mirror of https://github.com/tLDP/LDP
2184 lines
90 KiB
Plaintext
2184 lines
90 KiB
Plaintext
<!doctype linuxdoc system>
|
|
|
|
<article>
|
|
|
|
<title>Linux+WindowsNT mini-HOWTO
|
|
<author>Miroslav "Misko" Skoric,
|
|
<tt/skoric at eunet dot rs/
|
|
<date>v2.38, 2010-07-18
|
|
<abstract>
|
|
<nidx>linux loader windows nt 2000 boot laptop hp</nidx>
|
|
This mini-HOWTO covers some ways on how to install both Linux
|
|
and Windows NT on the same computer and how to boot either of
|
|
them from within LILO menu. There is also another mini-HOWTO
|
|
"Linux+NT-Loader" that covers how to boot either of them from
|
|
within NT Loader menu. As I consider Windows 2000 to be Windows NT
|
|
version 5.0 this mini-HOWTO also covers upgrading from NT 4.0 to
|
|
2000.</abstract>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
More detailed information about LILO (<bf/Li/nux <bf/Lo/ader) itself you
|
|
may find in wonderfull <url url="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LILO.html"
|
|
name="LILO"> mini-HOWTO.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<sect>Introduction
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Bill Wohler wrote in his v1.1 of The Linux+WindowsNT mini-HOWTO:
|
|
<p>
|
|
<em>"Due to hardware or software problems or user headroom, I pulled my
|
|
hair out for several days trying to get both NT and Linux happily
|
|
settled on my new HP Vectra PC at work."</em>
|
|
|
|
I could say that was true in my case too, but you <bf/really/ have
|
|
a way to make both Linux and Windows NT co-existing on the same
|
|
machine and to switch from one of them to another.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<em>"Under no circumstances run the Disk Administrator from NT 3.51 to
|
|
format partitions. It asks if it can write a signature "which will
|
|
cause absolutely no harm." When it did this, it hosed my partition
|
|
table until fixed by steps 3 and 7 below. Because of these
|
|
problems, I was limited to one FAT NT partition. Also remember that
|
|
even if you do get the Disk Administrator to work, you'll want at
|
|
least one small FAT partition to use as a staging area for
|
|
exchanging files between Linux and NT until Linux has an NTFS
|
|
filesystem."</em>
|
|
|
|
Well, NT's Disk Administrator is sufficient tool to check what
|
|
situation on your hard disk(s) you have, before and after you used
|
|
an utility called Partition Magic by Power Quest. This utility
|
|
might be needed to 'shrink' your NT (either NTFS or FAT) partition,
|
|
in order to get some free space for your further Linux' partitions.
|
|
(After a while, I recognized that 'shrinking' used partition
|
|
might not be needed. Actually, if you start from 'scratch', it
|
|
might be the best way to re-format your whole disk(s) using
|
|
<bf>FDISK</bf> command. You should make a DOS boot floppy diskette
|
|
where DOS commands FDISK and FORMAT have to be also copied.
|
|
More details later...)
|
|
|
|
<em>"I installed Linux first and then NT, but based on my experience, I
|
|
might now be able to install NT first and then Linux."</em>
|
|
|
|
Of course you all are able to install Windows NT first and after that
|
|
Linux. We'll see how to do that and how to use <bf/LILO/ (<bf/Li/nux
|
|
<bf/Lo/ader) to chose which operating system to boot. But, before that
|
|
we'll see the procedure that Bill Wohler, the previous maintainer of
|
|
this mini-HOWTO, has been using:
|
|
|
|
|
|
<sect>How to install: LINUX <em>first</em>, WINDOWS NT <em>after</em>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
1. Install a minimal Linux (hold off on installing the rest until
|
|
you win the Linux/NT battle). Do all your disk partitioning in
|
|
Linux, including your NT partition (make it FAT). I was not
|
|
successful at making more than one NT partition. I also made it the
|
|
first partition, but I don't know if that is essential or not.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
2. Edit <tt>/etc/lilo.conf</tt> and use <bf>boot=/dev/sda</bf> (I
|
|
was not successful
|
|
at installing LILO on the Linux partition--<tt>/dev/sda3</tt> in my case) and
|
|
run "lilo". You'll have to use the editor ae. You'll live.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
3. Save the MBR with this: <bf>dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=1</bf>
|
|
Use a floppy. Trust me. Also do this each time you change the disk
|
|
partition table.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
4. Install NT, part 1. When it goes to reboot halfway through the
|
|
process you'll boot into Linux.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
5. Add NT stanza to /etc/lilo.conf, e.g.:
|
|
|
|
<verb>
|
|
other=/dev/sda1
|
|
label=NT
|
|
table=/dev/sda
|
|
</verb>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
and run lilo. If lilo complains about this (I forget the message),
|
|
add the "linear" flag to /etc/lilo.conf near the "compact" keyword.
|
|
Furthermore, if your partition table is screwed up by NT you'll
|
|
either need to use "ignore-table" or follow the directions in Step 7.
|
|
See also "fix-table". The LILO HOWTO is your friend.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
6. Reboot, select NT from LILO, and finish NT install. You'll need
|
|
the "Boot Disk XU, HP Vectra AIC 7880 Driver A.01.02" floppy to
|
|
install the ethernet drivers and the "XU/VT Drivers and
|
|
Documentation" CD (directory video/disk4 if I recall correctly) to
|
|
install the video drivers for the Matrox MGA Millennium.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
7. Back to Linux, run fdisk and ensure you don't get "partition
|
|
doesn't end on cylinder boundary" on your Linux partitions. You'll
|
|
still have this error on the NT partition though, but this seems to
|
|
be OK.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<verb>
|
|
/dev/sda1 1 1 322 329301 6 DOS 16-bit >=32M
|
|
</verb>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary:
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
phys=(321, 39, 9) should be (321, 63, 32)
|
|
<p>
|
|
Cfdisk reports strangeness, but it seems OK:
|
|
|
|
<verb>
|
|
Unusable 0.04*
|
|
|
|
/dev/sda1 Primary DOS 16-bit >=32Mb 321.59*
|
|
|
|
Unusable 0.39*
|
|
</verb>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
If you do get the cylinder boundary warning on your Linux
|
|
partitions, it is sufficient to use cfdisk to do something innocuous
|
|
like changing the boot sector.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
If, however, NT has really screwed you over and cfdisk can't even
|
|
run, complaining that it cannot open /dev/sda, then you'll need to
|
|
take more extreme action. You'll need that MBR you saved
|
|
previously. Clear and restore the MBR (but not the signature) with:
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<verb>
|
|
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1
|
|
|
|
dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/dev/sda bs=510 count=1
|
|
</verb>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
8. Install the rest of Linux. Easy, huh?
|
|
|
|
If you prefer to have NT write the MBR instead of LILO, you may have
|
|
to resort to the following to clear the MBR first:
|
|
|
|
<itemize>
|
|
|
|
<item>dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1 (in Linux) or perform
|
|
a low-level format with the SCSI utilities. I've heard that a
|
|
low-level format of an IDE disk is fatal, so don't do it.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>fdisk /mbr (you've obviously already created a DOS boot
|
|
disk that contains fdisk).
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>delete NT partition and create it again in NT install.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>continue with NT install.
|
|
|
|
</itemize>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Epilogue: After first posting this message, I heard from several
|
|
folks that they had no problems with NT's Disk Administrator, and
|
|
were able to install either NT or Linux first without any problems.
|
|
Hopefully, you'll be in this camp, but if not, perhaps this campfire
|
|
story will be of some use.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Since the first edition of this mini-HOWTO, others have written
|
|
similar documents as well. Please be sure to consult them. If your
|
|
experience differs from any presented, then you should submit your
|
|
own mini-HOWTO or submit a revised version of this document to the
|
|
HOWTO maintainer (reference this sentence) and send a carbon copy to
|
|
me as I don't have the time to maintain this document. Someone
|
|
should eventually combine all of these documents into a single
|
|
coherent HOWTO.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Finally, I'm afraid this document details all I know about this
|
|
subject. I should point you to an appropriate Linux newsgroup for
|
|
further information. I use NT about one day a year. Under duress.
|
|
|
|
|
|
<sect>How to install: WINDOWS NT <em>first</em>, LINUX <em>after</em>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<sect1>If you have <em>only one</em> IDE hard disk
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<itemize>
|
|
|
|
<item>First of all, I would suggest you to install a fresh copy of
|
|
Windows NT 4.0 on your hard disk. I suppose that you already
|
|
made a backup of your important data, so the NT installation
|
|
shouldn't be a problem. During the NT installation, setup is
|
|
not going to ask you where to place NT's boot loader, so it
|
|
would be placed into the MBR (Master Boot Record) of your hard
|
|
disk. But, there is a possibility for a previous content of
|
|
the MBR to remain within the MBR (especially any previous
|
|
Lilo), so I would suggest you (<em>before</em> installation of NT) to
|
|
boot the computer with a DOS floppy diskette having DOS version
|
|
of FDISK. At the prompt a:\ just enter the command:
|
|
<bf>fdisk /mbr</bf> and restart the computer again (without
|
|
that floppy).
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>After you have successfully installed your NT, you will see that
|
|
it uses the whole hard disk or a specific partition of the hard
|
|
disk (depending on what you decided during the setup process).
|
|
So, it is advisable to 'shrink' the partition where NT resides
|
|
in order to make some free space on the disk. Onto that free space
|
|
you will install your Linux. After you have your NT configured
|
|
and running, you have to boot your computer using a floppy
|
|
diskette with Partition Magic utility by Power Quest. It is a
|
|
graphical tool able to see all partitions on all hard disks you
|
|
have. The best thing is that you can make some changes with your
|
|
partitions but <em>not</em> to destroy your existing data. One of the
|
|
available changes is to make your existing partition(s) smaller,
|
|
so to get some free space on the disk(s) for other purposes.
|
|
Although you are advised to make a backup before you make any
|
|
changes to the partitions, I usually practice to 'shrink' NT's
|
|
partition(s) before I install anything else onto this NT (so, if
|
|
needed, a repetitive NT re-installation wouldn't be a problem).
|
|
Well, Partition Magic (or any other similar utility you are
|
|
familiar with) will shrink your NT's partition (either NTFS or
|
|
FAT) to a smaller measure and place it to either the beginning
|
|
or to the end of the previous measure. It means that you may
|
|
choose to have your 'shrinked' NT partition at the beginning
|
|
or at the end of your disk (I usually choose NT to be at the
|
|
beginning, so the ending part of the disk will become a 'free
|
|
space'). After the 'shrinking' is finished, you may re-boot your
|
|
NT in order to check the new situation: you may use Windows
|
|
Explorer or Disk Administrator for that.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>As it was said in Introduction, it might <em>not</em> be needed
|
|
always to use such tools like Partition Magic. It is better to say
|
|
that this tool is of a great value in all those cases you have been
|
|
running Windows NT for a long time, so you don't want to start
|
|
from 'scratch'. For example, you are fully satisfied with your
|
|
beloved NT and related applications. You are not likely to kill
|
|
NT, but you have recognized that you have enough <em>unused</em>
|
|
space on NT's partition(s) (i.e. NT's partition(s) might look not
|
|
much populated). That case, Partition Magic is your choice.
|
|
|
|
But, if you do start from the beginning, or you don't mind
|
|
re-formatting the disk, it might be suitable to get a blank
|
|
floppy diskette, make it to be DOS bootable and copy two DOS
|
|
tools on it: FDISK and FORMAT. So, restart your computer with
|
|
such floppy and at <bf>A:\</bf> prompt enter <bf>fdisk</bf>.
