----- Forwarded message begin ----- From: "Richard Jenkins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Hi there, I am experimenting with small distributions of linux with some success. However, one or two frustrations remain. If I outline them below, I would value your opinions ... either direct or via the group! No flames please! I am learning by doing! 1. I installed and configured a small distribution of linux called "Doslinux". Spread over seven disks it offered basic ppp/lynx access to the internet and would seem to be able to cope with my 'spare computer" - an old 386DX40 with 8 megs of ram. After installation I setup the program with an 8 meg swapfile. Using the instructions in the program I was able to successfully configure ppp and connect to my ISP. I was then able to use lynx to get what I wanted off the net. For those interested, the kernel version is 2.0.33, so the kernel is pretty up-to-date. My only beef is the time the machine takes to think about what it is going to do! After typing "ppp-go", the machine just sits there for fully three minutes! During that time there is only spasmodic activity from the HDD! Then I get the message about the ppp0 device and the program dials out normally. Has anyone got any ideas about how to speed up this program?? From other linux activity with this machine I have some (realistic) expectation about its speed. This extra delay is a pain in the b__kside! For this interested, I managed to get a version of xfree86 installed on this machine. I was able to run the same program ppp-go from within one of the shells ... and the time staken were similar. I don't think the problem is one of limited resources. Anyway after these two successes, I transferred my attention to the desktop machine! This was going to be easy!! 2. In attempting to setup the same program on this machine I hit a brick wall! After only a few lines, the following error message has appeared and the beast needs a <<reset>> to free up the CPU! The message is as follows... "unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address c 00004e0 current -->tss.cr3 = 00101000, %cr3 = 00101000" And then the page goes on and on... and freezes! Now this machine has a 586DX133 processor with 16 meg of RAM. Like the first machine it has an AMI bios ... and both machines have a single HDD which is partitioned into two. In the case of the 386, I have two drives of 300 and 200 meg ... making up a 540 meg HDD. In the case of the desktop, I have two 500 meg drives making up into a 1Gig HDD. (I tried to run the program on the first HDD in case it (linux) was protesting about the sectors over 1023 ... but it still gave me the same response.) One extra thing to puzzle over ... this machine has run a copy of linux taken off a cd-rom ... without the problem! Some linux distributions can manage on these larger HDD! Any help offered would be appreciated. Richard -- ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + Arachne - proving that smart software can still be written for DOS!! + ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + + + Richard Jenkins [EMAIL PROTECTED] + ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ------ Forwarded message end ------ -- ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + Arachne - proving that smart software can still be written for DOS!! + ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + + + Richard Jenkins [EMAIL PROTECTED] + ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-ppp" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
