Hi, Jim. A few responses mixed in below. I'm guessing a bit, since I don't
know the peculiarities of Mandrake, but mostly what you want to know is
fairly Linux generic, so the guesses should be good.
At 12:30 PM 5/30/00 -0400, S�amus Mag Uiginn wrote [in part]:
>> Maybe you didn't install the
>>kernel source?
>
>Maybe...
>
>> It is in the kernel-source rpm, also the kernel srpm in
>>the SRPMS dir at the top of the distro.
>
>Will install the rpm as I know where to find those on the CD :)
In practice, there probably isn't a "the" CD for Mandrake. The one I have
(came with an issue of Maximum Linux) doesn't seem to have a SRPMs
directory. Makdrake must provide some other way to get the source ...
perhaps downloads from an ftp site?
But kernel source is different from all other source, in that it invariably
(in my experience) is included with the distribution binaries, not with the
distribution source. On my Makdrake CD, there is a
"kernel-source-2.2.14...rpm" file in /Mandrake/Rpms/ (may have the
capitalization wrong). That's what you want.
...
>>I thought you set it to irq 5 with isapnp. If so, it is not going to
>>work if you let it default to irq3.
>
>I did, but then I went back and started over, using the setserial
>/dev/ttyS2 autoconfig command to see what it would come up with on its own.
I don't use "the setserial /dev/ttyS2 autoconfig command" (I'm nor even
exactly sure what it is) but it is unlikely that it actually probes for a
port. It probably just gets defaults from someplace or other and sets up the
device to use them. Since /dev/ttyS2 corresponds to DOS's COM3, you'll
probably get the standard COM3 values.
Important hint: a setserial probe of a device will ALWAYS return an irq and
io port, whether or not there is a real port there (as long as your kernel
has serial-device support running). But unless you have explicitly defined a
UART type for the device, a probe will return an actual UART type only if it
finds a real, physical port associated with that device's irq and IO base.
While there is no 100% certain way (that I know) to locate real serial ports
under Linux, this is as close to certain as Linux gets.
...
>
>1) Like I said, I downloaded the latest version of setserial in tar.gz
>format along with a couple files for the Riva TNT....driver and something
>for the kernel I think. They both end in tar.gz as well. I know that's a
>compressed format but how do I uncompress them and then install?
First, you are better off sticking with your distribution's packaging system
(.rpm) as much as you can. So I'd suggest you check the Mandrake Web site,
or a good mirror of the GPL part like
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/, to see if there is a updated
.rpm.
If not, you uncompress them (.tgz's) using gunzip and tar. Put the .tgz
someplace where unpacking it won't accidentally write over important files
(/home/someuser works, for example) and unpack with the command:
tar -xvzf filename.tgz
replacing "filename", of course, with the real name. (The -z flag invokes
gunzip BTW.)
cd into the top of the directory tree for what you unpacked and look for a
file called README or INSTALL. Tthere are sebveral basic ways to install
packages, and they do vary by package somewhat unpredictably, so no general
instructions are possible.
>2) I kind of feel like an idiot asking what are probably very basic
>questions so is there any book(s) that's considered a "must have" for
>someone trying to learn Linux..especially at the command prompt? I feel
>very lost when people suggest doing things if it's not exactly spelled out.
>Don't know if certain files need to be installed in certain directories, etc...
People disagree about this. Personally, I've never found a general-purpose
Linux book I've liked. Others speak well of the various Linux books
published by O'Reilly. Before you spend money, spend some time looking at
the resources at the Linux Documentation Project site
(http://www.linuxdoc.org) and see how helpful you find them to be.
>3) Concerning LILO....Considering that I have Linux on my 2nd hard drive,
>does this mean I have to use a boot floppy? Have booted without hte floppy
>but naturally it goes right to my C: prompt for starting Win98. Not clear
>on whether or not this is something I can change with a setting....In my
>head I'm thinking it's boot floppy or nothing as LILO boots from one of my
>Linux partitions. I don't have LILO in the MBR cause I wanted to keep it
>completely separate from Windows.
If you don't want to use a multiboot loader like LILO, you are stuck using a
boot floppy to get to Linux. If you are willing to use LILO to choose
between Linux and Win98 at boot time, there is a Multi-Boot HowTo (that's
not quite the right name, so look around) at the linuxdoc site I mentioned
above.
You also may be using the wrong kind of boot floppy. If your is slow, it
sounds like you have a floppy that boots a kernel, then mounts a hard disk
partition as the Linux root (/) filesystem. What you want is a boot floppy
that runs LILO to boot a kernel on the hard disk. I don't recall exactly how
to do this, and I don't even know for sure that Mandrake provides a way to
do it (it was common as a Slackware option 5 years ago). But you might check
what options Mandrake gives you for creating "rescue" disks.
>Sorta confused on MBR as well. Each hard disk should have an MBR, right? So
>technically I could have LILO boot from the MBR of the disk Linux is
>installed on but as that's the 2nd disk, I'd still need the floppy. So, I'm
>thinking if I want to avoid the floppy (which I'd love to do, it's so damn
>slow), I'd have to have LILO boot from the 1st hard disk (C: drive for
>Win), which I think is /dev/sda
Each hard disk does have an area for an MBR, but your BIOS (typically) can
read only the MBR on the first hard disk. At least this is true for IDE; if
your hard disks really are /dev/sd* devices, you have SCSI (IDEs are
/dev/hd*), and "first" may not be as clearly defined.
>Whew, I'm getting confused and frustrated. Should have stuck to my plan of
>putting Linux in it's own box. But the only thing lying around that I have
>is a 486DX4-100 and I can't run a GUI on it....which is why I came up with
>my present plan.
There is no "should". Not in general. You need to decide what is right for
you. What you want to do ought to work, but to make it work well (i.e., boot
quickly), you need to decide to use a multiboot loader (e.g., LILO) to
choose between Win98 and Linux.
(There is no intrinsic reason why a 486DX4-100 can't run a GUI, BTW -- does
yours suffer from memory limitations or odd video?)
------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo
Palo Alto, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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