|
|
There you'll find several options that allow re-partition of
|
|
your hard disk(s). Now you could make a part of the disk a FAT
|
|
partition (where you'll later install your beloved NT). The rest
|
|
of space you'd better leave alone (i.e. do not attempt making
|
|
Linux partition(s) right now, using DOS's version of FDISK). If
|
|
you <em>really</em> want to make Linux-type partitions now, you
|
|
should look after Linux version of FDISK.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>So far so good. Next step is to install your Linux. Case you
|
|
are familiar with RedHat distribution (I hope with other distros
|
|
is the same or similar), you start by putting your installation
|
|
CD in the drive and re-boot the computer). Well, when you are about
|
|
to choose what type of installation it will be (Gnome or KDE
|
|
Workstation, Custom, etc.) you may choose whatever you planned
|
|
before, but I would suggest to install a Workstation <em>at first</em>.
|
|
This is good because Linux setup will find <em>automatically</em> the
|
|
free space on the (first) hard disk, make all partitions needed
|
|
for Linux, format them properly, make majority of options by
|
|
default so you won't have much pain during the setup (<em>later</em>,
|
|
if you want, you may either <bf>add</bf> missing components or
|
|
<bf>re-install</bf> RedHat Linux as Custom over the existing linux
|
|
partitions). Lilo should go to the MBR.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item><bf>Don't forget to make Linux boot floppy diskette. You'll never
|
|
know when you may need it. If something goes wrong with the MBR,
|
|
and you don't have boot floppy, your Linux might become not accessible,
|
|
so you might have to re-install it again.</bf>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>After it looks that Linux installation is finished, you are going
|
|
to re-start the computer and there you will only see <bf>Lilo</bf>
|
|
with only one entry to boot: Linux (or maybe more than one Linux
|
|
entry, in case your hardware is multi-processor one or so). But, don't
|
|
panic! Your Windows NT is still there - where you had installed it
|
|
before Linux. You should become some familiar with Linux as soon
|
|
as possible, in order to be able to find and edit your new
|
|
<bf>/etc/lilo.conf</bf> file. When you open this file for the first time,
|
|
you'll see that there is only one (or more) Linux entry. Well,
|
|
you should know the exact position (read: a partition) where
|
|
Windows NT has been installed, so you could add an appropriate
|
|
entry into <tt>/etc/lilo.conf</tt> file. After you make those changes,
|
|
restart Lilo with a command: <bf>/sbin/lilo</bf> and, after the next
|
|
re-boot, you will have both 'linux' and 'nt' (or 'dos' or similar)
|
|
entries under Lilo menu.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>My added NT entry is:
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<verb>
|
|
other=/dev/hda1
|
|
label=nt
|
|
</verb>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
So, the whole <tt>/etc/lilo.conf</tt> looks like this:
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<verb>
|
|
boot=/dev/hda
|
|
timeout=50
|
|
prompt
|
|
default=linux
|
|
vga=normal
|
|
read-only
|
|
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.12-20
|
|
label=linux
|
|
root=/dev/hda3
|
|
other=/dev/hda1
|
|
label=nt
|
|
</verb>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>Some more explanations regarding details from my <tt>/etc/lilo.conf</tt>
|
|
file: After I have installed Windows NT, I assigned the letter C:
|
|
to that drive. Beside that, I wanted to have another NTFS
|
|
partition in order to store and backup important files, case I
|
|
have to re-install NT on C: for some reason in the future. That's why
|
|
I've made another NT partition, that has been assigned as D: disk.
|
|
Both NTFS partitions are approximatelly 3 GB each and Linux setup
|
|
found them as /dev/hda1 and /dev/hda2 partitions. The rest free space
|
|
on the disk was cca. 2 GB, where I have made the /root partition of
|
|
near 1.9 GB and /swap part of cca. 100 MB (/dev/hda3 and /dev/hda4
|
|
respectively). Lilo went to the MBR and all has been running fine.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
For your information, I <em>wanted</em> to make these linux
|
|
partitions that time. Later, I found that it was not needed, so
|
|
now I let Linux setup to make partitions from the free space in
|
|
a way it likes to do that. I trust it :-)
|
|
|
|
</itemize>
|
|
|
|
<sect1>If you have <em>more than one</em> (SCSI) hard disk
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<em>Notice: Folks, you see, at my place, one of computers has several
|
|
SCSI disks. That's why I put the word 'SCSI' in parentheses. There I
|
|
have a couple of SCSI controllers, a SCSI CD ROM drive and a SCSI
|
|
Tape drive. That doesn't mean that *you* will be using SCSI parts at all.
|
|
You'd rather handle more than one IDE disks, but I hope that install
|
|
process shouldn't change too much, if any.
|
|
</em>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<itemize>
|
|
|
|
<item>First of all, I would suggest you to install a fresh copy of
|
|
Windows NT 4.0 on your <bf/first/ hard disk. I suppose that you already
|
|
made a backup of your important data, so the NT installation
|
|
shouldn't be a problem. You can easily copy your data on your
|
|
second hard disk or so. During the NT installation, setup is
|
|
not going to ask you where to place NT's boot loader, so it
|
|
would be placed into the MBR (Master Boot Record) of your <bf/first/ hard
|
|
disk. But, there is a possibility for a previous content of
|
|
the MBR to remain within the MBR (especially any previous
|
|
Lilo), so I would suggest you (before installation of NT) to
|
|
boot the computer with a DOS floppy diskette having DOS version
|
|
of FDISK. At the prompt a:\ just enter the command: fdisk /mbr
|
|
and restart the computer again (without that floppy). If you
|
|
want to be sure about your machine is 'clean', you may also
|
|
delete any existing partition(s) on your <em>other</em> disks, during the
|
|
Windows NT Setup <bf/in case you have *not* made any backup on
|
|
other disks/.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>After you have successfully installed your NT, you will see that
|
|
it uses the whole hard disk or a specific partition of the hard
|
|
disk (depending on what you decided during the setup process).
|
|
So, it is advisable to 'shrink' the partition where NT resides
|
|
in order to make some free space on the disk. Onto that free space
|
|
you will install your Linux. Well, you may also think of using
|
|
other disk(s) you have for Linux (so did I). That case, you
|
|
would start your linux installation and tried to use, for example,
|
|
/dev/sdb (or sdc, or sdd, or else in case of SCSI system) or
|
|
/dev/hdb (or hdc, or hdd, or else in case of IDE system). Looked
|
|
that Linux installation accepted whatever I chose, but somehow
|
|
after all was finished, when I did that, LILO was not able to
|
|
do anything. Actually, it always stopped after 'LI' so it was not
|
|
possible to start Linux at all. Finally, after pulling my hair
|
|
out, I decided to make it all on the <bf/first/ disk. So, after
|
|
I had NT configured and running, I had to boot my computer using
|
|
a floppy diskette with Partition Magic utility by Power Quest.
|
|
It is a graphical tool able to see all partitions on all hard disks you
|
|
have. The best thing is that you can make some changes with your
|
|
partitions but not to destroy your existing data. One of the
|
|
available changes is to make your existing partition(s) smaller,
|
|
so you can get some free space on the disk(s) for other purposes.
|
|
Although you are advised to make a backup before you make any
|
|
changes with your partitions, I usually practice to 'shrink' NT's
|
|
partition <em>before</em> I install anything but NT itself (so, if
|
|
needed, a repetitive re-installation wouldn't be a problem).
|
|
Well, Partition Magic (or any other similar utility you are
|
|
familiar with) will shrink your NT's partition (either NTFS or
|
|
FAT) to a smaller measure and place it to either the beginning
|
|
or to the end of the previous measure. It means that you may
|
|
choose to have your 'shrinked' NT partition at the beginning
|
|
or at the end of your disk. I usually choose NT to be at the
|
|
beginning, so the ending part of the disk will become a 'free
|
|
space'. I discovered some problems if the 'free space' is made
|
|
at the beginning of disk (later we'll talk about). So, after the
|
|
'shrinking' is finished, you may re-boot your
|
|
NT in order to check the new situation: you may use Windows
|
|
Explorer or Disk Administrator for that. You will also note how
|
|
NT can 'see' all (other) disks you have in your machine (either
|
|
partitioned or as 'free space' areas).
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>Once again, as it was said earlier, it might <em>not</em> be needed
|
|
always to use such tools like Partition Magic. It is better to say
|
|
that this tool is of a great value in all those cases you have been
|
|
running Windows NT for a long time, so you don't want to start
|
|
from 'scratch'. For example, you are fully satisfied with your
|
|
beloved NT and related applications. You are not likely to kill
|
|
NT, but you have recognized that you have enough <em>unused</em>
|
|
space on NT's partition(s) (i.e. NT's partition(s) might look not
|
|
much populated). That case, Partition Magic is your choice.
|
|
|
|
But, if you do start from the beginning, or you don't mind
|
|
re-formatting the disk(s), it might be suitable to get a blank
|
|
floppy diskette, make it to be DOS bootable and copy two DOS
|
|
tools on it: FDISK and FORMAT. So, restart your computer with
|
|
such floppy and at <bf>A:\</bf> prompt enter <bf>fdisk</bf>.
|
|
There you'll find several options that allow re-partition of
|
|
your hard disk(s). Now you could make a part of the disk a FAT
|
|
partition (where you'll later install your beloved NT). The rest
|
|
of space you'd better leave alone (i.e. do not attempt making
|
|
Linux partition(s) right now, using DOS's version of FDISK). If
|
|
you <em>really</em> want to make Linux-type partitions now, you
|
|
should look after Linux version of FDISK.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>So far so good. Next step is to install your Linux. Case you
|
|
are familiar with RedHat distribution (I hope with other distros
|
|
is the same or similar), you start by putting your installation
|
|
CD in the drive and re-boot the computer). Well, when you are about
|
|
to choose what type of installation it will be (Gnome or KDE
|
|
Workstation, Custom, etc.) you may choose whatever you planned
|
|
before, but I would suggest to install a Workstation at first.
