Well I hope I can be of some help, so here it goes...
Quoting Pat Roche <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> Thanks very much, guys, for your helpful and encouraging responses.
>
> In reply to your questions, I want to use Linux for ADSL Internet access
> (cable Internet is extremely unreliable in my building), word processing and
> some simple
> spreadsheets. This is for personal use and also work I occasionally take
home
> on nights and weekends.
Not a problem, RedHat comes with the tools to do all of this, as I sure you
have already discovered.
> I did get Red Hat operational enough to evaluate OpenOffice and I found it
> quite adequate for my purposes. I also was able to evaluate Evolution for
> everything but
> e-mail, and liked it, too. I already use Opera and Mozilla in Windows, so I
> have no doubts about the apps. I found the overall Red Hat GUI very
> convenient and easy
> to use. The installation wizard was also extremely user friendly. Where Red
> Hat worked, I much preferred it to any version of Windows of the Mac.
Yes, OpenOffice and Evolution rock! So does Gnome and Mozilla ;-)
> But I was unable to get it working fully.
>
> To make a long story short, problems began with hard drive partitioning. I
> read that you need a commercial program like PartitionMagic for XP because
of
> the NTFS
> file system, so I shelled out $100 for PartitionMagic. But when I got into
> it, I found that it also has problems with NTFS. Anyway, after I installed
> PartitionMagic/BootMagic, my CD-ROM was nowhere to be found on XP. Also, the
> physical CD drawer wouldn't work.
Well that sounds more like a problem with Windows XP and Partition Magic
rather than RedHat.
> Anyway, I eventually lost my temper with XP and PartitionMagic -- and
checked
> "Remove All Partitions On This System" during the Red Hat 8 install. (And
now
> the
> computer won't boot from a Windows CD; only Linux.)
Make sure that BootMagic is gone from your MBR. You should be using Grub now
to boot into Linux. However the computer should boot from the CD-ROM before
loading the bootloader. To do this go into your bios (usually by pressing F2
or Del at the initial Dell screen) and select CD-ROM as your primary boot
media (just make sure it will be used before you boot with your hard drive).
The best idea would be to get rid of all the partitions on your drive again
and create a FAT32 partition (here's where Partition Magic will come in
handy). Make sure that the partition only takes up part of your drive so that
RedHat will have some free space to install into. Also make sure that the
blank space is large enough to fit your RedHat install. Windows XP SHOULD
install fine on a FAT32 partition (don't quote me on that because I have never
done it, but I know that at least some versions of XP will install on FAT32).
If not you can always install Win98/ME.
Once Windows is installed then install RedHat and make sure to tell the
installer to install into the free space.
> Here are the major problems I encountered when I installed and reinstalled
> Red Hat 8:
>
> (1) It crashed after each installation. Initially, the desktop was mostly
> blank (black) except for a half dozen blank white rectangles. After
rebooting
> once or twice (after
> each installation) I got a partly functional desktop. However, many of the
> fonts were a mess, particularly on an area about halfway down to about
> three-quarters of the
> way down the screen.
My guess is that it is crashing before it is done installing everying, which
would explain why you are having so many problems. Can you give us more
details about the crash? Here's a tip: when the installer does crash try
pressing Ctrl-Alt-F1 and then Ctrl-Alt-F1 and so on and so on. It should take
you to different screens that can give you some hints as to why it failing.
Get this information and then post it to the list.
It could also be bad CDs or a problem that RedHat has with your hardware. You
may want to try another distro. if you are unsuccessful with RedHat.
> (2) Everything seemed to be twice the size it should be -- the taskbar, the
> desktop icons, various windows. Some of the dialog boxes were so big I
> couldn't use them
> because the bottom portion (with the buttons I needed) was tucked under the
> taskbar and I couldn't resize them enough to get access.
Again it is probably due to the installer crashing, but pay extra attention to
the X setup phase of the install. Make sure you have it set to a reasonable
resolution like 1024x768. Play with the settings during the install as it is
always nice not to have to mess around once the install is done.
> (3) I have no idea how to configure the D-Link modem I'm using with DSL.
(The
> command-line instructions (no less!) in the Red Hat For Dummies book are for
> other
> modem models and didn't work, but I don't have a clue about using the
command
> line, which didn't help.)
Again this should be setup during the install. If it still doesn't work when
your system is up and running, go through the RedHat menu. I don't have a RH
system in front of me, but I know then have nice graphical tools for
configuring the network. It would also help to know who your ISP is. If you
are using Telus, make sure that you have PPPoE turned off (at least my service
doesn't use it), you can supply it with your telus username and password, the
service name is telus.net, turn connect on demand on, make sure it is set to
obtain it IP address automatically, the Primary DNS is 216.123.198.243 and the
secondary DNS is 209.115.152.130 If you have a working Windows install you
should be able to get all your settings from there.
> (4) I couldn't get any sound when I put in a music CD.
It may be another problem from a faulty install, but... See if you can play
MP3's so as to rule out a problem with you CDROM. Also can it read data CD's?
Find out what type of sound card you have (it should be in the Dell
documentation) and do a search on Google to see if there are any issues with
your card and Linux. You can also open up a shell and type dmesg at the
command line. This will give you a list of the kernel output when it is loaded
at boot time. You should be able to find where it tried to load your sound
card, and see if there were any errors. Also, I know that RedHat comes with
it's own sound configuration utility. I cannot remember the name, but check
the documentation for it. This should help you configure sound. One other
thing to try is to go into the Gnome sound control pannel and make sure that
the sound server is turned on. Then logout and log back in to try again. If
everything seems fine, check your mixer settings to make sure that it is
playing from the correct source.
> Hardware: a 2 GHz Dell Dimension 2350 with 512 MB RAM and a 60 GB hard
drive.
> The monitor, which I got with my old computer, is a 15-inch Daewoo CMC-
> 1502B1, which the Linux installer correctly detected. As for inside the
case,
> I';m not sure. Dell didn't provide such detailed documentation.
>
> I want the dual boot so I'll have an OS to fall back on when Windows
crashes.
> But I read something on the Net tonight about Red Hat 8 not supporting NTFS.
> Would
> I be better off using another version of Windows (for dual-boot purposes)?
RedHat should read NTFS, but probably won't write to it, so if you need to
copy stuff from Linux to Windows then you should install Windows onto a FAT32
partition.
> Sorry for being so long-winded and so short on technical detail. (But
therein
> lies my problem, I guess.)
I'm sorry too :-)
Hope that helps,
Jesse
