 partitions right now on a 750GB HDD:
500(ish)GB Windows 7 partition (sadly, it can't be shrunk anymore)
15GB to a recovery partition for Windows
then 100(ish)GB remaining for Linux Mint 16
My thoughts are to back up any data I want to keep and should I just load up my .iso from a flash drive and install Arch like I would have in a VM? Would cfdisk show all my partitions and give me the chance to just erase my current Linux partition? Not sure how I should go about all of this...or would it be best just to redo the process from scratch? All I have installed really is the base Arch install, alsa, and XFCE.
EDIT:
Edited to avoid confusion on my 100GB Linux partition
Last edited by stratacast1 (2014-01-06 23:00:38)

karol wrote:You can just use the stock Arch iso.
How are you expecting to have 2 Linux systems on one partition? I don't recall our wiki saying you could do anything like this :-) Create a new partition, format it and install arch in there.
Okay I'll do that! I meant to say that I'll be reformatting my Linux Mint partition and putting Arch there instead I could have sworn I read something like that, or at least somewhere on the internet..but either way, I think I'll just do what you said! I think it'd be great to try installing Arch for the 4th time haha! Helps me memorize how to use the OS better!
Since I'll be running Arch on the actual machine rather than a VM, will I eventually have to install drivers for my wireless NIC? I was thinking I'd install Arch on a wired connection so I didn't have to worry about my slow download speeds

Install Arch with dual graphics laptop

Hey everybody,
So a few months ago I bought a new laptop, and ASUS X750JN. After I have my new laptop on my hands the first thing was install Arch Linux, but I came across an problem with graphics, probably a bad configuration and because I needed the computer for the university, I keep Windows for a while. Now that I have some time, I want to return to my beloved Arch but I have a serious question, the computer has 2 graphics cards, on-board Intel and an Nvidia and my question is, how can I install Arch and use Nvidia for some games like ETS, CS:GO and Guns of Icarus? When I tried installing before, the VGA was the Intel and not the Nvidia.
I know that Hybrid Graphics aren't full supported in Linux, but is there a way to use Arch with the Nvidia, even if only uses Nvidia.
Thanks in advance,
Have a nice Christmas and a Happy 2015,
Hugo Rodrigues.
Last edited by Hugao (2014-12-24 13:47:26)

Hey,
Sorry for the time but I'm was busy and only today I have the change to install Arch.
mrunion wrote:
Have you looked in our Wiki? We have these for starters:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bumblebee
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Optimus
When I was research I look it up on the second link but not on the first one.
So, like I said above, today I have installed Arch with Bumblebee and so far so good, but I just have a question, how I run games using optirun throw Steam?
Issa wrote:
Hey Huago, I'm not sure if will help you as I don't know too much about your configuration, but I'm also experiencing some issues while configuring arch on my lenovo T420s. I have so far succeeded in starting a simple x session after installing the drivers for intel and nvidia (xf86-video-intel xf86-video-nouveau) (see my thread here but my current problem is, that I can't start gdm
I'll work on this and opened a new thread here - maybe we can assist each other until everything is up and running.
update: I got it - maybe it works for you too? (very short description of what i did):
install drivers for integrated and discrete graphics card
launch gdm as root
I have an Asus X750JN and I just install the integrated and discrete graphics and enabled gdm service.

[SOLVED] Installed Arch on IBM A22m laptop, startx fails

I installed arch on this old laptop IBM A22m and I am trying to get XFCE4 or LXDE working on it.
When i start xfce4 i get "server terminated with error(1)" and same thing with lxde but this time i get to see panel and wallpaper for 2 seconds before it crashes.
I tried exec openbox-session and it wont crash until I open browser from terminal.
Here is xorg.0.log i get from crashed openbox-session: http://pastebin.com/SK9Vvunp
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)
00:02.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1450 (rev 03)
00:02.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1450 (rev 03)
00:03.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9/0/1 Ethernet Pro 100 (rev 0c)
00:03.1 Serial controller: LSI Corporation LT WinModem (rev 01)
00:05.0 Multimedia audio controller: Cirrus Logic CS 4614/22/24/30 [CrystalClear SoundFusion Audio Accelerator] (rev 01)
00:07.0 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:07.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Rage Mobility AGP 2x Series (rev 64)
Here is hwinfo: http://pastebin.com/wWePzduM
uname -r 3.16.4-1
I am using xf86-video-mach64 driver.
Help needed =P
Last edited by sahtimonni (2014-10-13 15:16:02)