|
|
This is good because Linux setup will find automatically the
|
|
free space on the <bf/first/ hard disk, make all partitions needed
|
|
for Linux, format them properly, make majority of options by
|
|
default so you won't have much pain during the setup (later, if
|
|
you want, you may either add missing components or re-install
|
|
Linux as Custom over the existing linux partitions). Lilo should
|
|
go to the MBR of your <bf/first/ disk.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>After it looks that Linux installation is finished, you are going
|
|
to re-start the computer and there you will only see Lilo
|
|
with one Linux entry to boot (or maybe more than one Linux
|
|
entry, in case your hardware is multi-processor one). But, don't
|
|
panic! Your Windows NT is still there where you had installed it
|
|
before Linux. You should become some familiar with Linux as soon
|
|
as possible, in order to be able to find and edit your new
|
|
<tt>/etc/lilo.conf</tt> file. When you open this file for the first time,
|
|
you'll see that there is only one (or more) Linux entry. Well,
|
|
you should know the exact position (read: a partition) where
|
|
Windows NT has been installed, so you could add an appropriate
|
|
entry into <tt>/etc/lilo.conf</tt> file. After you do that, restart Lilo
|
|
and, after the next re-boot, you will have both 'linux' and 'nt'
|
|
entries under Lilo menu.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>My added NT entry is:
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<verb>
|
|
other=/dev/sda1
|
|
label=nt
|
|
</verb>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
So, the whole <tt>/etc/lilo.conf</tt> looks like this:
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<verb>
|
|
boot=/dev/sda
|
|
map=/boot/map
|
|
install=/boot/boot.b
|
|
prompt
|
|
timeout=50
|
|
default=linux
|
|
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.12-20smp
|
|
label=linux-mp
|
|
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.2.12-20smp.img
|
|
read-only
|
|
root=/dev/sda6
|
|
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.12-20
|
|
label=linux-up
|
|
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.2.12-20.img
|
|
read-only
|
|
root=/dev/sda6
|
|
other=/dev/hda1
|
|
label=nt
|
|
</verb>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>Some more explanation, regarding details from my <tt>/etc/lilo.conf</tt>
|
|
file: After I have installed Windows NT on the <bf/first/ disk,
|
|
I assigned the letter C: to that drive. After I made enough free
|
|
space <em>after</em> the NTFS partition, I let Linux setup to
|
|
handle further partitioning. Although Linux should support as far
|
|
as four primary partitions per disk, it seems that Linux setup is
|
|
likely to make an extended partition, whenever it recognizes that
|
|
there is already a primary partition on the disk. Considering that
|
|
those 'virtual' primary partitions would be numbered from /dev/sda1
|
|
to /dev/sda4 (including an extended one, of course), the extended
|
|
one should become /dev/sda4. Following that idea, the first one logical
|
|
partition within the extended one was numbered as /dev/sda5 (in my
|
|
case, it was the /boot partition that physically was the first from
|
|
the beginning of the <bf/first/ hard disk). So, the /root and /swap
|
|
partitions are /dev/sda6 and /dev/sda7 respectively. You may see a line
|
|
"root=/dev/sda6" telling you that. Once again, Lilo went to the MBR
|
|
and all has been running fine.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>Well, you may ask me: OK, but what in a case I have several
|
|
hard disks installed in the machine? Good question. You see, I
|
|
myself have <em>four</em> SCSI disks and, of course, I tried to
|
|
install Linux on the 2nd one, next the 3rd and, finally, on the
|
|
4th disk. Whatever I did (Linux setup haven't complained at all),
|
|
when I was about to finish the installation and after performing the
|
|
final automatic re-boot, my Lilo would stop after 'LI' so the
|
|
computer had to be re-started. Finally, I realized that there
|
|
must be a problem with disks that are too "far" from the MBR that is
|
|
located at the beginning of the <bf/first/ hard disk. That's why
|
|
I suggest you to make them all (both NT and Linux) on your <bf/first/
|
|
disk. After having all of them running OK, there is no problem
|
|
to make other disks visible (and usable) by both operating
|
|
system. I hope your <bf/first/ disk is large enough to carry
|
|
both operating systems (NT needs at least cca. 150 MB for itself,
|
|
Linux depends on what you want to get: Gnome or KDE Workstations
|
|
are about 580 MB, but the Custom wants more than 1.4 GB). That
|
|
means the <bf/first/ hard disk of cca. 2.4 GB should fit.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>You may also ask me: OK, but, could I 'shrink' my NT partition in
|
|
a way the 'free space' is made at the beginning of the disk? Well, I
|
|
remember I tried to do so and to install, at first, Gnome
|
|
Workstation (395 packages, 570 MB) there. During the setup, everything
|
|
looked fine, but neither Lilo was not installed, nor the boot floppy
|
|
was made. You bet, Linux was not functional. Then I tried to install
|
|
KDE Workstation (377 packages, 582 MB) on the same place. Once again,
|
|
everything looked fine, but neither Lilo was not installed, nor the
|
|
boot floppy was made. Investigating that, I studied the structure of all
|
|
existing partitions. I was surprised when recognized that new born
|
|
<em>logical</em> partitions (within the new born <em>extended</em> one)
|
|
were numbered as if they were physically positioned <em>after</em> the
|
|
NT partition! In the other words, there I have got a 'funny' order:
|
|
/dev/sda5, /dev/sda6, /dev/sda7 and, finally, /dev/sda1. Looked like
|
|
the system was a bit confused. So I considered that it is advisable
|
|
to make the 'free space' <bf>after</bf> already existing NT
|
|
partition(s).
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>Regarding two similar Linux images (differ in 'smp'). It is a server
|
|
hardware with a multi-processor support. The "intelligent" setup has
|
|
inspected the hardware and offered me to have both 'multi' and 'uni'
|
|
processor functionality. Nevertheless, I still have only one CPU
|
|
there.
|
|
|
|
</itemize>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<sect>How to <em>upgrade</em> WINDOWS NT to WINDOWS 2000
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<em>Well, actually, it isn't a real "upgrade" of <bf>running</bf> NT to
|
|
2000, but a "fresh" installation of Windows 2000 Professional.
|
|
I hope it should also work for other Windows 2000 products. I
|
|
haven't tried its server-type installations yet, but I remember I
|
|
haven't experienced any problem with NT, regarding it was Server
|
|
or Workstation.</em>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<itemize>
|
|
|
|
<item>First of all, a backup of important data should be made! I do it
|
|
by having another Windows-like partition on the disk, where I
|
|
copy/move my texts, drawings etc. That partition is <em>not</em>
|
|
going to be handled during the installation. After the backup is made,
|
|
it's the right time to install Windows 2000.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>You see, folks, whenever I (re)install a Windows NT product, I
|
|
like to see it on a clean partition. It means, I remove i.e.
|
|
delete the existing partition where NT "system" files were stored,
|
|
in order to get free ('unused') space. Then I chose to make
|
|
a new partition that will be formatted as NTFS type of file
|
|
system. After that, I opt to install Win2000 onto the new
|
|
partition.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>The procedure of Windows 2000 Setup will remove LILO from the
|
|
MBR, so a couple of next re-bootings during the installation won't
|
|
show LILO prompt.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>When the Win2000 installation is finished, you may re-install your
|
|
favorite applications and restore your data from the
|
|
backup. You should then check if everything goes fine with your
|
|
new and old Windoze stuff :-)
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>So far - so good. Now you have to look after your Linux boot
|
|
floppy diskette. If you can't find it, you are out of luck.
|
|
Actually, I am not sure if all Linux systems might be now
|
|
activated without boot diskette. Some Linux <em>gurus</em>
|
|
suggest to boot Linux from the installation CD, but I don't
|
|
know if it can help in case your system doesn't have
|
|
<em>bootable</em> CD-ROM drive, i.e. a modern motherboard's
|
|
BIOS. Any comment here?
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>Well, after you successfully boot your Linux, you should go to
|
|
<tt>/etc/lilo.conf</tt> to check it once again. You should have
|
|
there at least two options: Linux and NT. Case you don't see the
|
|
option to boot your beloved Windoze, you have to add it. It
|
|
was described in previous sections. Then you have to run
|
|
<bf>/sbin/lilo</bf> in order to put LILO boot loader into the MBR.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>That's all. Next time you boot your computer, you'll get your
|
|
LILO prompt. Using <Tab> key you'll see your boot options.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>From my experience - all work great! Although I <em>removed</em>
|
|
previous WinNT installation in order to make new Win2000
|
|
installation and also <em>lost</em> (temporarily) LILO boot loader,
|
|
at the end I got both of them, Win2000 and Linux, the same
|
|
way as I did with WinNT and Linux!
|
|
|
|
</itemize>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<sect>How to install WINDOWS 2000 <em>besides</em> LINUX and WINDOWS 98
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<em>Notice: When I say 'beside Linux and Windows 98', I mean of
|
|
Linux and Windows 98 that <bf>already</bf> work together, so they were
|
|
installed earlier, <bf>before</bf> we made a decision to add
|
|
Windows 2000. One of the machines I use at work, has both Linux
|
|
and Win98. They both load from under LILO menu.
|
|
</em>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Actually, it is not a very big problem to install Windows 2000 on a
|
|
computer where another Windows is running. In my case, it is Windows 98
|
|
so I just put 2000's CD into the drive. After it recognized that an
|
|
'older' version of Windows was running on my machine, it offered me
|
|
either to upgrade it to 2000 or to install W2k as the 'clean'
|
|
installation. At first, I tried to upgrade my Windows 98 to W2k, in
|
|
order to get a very similar combination that I have at home (described
|
|
in previous chapter). But, some hardware and software compatibility
|
|
issues were reported (I mean, some of my components wouldn't stay
|
|
fully operational if I just did an upgrade).
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
When saw that, I considered to try the 'fresh' installation of W2k,
|
|
<em>beside</em> Win98 and Linux. Happily, I recently installed another
|
|
HD into the box, so I did not need to handle the first disk, where Win98
|
|
and Linux were living. Actually, the main reason to add the second disk
|
|
was that the first one got almost full. If I wanted to install the third
|
|
operating system on the first disk, I'd have to clean it well. So, when
|
|
W2k's Setup asked for the location to be installed, I told it to use
|
|
the second disk, repartition it and format it as the NTFS file system
|
|
(just to mention that my Win98 was FAT32 and Linux was ext2).
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
After an hour or so, W2k's installation was finished. During the setup
|
|
procedure, it re-started the system a couple of times. When it was
|
|
about to do that for the first time, I was curious if it would re-write
|
|
the MBR, where LILO resides (actually, in the previous chapter, I have
|
|
mentioned that W2k's installation was likely to re-write the MBR).
|
|
Interestingly, it did not do that this time, so I continued to see
|
|
'LILO boot:' on the screen. But, a *new* thing has appeared after LILO:
|
|
the Windows 2000 boot loader, that in turn offered not only to load W2k but
|
|
a 'Windows' (ie. my old Win98) too.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Well, depending on which operating system I like to start, the procedure
|
|
might slightly differ, but it is easy. No problem at all. For example:
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<itemize>
|
|
|
|
<item>If I like to load my Linux, then LILO boot is the "cross-road".
|
|
At this point, the 'linux' entry should either be chosen or set as
|
|
default in <tt>/etc/lilo.conf</tt>;
|
|
|
|
<item>If I like to load Windows, then the other entry under LILO
|
|
boot should either be chosen or set to be default. After it is done,
|
|
Windows 2000 boot loader should appear on the screen. On that point,
|
|
I have two choices: W2k and W98. The rest is easy, both Windozes
|
|
start from there happily.
|
|
|
|
</itemize>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<sect>How to install WINDOWS NT/2000 and LINUX (RedHat 7.1) on a <em>laptop</em>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<sect1>If you want to have *both* NT and 2000, besides Linux
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<em>Notice: Recently my bosses decided to get a couple of HP Omnibook
|
|
6000 portables, so I quickly rushed to play with new toys. It was a
|
|
series with Pentium 3 at 1 GHz and 128 MB of RAM. There's also a hard
|
|
disk of 30 GB, removable DVD and FDD drives, a secondary battery that
|
|
goes to the removable drive bay (when it's empty) and NIC/modem combo
|
|
card.</em>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<itemize>
|
|
|
|
<item>Well, the notebooks have come with Windows 2000 Professional
|
|
preinstalled and I thought it might be great to reformat the disk
|
|
and start from scratch. I think I did it again with Partition Magic
|
|
utility by Power Quest. Actually, I have *erased* all existing
|
|
partitions because I noticed a small one at the beginning of the
|
|
disk, that looked to me a bit strange (well, I learned later that
|
|
it was there for hibernation and/or diagnostics).
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>After that, I tried to repeat a procedure that I have always
|
|
been very fond of: to make a couple of FAT partitions (cca. 2037 MB)
|
|
where my NT and/or W2k would go. Don't ask me why I use that old
|
|
FAT format - it is just to be sure that any type of Windows setup
|
|
will recognize such a partition and, as well, to be sure that some
|
|
file exchange (if needed) would be possible between various operating
|
|
systems. Beside these FAT partitions (that start, of course, from
|
|
the beginning of the disk), I have also made several FAT partitions
|
|
but, this time, starting from the *end* of the disk. Partition
|
|
Magic allowes a user to do that (<-- here the guys from Power
|
|
Quest should send me a couple of 0.01$ for this commercial of
|
|
their product :-)).
