About To Install Linux

[shn]

Originally posted by hey_suburbia@28 January 2004 - 20:30
I decided to go with :
680845312 MandrakeLinux-10.0-beta1-CD1.i586.iso
681529344 MandrakeLinux-10.0-beta1-CD2.i586.iso
681504768 MandrakeLinux-10.0-beta1-CD3.i586.iso



Started to install on my
366mhz
192RAM
p2
Laptop



Got the following:

Loading alt0......
Loading alt0/all.rdz....................................................
Ready.
Uncompressing linux...........

          invalid compressed format (err=1)

--system halted

Any idea's what to do next?

You can start by not installing a "beta"

With linux, nothing matters except the kernel. The new kernel thats out now has a minor version number that is even. For example:

Kernel version "2.6.1" The 6 is the minor version number, and its even. Anytime the minor is even that means that the kernel is fully developed and completely stable.
If its 2.5.x or whatever then its not a fully developed kernel.

I think mandrake uses a 2.4.x or whatever.

the point I am tring to make to you is that the kernel is the core of the o.s. When it comes to linux a kernel is really all that matters. The rest are just packages and libraries, ect.

So if your downloading a beta version of some type of linux then the only thing beta will probably be the packages and everything else besides the kernel. As you can see mandrake 10 beta runs a 2.6.1 or 2.4.25 kernel (your choice) so its stable in that regard. But all the packages are probably not and still need development.

So here is what you should do. Install mandrake 9.2 and then upgrade the kernel to 2.6.1 if you want a completely stable system, packages and all. Or keep the kernel with that comes with 9.2 because it also has an even minor version number.

In other words, your gonna get a lot of buggy packages (software programs) if you install the beta.

You do not have to use mandrake, try something else if that still does not help. Try another distro. I would stay away from anything from red hat unless it is red hat Fedora. Red hat 9 and other previous versions will be of no use to you in the future unless your a paying customer you will not be able to update it or anything.

Btw, you might need an older version of linux on your laptop. Whatever distro you get consider going back a few versions as the versions out now are not designed to run on a system as slow as yours (processor). Just like xp wont run on a lot of older machines............although Ive see xp on a 100mhz box with 64 megs of ram, right before it was thrown in the trash

[ultimatejester]

Great.

I installed MandrakeMove since you said it was good for laptops. I am posting here after reading all the documentation. I cant change the resolution. I am on 800 x 600 right now. I wanna change it to 1024 x 786. Could this be because of generic driver. Also is there a way i can save my sessions. How do i know which device is not supported.

Thnx

[shn]

Originally posted by ultimatejester@29 January 2004 - 02:09
Great.

I installed MandrakeMove since you said it was good for laptops. I am posting here after reading all the documentation. I cant change the resolution. I am on 800 x 600 right now. I wanna change it to 1024 x 786. Could this be because of generic driver. Also is there a way i can save my sessions. How do i know which device is not supported.

Thnx

Availability:

  # The MandrakeMove Download Edition is already available for Club Members!
  # The MandrakeMove Boxed Edition is available for immediate order at MandrakeStore.com. The Boxed Edition provides the complete MandrakeMove system, plus the capability to save configuration and personal data to a USB key , plus additional commercial software such as NVidia® drivers, Acrobat® ReaderTM, RealPlayerTM, FlashPlayerTM, and MandrakeMove documentation.

Thats what I was referring to regarding the lack of features in the downloaded version. I suppose they include some type of menu item in the paid version that allows you to save your configuration, etc in a few easy steps. Anyways, who cares.............never pay for linux

Like any live cd that is about the only issue that most poeple hate. Most people just deal with because they dont use it as a primary o.s., they just use it when they want to tinker with linux.

Now for a hardcore user like myself thats where the shell scripts come in at. You can have that configuration script executed at your login shell everytime you boot up the live cd. I thought you would be aware that your settings dont get saved since its a live cd. If you have a jump drive or usb thingie you can save your configuration script to that drive or maybe even a floppy and then write a simple shell script that mounts /dev/fd0 at boot and runs your config script when your logon shell appears. I could do that for you but it would require me to ssh into that box and edit your config files, I would need sudo permission for that, or just plain out root.........and with all do respect I would rather decline because its not worth the trouble for a live cd. If you wish to have preferences then probably be best to have an installed system.

You can also save the desktop configuration (.kde in kde desktop) on another partition (non ntfs) but the partition would have to be mounted at boot time.

Your resolution size can be changed in the mandrake control center, or your Xfree86 config file. And with the generic driver its actually the opposite, if your graphics is screwed up then youll probably need to use a generic "vesa" driver. For older notebooks the framebuffer is almost always set to fb800x600 by default. Funny were on mandrake, Im telling you all this about mandrake and I dont even use it. But its linux, so I generally know.

