Re: [aclug-L] New Linux - !!!Status Update!!!

[Bob Deep <bobd@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Carl B. Davis wrote:
> 
> I'm the guy with the Pentium 133 and Redhat 5.1.  BTW, I'm kind of
> ticked that I bought 5.1 about a week and a half before 5.2 was
> available, but whatever.

Yea... Sorta like buying last year's car at this year's price.  But
don't worry, you can download any updates you need for free... Do that
until you need more stuff than you have time to download, then grab the
latest update...

> I'm trying to set up this system as a file server for my small office
> lan.  I got Linux successfully installed after working through a number
> of problems and replacing, in this order; the hard drive, the mother
> board, the case with power supply and the CDRom player.  Ha!!! .  That's
> three trips to National Computer Warehouse and two to Prologic.

??  Where all those parts really bad ??  Does not seem likely that all
the effort was necessary... Unless of course you had some catascrophic
power supply problem that wiped the rest out. (Say it put 12 volts on
the +5 volt line or something...)  Any other type of problem should be
isolated to one component...Not multiple ones like you describe.

> After replacing virtually all the components in the system, I got Linux
> installed and running  basically the way I want after four tries.  

4 times is not bad, you must learn very quicly... It took me about 6 or
so installs of slackware and Red Hat before I could install a networked
system with X the first time. (And I'm an professional unix user..)

> I have tried the RPMS, but it
> seems to have trouble mounting my CDRom.  If I mount it before starting
> XWindows, it will work, but it won't let me change disks during
> sessions, and a couple times it seemed to just sort of forgot where it
> was, then I got a message that it couldn't mount it.

Hmmm.. "tried the RPMS?" Not sure what you are talking about. What you
describe seems to be a problem with the Kernel not having (or being able
to find) support for the CD file system which is a problem with Red Hat
5.1 as it comes out of the box.  It should not be related to having X
running or not though...  Just to be safe... Be sure you both mount and
umount the cdrom... "mount /mnt/cdrom" after you insert it but before
you use it, and "umount /mnt/cdrom" before you remove it from the
drive.  I do this by hand in an xterm...  Is that what you are doing?

> So far I don't much care for the editors that are available.  I tried
> Vi-m, but I never could figure out how to actually input any text, and
> save my work.  I did use the X-windows edit application, but after I
> changed the virtual desktop size, I can't get to the top to make any
> changes or load a file.  It has scrolled off the screen.  I was
> expecting to find Joe, but despite what the documents say, I don't think
> it was loaded from the disk.  I never found Jed either. I have for years
> used the old Dos Sidekick editor.  I wish there was something like that.

If you like Joe, make sure you have the package installed.. Then to find
the executable (which may not show up in your menu of applications) run
the command "find / -name joe".  This command will print out all the
files/directries named "joe".

Vi of course, would work fine.  It just has a user interface that you
have to know in advance... Like "i" to open the insert mode and "esc" to
close, then "d<space>" to delete, being careful not to hit "dd" or the
whole line disappears...  Then to save your file... Hitting ":s<return"
or to save and quit ":sq", or my most used, Quit but don't save ":q!"
command.

I sudgest X-emacs, but hey, I'm a die-hard progrmmer who loves over
doing it.

> The big problem I face now is what to do with my network card.  This
> system has to be on the network, but the auto probe during install
> didn't find the installed PCI adapter.  I cancelled network
> configuration at that point.  The adapter is an PCI SN3200 that I bought
> at Prologic.  It's supposed to be, I think, NE 2000 compatible.  I use
> these cards in my other machines without any problems, but of course
> they are all running windows.  I have scrolled through some FAQ's about
> configuring NE2000 clones, and they seem fairly optimistic, but I
> remember seeing one post here that advised that it is just better to
> pony out the old credit card and buy one of the specifically supported
> adapters.

See the applicable "HOW-TO" about networking...  My guess, is that if it
is a NE2000 compatible, it's also a PNP card and you will have to do
some work to get it set up... I'll see if I can find any info on that
specific card...

> I'm leaning toward the new adapter.  If I do that , is there a
> configuration utility that I can run short of reinstalling the system
> from scratch.

Well, no need to re-install now, unless you want too.  We can add on the
various peices you may need one at a time.  The rest should be easily
set up as soon as we can figure out how to talk to your specific card. 
If you want to go for a card that Red Hat supports by default, It's your
money and time at stake.  It's easier with an older name brand card and
may take less time, so it's a guess what's the cheapest solution at this
point.

Keep at it... The learning curve gets easier to climb as you go
higher...

-= Bob =-
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