My Unofficial Guide to a Stable System World Update

[Fitzcarraldo]

So we rebooted, prayed and we made it back to our Desktop!! So now, I like all the multimedia features the web has to offer, so I want to experience it all, so I open up my konsole again and punch in:

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USE="gtk quicktime divx gmedia realmedia wmp win32codecs nsplugin firefox xvid" emerge mplayerplug-in

Yes, I know you can add this to your package.use file, but this is my guide and you should add it to your /etc/portage/package.use file for future use. Now I can sit back and view all the goodness of web multimedia!

wolfden, a couple of quick questions for you:

1) Shouldn't the USE flag be 'nsplugin' (singular), rather than 'nsplugins' (plural)?:

http://gentoo-portage.com/USE
http://www.gentoo.org/dyn/use-index.xml#doc_chap1

2) The USE flags 'firefox', 'xvid' and 'nsplugin' are already declared in /etc/make.conf in SL 3.4f, so is it necessary to add them to the local list if one uses USE as an environment variable to compile a package in the way you have shown above?

Thanks.

[wolfden]

when in doubt always use the emerge -pv package to see what flags are being built

as declared in the beginning, typos are my fault
have to get them fixed

[vangelis]

Just so that I am not aimlessly re-emerging everything back and forth, by "stable system world update" do we really mean that we revert from ~arch to the arch in the make.conf file? Or is it just figurative.
I did the ~arch first with some roadblocks, and then I tried the arch and everything got significantly downgraded.

I have a Turion64 laptop, hence AMD64 arch. I am using 3.4f Mini for installation, and right now I am just experimenting so that I can improve my skills and perfect the method before I can start using the system. Also I want to switch from KDE to Gnome.

Anyway, I need some guidance on this issue.

Thanks,

Vangelis

[xt600]

Just so that I am not aimlessly re-emerging everything back and forth, by "stable system world update" do we really mean that we revert from ~arch to the arch in the make.conf file? Or is it just figurative.
I did the ~arch first with some roadblocks, and then I tried the arch and everything got significantly downgraded.

I have a Turion64 laptop, hence AMD64 arch. I am using 3.4f Mini for installation, and right now I am just experimenting so that I can improve my skills and perfect the method before I can start using the system. Also I want to switch from KDE to Gnome.

Anyway, I need some guidance on this issue.

Thanks,

Vangelis

This article may help you. I used it and it helped me.
http://wiki.sabayonlinux.org/index.php? ... e_Packages

[Fitzcarraldo]

After eight or nine months using SL and updating many packages individually on a regular basis, I thought it was about time I tried wolfden's HowTo in this thread. I have reached the emerge -upN --world step and am getting the following error messages for every package that I try to emerge (nearly 50 packages in total need to be emerged):

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ACCESS DENIED  open_wr:   /etc/group
portage initialization: your system doesn't have a 'wheel' group.
Please fix this as it is a normal system requirement. 'wheel' is GID 10
`emerge baselayout` and a config update with dispatch-conf, etc-update
or cfg-update should remedy this problem.
ACCESS DENIED  open_wr:   /etc/passwd

portage: 'portage' user or group missing. Please update baselayout
         and merge portage user(250) and group(250) into your passwd
         and group files. Non-root compilation is disabled until then.
         Also note that non-root/wheel users will need to be added to
         the portage group to do portage commands.

         For the defaults, line 1 goes into passwd, and 2 into group.
         portage:x:250:250:portage:/var/tmp/portage:/bin/false
         portage::250:portage

*** WARNING ***  For security reasons, only system administrators should be
*** WARNING ***  allowed in the portage group.  Untrusted users or processes
*** WARNING ***  can potentially exploit the portage group for attacks such as
*** WARNING ***  local privilege escalation.

