# Have anybody tried installing Gentoo on a VIA EPIA-board?

## vargen

like VIA EPIA CL10000 or similar..

was just wondering if they are "compatible" or if you have to hustle a lot to get it working, vga and such...

and if you have tried it, how many hard drives can you fit in a Skyhawk cabinet?

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## xcable

yes

Works fine.  My company uses the CL10000.  I've installed XPe and Linux (gentoo) without a problem.  Gcc flags should be set to i586.

heath holcomb

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## jetblack

Here is a HOWTO for linux on the EPIAs. It's not Gentoo-specific, but it's pretty thorough.

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## vargen

xcable - oh, so how many hard drives do you think will fit? 

I would be using it as my new server so I don't want it to be to small.. neither too slow..

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## vargen

Ok, I've come up with the solution NOT to do this.. will probably get a nforce2-board with internal VGA instead.. no hustle, it works right away and it is for the same price.. 

maybe for future projects..

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## jetblack

The EPIA should work just fine as a server. I only had to install via's drivers for TV-out and to resolve some clicky audio, but basic audio and video worked fine with a stock RH9 install. I'm sure Gentoo 1.4 would offer at least the same level of support, if not better. Of course, use whatever works for you, but if the HOWTO concerns you, keep in mind that a lot of the special drivers and patches are just for the fancier A/V capabilities of the board.

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## AresTheImpaler

I have an epia m9000 and it works great as a server... It has been living as a web server, router, file server, gateway, mail server with out any problems...

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## vargen

I actually got quite keen on doing it after stumbling on to this site: http://www.mini-itx.com/projects

dammit..

AresTheImpaler, do you have the Skyhawk cabinet, and how many hard drives do you think will fit?

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## richba5tard

I've got a Epia M10000 (Nehemiah C3-2 core) running as my multimedia & server rig.

I had a lot of trouble getting the thing to work properly (than again, it was my very first experience with gentoo), because you *have* to get everything working perfectly if you don't want it to be too slow.

If you're planning to use the 2.4.x kernel, there's an ebuild floating around the web with many usefull patches.

If you're planning to use the 2.6.x kernel, you don't really need patches to get most working.

Network: via rhine driver is supported in the kernel, works great

VGA: the CLE266 chipset is not that easy to get to work. You can download the sourcecode from viaarena.com (a hefty 50MB large), but you still require some skill to get them installed.

USB: no prob

IDE controller: no prob

Sound: supported in ALSA and OSS, not difficult to get it working.

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## pajai

I have a ME-6000. I have followed the instruction on that howto and it works quite well until now:

http://www.alterself.com/~epia/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=EpiaHowto

There is some useful ebuilds for a patched kernel, a patched version of xfree and other useful stuff.

Regards.

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## neysx

I fitted 4 C3-800 in a home-made box:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=397604&highlight=#397604

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## afabco

I'm working with an Ezra C3 in a caseoutlet box and a 2.6.5-gentoo-r1 (I think) kernel.

everything works fine except the video and tv-out.  I'm using the CLEXF40038 binary (#*&**$) drivers, extracted and placed according to some howto that I can't put my hands on right now.  

Being as the drivers are for 2.4, it's an imperfect fit.  

On the video, twm will work ok.  Do anything else and X terminates with 

lots of 'unresolved function' messages on via_drv.o.

My take right now:  the epia's are ok for quiet, single drive uses, but if you want to use it for anything multimedia, look elsewhere until and unless they release full and complete source under a GPL or similar.

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## wrex

 *vargen wrote:*   

> like VIA EPIA CL10000 or similar..

 

Well I'm in the process of bringing up a new CL10000 system.

I started fooling around with the via binaries and stuff, then noticed that the x.org release includes a via driver.

"ACCEPT_KEYWORDS='~x86' emerge xorg-x11" worked without a hitch for me.  Just had to run "xorgconf -textmode" and ensure the resultant xorg.conf used the via driver.

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## shul

Hi all,

 I consider buying MII10000 for a PVR, My question is did anyone used an MPEG hardware encoder with it ?

 Did anyone tried encoding in software ?

Thanks

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## lbrtuk

 *shul wrote:*   

> Hi all,
> 
>  I consider buying MII10000 for a PVR, My question is did anyone used an MPEG hardware encoder with it ?
> 
>  Did anyone tried encoding in software ?
> ...

 

Word has it that the EPIA is not even capable of decoding in software in real time (pvr350 probably needed).

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## shul

 *Quote:*   

> Word has it that the EPIA is not even capable of decoding in software in real time (pvr350 probably needed).

 

Thank you!

I still have hard time choosing what to go for (a pvr) : EPIA with PVR-350 or shuttle with some cheapo graphics card (already have a PCI tv card)

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## lbrtuk

 *shul wrote:*   

> I still have hard time choosing what to go for (a pvr) : EPIA with PVR-350 or shuttle with some cheapo graphics card (already have a PCI tv card)

 

The mythtv mailing list / mailing list archive are very good for this sort of advice if you haven't already tried.

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## cpdsaorg

I took the .ebuild for the 2.6.7-epia kernel and edited it to work for the 2.6.8.1 kernel.