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Well, you may ask me why somebody should make a free space somewhere
|
|
in between. The answer is: In order to allow Linux's <bf>/boot</bf>
|
|
partition to stay under well known 1024 cylinder limitation.
|
|
When it comes to 1024 cyl area (actually, when you enter 1025,
|
|
1026 ... etc), it doesn't matter what is happening there. It
|
|
means, there you may put your Linux <bf>/</bf> (root) partition
|
|
(regardless of its size and structure), as well as to use
|
|
remaining space for Windows/Linux exchange zone (i.e. FAT).
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>So far - so good. So, I put NT's installation disk and
|
|
followed the procedure (you should be aware to use a "retail" NT
|
|
installation disk, *not* the one that came with Omnibook 6000,
|
|
because it is supposed to "restore" an NT installation, accompanied
|
|
with a hibernation partition. Why such a partition seems not
|
|
to be suitable here, we'll see later.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>After Windows NT was installed completely, it was the right
|
|
time to insert Windows 2000 installation CD (once again, do not
|
|
use 2000's disks that have come with the computer). So, from
|
|
within NT running, I have installed 2000 onto the next partition
|
|
(actually, only the first part of the installation process starts
|
|
from under NT, but it is OK). When the process has finished, you
|
|
have two Windozes - on your first two partitions.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>Everything seems to be running OK, excepting the diagnostics.
|
|
It should be activated with F10 at system boot <bf>if</bf> "restore"
|
|
CD's were used. BTW, NT's "restoration" finishes with even bigger
|
|
partition (cca. 500 MB). And not only that: this partition seems to
|
|
be a *primary* one. That means, you may end up with a shortage of
|
|
primary partitions, in case you intend to install several operating
|
|
systems. Anyway, I have decided that the diagnostics is not too much
|
|
important to me, so there's no use of F10 at system boot anymore :-)
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>Not to forget to say, the Windows 2000's boot loader should
|
|
offer *both* NT and 2000 boot options, if you have followed the
|
|
mentioned procedure (case you don't want to have *both* NT and W2k
|
|
on the system, you may skip to the next section).
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>Well, that is the time when I usually look after a Linux
|
|
installation CD's. The first one (in case of two) should be inserted
|
|
into the DVD (or in a CD drive) and the system has to be re-booted.
|
|
As usual, after a second or two after switching the system on,
|
|
<tt>Escape</tt> should be pressed one or two times, in order to
|
|
change the "boot" device order (of course, a CD/DVD should be
|
|
chosen here).
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>The rest of Linux installation is just as usual. Don't forget
|
|
to make a Linux boot floppy at the end of the process (you never
|
|
know when the boot floppy might be of help).
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>Folks, in short, that was that. If everything goes fine, the
|
|
next system boot should take you into the Linux environment. Don't
|
|
be surprised when you don't see your beloved Windoze(s) boot
|
|
loader(s) anymore. You just have to look into the another great
|
|
Linux document, called <url url="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LILO.html"name="LILO"> mini-HOWTO. There you'll find more detailed information
|
|
about how <bf/LILO/ (<bf/Li/nux <bf/Lo/ader) works.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>If you find it easier, read some pages before and check how it
|
|
was accomplished in the chapter "HOW TO <em>UPGRADE</em> WINDOWS NT TO
|
|
WINDOWS 2000"
|
|
|
|
</itemize>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<sect1>If you want to have only Windows 2000 and Linux
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<em>Notice: Well, all I have said in the previous section, resulted
|
|
in a "multiboot" (or, better to say, "3-boot") system. When I want
|
|
to run Linux - I have to choose its option from within LILO menu.
|
|
When I am about to run any kind of Windoze - I have to choose Windows
|
|
(or DOS, or whatever else) from within LILO menu. Soon after, on the
|
|
screen appears Windows 2000 boot loader. Finally, from this point,
|
|
either NT or 2000 may be booted. Well, for a next task, I wanted to
|
|
install Symantec's Norton System Works onto both Microsoft environments.
|
|
I did it successfully, but it seems that I have later entered a command
|
|
that resulted in changing something very important in the setup. In sum,
|
|
I have become not able to run both flavors of Windows properly. Looks
|
|
that it was the right time to re-install all the stuff again :-)
|
|
</em>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<itemize>
|
|
|
|
<item>Folks, this time I decided to use one of those "restore" CD's,
|
|
that came with the notebook. I must admit that I liked to see, as
|
|
the background, a great blue logo "HP Invent", as well as "Manufactured
|
|
by Hewlett Packard" in My Computer's Properties (<-- here the guys
|
|
from HP should send me a couple of 0.01$ for this commercial :-))
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>Using the "restore" CD's might help you to avoid the whole
|
|
long NT/2000's setup procedure(s), because they replicate or, if
|
|
you like to say, "clone" images from the CD's to the hard disk, and
|
|
it is very fast. In addition, the hibernation/diagnostics partition
|
|
is being made by default. Finally, a couple of HP utils and tools can
|
|
only be "restored" from these CD's.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>So, after a 6-7 minutes, NT (or W2k) is in its place, ready to
|
|
work. Similarly to "retail" versions (mentioned in the previous
|
|
section), now it is the right time to boot the system with a Linux
|
|
installation CD.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>The rest of Linux installation is just as usual. Don't forget
|
|
to make a Linux boot floppy at the end of the process (you never
|
|
know when that boot floppy might be useful).
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>Folks, that was that - in short. If everything is fine, the
|
|
next system boot should take you into the Linux environment. Don't
|
|
be surprised when you don't see your beloved Windoze(s) boot
|
|
loader(s) anymore. You just have to look into the another great
|
|
Linux document, called <url url="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LILO.html"name="LILO"> mini-HOWTO. There you'll find more detailed information
|
|
about how <bf/LILO/ (<bf/Li/nux <bf/Lo/ader) works.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>If you find it easier, read some pages before and see how it
|
|
was done in the chapter "HOW TO <em>UPGRADE</em> WINDOWS NT TO
|
|
WINDOWS 2000"
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>You bet, the life would be much easier if there were not such
|
|
troubles, like a "tolerance" between Windows and Linux world. Maybe
|
|
I have made an another mistake somewhere in the cyberspace, but, as
|
|
soon as I have finished with that Linux installation - RedHat 7.1 in
|
|
particular (today is May 04, 2002 and I still have no newer and better
|
|
distros here. Any donation from the readership ...?), I recognized
|
|
that F10 at the system boot, does not open the HP diagnostics anymore.
|
|
Actually, regardless of pressing F10, my Omnibook 6000 goes directly
|
|
to the graphical LILO screen. *Before* installing Linux, diagnostics
|
|
was running here without any problem.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>FYI, after the first next boot into W2k, its Disk Management tool
|
|
has recognized the following partitions on the disk:
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<table loc="ht!">
|
|
<tabular ca="lcllllllll">
|
|
| Size |Format | Label | Type |@
|
|
1 | 15 MB | FAT | - | Primary |@
|
|
2 |7.30 GB |FAT32 | HPNOTEBOOK C: | Primary |@
|
|
3 | 52 MB | - | - | Primary |@
|
|
4 |18.37 GB| - | - | Logical |@
|
|
5 | 258 MB | - | - | Logical |@
|
|
6 |1.96 GB |Free space| - | - |
|
|
</tabular>
|
|
</table>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>On the other hand, Partition Magic "sees" as follows:
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<table loc="ht!">
|
|
<tabular ca="lcllllllll">
|
|
| Size in MB|Format | Label | Type |@
|
|
1 | 14.7 | FAT | save to disk | Primary |@
|
|
2 |7.471,4 |FAT32 | HPNOTEBOOK | Primary |@
|
|
3 | 51.7 | ext2 | /boot | Primary |@
|
|
4 |21.077,9 |extended | - | Primary |@
|
|
5 |18.811,4 |ext2 | / | Logical |@
|
|
6 | 258,4 |swap | - | Logical |@
|
|
7 |2.008,1 |free space| - | Logical |
|
|
</tabular>
|
|
</table>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>Some more explanations, related to the tables above:
|
|
It is obvious that diagnostics partition, accompanied with
|
|
"restored" Windows 2000, is rather small - cca. 15 MB (comparing
|
|
to the partition, that is created with "restored" Windows NT, which
|
|
goes up to cca. 500 MB). Regardless of that fact, it is a <bf>primary</bf>
|
|
one. That means you should be aware of how many primary partitions
|
|
you have in the system. I am not sure now, but that might be one of
|
|
the reasons for not having diagnostic tools available anymore,
|
|
after completing all operating system installations.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Next, you may see that I have "shrinked" W2k's FAT32
|
|
partition to a smaller size (cca. 7.5 gig), in order to
|
|
release enough free space for Linux.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
I would suggest you to let Linux setup procedure to transform the
|
|
free space into Linux partitions. I mean, there's no need to prepare
|
|
the Linux partitions manually. As you can see from the tables,
|
|
it took cca. 50 megs for the boot part, cca. twice a physical RAM
|
|
(2 x 128 = 256 megs) for swap and the rest goes for other Linux parts.
|
|
Remaining free space was probably left after the conversions
|
|
of various file format systems.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>What is the result now: Linux works, Windows works too.
|
|
There's no diagnostics anymore. The hibernation (from under
|
|
Windows) is not tested yet. At the first sight, the 3Com
|
|
NIC/modem combo is not fully supported under Linux. Actually,
|
|
NIC seems to work, but the modem part is a "winmodem". Nobody
|
|
knows if HP would do something to solve that issue. All I could
|
|
say is to avoid HP Omnibook 6000 if modem activities are your
|
|
primary tasks. Of course, you may spend some $$$ and buy
|
|
another PCI mini-card with supported modem chip. Beside that, HP's
|
|
15" screen gives you great picture with the resolution of up to
|
|
1400 x 1050 at 16 bit colors. Interestingly, that resolution seems
|
|
to be <em>default</em> under Windows 2000 and it is also easily
|
|
adopted under Linux (RedHat 7.1). There is also somewhat "over-sensible"
|
|
touchpad that often acts as the left mouse click. It seems to be a
|
|
common feature for both Windows and Linux installations. It bothers
|
|
me sometimes, but your mileage may vary.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<item>The plan is to convert the FAT32 partition to the NTFS in order
|
|
to get more reliable Windows subsystem. On the other side, Linux
|
|
main (root) partition should be "shrinked" in order to get some
|
|
free space. That free space will be used later for exchanging files
|
|
between these two operating systems (probably it will be also FAT).
|
|
|
|
</itemize>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<sect>How to install Mandrake Linux 9.1 on HP products
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
2003-11-19
|
|
<p>
|
|
<sect1>Description of the products used in this experiment
|
|
<p>
|
|
<em>Notice: Folks, that part of the article is <bf>NOT</bf> a commercial
|
|
for HP production of any means! In fact, a series of their machines I use has lots
|
|
of failures in the power supply units, as well as with their hard disks. On
|
|
the other side, laptop's batteries get exhausted earlier than expected.
|
|
Other than these issues, HP machines are fine.</em>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<bf>HP Omnibook 6000</bf>
|
|
|
|
A laptop computer Omnibook 6000 is equipped with a bootable DVD
|
|
drive. On the other hand I have supplied a bootable DVD-ROM
|
|
with Mandrake Linux 9.1 installation. After booting the laptop with
|
|
that bootable DVD, it gets directly to the installation menu,
|
|
asking the user to choose a language to use for the rest of the
|
|
installation.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<bf>HP Vectra VL420 (used as a server)</bf>
|
|
|
|
In opposite, an HP Vectra VL420 doesn't have a DVD drive (it only
|
|
has a CD drive), so the direct installation from that particular
|
|
installation DVD is not possible. But, an option of making
|
|
a bootable floppy disk for starting the installation procedure
|
|
<em>is</em> possible. In fact, several boot images are available
|
|
for those users who don't have (bootable or not) DVD drive. One
|
|
of the images is a 'network' one. That means, in a local area network
|
|
there has to be either a NFS, FTP or HTTP server from which the
|
|
installation will take place.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<bf>HP Vectra VL420 (used as a workstation)</bf>
|
|
|
|
Another VL420 desktop system I also use, has a spare HDD from a
|
|
previous Windows 2000 server installation (actually, that IDE disk was moved
|
|
from the other computer where it was a primary one and here it is the second
|
|
one disk for backup data). The nice things is that it has a HTTP and FTP
|
|
servers installed (of course, usable if the system is boot from that disk).
|
|
That was good so I could use one of these servers now. On the other hand,
|
|
that particular Vectra VL420 was used to install a workstation kind of Linux
|
|
(that time, using its first hard disk - having Windows 2000 Professional).