ACCESS DENIED  chown:     /var/cache/edb/dep
emerge: wheel group use is being deprecated. Please update group and passwd to
        include the portage user as noted above, and then use group portage.
ACCESS DENIED  open_wr:   /var/log/emerge.log
emergelog(): [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/log/emerge.log'
ACCESS DENIED  open_wr:   /var/log/emerge.log
emergelog(): [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/log/emerge.log'
Calculating dependencies |ACCESS DENIED  open_wr:   /var/cache/edb/vdb_blockers.pickle.13970
... done!
ACCESS DENIED  chown:     /var/lib/portage
Permission denied: 'chown('/var/lib/portage', -1, 0)'
ACCESS DENIED  open_wr:   /var/log/emerge.log
emergelog(): [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/log/emerge.log'

I cannot update baselayout (I have 1.12.10-r5 installed and higher versions are masked).

I have tried using groupadd but get the following error message:

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# groupadd -g 250 portage
ACCESS DENIED  open_wr:   /etc/passwd
groupadd: PAM authentication failed

I have looked at the Fix For Pam thread and applied the fixes (correctly, I hope), but still get the same error message.

Also, i'm not sure of the precise useradd command that I need to use.

I would be grateful for advice on how to tackle this one, as I'm reluctant to turn my laptop off in case it won't reboot! Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I tried re-emerging the existing version of baselayout-1.12.10-r5 and now I get:

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# groupadd -g 250 portage
groupadd: group portage exists

but I still have the problem of not being able to access /etc/passwd when I try and emerge packages: an ACCESS VIOLATION SUMMARY is displayed, for example:

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---------------------------------------- ACCESS VIOLATION SUMMARY ----------------------------------------
LOG FILE = "/var/log/sandbox/sandbox-sys-fs_-_udftools-1.0.0b-r7-19026.log"

open_wr:     /etc/passwd
open_wr:     /etc/passwd
open_wr:     /etc/passwd
open_wr:     /etc/passwd
open_wr:     /etc/group
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#

Unfortunately there has just been a power cut and my laptop's battery ran out during the power outage (damn!) so I've had no choice but to boot up after the mains power was restored. Now SL starts to boot (I see the new splash screen) but then I'm presented with a 'classic' X-Windows prompt and the message "This is an unsecured session" (or something similar) and I can log in to only a 'classic' X-Windows grey desktop. I've managed to launch Firefox, which is how I'm typing this now. Any advice on how I can rescue my installation? Many thanks.

[wolfden]

wow, must be updating an older version???

I wouldn't recommend a world update at present state. Since 3.4, so many changes to portage and major changes too. I've never ran across your error before in doing world updates.

have you updated your config files? etc-update ?

does id show you part of portage group?

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id username

if not -->

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 useradd -g portage username

Running the following pulls nothing?
grep pam_timestamp /etc/pam.d/*
grep pam_radius /etc/pam.d/*
grep pam_pwdb /etc/pam.d/*

[Fitzcarraldo]

Yes, because 3.4f was so unstable on my laptop I reverted to 3.4 Loop 2b a while ago and had emerged almost everything on it up to latest versions, including GNOME and KDE. Even got the latest ATI driver working with Compiz Fusion and AIGLX.

I did etc-update and was careful not to overwrite anything that I had edited. I actually compared every config file with the ._cfg0000_ version to make sure overwriting would not screw anything up.

id <username> shows me correctly as uid=1000. (How does one cut and paste in classic X-Windows?)

I had done already the grep's for PAM you mention, and they returned nothing. I also did a grep for pam_stack and had to fix /etc/pam.d/gmdconfig.
grep pam_stack also threw up /etc/pam.d/samba but only a comment in it to the effect that someone had made the change already.

Out of curiosity, really, I have tried using FEATURES=-sandbox emerge <package> on a few of the list returned by emerge -upN --world and some actually emerged (aspell, for example).

What permissions should /etc/passwd have? I wondered whether these had been changed by something, so I also have just done a chmod 644 /etc/passwd as root.

Would it be possible for you to post your /etc/pam.d/gmdconfig and /etc/pam.d/samba so I can compare them with mine? I'd post mine, but I can't seem to cut and paste.

There are only forty-four packages in the list returned by emerge -upN --world so it seems a pity not to try and get my SL installation up and running so that I can complete the process.

Any other ideas? Thanks.