You can find it here (forums.gentoo.org)

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## SummitWulf

I have a ME-6000 which I am just now going through a Stage 1 install on. I was pleased to see it booted straight away when using the 2005.0 LiveCD, which is what encouraged me to do a Stage 1. I am currently having a problem getting it past the bootstrap stage - this is my second try. First time it died with an error:

```
Bootstrap comparison failure!

cppfiles.o differs

make[1]: *** [compare-lean] Error 1

make[1]: Leaving directory /var/tmp/portage/gcc-3.3.5.20050130-r1/work/build/gcc

make: *** [bootstrap-lean] Error 2

!!! ERROR: sys-devel/gcc-3.3.5.20050130-r1 failed.

!!! Function gcc_do_make, Line 1210, Exitcode 2

!!! emake failed with bootstrap-lean

!!! If you need support, post the topmost build error, NOT this status message.
```

I ran the script again and it is currently having another try. (If anyone has any ideas about this, please let me know!) - FYI, my /etc/make.config is:

```
CFLAGS=-march=c3 -pipe -Os fomit-frame-pointer

CHOST=i586-pc-linux-gnu

CXXFLAGS=${CFLAGS}

MAKEOPTS=-j2

USE="X a52 aac aalib acpi alsa apache2 apm bash-completion bluetooth bzip2 cdparanoia cdr crypt dvd dvdr dvdread encode esd gd gnome gtk gtk2 ieee1394 mad mmx -3dnow mozilla mp3 mpeg mysql mysqli nas ncurses ogg oggvorbis openal opengl osc oss pcmcia portaudio python qt quicktime usb vorbis wifi x86"
```

Someone in the forums said they got past this by removing an unspecified something from their USE definition, I'm trying to find out what it was.

BTW, I had this board running with an earlier version of Gentoo, probably 2.4.x, can't remember right now. I wanted to do a Stage 1 to get a good understanding of the process. Looks like I am!

SummitWulf

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## tintax

Well I don't know what this magical USE flag is but I've recently installed Gentoo from stage1 on an ME6000; if it helps any these are my USE flags (i think they're unmodified since installing):

```
USES="-* acpi alsa apache2 crypt dbus ffmpeg ftp gif gnome gstreamer gtk gtk2 hal imap imlib ldap libwww maildir mono mysql ncurses nls oav pam pdflib perl php png samba snmp spell ssl truetype usb unicode wmf x xml xml2 zlib x86"
```

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## SummitWulf

 *tintax wrote:*   

> Well I don't know what this magical USE flag is but I've recently installed Gentoo from stage1 on an ME6000; if it helps any these are my USE flags (i think they're unmodified since installing):
> 
> ```
> USES="-* acpi alsa apache2 crypt dbus ffmpeg ftp gif gnome gstreamer gtk gtk2 hal imap imlib ldap libwww maildir mono mysql ncurses nls oav pam pdflib perl php png samba snmp spell ssl truetype usb unicode wmf x xml xml2 zlib x86"
> ```
> ...

 

Interesting...

My system managed to complete the bootstrap without error last night, after I removed *ALL* the USE definitions from /etc/make.conf. So now I am not sure how many more times to do this, with various combinations of variables. I will compare your list and my original list, of course.

One thing in your definitions that I noticed (and that I hadn't seen before) was "-*" - I take it that means "remove all", i.e. "the only flag items I want supported are the ones that follow"?

SummitWulf

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## tintax

 *Quote:*   

> One thing in your definitions that I noticed (and that I hadn't seen before) was "-*" - I take it that means "remove all", i.e. "the only flag items I want supported are the ones that follow"?

 

Yep, thats right. 

I'm happier if I know exactly what flags are in play (that way I know it's completely my fault when something doesn't work because I'm ignoring the gentoo defaults).

If you haven't seen it yet, the epiawiki has a guide on installing gentoo on an epia-m: http://www.epiawiki.org/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=EpiaHowto. Bit out of date gentoo wise but there is some interesting info in there if you want to use the multimedia capabilities of the board.

Tintax

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## SummitWulf

Another question... your definitions start with 'USES=' rather than 'USE=' - a typo or...?

... and 'oav' doesn't seem to be listed in the list of current flags (at http://www.gentoo.org/dyn/use-index.xml )?

SummitWulf

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## tintax

 *Quote:*   

> Another question... your definitions start with 'USES=' rather than 'USE=' - a typo or...? 

 

Erm ... that's embarassing since it's a cut and paste from my make.conf - might explain a few things that have been confusing me recently  :Sad:  Thanks for the spot!

 *Quote:*   

> ... and 'oav' doesn't seem to be listed in the list of current flags (at http://www.gentoo.org/dyn/use-index.xml )? 

 

IIRC it has something to do with samba but I can't remember what. Getting gentoo going has been a learning experience for me (given it's my first play with linux) and the machine my notes are on is in pieces at the moment.

Regards,

Matt

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## SummitWulf

Hopefully, we can compare notes as I'm still having trouble...

Just for a laugh, I made a boot disk with Memtest-X86 and ran that - 13 complete passes with no errors. Then I ran the bootstrap again with an empty USE flag... it failed again somewhere in the compilation.

I've just now gone back a stage further and re-extracted the Stage and Portage archives.. I'm running it again but this time I'm a little smarter:

```
scripts.bootstrap.sh > bootstrap.1
```

At least this should catch the errors so I can report them accurately.

*sigh*. Could it be an issue with 2005.0?

Or... I'm using an old hard disk for part of the setup... if that was failing, would it cause something like this? Would it be picked up? I'm using ReiserFS...

 :Evil or Very Mad:  Talk about frustrating!!

SummitWulf

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