Re: [newbie] Formatting problems
At 09:45 12/04/99 -0400, you wrote: I'm trying to install Mandrake 5.3 on a Pentium II 200 with two 4 gig SCSI hard drives connected to an Adaptec 2940. I would like to install linux on the second hard drive (sdb). However, during a Custom install, after I select the partioning I want (600mb root, 128mb swap, the rest as /usr), and the packages I want installed, linux hangs with the following message: Making ext2 filesystem on /dev/sdb1... Can anyone please help me format my drive and install linux. kevin Before you try something that might be harmfull to your current installed system (windows), can you tell us how long you have waited for the drive to format ? You must know that formating a big drive under linux can take a very long time (more than one hour), and so maybe your linux doesn't hang, but it's simply making the file system. (I've asked the approximate time it should take on another list, but I have to wait for the answer) Stay tuned, - Rémi -
Re: [newbie] Sleeping Linux Box
Sorry, I don't know anything about power saving :-( Is there a way to reboot the linux machine by telnetting into it from my Win98 machine? Just use the normal command to turn off your linux box :-) as root '/sbin/shutdown -h now' and to become root : 'su' + root password - Rémi -
Re: [newbie] Ready to Start:
Remi..i too am a newbietrying to install Linux...I bought it off e-bay and had no manual with it...my question is how do I set my cd rom drivers for use under dos to do an install??? I am using sytem commander. Well, you got some answers before mine (that's the purpose of a mailing list), so maybe your problems are now solved. If not, please come back. - Rémi -
Re: [newbie] Boot up Error Message
At 00:01 12/03/99 EST, you wrote: In a message dated 3/11/99 8:50:32 PM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I would have imagined that /dev would cause problems (a simple cp in /dev will quickly fill your destination directory... that /dev/zero file just never ends...) i ment in windows Even in windows a copy of the whole HD doesn't work. It won't even let you copy any file which is used. And explorer is in use when you copy files. And many win dlls are in use... - Rémi -
Re: [newbie] Boot up Error Message
I don't mean to be rude or question whether this really works. I don't have extra space, else I'd try it myself. Can anyone confirm that this works?? No it won't work. You are perfecly right with the problems in dev and the boot sector. What you have to do is use the dd command to make a physical copy of your whole device. The trick is I don't know the syntax :-) It must ressemble "dd if=/dev/hdx of=/dev/hdy ... options" where /dev/hdx is the drive you want to copy and /dev/hdy is the one you copy to. I know you have to specify more things to dd (block sizes,...) but you'll have to use man dd as I'm now at work (on an NT station :-( ) Ask help if you don't know some options... - Rémi -
Re: [newbie] Boot up Error Message
At 15:06 11/03/99 -0800, you wrote: A very good test to see if it's memory or bios-too-"optimized" related is to compile something big (a kernel for example) several times in a row. If your system succeeds to do so without any error, your system can be considered clean on that point and you can start to think about a new hard disk :-) Tell us how things turn out, well, I've recomplied 2.0.36 twice and 2.2.3 twice as well. All of them went through smoothly. Does that mean my system is clean? The disk change will be a major headache..:( Well at least your bios seems to be configured ok (not too optimized). You can read the Sig11 mini howto, they explain many problems that can occur with defective hardware, and ways to check it. One thing you could try, after you have made a copy of your settings :-), is to put your machine in "turtle" mode : change your bios settings to the slowest, disable all optimization,... (more wait states, slowest bus clock, disable 1st and 2nd level processor cache, disable hidden refresh, power management and the likes,... Real turtle mode) Then you try to start linux many times and see if the problem still appears Remember to do it in the conditions where you saw the error : if it only appeared the first time you started linux after a long off period, change the config to turtle mode, than let your machine sleep some times before you start it. (I say that because I had such a problem and it was a real beast to isolate : it only appeared when the machine was "cold") Be patient because a slow pc is... slow :-) - Rémi -
Re: [newbie] PPP, sound, CD drive, and modem
make xconfig; make config; make menuconfig; make mrproper. When I try to run these commands I get complaints about some target not being found; Can you tell us whitch targets? Always give the full error message. 2) How do I go about configuring sound? Do I have to compile that into the kernel too...? I have a soundblaster compatible card; I should mention the following: i) I have an ESS AudioDrive 1869 soundblaster 16 compatible card; ii) upon running sndconfig I get the message ``error accessing dev/audio''. I know that some SB16 compatible cards are not so compatible. Have you read the docs comming with the source tree? Anyway the sound support must be configured in the kernel or in a module. Do you have any message at bootup? 3) The CD player (generic 32x IDE device) worked fine during install, but during a Linux session I cannot i) manually open and close the CD tray; What do you mean by *manually* ? Can you open or close it by another way? ii) mount the CD-ROM drive. Actually I sometimes can mount the CD-ROM drive; but I still cannot manually open and close the CD tray. But it works fine in that other operating system we have all grown to dislike... What do you mean by *sometimes* ? Give us more hints (under which account, under X ? ,...) By the way, it's not possible to umount the cdrom if one of your processes is accessing it, including your shell. So you must be out of the cdrom to umount it. And you must umount it to be able to open it. 4) I tried minicom and echo but cannot get any response from my modem under Linux. I correctly configured the modem using the RedHat ``control-panel'' dialog, but I still cannot get a response. Can't help on that one, I have no modem :-) Hope I was of any help, and give us more info about your problems. Please forgive my English, I'm French speaking :-) - Rémi -