EDIT: Don't know whether it's relevant or not, but the portage entry in /etc/passwd is:

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portage:x:250:250:portage:/var/tmp/portage:/bin/false

and the portage entry in /etc/group is:

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portage:x:250:portage,<my username>

[Fitzcarraldo]

BTW, I also found that many of the packages in the list thrown up by emerge -upN --world displayed the following error message when I tried to emerge them:

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could not find usable .config in kernel source directory. Please ensure that /usr/src/linux points to a configured set of Linux sources.

Notice the dot in front of "config". So I will do a zcat /proc/config.gz > /usr/src/.config and try again to emerge the packages that produced the above error message when I tried to emerge them earlier. I'm just running a revdep-rebuild now, as I was told in a build message to do so after doing FEATURES=-sandbox emerge com_err (com_err was one of the entries in the list produced by emerge -upN --world).

In your first post, you wrote "/usr/src/config" (i.e. without a dot in front of "config"). Would it be better to change all occurrences of "/usr/src/config" in your first post to "/usr/src/.config" (i.e. with the dot)? This would presumably not affect the building of the kernel (genkernel) and would hopefully get rid of the above-mentioned error message (I will find out in due course!).

EDIT: Nope, still gives the same error message. Hmm... maybe that should be zcat /proc/config.gz > /usr/src/linux/.config? I'll give that a try.

[wolfden]

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zcat /proc/config.gz > /usr/src/config

is ment for compiling the kernel, you use genkernel to point to the config file and afterwards you should have one in the linux directory

wolfden@wolfden /etc/pam.d $ nopaste /etc/pam.d/gdmconfig
http://rafb.net/p/sdBYTc62.html

wolfden@wolfden /etc/pam.d $ nopaste /etc/pam.d/samba
http://rafb.net/p/ywtAH495.html

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zcat /proc/config.gz > /usr/src/linux/.config

should work


yikes on upgrading an old release, sounds like your getting it tho

[Fitzcarraldo]

Thanks for your reply. OK, this is the current situation:

I have a file /usr/src/config, created using the zcat command in your HowTo before I executed the genkernel command in your HowTo, with the following contents:

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#
# Automatically generated make config: don't edit
# Linux kernel version: 2.6.21-sabayon-r2
# Wed May 16 14:10:19 2007
#
CONFIG_X86_64=y
CONFIG_64BIT=y
CONFIG_X86=y
and so on and so on

I have a file /usr/src/.config, created as discussed in my previous post, with the following contents:

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#
# Automatically generated make config: don't edit
# Linux kernel version: 2.6.21-sabayon-r2
# Wed May 16 14:10:19 2007
#
CONFIG_X86_64=y
CONFIG_64BIT=y
CONFIG_X86=y
and so on and so on

I have a file /usr/src/linux/.config, created after my previous post, with the following contents:

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#
# Automatically generated make config: don't edit
# Linux kernel version: 2.6.23-sabayon-r1
# Tue Nov  6 18:21:17 2007
#
CONFIG_X86_64=y
CONFIG_64BIT=y
CONFIG_X86=y
and so on and so on

where /usr/src/linux/ is actually a symlink to /usr/src/linux-2.6.23-sabayon-r1/

There are two directories in /usr/src/:

linux-2.6.21-sabayon-r2 <-- This one is SL x86-64 3.4 Loop 2b
linux-2.6.23-sabayon-r1

and grub.conf contains the following:

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# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,2)
#          kernel /kernel-genkernel real_root=UUID=32fd8420-920a-4222-ad95-b8d4d83bcd2c
#          initrd /initramfs-genkernel
#boot=sda3
default=0
timeout=6
splashimage=(hd0,2)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
password --md5 $1$eÑÈoZógk$4WP09eefhuIef0Ab/trkb.
title=Sabayon Linux (2.6.23-sabayon-r1)
   root (hd0,2)
   kernel /kernel-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.23-sabayon-r1  root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk=8192

real_root=UUID=32fd8420-920a-4222-ad95-b8d4d83bcd2c  quiet  init=/linuxrc

splash=silent,theme:sabayon vga=791 CONSOLE=/dev/tty1 dodmraid pci=nomsi
   initrd /initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.23-sabayon-r1
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,2)
#          kernel /kernel-genkernel real_root=UUID=32fd8420-920a-4222-ad95-b8d4d83bcd2c
#          initrd /initramfs-genkernel
#boot=sda3
title Sabayon Linux x86-64 3.4 Standard Edition
   root (hd0,2)
   kernel /kernel-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.21-sabayon-r2  root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk=8192

real_root=UUID=32fd8420-920a-4222-ad95-b8d4d83bcd2c  quiet  init=/linuxrc

splash=silent,theme:sabayon vga=791 CONSOLE=/dev/tty1 dodmraid pci=nomsi
   initrd /initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.21-sabayon-r2
title WinXP
   rootnoverify (hd0,1)
   chainloader +1