This is a bit outside my experience - but did you follow the advice and cautions in the wiki for that driver:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mach64

Trying to install Arch Linux on a HP-dv2000 laptop

I am able to start up from, the CD no problem. I get the Arch Linux menu. What I think is the problem is maybe a resolution issue because as I go to install it, the screen looks wonky and I can't see the command line properly. I know when I install Ubuntu for example, the installation screen looks off to one side. Only after installing the nvidia driver after successfully installing Ubuntu does the screen look the way it supposed to.
I think the same think is happening here when trying to install Arch Linux. Any suggestions on how I can resolve this? This is a big deal for me because for the first time, I think I am going to learn a ton of stuff about Arch Linux. I am willing to take the plunge following the beginner's guide along the way.
Thanks for the help!!

ArchLinux is designed to run whether in VirtualBox or on a real machine.
If you have a TV connector plugged in it will chop some regular lines at the bottom to make up for the difference in TV resolution.
There are a couple of packages related to nvidia hardware, nouveau is one of them. Just do a pacman -Ss nvidia for possibilities of things you might need to install. Your nvidia hardware is a little newer, so probably nvidia is the package you'll need instead of nouveau.
Are you using X? When you install the proper xf86-video-* driver it shouldn't have any problems with X. If modesetting is turned off, then some resolutions may not be made available (especially in Gnome), so it is best to keep it turned on if at all possible (kernel default).
Last edited by nomorewindows (2012-03-12 17:19:55)

How to install Arch from hard drive?

Hello
I have an old laptop - Pentium II 266 MHz, 128Mb RAM and I want to install Arch on it.
The problem is that there is no way to boot from this laptop -> floppy is broken, CD drive is not bootable, no available boot options from BIOS to boot from PXE or USB.
So, I found this link useful (but not enough).
I have done everything as described on the upper link, but on the final step 7 I don't know how to proceed.
What I have got is:
Arch installation CD is in the CD drive.
After loading vmlinuz26 and archiso.img (which is RAM Disk or initrd) it shows this message: "waiting 30 seconds for device /dev/disk/by-label/"
And another message: "ERROR: boot device didn't show up after 30 seconds" and after that it put me in the ramfs prompt.
I try this in ramfs prompt, but without success:
1. ln -s /dev/sr0 /dev/archiso
2. exit (and try again)
What I want is to tell the installer that it must proceed with the installation files on my CD drive.
But how to do that?
If it is not possible, then how could I install Arch on this old laptop? Is there any other methods to try?
PS: There is Windows 2000 and Windows 98 installed on this laptop, but I want to install Arch on it. The whole hard drive is one partition.
Last edited by clovenhoof (2011-08-09 06:49:48)

Try either of the following:
* Add archisolabel=LABEL to the kernel line in menu.lst, where LABEL is the filesystem label of the partition where the ISO resides.
* Add archisodevice=/dev/sdaX to the kernel line in menu.lst, where sdaX should be replaced with the partition where the ISO resides.
[Edit]
Hmmm, sorry I think I was wrong. With the above, you need also extract the ISO, put the arch/ directory at the root of the partition.
Alternatively, you can put the ISO to the root of that partition, and add img_dev=/dev/sdaX and img_loop=foo-bar.iso. For details, see:
https://projects.archlinux.org/archiso.git/tree/README
BUT even if it loads, I don't think you will be able to install Arch on the same partition since it's mounted readonly to /bootmnt, (unless, you explicitly add copytoram to the kernel line, in which case, everything is copied to RAM, but since the machine has got only 128MB of RAM, this is not gonna happen). So, you need to put the ISO (or the extracted squashfs images) to a different partition than your target installation partition...
There probably are other things I'm missing... Gotta say this sounds quite challenging.
[Edit2]
Bah! Try archisodevice=/dev/sr0 then!
Last edited by lolilolicon (2011-08-09 07:48:17)

