[SOLVED] Can't connect to internet during installation

lochnesscookie · 2019-03-01 05:14:48

Recently, I decided to install Arch Linux on my chromebook, but have encountered a number of issues. Am looking for guidance for how to proceed.

First of all, I'm on university wifi, which tends to be really uncooperative. When I first got on campus like half a year ago, I tried to fix the issue on another computer (which already had arch) and basically bashed my head against a wall for about a week before giving up and using nmcli. Oh and the only way I could even install anything was by getting a Manjaro LiveCD and chrooting into the Arch installation every single time I needed to install something.

Second, the default arch image doesn't seem to have the drivers to interface with the chromebook keyboard, which means I need to plug in an external keyboard to do anything.

Third, my chromebook only has two USB ports.

So my initial idea was to have something like two LiveCDs, one with Arch and one with Manjaro, use the Manjaro one to get a network manager onto the Arch one, and then once I have internet on the Arch flash drive I would be able to finally actually install Arch Linux onto the chromebook. The problem is I would need three USB ports to do this, one for a keyboard, and two for the installation drives.

The other idea was just to install Manjaro and then strip away everything that wasn't strictly Arch. This is what I'm currently doing, but it's quite annoying and feels kind of cheap. Uninstalling things and trying not to break configs is not very fun.

I've also tried using my phone as a hotspot but Arch doesn't seem to like that any better than university wifi.

What do you all think is the best next step for me? Thanks in advance. Also let me know if you need any additional information. I'm a bit hesistant to try to fix the wifi problem, because I've already ventured down that traumatizing rabbit hole but hey maybe second time's a charm.

Last edited by lochnesscookie (2019-03-01 22:42:54)

jasonwryan · 2019-03-01 05:54:25

The Manjaro idea is a terrible one. Use your phone, that's almost always more straightforward than the alternatives.

Post details of what you have attempted: actual commands, outputs and error messages.

lochnesscookie · 2019-03-01 06:31:01

Thanks for the response. Currently don't have a keyboard (was borrowing one earlier and now everyone's asleep lol) so I can't test stuff now, but I'll update tomorrow morning.

The main thing I remember from using phone wifi was being able to ping 8.8.8.8, but getting "Temporary failure in name resolution" for any actual website. I believe that `ip link` showed that wireless device was set to up as well.

I realize this isn't very helpful, but hopefully it's a start. What other specific info (command output, logs, etc.) should I provide with regards to my system?

EDIT: here is a detailed summary of everything I've done:

1. Ran MrChromeBox's firmware utility while I still had chromeos installed
2. Booted into arch installation media
3. Wiped hard drive
4. Connected to phone hotspot via wifi-menu (no errors generated)
5. Tried switching around mirrors
6. Rebooted, reconnected, same thing
7. Definitely ran dhcpcd at some point
8. Tested phone hotspot with other computer (works fine)

And that's all I can think of that might be relevant to or affected the wifi situation

Last edited by lochnesscookie (2019-03-01 06:37:28)

jasonwryan · 2019-03-01 06:53:51

Follow the wireless wiki page and connect manually, that will make it clearer which step you are failing on and provide specific and relevant error messages.

lochnesscookie · 2019-03-01 07:25:02

Been trying to avoid going through that again but I guess it can't be helped in this case.

Any suggestions about the keyboard not functioning? As in what am I missing that would be able to handle chromebook keyboard input.

jasonwryan · 2019-03-01 07:35:29

A module, presumably. Boot into a live image that works and see what keyboard modules are loaded.

lochnesscookie · 2019-03-01 22:36:46

Okay, sorry to redirect, but I've gotten a tiny bit further with the wifi thing and managed to connect to university wifi.

So right now I'm connected to internet (pings work, etc.) but I'm having problems with trying to pacstrap everything. Specifically, I get the "error: GPGME error: No data", and I get the same error for basically any pacman command. Looking online, apparently this is an issue with keys. So I ran pacman-key --init, pacman-key --populate archlinux and that works fine, but then pacman-key --refresh-keys gives

gpg: refreshing 113 keys from hkps://hkps.pool.sks-keyservers.net
gpg: keyserver refresh failed: No keyserver available
==> ERROR: A specified local key could not be updated from a keyserver

I'm not entirely sure what to do at this point. There doesn't seem to be a debug or verbose option for pacman-key by the way. Also refreshing keys from another laptop connected to the same wifi gives no errors, so I'm assuming it isn't an issue where the university is blocking certain traffic from the keyservers. Any ideas?

jasonwryan · 2019-03-01 22:38:48

Please mark this thread as solved and open a new thread that has a title that describes this specific issue.

Arch Linux

#1 2019-03-01 05:14:48

[SOLVED] Can't connect to internet during installation

#2 2019-03-01 05:54:25

Re: [SOLVED] Can't connect to internet during installation

#3 2019-03-01 06:31:01

Re: [SOLVED] Can't connect to internet during installation

#4 2019-03-01 06:53:51

Re: [SOLVED] Can't connect to internet during installation

#5 2019-03-01 07:25:02

Re: [SOLVED] Can't connect to internet during installation

#6 2019-03-01 07:35:29

Re: [SOLVED] Can't connect to internet during installation

#7 2019-03-01 22:36:46

Re: [SOLVED] Can't connect to internet during installation

#8 2019-03-01 22:38:48

Re: [SOLVED] Can't connect to internet during installation

Board footer