Like I said, try another distro.

[Illuminati]

Anyone else seeing the vision of a forthcoming poll on favourite Linux distro?

Maybe it's just me who thinks it but this is a bloody great topic. I was thinking about trying Linux on dual-boot soon (as many of my chosen universities are using Linux & WinXP on dual-boot for my course ) and wasn't sure which distro to go for.

A friend of mine had problems removing the boot sector of Mandrake after taking it off so I thought against using that. Likewise, many of those unis used Red Hat so I thought about using that - Until I saw this topic

Which leads to another question - Are all Linux distros able to dual-boot or is it just Red Hat?

[shn]

Originally posted by Illuminati@29 January 2004 - 04:27
Anyone else seeing the vision of a forthcoming poll on favourite Linux distro?

Maybe it's just me who thinks it but this is a bloody great topic.  I was thinking about trying Linux on dual-boot soon (as many of my chosen universities are using Linux & WinXP on dual-boot for my course ) and wasn't sure which distro to go for. 

A friend of mine had problems removing the boot sector of Mandrake after taking it off so I thought against using that.  Likewise, many of those unis used Red Hat so I thought about using that - Until I saw this topic

Which leads to another question - Are all Linux distros able to dual-boot or is it just Red Hat?

Its the boot loader that allows it to dual boot. If you install a boot loader then yes it can duel boot.

But you could just use a floppy disk to boot your linux kernel that way you can leave you mbr untouched (master boot record) Although you wont get a o.s. selection screen.

As for red hat, I cant complain. I have used red hat advanced server 2.1 on my alienware mj-12 for a years but I have a liscence with them and pay a yearly fee because that box in particular I use as a commercial server. So I could get sued if I didnt. But the new o.s. for general linux users will be Red Hat Fedora Project and they have put up some great tutorials for fedora here Fedora Community Site

Its the previous versions of red hat that you should avoid............red hat 9 and anything before that. But if your just installing for local testing purposes then what the hell give it a try, its when you find out you want to keep it and use it for a while and then they "stop" putting out updates for the general public . That day will come. Red Hat is just in the process of getting their infrastructure situated.

[hey_suburbia]

Thanks again for the help, shn.

I'll give 9.2 a try.

The installation was very inconsistent,
First I'd get stuck on the first page of installation saying that it couldn't uncompress,

Second, I'd get stuck on a page with a guy and a heart around him and the error saying
something about a kernal panic, could not mount....bad parameters.

And lastly, I'd get to a screen that mentioned something about second stage ramdisk.

It was very strange, but I'll give 9.2 a try.

[4play]

Originally posted by hey_suburbia@29 January 2004 - 15:52

what the hell is that. seems very odd to me having that on a linux install where did you get this copy ?

[shn]

I suggest you run an md5 checksum on that disk.

Or was that the mandrake 10 beta? Maybe it looks like that, I have never tried it

But like 4play said, thats odd.

Since mandrake was to no avail, probably because of the old hardware on your laptop. Now you might want to try out Fedora Core.:

No need to downlod the 3 iso install disk (do a network ftp install from a official Fedora mirror).. Just download your floppy images as needed from here --- ftp://ftp.nrc.ca/pub/systems/linux/redhat...i386/os/images/

You will need at least the pcmciadd.img. And if that site is slow you may choose from the various mirrors here ------ http://fedora.redhat.com/download/mirrors.html but follow the same directory path as the mirror above to get to the images directory.

Once you have the image you need write it to a floppy with rawrite like you have done before as posted previously in this thread above. You should be brought to the installation screen. Once you get there Please follow this step by step self explanatory Fedora Core Installation Tutorial. -- http://www.phatvibez.net/FedoraInstallGuide/index.html (credit to Brian Chamberlin)

Your almost certain to have trouble with your xconfiguration (graphical) so If you like you can choose not to set x up and skip your x configuration If its not going to work unless manually configured anyway your better off skipping it and editing your Xfree86 config file from the command line using an editing tool that is always installed by default like vi or emacs editor. If you decide to take the chance and try to set up x server in installation process you will need to see if your "exact" video card is listed and select that, if it is not selected then you can try using a generic but it probably wont work and x will fail to start after boot and you will have to knock the runlevel down to 2 so it wont start on boot and then edit your config file. I will give you the correct commands to do that if that happens. But the whole install may go really smooth.............youll just have to see. Or you can try mandrake again or whatever suits your fancy
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@hey_suburbia -- Strange

Mandrake move works fine for me. I even created a virtual_key that can supposedly save my settings just like the paid version but Ive yet to see. Also all my drives were mounted so I have access to the ntfs windows files on this box. However it does not come with mozilla.. It even warned me when I tried to upload a snapshot to the forum.