[SOLVED] external USB HDD fails to install arch w/boot device ERROR

I've been working on installing arch linux via an external USB harddrive (specifically seagate free agent go 320GB) for 1 week now, and everytime I failed - until TODAY! thankfully I found this post, where user Dieter@be references this link, which displays BUG ID#17231 at the top titled "Can't boot LiveCDs 2009.08 (/dev/archiso doesn't show up)". the bug report states ::
I can't boot the LiveCDs 2009.08, neither netinstall nor core.
When it tries to access /dev/archiso it shows these messages:
:: Waiting for boot device ...
Waiting 30 seconds for device /dev/archiso ...
ERROR: boot device didn't show up after 30 seconds ...
Falling back to interactive prompt
You can try to fix the problem manually, logout when you are finished
ramfs$
reading further thru this bug report, I found a very insightful post by Heiko Baums (cyberpatrol) where he says the following, and I quote ::
Problem found. The link /dev/archiso wasn't created.
After
ramfs$ cd /dev
ramfs$ ln -s sr0 archiso
ramfs$ exit
it continued booting correctly.
And sg was also loaded after this. ;-)
as you see, the bug report was for the CD version, not the USB version - yet, my issue with the USB bootdisk was the same, (no matter which boot disk I tried = netinstall, core, .img, .iso, etc) meaning I got the EXACT same error = "ERROR: boot device didn't show up after 30 seconds ..." ! well, I figured that I'd try one of the new fancy ISOs found @ http://build.archlinux.org/isos/ - specifically I use/used archlinux-2010.03.04-netinstall-x86_64.iso.
upon running Unetbootin from windows 7, and choose to install the ISO archlinux-2010.03.04-netinstall-x86_64.iso to my first partition on my USB harddrive (that first partition being FAT32, and had already been set as bootable previously), that completed successfully. I rebooted, and choose to boot from USB drive, the ISOlinux bootloader came up as normal, I choose DEFAULT and off it went.... sure enough, it errored out at the same place as listed in the bug report ::
:: Waiting for boot device ...
Waiting 30 seconds for device /dev/archiso ...
ERROR: boot device didn't show up after 30 seconds ...
Falling back to interactive prompt
You can try to fix the problem manually, logout when you are finished
ramfs$
this time though, I issued the following 2 commands ::
ln -s /dev/sdb1 /dev/archiso
exit
from there, EVERYTHING worked as it should!
to recap: the solution for me was create a symbolic link pointing /dev/archiso => to my partition which held the archlinux netinstall (which is where I told Unetbootin to install it to)! done and done. I felt this needed to be posted here, as I could not find this solution after MANY google searches, archlinux wiki searches, forum searches, etc. honestly, I think it would be prudent to have this tidbit of information added to the Install from USB stick archwiki page as a side note to those that may run into this issue.
this is not the FIRST time I have run into this problem with a USB install of archlinux, but this is the FIRST time I found a fix! thanks to all the great posts I reference here, without this information I dont think I would have been able to install archlinux on my new alienware m11x laptop.
-peace-
PS: no amount of rootdelay=XX nor pmedia=usb nor usbdelay=XX would work in my above attempts either.
Last edited by fnord0 (2010-03-12 04:54:26)

FAT16 here. Parted Magic sees my USB drive as sdd. I tried your way and surprise, surprise, it didn't work.
ln -sf /dev/sdd /dev/archiso
mount -t vfat /dev/archiso /bootmnt
mount : Invalid argument
I thought maybe you meant mount -f vfat /dev/archiso /bootmnt instead. I tried it too, it resulted in a kernel panic.
What else can I try besides installing from a IDE/SATA CD drive ? Because this issue is NOT solved. At least not for me. Wonder if "archlinux-2010.04.05-netinstall-i686.iso" from the here will solve it (really hope so).
SOLVED IT HERE (with yet another image): http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=93645
Last edited by DSpider (2010-04-17 14:21:27)

What would be the best way to install Arch, if I have Broadcom wifi?

