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#1 2009-12-16 08:08:46

shawnisalk
Member
Registered: 2009-12-16
Posts: 9

Arch installation--unable to get past Select Source

Hey, folks,

Whatever help anyone can offer would be most thoroughly appreciated. I am a (Windows) PC/Network tech, but new to Linux and I'm trying to setup a modest network in my apartment. big_smile

I'm installing Arch on an IBM Thinkpad i 1400. It is connected to the home network with a pcmcia ethernet card.

When I run /arch/setup, the first option is to Select a Source

When I choose to install from CD, I get the error that "Package directory /src/core/pkg is missing" (This alarms me hmm , but I'm not sure what there is to do about it, since there is, indeed, no /src directory listed.)

When I choose net install, no network devices are found and there is a message that "udev did not load the modules. try loading the modules manually and return to this menu item". I try to load the module manually with: modprobe pcmcia_core

This throws no error, but when I return to setup (whether I restart the setup process or not), nothing is changed.

lsmod shows that pcmcia_core and pcmcia are loaded

ifconfig shows only the loopback interface

The relevant part of rc.conf shows: (what's shown below are the only module or networking mentions in the file)

MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"

HOSTNAME="archiso"

#TODO add more auto daemons here, especially the live-cd specific stuff
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network)
#TODO: auto-network find-disks find-user-home

Unfortunately, I don't know what I don't know. Anyone have any suggestions? sad

Thanks,
Shawn

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#2 2009-12-16 08:12:20

Firepower
Member
Registered: 2009-12-16
Posts: 90

Re: Arch installation--unable to get past Select Source

Hmm. I am thinking the disc was not burnt properly...
i burned it on 8x and it ran.

anyone else better at this take a stab at it?


Archers take their arrows in the knee.

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#3 2009-12-16 08:37:47

Sheepeh
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From: England
Registered: 2009-12-06
Posts: 16
Website

Re: Arch installation--unable to get past Select Source

The only time I've had problems with the installer was when the CD was physically dirty, so yes, I'd say there's a problem with the media.

I usually just DD a copy of the image to my USB MP3 player and boot from that - it saves on CDs and seems a lot more reliable.

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#4 2009-12-16 15:57:18

shawnisalk
Member
Registered: 2009-12-16
Posts: 9

Re: Arch installation--unable to get past Select Source

Hmm. Okay. I recall the suggestions from one of the pages to burn at a slow speed, but I have never in my life had that be a problem. I will try it, though. Thank you!

One thing I realized: the reason I'm not able to choose CD as an install source is because the ISO is the "netinstall" ISO.

Now, where are my glasses...?

*thump* Oww!

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#5 2009-12-16 16:51:09

shawnisalk
Member
Registered: 2009-12-16
Posts: 9

Re: Arch installation--unable to get past Select Source

Update:

I downloaded the ISO, again, and burned it at 4x. Still no dice.

Some things I've verified:
The 100Mb light on the pcmcia card is lit and has been from the beginning.

I verified that the pcmcia and pcmcia_core modules are loading, despite the message to the contrary.

I tried to start the package download process and it didn't work, of course, and got a "transient resolver failure"

Anymore thoughts/suggestions?

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#6 2009-12-16 18:28:38

bgc1954
Member
From: Edmonton, AB, Canada
Registered: 2006-03-14
Posts: 1,160

Re: Arch installation--unable to get past Select Source

I'm just guessing but I'd think that maybe you need another driver for that network card since even by old laptop has a pcmcia wireless card using pcmcia module, it still needs the b43 driver module to make it work and the onboard wired ethernet uses an intel e100 driver.  If you had a copy of some live cd media, like say Mepis or whatever you might get some information about the pcmcia network card using lspci to check the pci bus and lsmod to see what modules were loaded by the live cd.  There may be a way to do this with Arch live cd but I've never had to venture down that road so can't offer suggestions for that. smile 

So does the new iso find the source now and you can at least install it?  If so, you don't really need to have a working network to install the base packages and go from there for network setup.  And don't forget about the excellent Beginners Guide.


Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils ... - Louis Hector Berlioz

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#7 2009-12-17 06:32:58

shacristo
Member
Registered: 2009-12-17
Posts: 20

Re: Arch installation--unable to get past Select Source

Check to see if the card is recognized with:

ifconfig -a

If it shows up there make sure it is up by running as root:

ifconfig <dev> up

Once it's up use dhcpcd as root to configure it with:

dhcpcd <dev>

<dev> is the device name listed by ifconfig such as eth0 or wlan0.

