Need to specify full path as root; bios screen flashes when startx

Abecedarian · 2008-03-29 12:23:28

Hi,

I just installed arch on my lenovo laptop. The title pretty much explains it all; when I su to root, none of the root commands work. I need to specify /sbin/ifconfig every time, rather than just ifconfig. Secondly, when X starts, the bios screen flashes up for a few seconds (literally, seconds). This is annoying, dodgy, and time consuming.

Thanks for any help.

Jack B · 2008-03-29 14:54:05

Hi
There are a few people with Lenovo machines on here (myself included) - telling us which you have may help.

RE the root thing, what do you get if you enter:

$PATH

as root? The path variable should list the places it looks for programs, and should include (among others) /sbin/.

Jack

brebs · 2008-03-29 14:56:50

$ grep sbin /etc/profile
PATH="/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin"

Abecedarian · 2008-03-29 22:45:14

Hi,

Thanks for the help. $PATH was missing '/sbin:/usr/sbin' on the end. I went to update my /etc/profile, and - I have none.... :o
Looks I missed a step in the arch CD. I'm so used to running through it in all of a few minutes I suppose I missed something. A google around showed that it belonged to the package 'filesystem', which I updated, which gave me an /etc/profile, which came into effect once I logged out and in, which made me happy.

Furthermore, in my frustration last night I did not run hwd -xa when setting up X. Doing so loaded the i810 driver, which made X start up normally, albeit slowly.

As for the model number, I have no idea. I know it sounds weird, but I can't see it anywhere on the case, and I bought it second-hand so there was no bumbling sales assistant to tell me. How can I find out? It's got a 40gb hard drive, 1.5ghz processor, 512m ram.

Seeing as there are laptop users here, is there anything more I should know other than the 'Laptop' node of the archwiki as far as power saving goes? Any tips on squeezing my battery life for all its worth? Is it possible to get the pinhole microphone working? Will the tools in the wiki turn off the screen when I shut the lid, etc.? I am yet to configure them as the wiki is very brief. And would I be right in using the latest MadWifi drivers for the atheros chipset?

Here's my lspci if it helps.

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev 04)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 04)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 04)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 04)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 04)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 04)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 04)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 04)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev d4)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1e.3 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 04)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 04)
06:01.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx21/x515 Cardbus Controller
06:01.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
06:01.3 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx21 Integrated FlashMedia Controller
06:03.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212/AR5213 Multiprotocol MAC/baseband processor (rev 01)
06:08.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)

Thanks.

Misfit138 · 2008-03-29 22:59:59

I would try re-burning the iso with better media/slower speeds if you're getting weirdness like a missing /etc/profile.

Jack B · 2008-03-30 01:41:49

As Misfit says, missing files looks like a bad install CD...

As for model number, the spec sounds about the same age as mine (Thinkpad-T41), which has the model No. by the hinge at the bottom right of the screen. It will be either a letter and a 2-digit number (thinkpad) or, IIRC, a 4 digit number (3000 series). Otherwise put the serial number into the lenovo/IBM website support section, and it will tell you. You might even find a wiki page dedicated to the model.

The main battery saver is CPU scaling. I've not tried the mic, though it appears in alsamixer without any extra config. My screen backlight switches off in hardware on lid close, but it also generates an ACPI event if you have thinkpad_acpi loaded, which you can use with xset to turn off the display. Madwifi should work well for you.

If you are using the laptops page in the wiki, you may be better searching for individual items - that page is far from complete, and looks new.

Jack

Arch Linux

#1 2008-03-29 12:23:28

Need to specify full path as root; bios screen flashes when startx

#2 2008-03-29 14:54:05

Re: Need to specify full path as root; bios screen flashes when startx

#3 2008-03-29 14:56:50

Re: Need to specify full path as root; bios screen flashes when startx

#4 2008-03-29 22:45:14

Re: Need to specify full path as root; bios screen flashes when startx

#5 2008-03-29 22:59:59

Re: Need to specify full path as root; bios screen flashes when startx

#6 2008-03-30 01:41:49

Re: Need to specify full path as root; bios screen flashes when startx

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