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<sect1>Installation procedure
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<bf>System boot of the laptop</bf>
|
|
<p>
|
|
As explained earlier, the laptop has a bootable DVD drive, so that's it.
|
|
<p>
|
|
<bf>System boot of desktop machines</bf>
|
|
<p>
|
|
So, I made a 'network' bootable floppy and booted the first Vectra
|
|
VL420 (intended to be a Linux server) with it. After a while, it
|
|
came to a point to choose the installation method (NFS or FTP or
|
|
HTTP server). At first, I wanted to use the second 'spare' HTTP
|
|
server on the other Vectra, but regardless of what permission I tried
|
|
to give to the 'Everyone' group of Windows users, I always got the
|
|
following answer from the Linux setup:
|
|
|
|
Error: Couldn't get file ... (or something like that)
|
|
|
|
Then I tried to use the 'spare' FTP server from the second Vectra and, at
|
|
first, it also asked for local and remote IP addresses. That time successfully,
|
|
it started to load a part of the remote Linux files into its memory without
|
|
any complaint. Soon after, it came to the very same position as Omnibook
|
|
6000 did: it got directly to the installation menu, asking a user to choose
|
|
a language for the installation use.
|
|
|
|
>From that point, the setup process was almost the same...
|
|
|
|
I have chosen/confirmed the following items:
|
|
|
|
- a language to use, besides English(American) as default: I added
|
|
Unicode and Serbian (both Cyrillic and Latin);
|
|
- a mouse and keyboard;
|
|
- a security level - I accepted defaults: 'Standard' for laptop and 'Higher'
|
|
for server;
|
|
|
|
The next important task was to choose one of <em>DrakX</em>
|
|
partitioning options:
|
|
|
|
- for laptop I chose the 'Use the free space on the Windows
|
|
partition', because the laptop has one IDE hard disk and I wanted
|
|
it to use a part of it for Linux (besides existing Windows 2000 Prof.
|
|
already installed). Windows' Disk Management reported:
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<verb>
|
|
Disk 0 15 MB FAT (HP Diagnostics or like)
|
|
7.13 GB FAT32 (C: "HPNOTEBOOK")
|
|
20.80 GB Free space
|
|
</verb>
|
|
|
|
The two partitions (FAT & FAT32) were made during the installation
|
|
procedure, using HP's supplied installation CD's.
|
|
|
|
At the first moment, Linux setup complained that my Windows partition
|
|
"was too fragmented" and required me to reboot under Windows, run
|
|
the "defrag" utility, then restart the Mandrake Linux installation.
|
|
The defragmentation process have taken cca. 1.5 hour to be completed!
|
|
When restarted the setup, it wanted to use 7.13 GB Windows partition,
|
|
instead of 20.80 GB. I chose to 'Use the free space'. Then it made partitions
|
|
for Linux: /dev/hda5 and /dev/hda7.
|
|
|
|
- for Vectra VL420 I used 'Custom disk partitioning' because there
|
|
I had two SCSI disks, one of them running Windows 2000 Server
|
|
already installed, and the other one I wanted to use entirely for a
|
|
Linux server. BTW, I wasn't sure what the option 'Erase entire disk'
|
|
would do during its next step (erase a whole disk or a partition?),
|
|
although it also may be the proper solution too. <em>DrakX</em>
|
|
recognized the two SCSI disks as <bf>sda</bf> and <bf>sdb</bf>
|
|
and I chose <bf>sdb</bf> to install Linux. The first step was to 'Clear
|
|
all' and after that to 'Auto allocate' the space on that second disk.
|
|
Finally, after a 'Done' it appeared to make /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdb6
|
|
Linux partitions.
|
|
|
|
<bf>Package Group Selection</bf>
|
|
<p>
|
|
Per default, the Mandrake 9.1 setup offers the following to be
|
|
installed:
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<verb>
|
|
- Office Workstation
|
|
- Internet Workstation
|
|
- KDE Workstation
|
|
- Gnome Workstation
|
|
</verb>
|
|
|
|
that is in sum: Total size 1010/5267 (at laptop) and 1066/5265 (at server).
|
|
|
|
- for laptop I added all that was available, <em>excepting</em> 6 'Server'
|
|
items (1612/5267),
|
|
<p>
|
|
- for server I added all that was available, <em>including</em> 6 'Server'
|
|
items (1708/5265).
|
|
|
|
Then I got an info, related to selecting following servers (?) on laptop:
|
|
<p>
|
|
cups, postfix, rwho, webmin
|
|
|
|
and on server box:
|
|
<p>
|
|
cups, openssh-server, postfix, proftpd, rwho, webmin, ypserv, bind and
|
|
nfs-utils.
|
|
|
|
Although I was confused about the 'servers' to be installed on a laptop,
|
|
I have accepted those things to be installed, considering them needed
|
|
for the proper installation of other packages.
|
|
|
|
The installation started ...
|
|
|
|
Interestingly, although the installation on the laptop was performed
|
|
directly from its DVD drive, the package installation process was
|
|
significantly faster on the server box. I suppose that was due the
|
|
difference in performances between server's SCSI disk and laptop's
|
|
IDE disk.
|
|
|
|
After that step was finished, and after entering a password for root, setup
|
|
asked to 'Enter a user' (an ordinary user). The difference between laptop
|
|
and server installation was that the latter offered some additional tasks
|
|
for the (ordinary) user:
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<verb>
|
|
- access to compilation tools (ctools)
|
|
- access to rpm tools (rpm)
|
|
- access to X programs (xgrp)
|
|
- access to network tools (ntools)
|
|
- access to administrative files (adm)
|
|
- allow "su" (wheel)
|
|
</verb>
|
|
|
|
... and that should be the same for other (new added) users.
|
|
|
|
Then laptop suggested to 'set up computer to automatically log on one user'.
|
|
I didn't accept such a solution because I wanted each user to enter his/her
|
|
password <em>every</em> time he/she is about to log on to the system.
|
|
|
|
On the other hand, server's setup skipped that particular step and asked
|
|
where to install the bootloader. I have chosen to use 'First sector of drive (MBR)'.
|
|
|
|
Soon after, a 'Summary' screen appeared, so I could fine tune the installation.
|
|
I changed the following items:
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<verb>
|
|
- timezone: Belgrade (both machines)
|
|
- Graphical Interface (reported as 'not configured' on the laptop? - I tried
|
|
with 'Flat Panel 1400 x 1050' because that resolution runs fine under
|
|
Windows), X server: Rage Mobility, XFree 4.3 and 16 million colors -
|
|
24 bits). On laptop, I chose XFree to start when I reboot. On server, it
|
|
offered 800 x 600 - due to a recognized monitor Samsung SyncMaster
|
|
510(M)s (CHA5807*) and card ATI Rage 128 and 16 bit - 65 thousand color.
|
|
- Sound card: laptop is ESS Technology|ES1983S Maestro-3i|PCI Audio and
|
|
server is Intel Corporation|ICH2 810 Chipset AC'97 Audio Controller.
|
|
- Network: with 'Use auto detection'. Results: on laptop it recognized 'LAN
|
|
connection - ethernet card(s) detected'; on server it recognized
|
|
nothing. So, on server I chose to configure 'LAN connection'.
|
|
Drivers are: 3c59x (laptop), eepro100 (server).
|
|
IP addresses for both laptop and server.
|
|
Host name: laptop, server, Gateway:
|
|
- Firewall: disabled (def.)
|
|
- Botloader: lilo-graphic on /dev/hda (laptop)
|
|
lilo-graphic on /dev/sda (server)
|
|
default boot: windows on /dev/hda2 (laptop)
|
|
windows on /dev/sda1 (server)
|
|
- Services: 32 activated for 47 registered (laptop)
|
|
24 activated for 60 registered (server)
|
|
</verb>
|
|
|
|
Soon after ...
|
|
|
|
<tt>Congratulations, installation is complete.</tt>
|
|
|
|
(reboot)
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<bf>Installation results</bf>
|
|
<p>
|
|
The next Windows boot made a screen 'System Settings Change': Windows
|
|
2000 has finished installing new devices. You must restart your computer
|
|
before the new settings will take effect. Do you want to restart
|
|
your computer now? Well, I said <Yes>
|
|
|
|
Windows' Disk Management has showed new Linux partitions:
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<verb>
|
|
- laptop: 5.85 GB Healthy \
|
|
Disk 0 495 MB Healthy - all 3 are logical drives within the extended one
|
|
27.95 GB 14.46 GB Healthy /
|
|
|
|
- server: 5.85 GB Healthy - primary partition
|
|
Disk 1 494 MB Healthy \
|
|
17.12 GB 10.79 GB Healthy - these 2 are logical drives within the extended one
|
|
</verb>
|
|
|
|
It seems that <tt>/boot</tt> and <tt>/swap</tt> partitions are very similar in size,
|
|
regardless the disk sizes, but <tt>/</tt> (root, home etc) partitions depend on
|
|
disk size. Note that at my 'laptop' box I used the same HD of 27.95 GB for both
|
|
Windows and Linux (for Windows 7.13 GB FAT32 of 27.95 GB available, the rest,
|
|
cca. 20 GB for Linux).
|
|
|
|
At the 'server' box I have two HD's of 17.12 GB each, and I used Disk 0 (the 1st
|
|
one) entirely for Windows 2000 Server, and Disk 1 (the 2nd one) entirely for Linux.
|
|
|
|
The first Mandrake Linux boot screen:
|
|
|
|
- laptop: a screen with only a name of a user (no root available!),
|
|
Reboot and Halt buttons.
|
|
|
|
- server: a screen with 'Enter Login', 'Enter Password' and 'Session type' (no
|
|
name of a user appeared).
|
|
|
|
First Time Wizard: Default KDE (both)
|
|
|
|
...
|
|
|
|
What about the Ctrl-Alt-Del action:
|
|
|
|
- laptop: a screen 'End Session for "username"' What do you want to do next?
|
|
Login as different user, Turn off computer, Restart computer, OK and Cancel
|
|
buttons.
|
|
|
|
- server: a screen 'End Session for "username"', Logout and Cancel buttons.
|
|
|
|
After choosing Login as different user (at laptop), or Logout (at server), what
|
|
appeared were the same screens as described in 'The first Mandrake Linux boot
|
|
screen' section.
|
|
|
|
Should you want to learn more about LILO (<bf/Li/nux <bf/Lo/ader), configured to
|
|
boot the systems in the examples above, you should refer to the
|
|
<url url="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LILO.html" name="LILO"> mini-HOWTO.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<bf>HP Vectra VL420 (workstation - desktop client)</bf>
|
|
|
|
As mentioned before, HP Vectra VL420 doesn't have a DVD drive (it
|
|
only has a CD drive), so the installation from that particular
|
|
DVD installation was not possible. But, an option of making
|
|
a bootable floppy disk for it was possible. In fact, several
|
|
boot images are available for those users who don't have
|
|
(bootable or not) DVD drive. One of the images was a 'network'
|
|
one. That means, in a local network there should be a NFS, FTP
|
|
or HTTP server from which the installation will take place.
