On Fri, 17 Mar 2006 21:20, Bolero wrote: > Hello Everybody, > > I resend this email in text mode since somebody complaint about the > first HTML version, which apparently could only be read in text mode > incl. all formatting characters etc., additionally apparently loading > your server unnecessarily due to HTML mode. > > I am new to Linux (RH C4) and after some weeks of stuffing around to get > even the basics working, I am asking for help.
My advice is to ditch Red Hat. When it works, it works like anything that works. When it doesn't, it is too arcane to figure out and fix what isn't working. Red Hat, for example, doesn't follow the common Linux approach of accepting kernel updates as a way to fix bugs, which is half of why kernels get updated. Instead Red Hat back patches the kernel they shipped, so their software is only compatible with itself. Other aspects of their setup are specific only to Red Hat. This make it a pain to work through problems, as many of the details are known only to Red Hat experts. I know everyone using Red Hat will scream, but I've gone from SuSE, through two versions of Red Hat, to Debian, and now Gentoo (I hack to fix things the way I want, so I choose a distro that's designed for hacking - Gentoo might not be best for beginners.) Try Ubuntu or Kubuntu. They are specifically aimed at newcomers, and work very well out of the box. You could get the livecd via your Windows connection, and try it on your hardware to see how well it does. As well, Knoppix also will let you try your hardware out before installing. I set up the Red Hat Enterprise Servers at work, and built our software installation package for them (not properly - management wasn't interested in spending the time unfortunately). One thing I found was that if I didn't install mySQL at first, it couldn't be added later. Only after several years during which the term "rpm hell" was coined did Red Hat get around to coming up with a different package management tool -"yum" to make up for failures in their initial approach. If the rpm system worked, there would have been no reason to create yum. > Problem 1 – ADSL Connection > > The installation program does not ask me to setup my network connection, > which I tried under ‘Setup Internet Connection’ as well as ‘Network’. > My modem is not listed and that’s were the trouble starts. > > Somebody advised that I should setup the connection using DHCP instead > of PPPoA DHCP is Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. It is a message passing standard so that two network devices can talk to each other - one requesting and the other granting a network IP address. DHCP will do nothing to negotiate the ADSL connection to your provider. If you have a combination DSL modem AND DHCP server, then your computer would connect to that and use DHCP to negotiate it's connection TO THE MODEM/DHCP SERVER - but the computer in that case has no knowledge of or involvement in the DSL connection. The connection to your ISP is DSL. You write that the modem has both USB & ethernet connections - does the modem documentation say it can provide a DHCP server? If it only has the one ethernet connector, then it can only provide that service for one computer anyway (without you doing some fairly arcane work setting up bridging, etc., which is definitely not newbie territory). To share a single Internet connection among several computers, you have to have a router somewhere in the chain to aggregate the connections and translate the addresses. If the device you have has only one ethernet connection, it's very unlikely it's a router. My router itself can use my modem (two distinct devices here) to set up a DSL connection. However, if I connect the modem directly to my computer, either by USB or ethernet, my computer must use PPPoE (or variant) to drive the connection. So, does your device have more than one ethernet connector? Forget the USB stuff - that's a single dedicated connection - only if it has more than one ethernet connector might it be a router, in which case the DHCP stuff, etc. might come into play. > Problem 2 – Monitor Resolution > The only resolution that works is the monitor’s native one, i.e. 1280x1024. How important is it to you to switch resolutions? You don't get text the way you like it by switching resolutions - you set up the DisplaySize variable and then pick your fonts the way you like them. You might have other reasons to switch resolutions, but I'll suggest that's the wrong approach to take to fix fonts you don't like. Higher resolution means the fonts can be rendered with more pixels, making them smoother. Getting the right size is best approached differently. So, do you know that you have some other reason to switch resolutions, or do you simply want to make your fonts the way you want? We must give different advice for the different cases. > Problem 3 – Audio Get a live CD for Ubuntu or Knoppix and try booting on it. That is the best indicator of whether your audio can be made to work in GNU/Linux. I really wouldn't recommend Red Hat for a newbie. When it works, it works, but when it doesn't, too much is customised the "Red Hat way" for a newbie to work out. The knowledge you gain along the way really locks you into Red Hat. > Should I download and install the individual drivers in Windows? Will > my Windows OS still work? What chance is there that the Linux RH > problems I have will be fixed? Unless Red Hat reaches over and tries to load files from Windows to use, or Windows reaches into Red Hat's partitions to do the same (unlikely - Windows can't even read ext3 file systems) they have nothing to do with each other. Nothing. > Somehow I am a bit weary, Stanton Finleys installation notes in the > beginning point out that the installation of Linux is easy and can be > done by everyone; however there are apparently 45 pages of installation > notes needed to get the job done! > > Sorry, I am to say the least a bit frustrated and would appreciate some > help. Ditch Red Hat. Too many things about the distro are specialised to be Red Hat only - the knowledge doesn't transfer. Back patching kernels is especially a lock-in to Red Hat. When you are more of a Linux mechanic, you can try again if you like. But you won't get there without a working Linux install. And if it worked for you, it would be great. But it doesn't. Try Knoppix or Ubuntu (I use and recommend Kubuntu - which is Ubuntu with a default KDE desktop). Regards, Bret
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