I can boot into an Arch USB disk, but I can't connect to the Internet, since my laptop doesn't have ethernet and the wifi card is Broadcom, which requires the `broadcom-wl` package. What would be the easiest way of proceeding with this install? On IRC, I was advised to either: (1) boot into another distro, connect to the Internet there, then chroot into the Arch USB image, and download the additional packages from there, or (2) download the `broadcom-wl` package from the AUR, and a build environment, transfer these files to the USB system, and then compile and install the module there. Both of these solutions seems rather complicated to me. With (1), I was having difficulty mounting the arch .img as a drive using Ubuntu, since Ubuntu's `mount` command needs a filetype, and didn't seem to like any of the filetypes I tried. With (2), I have a feeling this would be fairly complicated--I'm not sure which binaries I can install for my system, or how to install packages that I downloaded offline.

I was having difficulty mounting the arch .img as a drive using Ubuntu, since Ubuntu's `mount` command needs a filetype
Not sure what you mean?
I too had issues with my internet, eventually I installed arch from Ubuntu. I used bootstrap image and it worked as advertized in the wiki.
EDIT: If you using Ubuntu then don't forget to create '/run/shm' otherwise pacstrap will fail.
Last edited by fantab (2014-10-29 04:17:46)

Grub error after install Arch x86_64

i install arch on my second laptop and everything works fine so im install on my main laptop but grub can boot
my main laptop have 2 HDD, first i have windows seven and other partions on second i have arch64
at install no errors are show but when i reboot grub menu show the arch options i choose and
Booting command-list
root (hd1,0)
Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdb1 ro
Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition
Press any key to continue...
the hd1,0 thing is correct is the second HDD, first partition
i only can boot by arch live cd choose boot existing OS edit to hd1,0 and show me the grub menu and all boot option work
so what the problem with that
is not the problem with windows because i dont put windows on grub if i wont boot windows i choose boot first HDD on bios
the previous distro in this machine was sidux and only works on install i just choose install grub on sdb on MBR
on arch i choose install grub on /dev/sdb i think this is the MBR correct?

this i find on archwiki, i have this on grub too, but the problem is the grub/bios wrong names but is 100% now.
on 1 HD is a peace of cake install arch on 2 HDD im install a few times because this error but is easy too, when i read on web arch is hard to install i think that will be a pain in the as* but not really is easy and fast even faster than sidux but on start up have more 100mb of ram than sidux but is not a problem because is faster lol
thanks

Installing arch on extended partition/logical drive

hi there. i am a newbie to linux and about to install arch as my first linux installation.
i am using vaio AR laptop already running xp and would like to keep it and have double boot without reinstalling xp.
have 200gb hdd with recovery primary partition, system primary partition (where xp installed) and extended partition with one logical drive (D: ) of 100gb.
i was considering deleting the logical drive (and the extended partition if necessary), which if i understand correctly should give me 100gb of unallocated space.
i would then like to install arch on the 100gb of unallocated space.
i would like to know if the way i am planning to go about it is possible, and whether i can install arch completely on one extended partition devided into logical drives.
any comments or sugestions would be much appreciated...
Last edited by o12357 (2009-09-04 12:45:18)

I believe that is correct. Grub has to have a reference to the md0 raid for booting.
Please see
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=79306
This solution to the boot problem with md0 should be helpful for your case since grub must be modified to accomodate the raid.
I am not sure the data in your raid0 is appropo for your use in booting archlinux, however. If I understand correctly, it is windows related data and not applicable to linux.
If your raid0 is partitioned, it would be possible to establish a boot for each system using grub partition references differing for linux and windows systems.
Thus, you would have grub entries complete for linux and another set complete for windows.
I think AFAICT windows has to be first in the usual dual booting but am not an expert on that, not having used dual boot. It may be somewhat different when using raid for booting dual systems.
I suggest you read the wiki on dual boots.
Perhaps you will get advice from others on the subject also.
EDIT: Your asumption that all OS'es will recognize the raid0 devices as a single drive does not apply to archlinux which does not autodetect raid arrays but must have initramfs populated with the raid data established by mdadm and initiated into initramfs by mkinitcpio. Then during boot sequences , the array is assembled and enabled as a single drive,i.e., md0. The boot sequence assembles all drives having identical UUID's in the raid array.
Last edited by lilsirecho (2009-09-05 18:23:36)