|
|
As earlier explained, a Windows 2000 server machine (that I
|
|
earlier used for Mandrake Linux server installation), has HTTP
|
|
and FTP servers installed. That was good so I could use
|
|
one of them now.
|
|
|
|
So, I used the 'network' bootable floppy and booted Vectra VL420
|
|
with it. After a while, it came to a point to choose the installation
|
|
method (NFS or FTP or HTTP server). At first I wanted to use my
|
|
HTTP server but regardless of what permission I gave to 'Everyone'
|
|
I always got the answer from Linux installation program:
|
|
Error: Couldn't get file ...
|
|
|
|
Then I tried to use my FTP server (on the same Windows server)
|
|
and it also asked for IP local and remote addresses. Then it
|
|
started to load a part of the remote files into its memory.
|
|
Soon after, it came to the very same position as Omnibook 6000
|
|
did: it gets directly to the installation menu,
|
|
asking for choosing a language to use.
|
|
|
|
>From that point, the installation procedure was almost the same...
|
|
|
|
I have chosen/confirmed the following items:
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<verb>
|
|
- a language to use - besides English(American) I also added
|
|
Unicode and Serbian, both Cyrillic and Latin;
|
|
- a mouse and keyboard;
|
|
- a security level - default 'Standard';
|
|
</verb>
|
|
|
|
The next important point was to choose one of DrakX partitioning
|
|
options:
|
|
|
|
- At first I used the 'Use the free space on the Windows
|
|
partition' because it has one IDE hard disk and I wanted it to
|
|
use a part of it for Linux (besides existing Windows 2000 Prof.
|
|
already installed).
|
|
|
|
At the first moment, Linux setup complained that my Windows partition
|
|
"was too fragmented" and asked me to reboot under Windows, run
|
|
the "defrag" utility, then restart the Mandrake Linux installation.
|
|
After defragmentation process was finished, I tried once again the
|
|
'Use the free space on the Windows partition' but it wanted just
|
|
to 'shrink' Windows partition from cca. 30 gig to cca. 28 gig. Then
|
|
I used Partition Magic software and tried to shrink it to cca. 20 GB
|
|
in order to get more free space for Linux.
|
|
|
|
Than I tried 'Custom disk partitioning', chose the first IDE disk
|
|
(hda) of 27GB, chose action 'Resize'. That one option was not good
|
|
because it just offered Windows partition to get larger instead of
|
|
smaller than before. Finally I used 'Use the free space' and it
|
|
automatically made Linux partitions. In fact, on that one Vectra I
|
|
have two IDE disks, one of them having Windows 2000 Server
|
|
already installed, and the other one having Windows 2000 Prof. that
|
|
I wanted to use partly for Linux. After 'Done' it came to making
|
|
/dev/hda5 and /dev/hda7.
|
|
|
|
<bf>Package Group Selection</bf>
|
|
|
|
Per default, Mandrake installation offers the following:
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<verb>
|
|
- Office Workstation
|
|
- Internet Workstation
|
|
- KDE Workstation
|
|
- Gnome Workstation
|
|
</verb>
|
|
|
|
in sum, Total size 1009/5105 (client).
|
|
|
|
- for client I added everything else (1638/5105), excepting 6 'Server' items.
|
|
|
|
Then I got an info, related to selecting following server(s) on client:
|
|
<p>
|
|
cups, postfix, rwho, webmin
|
|
|
|
I have accepted those things to be installed.
|
|
|
|
The installation started ...
|
|
|
|
After that step was finished, and after entering password for root, setup
|
|
asked to 'Enter a user' (an ordinary user). The difference between client
|
|
and server installation was that the latter offered some additional tasks
|
|
for the user:
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<verb>
|
|
- access to compilation tools (ctools)
|
|
- access to rpm tools (rpm)
|
|
- access to X programs (xgrp)
|
|
- access to network tools (ntools)
|
|
- access to administrative files (adm)
|
|
- allow "su" (wheel)
|
|
</verb>
|
|
|
|
... and that would be the same for other (new added) users.
|
|
|
|
Then client suggested to 'set up computer to automatically log on one user'.
|
|
I didn't accept that because I wanted each user to enter his/her password
|
|
every time he/she is about to login to the system.
|
|
|
|
Soon after, a 'Summary' screen appeared, so I could tune the installation.
|
|
I changed the following items:
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<verb>
|
|
- timezone: Belgrade
|
|
- Graphical Interface: it offered 1280 x 1024 - due to a 'custom' monitor
|
|
and card NVIDIA GeForce2 DDR (generic) - 24 bit 16 million colors.
|
|
- Sound card: Intel Corporation|ICH2 810 Chipset AC'97 Audio Controller.
|
|
- Network: with 'Use auto detection'. Results: recognized nothing. So, I
|
|
chose to configure 'LAN connection'.
|
|
Driver is: eepro100.
|
|
IP address
|
|
Host name: client, Gateway:
|
|
- Firewall: disabled (def.)
|
|
- Botloader: lilo-graphic on /dev/hda
|
|
default boot: windows on /dev/hda1
|
|
- Services: 32 activated for 47 registered (the same as laptop)
|
|
</verb>
|
|
|
|
Soon after ...
|
|
|
|
<tt>Congratulations, installation is complete.</tt>
|
|
|
|
(reboot)
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<bf>Installation results (all 3 systems)</bf>
|
|
<p>
|
|
<verb>
|
|
- laptop options: windows, linux, failsafe, floppy;
|
|
- client options: windows, linux, linux-nonfb, failsafe, windows2, floppy
|
|
- server options: windows, linux, linux-nonfb, linux-secure, failsafe
|
|
</verb>
|
|
|
|
Notes:
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
- 'windows2' option at the client box is, in fact, Windows 2000
|
|
Server installation located on the second HD.
|
|
<p>
|
|
- Not sure why 'laptop' doesn't have 'linux-nonfb' <em>text</em> boot option,
|
|
although it looks like it boots to Linux in just like that mode (maybe it is a matter
|
|
of the laptop's LCD screen capabilities or something like that). On the other hand,
|
|
client and server differ in floppy and linux-secure options (perhaps as some
|
|
security measures or like).
|
|
<p>
|
|
- 'linux-secure' option at the server box may be a result of a 'Higher' security
|
|
level, that I have chosen at the beginning of the installation or, maybe, there are
|
|
some special server security features.
|
|
|
|
The next Windows boot made a screen 'System Settings Change': Windows 2000
|
|
has finished installing new devices. You must restart your computer
|
|
before the new settings will take effect. Do you want to restart
|
|
your computer now? Well, I said Yes.
|
|
|
|
Windows Disk Management has showed new Linux partitions
|
|
(comparison of 3 systems):
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<verb>
|
|
- laptop: 5.85 GB Healthy \
|
|
Disk 0 495 MB Healthy - all 3 are logical drives within the extended one
|
|
27.95 GB 14.46 GB Healthy /
|
|
|
|
- client: 5.68 GB Healthy \
|
|
Disk 0 494 MB Healthy - all 3 are logical drives within the extended one
|
|
37.28 GB 3.52GB Healthy / (same as laptop)
|
|
|
|
- server: 5.85 GB Healthy - primary partition
|
|
Disk 1 494 MB Healthy \
|
|
17.12 GB 10.79 GB Healthy - these two are logical drives within extended
|
|
</verb>
|
|
|
|
It seems that <tt>/boot</tt> and <tt>/swap</tt> partitions are very similar in size,
|
|
regardless the disk sizes, but <tt>/</tt> (root, home etc) partitions depend on disk
|
|
size. Note that at my 'client' box I used the same HD of 37.28 GB for both
|
|
Windows and Linux (for Windows 27.60 GB NTFS of 37.28 GB available, the rest,
|
|
cca. 10 GB for Linux).
|
|
|
|
At the 'server' box I have two HD's of 17.12 GB each, and I used Disk 0 (the 1st
|
|
one) entirely for Windows 2000 Server, and Disk 1 (the 2nd one) entirely for Linux.
|
|
That's why Mandrake setup allocated 'less' space for / at the larger disk (in fact,
|
|
at the 'server' box, it allocated relatively much more space for / even that HD
|
|
is smaller - because that HD is 'dedicated' for Linux only.
|
|
|
|
The first Mandrake Linux boot screen:
|
|
|
|
- laptop: a screen with only a name of a user (no root available!),
|
|
Reboot and Halt buttons.
|
|
|
|
- client: a screen with only a name of a user (no root available!),
|
|
Reboot and Halt buttons.
|
|
|
|
- server: a screen with 'Enter Login', 'Enter Password' and 'Session type' (no
|
|
name of a user appeared, but root may also login there!).
|
|
|
|
First Time Wizard: Default KDE (client, just like the others)
|
|
|
|
There is a difference between KDE screens at client and server: the client
|
|
VL420 offers 'CD-ROM mounted at /mnt/cdrom' and 'Floppy mounted at
|
|
/mnt/floppy' but server Vectra VL420 (having the same type of devices!) doesn't.
|
|
Besides that, if a flash storage is connected to a USB port, <em>before</em>
|
|
Linux being started, there will also appear an icon for it. Interestingly, at server
|
|
there's no something like that. I consider, that is also a matter of the difference
|
|
between the client and server types of Mandrake Linux installations, or maybe a
|
|
matter of some security measures for server-type installations. Whatever it is,
|
|
I see that as a shortage of confortable for Mandrake Linux servers. Case some
|
|
of you, the readers, has some workarounds on that issues, your contributions
|
|
are welcomed!
|
|
|
|
Besides that, KDE's Panel at client offers 'Mandrake Control Center - System
|
|
configuration tool' (although useful only under root privileges), and KDE's Panel
|
|
at server doesn't have that (in fact, an 'ordinary' user may access the same tool
|
|
from the Start Applications menu and, again, to use it after the root's password
|
|
entered). It makes me wonder why they at Mandrake did it like that. Maybe they
|
|
didn't want 'ordinary' users to access some configuration tools as easily ...
|
|
|
|
...
|
|
|
|
What about the Ctrl-Alt-Del:
|
|
|
|
- laptop: a screen 'End Session for "username"' What do you want to do next?
|
|
Login as different user, Turn off computer, Restart computer, OK and
|
|
Cancel buttons.
|
|
|
|
- client: a screen 'End Session for "username"' What do you want to do next?
|
|
Login as different user, Turn off computer, Restart computer, OK and
|
|
Cancel buttons.
|
|
|
|
- server: a screen 'End Session for "username"', Logout and Cancel buttons.
|
|
|
|
After choosing Login as different user what appeared were the same screen as
|
|
described in 'The first Mandrake Linux boot screen' section.
|
|
|
|
Should you want to learn more about LILO (<bf/Li/nux <bf/Lo/ader), configured to
|
|
boot the systems in the examples above, you should refer to the
|
|
<url url="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LILO.html" name="LILO"> mini-HOWTO.
|
|
|
|
There is also a difference between client and server behavior when it is about
|
|
to shutdown (halt) the system. A user is capable to halt the system even from
|
|
the login screen at client (that is not available at server). On the other hand,
|
|
a user has to know root password to halt the system at server.
|
|
|
|
<sect1>General issues with the Mandrake 9.1 Linux installation
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
A 'Network' bootable installation floppy should also be capable to reach
|
|
Mandrake installation files not only from NFS, FTP or HTTP servers, but
|
|
files that are copied to shared disks on machines within the local network.
|
|
When an image is called a 'Network' image, that means, IMHO, all kinds of
|
|
network locations should be accessible - NOT only those specific server-type
|
|
locations like NFS, FTP or HTTP servers. In fact, if a user in a local
|
|
network doesn't have NFS, FTP or HTTP servers, but has the installation
|
|
packages copied somewhere else on the LAN, there should be a way to
|
|
access those packages too.
|
|
|
|
The workstation-like installations do not offer a 'root' account to be used from
|
|
the graphical login window (I suppose that 'su' or 'sudo' actions are available
|
|
- I haven't tested them yet). That might be a problem in cases when a user
|
|
misconfigures his/her account and when the administrator has to login to the
|
|
system to fix that problem. At the moment, I am not sure how the administrator
|
|
could do that without having the 'root' login ability (perhaps using virtual text
|
|
consoles accessed with CTRL-ALT-F1, CTRL-ALT-F2 ... , then starting GUI
|
|
if needed, etc ...)
