Mailing List Archive

On 10/15/20 1:28 PM, Jude DaShiell wrote:
[snip...]
> I just found out efi variables are not available on my new system.
> portage is also upset.
> !!! Repository 'x-portage is missing masters attribute in
> '/usr/local/portage/metadata/layout.conf'
> !!! !!! Set 'masters = gentoo' in this file for future compatibility
>
> I don't know what to do to clear this error.

This sounds like two separate issues.  For the second, do exactly what
it says.  You need to edit /usr/local/portage/metadata/layout.conf to
say "masters = gentoo".  I don't remember doing this on my system, but I
do have an emacs backup of that file without the "gentoo" on that line,
so I obviously made the edit.  I wonder if that needs to be added to the
handbook.

On the other issue, what do you mean that efi variables are not
available?  Is the system purely BIOS?  That is certainly possible if it
is an older motherboard.  If the system does support UEFI, are you sure
it is set in the BIOS?

On 15/10/2020 17:31, Jack wrote:
> On 2020.10.15 00:03, Wols Lists wrote:
>> On 14/10/20 22:37, Jack wrote:
>>> Why do you need two graphics cards?  I've been driving two monitors
>>> off each of the last several graphics cards I've used - both nVidia
>>> and ATI, from simple PCI to PCIE needing the extra power connector.
>>
>> Because I'm not driving two monitors. I'm running a two-user system.
>> AIUI, each session needs its own graphics card (which could drive two
>> monitors for that user).
>>
> Now that would be an interesting project - a single instance of X, but
> split between two different users, each on a separate monitor.  I agree
> it's not feasible now, as xorg runs as the owning user.  I would expect
> Wayland has the same restriction.  Actually, I would find it interesting
> to have a separate session on each monitor just in plain text mode.
>
> Was the second graphics card you tried using also PCIE?  If so, I wonder
> if you might get it to work with a PCI card as the second graphics card.
>
I haven't done it yet, it's the new system I'm building. And it's going
to be an interesting experience :-)

But from everything I've found, it seems like there's no problem binding
one instance of X to one card/keyboard/mouse, and a different instance
to the other card/keyboard/mouse (or Wayland).

Cheers,
Wol

On Thu, Oct 15, 2020 at 01:28:52PM -0400, Jude DaShiell wrote

> I just found out efi variables are not available on my new system.
> portage is also upset.
> !!! Repository 'x-portage is missing masters attribute in
> '/usr/local/portage/metadata/layout.conf'
> !!! !!! Set 'masters = gentoo' in this file for future compatibility
>
> I don't know what to do to clear this error.

My /usr/local/portage/metadata/layout.conf is 2 lines...

masters = gentoo
auto-sync = false

From https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki//etc/portage/repos.conf

"auto-sync = false"

...means that your local repo does not sync when you run "emerge
--sync". This means if you have a local repo, you manually control when
it syncs. BTW, what would this have to do with efi variables?

--
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications

On Thu, 15 Oct 2020 13:48:01 -0400, Jack wrote:

> > I just found out efi variables are not available on my new system.
>
> On the other issue, what do you mean that efi variables are not
> available?  Is the system purely BIOS?  That is certainly possible if
> it is an older motherboard.  If the system does support UEFI, are you
> sure it is set in the BIOS?

You also need to have booted the live CD in UEFI mode for the variables to
be present.


--
Neil Bothwick

With free advice you often get what you pay for.

On Thu, 15 Oct 2020, Walter Dnes wrote:

> Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2020 14:00:36
> From: Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
> Reply-To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
> To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
> Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: tried desktop profile
>
> On Thu, Oct 15, 2020 at 01:28:52PM -0400, Jude DaShiell wrote
>
> > I just found out efi variables are not available on my new system.
> > portage is also upset.
> > !!! Repository 'x-portage is missing masters attribute in
> > '/usr/local/portage/metadata/layout.conf'
> > !!! !!! Set 'masters = gentoo' in this file for future compatibility
> >
> > I don't know what to do to clear this error.
>
> My /usr/local/portage/metadata/layout.conf is 2 lines...
>
> masters = gentoo
> auto-sync = false
>
> From https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki//etc/portage/repos.conf
>
> "auto-sync = false"
>
> ...means that your local repo does not sync when you run "emerge
> --sync". This means if you have a local repo, you manually control when
> it syncs. BTW, what would this have to do with efi variables?
>
The portage problem only came up close to when I found out the machine
hasn't got efi-variables.
>

--

On Thu, 15 Oct 2020, Jack wrote:

> Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2020 13:48:01
> From: Jack <ostroffjh@users.sourceforge.net>
> Reply-To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
> To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
> Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: tried desktop profile
>
> On 10/15/20 1:28 PM, Jude DaShiell wrote:
> [snip...]
> > I just found out efi variables are not available on my new system.
> > portage is also upset.
> > !!! Repository 'x-portage is missing masters attribute in
> > '/usr/local/portage/metadata/layout.conf'
> > !!! !!! Set 'masters = gentoo' in this file for future compatibility
> >
> > I don't know what to do to clear this error.
>
> This sounds like two separate issues.  For the second, do exactly what it
> says.  You need to edit /usr/local/portage/metadata/layout.conf to say
> "masters = gentoo".  I don't remember doing this on my system, but I do have
> an emacs backup of that file without the "gentoo" on that line, so I obviously
> made the edit.  I wonder if that needs to be added to the handbook.
>
> On the other issue, what do you mean that efi variables are not available?  Is
> the system purely BIOS?  That is certainly possible if it is an older
> motherboard.  If the system does support UEFI, are you sure it is set in the
> BIOS?
>
The uefi isn't set in the bios. I'm not about to alter bios since screen
readers don't talk when that's being done.
>
>

--

On 2020.10.15 15:19, Jude DaShiell wrote:
> On Thu, 15 Oct 2020, Jack wrote:
> > On 10/15/20 1:28 PM, Jude DaShiell wrote:
> > [snip...]
>>> I just found out efi variables are not available on my new system.
>>> portage is also upset. !!! Repository 'x-portage is missing masters
>>> attribute in '/usr/local/portage/metadata/layout.conf' !!! !!! Set
>>> 'masters = gentoo' in this file for future compatibility
> > >
> > > I don't know what to do to clear this error.
> >
>> This sounds like two separate issues.? For the second, do exactly
>> what it says.? You need to edit
>> /usr/local/portage/metadata/layout.conf to say "masters = gentoo".?
>> I don't remember doing this on my system, but I do have an emacs
>> backup of that file without the "gentoo" on that line, so I
>> obviously made the edit.? I wonder if that needs to be added to the
>> handbook.
> >
>> On the other issue, what do you mean that efi variables are not
>> available?? Is the system purely BIOS?? That is certainly possible
>> if it is an older motherboard.? If the system does support UEFI, are
>> you sure it is set in the BIOS?
> >
> The uefi isn't set in the bios. I'm not about to alter bios since
> screen readers don't talk when that's being done.

I think you have two choices here. It seems your motherboard is
capable of booting in either UEFI or BIOS mode, but the default (or at
least current) setting is BIOS. You can have someone sighted enter the
BIOS setup for you and switch it to UEFI mode, or you can just stick
with BIOS mode. In some sense, that's actually simpler, since you
don't need an ESP/EFI partition. If your disk is formatted with an MBR
partitioning scheme (max four partitions, although one can be extended)
you will have no problem. However, and I have no experience here,
although some systems can boot in BIOS mode to a GPT partitioned disk,
there may be extra hoops to jump through. I'm sure others will chime
in with additional information.

Note that if you stick with BIOS booting, then you won't have any efi
variables, but in that case, you shouldn't need them.

Jack

On Thu, 15 Oct 2020 16:07:50 -0400, Jack wrote:

> In some sense, that's actually simpler, since you
> don't need an ESP/EFI partition.

Not really an issue if you use a separate /boot as the same partition
does for both.

> If your disk is formatted with an MBR
> partitioning scheme (max four partitions, although one can be extended)
> you will have no problem. However, and I have no experience here,
> although some systems can boot in BIOS mode to a GPT partitioned disk,
> there may be extra hoops to jump through. I'm sure others will chime
> in with additional information.

You can boot a non-UEFI system from a GPT partitioned disk, you just need
to add a small compatibility partition at the start of the disk, like this

GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.4

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.

Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name
1 2048 4095 1024.0 KiB EF02 BIOS boot partition
2 4096 2101247 1024.0 MiB 8300 boot0
3 2101248 5852145663 2.7 TiB BF01 sundiver0
4 5852145664 5860533134 4.0 GiB 8200 swap0


--
Neil Bothwick

The sooner you fall behind the more time you'll have to catch up.

On 15/10/2020 21:07, Jack wrote:
> However, and I have no experience here, although some systems can boot
> in BIOS mode to a GPT partitioned disk, there may be extra hoops to jump
> through.  I'm sure others will chime in with additional information.

I don't think my current system has EFI, and it boots quite happily from
a GPT-formatted 3TB disk. In case it matters, however, the last 2TB are
my /home partition, so everything else - /, swap, grub etc are all in
the first TB.

Bear in mind that, in BIOS mode, grub installs itself in the "empty"
first 2048 sectors.

Cheers,
Wol