Installing Arch on an SD card

I already looked at the beginner's guide etc... I've scoured the forums a bit, and I've probably missed something, I won't mind being corrected after saying I couldn't find anything of much use. I'm putting arch on my netbook but I don't feel like playing with the harddrive which I'd prefer to keep as the default windows installation. Unfortunately the harddrive has 4 partitions on it so in order to use it at all I'll have to get rid of something. Fortunately I have an SD card slot which I can go ahead and use (currently planning on using my 8GB card). From what I understand I should put the /var partition on the harddrive so as to not ruin the card any faster than I have to. I'm not entirely sure what I should do here, it's been a long time since I've had to install Arch, and I've never been good at it. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks again,
--Wes

ewaller wrote:The link provided by lagagnon addresses CF cards on an IDE to CF converter.
As the fellow who wrote the original draft of that link, I can assure that it holds equally valid for SD cards. The only difference is that an SD card needs the mkinitcpio USB hook enabled.
ewaller wrote:I cannot think of any laptop that does boot from internal SD readers.
I can not think of any laptop that does not boot from internal SD. I've only set it up on half a dozen or so, but my success rate as been 100%. Nearly every laptop made in the last seven years can USB/SD boot.
ewaller wrote:This laptop (HP Pavilion DV4 1227) has a SD reader, but will not boot from that reader.
Always research large purchases to death. Punch that laptop's name into google, and the third result is "Don't Buy the HP Pavilion...."
Wesman26 wrote:I'm not entirely sure what I should do here.
Don't worry about /var. I've always had it write to the flash drive. (I also replace my SD/CF cards every year and my hard drives every three.) When you are installing Arch, enable USB booting. That is the only critical step. And follow those direction regarding mount flags, otherwise it will be dog slow.
Right now I am typing this from a computer running entirely from a class 6 micro SDHC card. I can swap it with the µSD card in my MP3 player or camera and boot a completely different OS. Once I start thinking about all the places you can hide a chunk of plastic the size of a fingernail, it is hard not to whistle the "Mission Impossible" theme while using a computer.
In short, running linux from SD cards is easy and fun.
Last edited by keenerd (2010-01-08 14:11:30)

Installing Arch on Toshiba Satellite L655D

Okay, so on m other machines, I've had no problem installing arch. But on my laptop I recently bought, I came across one that halted the entire installation process.
Basically, I go to install arch, and my network drivers are non existant. The only interface on ifconfig -a is the local loopback(lo). I can't show you the whole output of lspci, but I can show you that it recognizes that it is there.
08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications AR8152 v1.1 Fast Ethernet (rev c1)
I can't download any updated drivers/proprietary drivers because, well, i have no network interface.
Any ideas?

hi I've not used the same model as you but on other tosh laptops,and other makes to get many linux distros to find all your hardware ,or even boot in some cases i find you must add "switches" to the end of the boot line in grub,after quiet splash from mem it was noapic on a tosh,,on a packard bell its irqpoll to get it to see the wireless card.im at work now but when i get home i can give you more info if you are still stuck,,,cheers Theo.

Installing arch on my dad's computer, wireless only

So I finally convinced my dad to let me install Arch on his comp and wouldnt you know it, its giving me problems.
the main issue is that he is wireless only (linksys wireless-g with speedboost) and ive never played with wireless with linux. ive attempted to use bcm43xx but that doesnt work, i tried installing the driver via ndiswrapper but that doesnt work either. <--this is all within the install environment, i havent gotten past configuring the network
so with that issue unresolved as of now, i downloaded the core cd to see if i couldnt get the basic system up and then fix the wireless post-install, but it wont recognize the cd drive (HL-DT-ST GDR8161B)
any help?

It might have to do with grub not being able to find a stage 2, you do have a /boot partition added to the laptop's hdd, which is how it is done normally.
I'm not sure if grub can access usb drives that it hasn't booted from (to get /boot), then you gotta specify it when you install grub to the mbr with the boot partition mounted:
grub-install --root-directory=/boot sda
Now, if that doesn't work, you'd probably have to go with using / making a tiny (20MiB) boot partition (for a single kernel + initrd) somewhere on the laptop's disk (which will work for sure)
Last edited by vogt (2007-12-02 04:46:18)

Install arch on emachine laptop

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