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<bf>Some issues <em>after</em> the Mandrake 9.1 Linux installation:</bf>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Talking about the behavior of Mandrake 9.1 - related to the type of installation
|
|
(a workstation or a workstation/server combination) - it seems that there are
|
|
some other differences. As already mentioned, on a workstation desktop there
|
|
are icons for CD and FD drives (although maybe not already being
|
|
<em>mounted</em> at the moment of the system boot). As well, if a USB flash
|
|
storage is connected to the USB port, there is also an icon of an <em>sda</em>
|
|
(SCSI ?) USB storage available. On the other hand, in case of workstation/server
|
|
installations - there are no icons of those devices at all. It seems that the server
|
|
installation considers that is better to live without these devices in case of a
|
|
server :-) Any comments are welcomed.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Related to writing and testing HOWTO's. I prefer to write a 'HOWTO' document
|
|
using a text editor and make it with a <tt>.sgml</tt> extension. Then I use the old,
|
|
good <tt>sgml2html</tt> tool to make HTML pages, in order to check how these
|
|
pages will look like. Well, that's OK under Red Hat 7.1 but under Mandrake 9.1 it
|
|
seems that I am not able to find the same tool. Any idea on that task?
|
|
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<sect>Linux accompanied with Windows 2000 and Windows XP
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
2005-10-09
|
|
|
|
<em>Recently I had a hard-disk failure and my more_than_a_year old
|
|
Linux/Windows 2000 home system disappeared. When considering what to
|
|
have on a new purchased disk, I decided to try Linux with both Windows
|
|
2000 and Windows XP.</em>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
In short, the new disk was of 40 GB and I made a half of it (20 GB)
|
|
a NTFS partition for Windows XP. It became so called C: disk. The
|
|
second partition of 10 GB (FAT32) became D: disk of Windows 2000. As
|
|
usual, you have to repeat installations of Microsoft products for
|
|
several times - before they even start behaving partly as you expect
|
|
from them. To be more precize, it looked that Windows 2000 had to be
|
|
installed <em>before</em> Windows XP, in order its boot entry got
|
|
a part of XP's list of boot entries (If I remember, I tried it the
|
|
opposite way and it didn't work).
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Then I used the remaining 10 GB to install Mandrake 9.1 (Bamboo) and
|
|
I made it without problems - The only minor issue was that a try of
|
|
disk-type installation where Linux files were placed on an existing
|
|
NTFS partition failed because Linux setup actually did not manage to
|
|
locate installation files on a NTFS partition. (That was why I made
|
|
Windows 2000 installation on a FAT32 file system - because later I
|
|
could use it for Mandrake 9.1 disk-type setup).
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
So far - so good. One of the main things I wanted to make working
|
|
within all three environments was the e-mail client. You bet, an another
|
|
open source solution was available: the Mozilla suite. For Windows
|
|
operating systems I used Mozilla 1.7.11 and for Linux I used Mozilla
|
|
1.6 (an older xft version - some newer ones I was not able to install).
|
|
And, as usual for me, I wanted all of them to share my mailbox files,
|
|
i.e. I wanted to access my incoming emails from all and each operating
|
|
system - booted at the time.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
In order to make that possible, I chose Mozilla under Windows 2000
|
|
(FAT32) to become the 'central location' for saving the mailbox files.
|
|
That means I had to make some changes within other two Mozilla's
|
|
configurations - to make them capable to read/write from/to the first
|
|
chosen mailbox location (FAT32). For Linux I did the following:
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Instead of keeping an 'original' Linux-native location:
|
|
<verb>
|
|
/home/misko/.mozilla/default/fydeba98.slt/Mail/solair.eunet.yu
|
|
</verb>
|
|
I changed to this mounted one:
|
|
<verb>
|
|
/mnt/win_d/Documents and Settings/misko/Application Data/Mozilla/Profiles/default/oeu1tmbd.slt/Mail/solair.eunet.yu
|
|
</verb>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
As a result of that change, now it is possible for me to download
|
|
email messages from within one O.S. - then to read them from another
|
|
O.S. - and finally reply/send the email from the 3rd one environment.
|
|
The only minor drawback is that each operating system is likely to
|
|
'remember' only its own last known state of Mozilla's Mail & Newsgroups.
|
|
In order to get a 'refreshed' state of e-mail folders, a user has to
|
|
click on a mailbox name. Another solution is to activate an option of
|
|
'Compact all folders ...'.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
What belongs to my 'wish-list' now, is to continue upgrading all
|
|
three Mozilla's (at least that old one v1.6 that runs under Mandrake).
|
|
It makes me wonder if I could use a 'regular' one (instead of xft's)
|
|
- although I remember that older regular's were producing awful fonts
|
|
under Linux environment. I am not sure if things got improved.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
The second important task is to install one of the most popular radio
|
|
amateur software, also an open-source, called LinFBB (FBB for Linux).
|
|
More details related to that you can find in another Linux manual: the
|
|
<url url="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/FBB.html"
|
|
name="FBB">HOWTO.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<sect>Bibliography
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
2010-07-18
|
|
|
|
<em>Notice: I often participate in various (inter)national ICT
|
|
conferences in Serbia and abroad, presenting technical papers and
|
|
delivering half-day and full-day tutorials, covering basic ideas
|
|
and useful mission of the amateur radio hobby and its possible
|
|
usage in engineering education. What I have been doing is to spread
|
|
- as much as possible - the knowledge about existing open source
|
|
products, including Linux and amateur radio free software. Besides
|
|
that, I have been writing various articles for a variety of scientific
|
|
and other magazines. Here you have the list of those articles and
|
|
paper topics submitted to the conferences.</em>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
In case you want to re-publish or forward my volunteer paper
|
|
works to some journals or other public media around, you are
|
|
free to contact me. Some of my papers are written in Serbian
|
|
Cyrillic, some of them are in English and some of them even
|
|
combined!
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
- "U prilog I.A.C.", MI (the youth scientists' organization
|
|
newspaper), No. 69, 1990.
|
|
|
|
- "U prilog I.A.C. (2)", MI (the youth scientists' organization
|
|
newspaper), No. 70, 1990.
|
|
|
|
- "Vise od radio-amaterskog hobija", Vojska, No. 163, 1995.
|
|
|
|
- "Korak ka zvezdama", Vojska, No. 200, 1996.
|
|
|
|
- "Die Gefahr von Innen - Internet gegen Amateurfunk",
|
|
AMSAT-DL Journal, No. 4, Dez./Feb. 96/97.
|
|
|
|
- "Kakva nam organizacija (ne) treba?", Radioamater,
|
|
Feb. 1997.
|
|
|
|
- "Kakva nam organizacija (ne) treba? (2)", Radioamater,
|
|
Apr./May. 1997.
|
|
|
|
- "Sateliti umiru padajuci", Vojska, No. 235, 1997.
|
|
|
|
- "The Internet is not the Enemy", QST, Aug. 1998.
|
|
|
|
- "Novi radio-amateri za novi vek", Antena, June 2000.
|
|
|
|
- "Racunarske komunikacije putem radio-veza i
|
|
zastita pristupa", Bezbednost, No. 3, 2000.
|
|
|
|
- "Paket-radio - Racunarske komunikacije putem radio-veza",
|
|
proceedings, "Info-Teh", Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia, 2001.
|
|
|
|
- "Racunarske komunikacije putem radio-amaterskih veza",
|
|
proceedings, "YU-Info", Kopaonik, Serbia, 2002.
|
|
|
|
- "Computer Communications over radio", presentation,
|
|
"Linux FEST", Belgrade, Serbia, 2002.
|
|
|
|
- "Paket-radio - Radio-amaterske digitalne veze",
|
|
proceedings, "Kongres JISA", Herceg Novi, Montenegro, 2002.
|
|
|
|
- "Paket-radio (2) - Modemi za radio-veze",
|
|
proceedings, "Info-Teh", Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia, 2002.
|
|
|
|
- "Alternativne racunarske mreze", festival catalog,
|
|
"INFOFEST", Budva, Montenegro, 2002.
|
|
|
|
- "Alternative computer networks", proceedings, "TELFOR",
|
|
Belgrade, Serbia, 2002.
|
|
|
|
- "With rule and regulation improvements to the progress"
|
|
proceedings, "TELFOR", Belgrade, Serbia, 2002.
|
|
|
|
- "Racunarske komunikacije putem radio-amaterskih veza (2)",
|
|
proceedings, "YU-Info", Kopaonik, Serbia, 2003.
|
|
|
|
- "Racunarske komunikacije putem radio-amaterskih veza (3)",
|
|
proceedings, "YU-Info", Kopaonik, Serbia, 2003.
|
|
|
|
- "Paket-radio (3) - Programske mogucnosti na strani servera",
|
|
proceedings, "Info-Teh", Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia, 2003.
|
|
|
|
- "Paket-radio (4) - Legal rules and regulations in the amateur
|
|
computer networks", proceedings, "Info-Teh", Vrnjacka Banja,
|
|
Serbia, 2003.
|
|
|
|
- "Packet-radio (2) - With rule and regulation improvements to the progress",
|
|
proceedings, "Kongres JISA", Herceg Novi, Montenegro, 2003.
|
|
|
|
- "Alternativne racunarske mreze (2)", festival catalog,
|
|
"INFOFEST", Budva, Montenegro, 2003.
|
|
|
|
- "Alternativne racunarske komunikacije putem radio-veza",
|
|
Info M, 6-7/2003.
|
|
|
|
- "Legal Rules and Regulations in the Amateur Radio Computer Networks",
|
|
proceedings, "22nd ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference",
|
|
Hartford, CT USA, 2003.
|
|
|
|
- "Favoritism", IEEE Potentials, Oct/Nov 2003
|
|
|
|
- "Alternative computer networks (2)", proceedings, "TELFOR",
|
|
Belgrade, Serbia, 2003.
|
|
|
|
- "With rule and regulation improvements to the progress (2)"
|
|
proceedings, "TELFOR", Belgrade, Serbia, 2003.
|
|
|
|
- "XI Telekomunikacioni forum - TELFOR 2003", Info M, 8/2003.
|
|
|
|
- "Aktivnosti organizacije IEEE Computer Society - YU Chapter"
|
|
Info M, 8/2003.
|
|
|
|
- "Yugoslavia IEEE Student Branch", IEEE Region 8 News,
|
|
Vol. 7 No. 1, Feb/Mar 2004
|
|
|
|
- "Radio-amaterske racunarske mreze", tutorial, "Info-Teh",
|
|
Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia, 2004.
|
|
|
|
- "Radio-amaterske racunarske mreze", tutorial, "Kongres
|
|
JISA", Herceg Novi, Montenegro, 2004.
|
|
|
|
- "The Amateur Radio as a Learning Technology in
|
|
Developing Countries", proceedings, "ICALT/TEDC 2004",
|
|
Joensuu, Finland, 2004.