If it doesn't show up in ifconfig at all it means you don't have the proper driver for it loaded. If you need to find the model for it you can get information on it with:

lspci | grep net

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#8 2009-12-17 06:45:10

shawnisalk
Member
Registered: 2009-12-16
Posts: 9

Re: Arch installation--unable to get past Select Source

bgc1954 wrote:

So does the new iso find the source now and you can at least install it?  If so, you don't really need to have a working network to install the base packages and go from there for network setup.  And don't forget about the excellent Beginners Guide.

Well, I'm not using a different ISO, just a redownloaded copy of the same one. I just didn't realize it was the netinstall ISO. But there is still no network conx, so I think the driver is not installed.

I'll check out shacristo's suggestions and repost. neutral

Last edited by shawnisalk (2009-12-17 06:45:33)

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#9 2009-12-18 06:58:21

shawnisalk
Member
Registered: 2009-12-16
Posts: 9

Re: Arch installation--unable to get past Select Source

Welp, ifconfig showed only the loopback interface, so I ran lspci | grep net and the result was nothing.

So, then I ran lspci without the pipe and found the device in the list

The line in the lspci output is:
CardBus bridge: 02 Micro, Inc. 0Z6832/6833 CardBus controller

The question now is, what do I do with that?

I'll see if I can figure it out, but if someone has a quick answer for me, I'd love it and them.

Thanks, again.

Shawn

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#10 2009-12-18 14:38:02

Gen2ly
Member
From: Sevierville, TN
Registered: 2009-03-06
Posts: 1,529
Website

Re: Arch installation--unable to get past Select Source

I think you might be dealing with a b43 network controller.  I'm not familiar with this driver, but have seen it posted here on a forum a few times and realize that it needs extra configuration to set it up.  How to do this from the LiveUSB/CD would take additional steps.  As bgc1954 talked about earlier, using another operating system to find out what it is would be the best place to start.  There's a wiki article on b43 here:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/B43#b43

For the details that this may require however, shawnisalk, Arch may not be the best place to start being still new to Linux.


Setting Up a Scripting Environment | Proud donor to wikipedia - link

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#11 2009-12-18 15:54:07

shawnisalk
Member
Registered: 2009-12-16
Posts: 9

Re: Arch installation--unable to get past Select Source

Hm...

Well, one point is that I found that the driver is included in 2.6.16 kernel. I admit I don't know which kernel is being used in the latest Arch, but doesn't it stand to reason that the driver is still there?

Regarding other distros...

I did have Debian installed on it, and it worked fine...just very slow. I've been looking for something lean to maximize performance.

I tried to install Damn Small Linux, but it did wonky things to the sound card on install and created a deafening screech smile
I tried Puppy, but I found it a confusing mess (perhaps I'll go back, though, now that I've had more time to play with Linux).

I'll look at the link you provided and see what I can make of it.

If Arch is not the 'droid I am looking for, can you recommend some other distro that's light and will run on an old Thinkpad (maxed out at 500MB RAM)?

Thanks for the feedback.

Shawn

Last edited by shawnisalk (2009-12-18 15:58:08)

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#12 2009-12-18 16:22:46

shawnisalk
Member
Registered: 2009-12-16
Posts: 9

Re: Arch installation--unable to get past Select Source

It also occurs to me I could use one of the Core ISO's and work on network conx afterwards.

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#13 2009-12-18 16:41:50

bgc1954
Member
From: Edmonton, AB, Canada
Registered: 2006-03-14
Posts: 1,160

Re: Arch installation--unable to get past Select Source

Well I think you might have some other issue with that pcmcia card as any of my lspci lines referring to a network device have either ethernet controller or Network controller in them.  I think your line only refers to the bridge device that your card plugs into.  Mine is a CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1450 on a thinkpad t21.  I might suggest using something like antiX which is a small download and uses fluxbox with Mepis and is generally quite good at finding network devices.  It is a livecd so you can try out the operating system on your thinkpad to see if it works and maybe investigate your hardware more thoroughly.  If you get some info from that I still think Arch is good for old hardware.


Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils ... - Louis Hector Berlioz

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#14 2009-12-18 16:47:20

shawnisalk
Member
Registered: 2009-12-16
Posts: 9

Re: Arch installation--unable to get past Select Source

*nods*

Thank you for the clarification on the CardBus bridge. I think I'm going to do a Core install and I'll check out antiX to see if I can get the pc card working.

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#15 2009-12-18 16:59:30

Lexion
Member
Registered: 2008-03-23
Posts: 510

Re: Arch installation--unable to get past Select Source

Sometimes you have to mount the installation media if /arch/setup doesn't do it automagically.  Look in the beginner's guide, it's in there somewhere.


urxvtc / wmii / zsh / configs / onebluecat.net
Arch will not hold your hand

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