Today I have not been able to open a window in the classic X-Windows desktop that appears when I boot up (and which displays "This is an unsecured session" at the login prompt), so I have either booted into Windows XP to look at these things using explore2fs or used Ctrl-Alt-F1 to get to a command prompt from the X-Desktop.

I compared my /etc/pam.d/gdmconfig with yours and the only difference is that the libraries have a path:

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#%PAM-1.0
auth       sufficient   /lib/security/pam_rootok.so
auth       include   system-auth
session    required     /lib/security/pam_permit.so
session    optional     /lib/security/pam_xauth.so
account    required     /lib/security/pam_permit.so

"/lib/security/" was not added by me, that's the way the file was. As I mentioned previously, I made the edit for "system-auth" in accordance with the Gentoo PAM Guide. My /etc/pam.d/samba is identical to yours.

Of the 48 packages that were left for me to emerge, copying the .config file (for Linux kernel version: 2.6.23-sabayon-r1) into /usr/src/linux/ enabled me to emerge several more packages, and the use of FEATURES=-sandbox enabled me to emerge several more of the remainder. Without using FEATURES=-sandbox I still get the access violation summary messages for /etc/passwd (see one of my previous posts).

I am now left with the following list when I enter emerge -upN --world:

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These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating world dependencies  .... done!
[ebuild     U ] sys-fs/udftools-1.0.0b-r7 [1.0.0b-r6]
[ebuild   R   ] app-misc/sabayon-version-3.4-r2  USE="-x86_64_release*"
[ebuild     U ] dev-dotnet/evolution-sharp-0.12.4 [0.12.0]
[ebuild     U ] media-plugins/gst-plugins-farsight-0.12.5 [0.10.2]
[ebuild     U ] net-misc/vnc-4.1.2-r5 [4.1.2-r2]
[ebuild     U ] net-wireless/linux-wlan-ng-modules-0.2.8 [0.2.7]
[ebuild     U ] media-gfx/splashutils-1.5.2.1 [1.4.1]

Actually, app-misc/sabayon-version-3.4-r2 does emerge, but stays in the above list. I emerge it by doing:

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USE="x86_64_release" emerge =sabayon-version-3.4-r2

The USE flag is correct as I have looked in the ebuild for that package.

uname -r returns "2.6.21-sabayon-r2" if I selected "Sabayon Linux x86-64 3.4 Standard Edition" from the GRUB menu at boot up.

uname -r returns "2.6.23-r1" if I selected "Sabayon Linux (2.6.23-sabayon-r1)" from the GRUB menu at boot up.

Booting of "Sabayon Linux (2.6.23-sabayon-r1)" is noticeably slower than booting of "Sabayon Linux x86-64 3.4 Standard Edition": in verbose mode I see the message "Activating mdev" displayed and nothing else for several seconds before the boot process continues.

So, in summary,

a) I cannot boot into an SL desktop
b) I cannot emerge most packages without using FEATURES=-sandbox, or I get an error message about not being able to access /etc/passwd
c) If I select either "Sabayon Linux (2.6.23-sabayon-r1)" or "Sabayon Linux x86-64 3.4 Standard Edition" from the GRUB menu at boot I am presented with the classic grey X-Windows login box prompting me for a username and password and stating "This is an unsecured session".
d) Once I have logged in I cannot open a window (client) on the empty grey X-Windows desktop.
e) I cannot emerge the seven packages listed above.

Am I flogging a dead horse? Should I throw in the towel, or do you think it is possible to salvage the installation? Any further advice gratefully received!