# Laptop and Gentoo.... IMPOSSIBLE

## bonkers

I have an Omnibook 800CT and I can't install Gentoo. Now you might be asking, How the hell is that possible to not install gentoo? Well... For starters I can't boot up with the CD-ROM drive because, quite frankly its not bootable. I tried to use a floppy and mount the cd-rom drive, but the floppy couldn't mount my drive. I think it is a SCSI externel drive. I wish I could some how autodetect it. Then, ontop of that I am not sure how to get my Xircom card working because I didn't think Linux supported Xircom cards because they didn't release the specs or something. Any ideas on how to get this 166 out of windows and onto gentoo? (I know how to get it outta windows... I do it quite often.)

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## delta407

I got a 133 off a floppy running Gentoo -- with 24 MB of RAM, the CD wouldn't even boot. It's possible, but you had better have a network and another computer on it.

You can try "netboot" as described in this article.

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## bonkers

Okay, I got a wonderful network with 8 computers on it (SERVERS: File, networks[routing, web, mail], and my TEST server. WORKSTATIONS: Laptop, Sisters comp, Mom/Dad comp. PLAY: My comp.) So I think I manage the network boot. But I am not sure about the Xircom module, as it doesn't particallarly like me. I even forgot the name of the module. Where do I get it? Don't I have to put it on a diskette along with a Linux boot disk?

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## delta407

Grub has to know about your NIC, since it uses it to download the kernel and so forth. From Grub's ./configure:

```
  --enable-3c509          enable 3Com509 driver

  --enable-3c529          enable 3Com529 driver

  --enable-3c595          enable 3Com595 driver

  --enable-3c90x          enable 3Com90x driver

  --enable-cs89x0         enable CS89x0 driver

  --enable-davicom        enable Davicom driver

  --enable-depca          enable DEPCA and EtherWORKS driver

  --enable-eepro          enable Etherexpress Pro/10 driver

  --enable-eepro100       enable Etherexpress Pro/100 driver

  --enable-epic100        enable SMC 83c170 EPIC/100 driver

  --enable-3c507          enable 3Com507 driver

  --enable-exos205        enable EXOS205 driver

  --enable-ni5210         enable Racal-Interlan NI5210 driver

  --enable-lance          enable Lance PCI PCNet/32 driver

  --enable-ne2100         enable Novell NE2100 driver

  --enable-ni6510         enable Racal-Interlan NI6510 driver

  --enable-natsemi        enable NatSemi DP8381x driver

  --enable-ni5010         enable Racal-Interlan NI5010 driver

  --enable-3c503          enable 3Com503 driver

  --enable-ne             enable NE1000/2000 ISA driver

  --enable-ns8390         enable NE2000 PCI driver

  --enable-wd             enable WD8003/8013, SMC8216/8416 driver

  --enable-otulip         enable old Tulip driver

  --enable-rtl8139        enable Realtek 8139 driver

  --enable-sis900         enable SIS 900 and SIS 7016 driver

  --enable-sk-g16         enable Schneider and Koch G16 driver

  --enable-smc9000        enable SMC9000 driver

  --enable-tiara          enable Tiara driver

  --enable-tulip          enable Tulip driver

  --enable-via-rhine      enable Rhine-I/II driver

  --enable-w89c840        enable Winbond W89c840, Compex RL100-ATX driver
```

If you don't have one of those, may God have mercy on your soul.  :Wink: 

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## bonkers

I don't got one like that. I have a Xircom. Is it possible to boot off the HD w/gentoo? I could make a small 20 meg partition that you could install gentoo on.

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## abhishek

 *bonkers wrote:*   

> I don't got one like that. I have a Xircom. Is it possible to boot off the HD w/gentoo? I could make a small 20 meg partition that you could install gentoo on.

 

Gentoo would take a bit moren then 20 meg  :Very Happy:  a big bit. maybe with a stage3 it wouldnt be too bad, migt even work. but idoubt ud be able to cmmpile stuff or bootsrap.

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## delta407

You could try something similar to my suggestion in this thread, that might do it for ya. May the force be with you.  :Wink: 

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## bonkers

The 20 meg partition would just be a substitute for the CD-ROM drive you see? then I just b00t off a linux boot disk and load the xircom modules...bam like that.

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## drizzt

Try SMARTBOOT boot disk. This is a universal bootloader which boot media of any type. With this bootdisk I was able to boot Gentoo on my toshiba 730CDT which also doesn't support directly booting CD. It works as a "wrapper". You get a boot menu within you can select any IDE (not shure about scsi) to boot, regardless of bios boot support. It's a nice kind of boot disc.

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## dweigert

Depending on the vintage of the xircom card (I'm using one as I type) You may be able to get away with the tulip driver.

```

elena root # cd /proc

elena proc # cat modules

mach64                 91680   1

uhci                   22448   0 (unused)

maestro3               23568   1

xircom_cb               5000   0 (unused)

xircom_tulip_cb        11672   1

rtc                     6012   0 (autoclean)

usbcore                53056   1 [uhci]

i8k                     4876   0 (unused)

apm                     8648   1

```

By the way, those are standard in kernel drivers, and the pcmcia-cs package does support it as well.

Dan

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## vargen

I wrote a little help for you!

Read it here: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=63862

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