|
|
|
|
- "The Amateur Radio in Engineering Education", seminar,
|
|
"IEEE-EESTEC Technical Conference 2004", Arcavacata
|
|
di Rende (Cosenza), Italy, 2004.
|
|
|
|
- "The Conference Low-Down", IEEE Potentials, Feb/Mar 2005
|
|
|
|
- "ICALT 2004, IEEE Novi Sad SB, Serbia & Montenegro",
|
|
IEEE Region 8 News, Vol. 8 No. 1, Mar 2005
|
|
|
|
- "The Conference Low-Down", IEEE Potentials, Apr/May 2005
|
|
|
|
- "The Amateur Radio Networking And Computing", proceedings,
|
|
"PSU-UNS ICEE 2005", Novi Sad, Serbia, 2005
|
|
|
|
- "Radio-amaterske racunarske mreze", tutorial, "Info-Teh",
|
|
Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia, 2005 (intro: dr D. Surla, PMF)
|
|
|
|
- "Radio-veze", round table session, "Kongres JISA", Herceg
|
|
Novi, Montenegro, 2005.
|
|
|
|
- "The New Amateur Radio University Network - AMUNET",
|
|
proceedings, "9th WSEAS CSCC Multiconference",
|
|
Vouliagmeni, Athens, Greece, 2005.
|
|
|
|
- "The perspectives of the Amateur University Network -
|
|
AMUNET", WSEAS Transactions on Communications, Vol 4,
|
|
pp 834, Sep. 2005.
|
|
|
|
- "Conferences in Serbia and Montenegro", IEEE Region 8 News,
|
|
Vol. 8 No. 3, Sep 2005.
|
|
|
|
- "The Conference Low-Down", IEEE Potentials, Dec 2005
|
|
|
|
- "Divided We Fall", The Institute, IEEE, Dec 2005
|
|
|
|
- "University Networking Through the Amateur Radio Communications",
|
|
plenary lecture, "3rd WSEAS/IASME Int. Conf. on Engineering
|
|
Education", Vouliagmeni, Athens, Greece, 2006.
|
|
|
|
- "The New Amateur Radio University Network - AMUNET (Part 2)",
|
|
proceedings, "10th WSEAS CSCC Multiconference",
|
|
Vouliagmeni, Athens, Greece, 2006.
|
|
|
|
- "University Networking Through the Amateur Radio Communications",
|
|
tutorial, "10th WSEAS CSCC Multiconference",
|
|
Vouliagmeni, Athens, Greece, 2006.
|
|
|
|
- "Education in Peril", The Institute, IEEE, Sep 2006
|
|
|
|
- "The Conference Low-Down", IEEE Potentials, Dec 2006
|
|
|
|
- "Amateur Radio in Engineering Education", tutorial, "Info-Teh",
|
|
Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia, 2007.
|
|
|
|
- "Paket-radio (5) - Programske mogucnosti na strani klijenta",
|
|
proceedings, "Info-Teh", Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia, 2007.
|
|
|
|
- "Summer Schools on the Amateur Radio Computing", proceedings,
|
|
"12th Annual Conference on Innovation & Technology in Computer
|
|
Science Education", ACM ITiCSE 2007, Dundee, Scotland, 2007.
|
|
|
|
- "Amateur Radio in Engineering Education", tutorial, "EUROCON",
|
|
Warsaw, Poland, 2007.
|
|
|
|
- "Bringing New Life in Old Computers", proceedings, "26th ARRL
|
|
and TAPR Digital Communications Conference", Hartford, CT USA,
|
|
2007.
|
|
|
|
- "The Conference Low-Down", IEEE Potentials, Sep/Oct 2007
|
|
|
|
- "My trip to Eurocon - a member's view", IEEE Region 8 News,
|
|
Vol. 10 No. 3, Dec 2007.
|
|
|
|
- "Amateur Radio in Engineering Education", tutorial, "Info-Teh",
|
|
Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia, 2008.
|
|
|
|
- "Paket-radio (6) - Privatnost podataka i zastita ucesnika u
|
|
radio-amaterskim mrezama", proceedings, "Info-Teh", Vrnjacka
|
|
Banja, Serbia, 2008.
|
|
|
|
- "Amateur Radio in Engineering Education",
|
|
tutorial, "5th WSEAS/IASME Int. Conf. on Engineering
|
|
Education", Heraklion, Crete, Greece, 2008.
|
|
|
|
- "The New Amateur Radio University Network - AMUNET (Part 3)",
|
|
proceedings, "12th WSEAS CSCC Multiconference",
|
|
Heraklion, Crete, Greece, 2008.
|
|
|
|
- "Amateur Radio Telecommunications and Networking in Education",
|
|
tutorial, "IARIA ICWMC 2008", Vouliagmeni, Athens, Greece, 2008.
|
|
|
|
- "The Conference Low-Down", IEEE Potentials, Sep/Oct 2008
|
|
|
|
- "Amateur Radio in Engineering Education", workshop,
|
|
"TELFOR", Belgrade, Serbia, 2008.
|
|
|
|
- "Amateur Radio: More than a hobby!", tutorial,
|
|
"IAENG IMECS 2009", Hong Kong, China, 2009.
|
|
|
|
- "Wasted Gear", IEEE Computer, Feb 2009
|
|
|
|
- "Amateur Radio: More than a hobby!", tutorial,
|
|
"6th WSEAS/IASME Int. Conf. on Engineering Education",
|
|
Rodos, Greece, 2009.
|
|
|
|
- "The New Amateur Radio University Network - AMUNET (Part 4)",
|
|
proceedings, "13th WSEAS CSCC Multiconference",
|
|
Rodos, Greece, 2009.
|
|
|
|
- "Amateur Radio in Education", book chapter in "Handbook of
|
|
Research on Human Performance and Instructional Technology",
|
|
ISBN: 978-1-60566-782-9, October 2009
|
|
|
|
- "Surveillance as a service", IEEE Computer, Dec 2009
|
|
|
|
- "Amateur Radio: More than a hobby!", tutorial, IEEE
|
|
"ICACT 2010", Phoenix Park, Korea, 2010.
|
|
|
|
- "Amateur Radio: More than a hobby!", tutorial, DIRF
|
|
"NDT 2010", Prague, Czech Republic, 2010.
|
|
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Besides the published articles and presented works, I am also a member
|
|
of the following associations: IEEE Computer Society, IEEE Communications
|
|
Society, WSEAS and ACM. In addition, I work on establishing an academic
|
|
computer network that would use the amateur radio stations as the media.
|
|
Some kinds of proposed networks exist elsewhere on this planet and I
|
|
invite their administrators to contact me in order to cooperate.
|
|
|
|
|
|
<sect>Further information
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<sect1>Copyright
|
|
<p>
|
|
Copyright (c) 2000-2010 by Miroslav "Misko" Skoric, YT7MPB.
|
|
<p>
|
|
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
|
|
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any
|
|
later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
|
|
Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy
|
|
of the license is available from
|
|
<url url="http://www.fsf.org/licenses/fdl.html">.
|
|
|
|
<sect1>Disclaimer
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
Use the information in this document at your own risk. I disavow any
|
|
potential liability for the contents of this document. Use of the
|
|
concepts, examples, and/or other content of this document is entirely
|
|
at your own risk.
|
|
|
|
All copyrights are owned by their owners, unless specifically noted
|
|
otherwise. Use of a term in this document should not be regarded as
|
|
affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.
|
|
|
|
Naming of particular products or brands should not be seen as endorsements.
|
|
|
|
You are strongly recommended to take a backup of your system before
|
|
major installation and backups at regular intervals.
|
|
|
|
<sect1>News
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
This is not the first release of this mini-HOWTO. I
|
|
hope to improve it whenever possible. Besides that,
|
|
there are other documents that may help you to
|
|
install more than one operating system on the same computer.
|
|
You may look for them at the same location where you get
|
|
Linux+WindowsNT mini-HOWTO.
|
|
|
|
<em>This mini-HOWTO would be improved from time
|
|
to time. If you think that the HOWTO on your
|
|
Linux installation CD is some out-of-date, you
|
|
may check for newest release on the Internet. It
|
|
could be found within the main <url
|
|
url="http://www.tldp.org/"
|
|
name="Linux Documentation Project"> or some of its
|
|
mirrors.
|
|
</em>
|
|
|
|
<sect1>Credits
|
|
<p>
|
|
<em>This version of Linux+WinNT mini-HOWTO is based on:</em>
|
|
|
|
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
The Linux+WindowsNT mini-HOWTO
|
|
by Bill Wohler, wohler@newt.com
|
|
v1.1, 19 February 1997
|
|
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
|
|
Credit also goes to:
|
|
|
|
<tscreen><verb>
|
|
Dragomir Kalaba, a local Linux 'guru'
|
|
</verb></tscreen>
|
|
|
|
|
|
Any comments or suggestions can be mailed to my email address:
|
|
skoric at eunet dot rs
|
|
|
|
<sect1>HOWTO
|
|
<p>
|
|
<nidx>disk!information resources!HOWTOs</nidx>
|
|
These are intended as the primary starting points to
|
|
get the background information as well as show you how to solve
|
|
a specific problem.
|
|
Some relevant HOWTOs are <tt/Bootdisk/, <tt/Installation/, <tt/SCSI/ and <tt/UMSDOS/.
|
|
The main site for these is the
|
|
<url url="http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/"
|
|
name="LDP archive">
|
|
at Metalab (formerly known as Sunsite).
|
|
|
|
<sect1>Mini-HOWTO
|
|
<p>
|
|
<nidx>disk!information resources!mini-HOWTOs</nidx>
|
|
These are the smaller free text relatives to the HOWTOs.
|
|
Some relevant mini-HOWTOs are
|
|
<tt/Backup-With-MSDOS/, <tt/Diskless/, <tt/LILO/, <tt/Large Disk/,
|
|
<tt/Linux+DOS+Win95+OS2/, <tt/Linux+OS2+DOS/, <tt/Linux+Win95/,
|
|
<tt/Linux+WindowsNT/, <tt/Linux+NT-Loader/, <tt/NFS-Root/,
|
|
<tt/Win95+Win+Linux/, <tt/ZIP Drive/, <tt/FBB packet-radio BBS/.
|
|
You can find these at the same place as the HOWTOs, usually in a sub directory
|
|
called <tt/mini/. Note that these are scheduled to be converted into SGML and
|
|
become proper HOWTOs in the near future.
|
|
|
|
<sect1>Local Resources
|
|
<p>
|
|
<nidx>disk!information resources!local</nidx>
|
|
In most distributions of Linux there is a document directory installed,
|
|
have a look in the
|
|
<htmlurl url="file:///usr/doc"
|
|
name="/usr/doc"> directory.
|
|
where most packages store their main documentation and README files etc.
|
|
Also you will here find the HOWTO archive (
|
|
<htmlurl url="file:///usr/doc/HOWTO"
|
|
name="/usr/doc/HOWTO">)
|
|
of ready formatted HOWTOs
|
|
and also the mini-HOWTO archive (
|
|
<url url="file:///usr/doc/HOWTO/mini"
|
|
name="/usr/doc/HOWTO/mini">)
|
|
of plain text documents.
|
|
|
|
Many of the configuration files mentioned earlier can be found in the
|
|
<htmlurl url="file:///etc"
|
|
name="/etc">
|
|
directory. In particular you will want to work with the
|
|
<htmlurl url="file:///etc/fstab"
|
|
name="/etc/fstab">
|
|
file that sets up the mounting of partitions
|
|
and possibly also
|
|
<htmlurl url="file:///etc/mdtab"
|
|
name="/etc/mdtab">
|
|
file that is used for the <tt/md/ system to set up RAID.
|
|
|
|
The kernel source in
|
|
<url url="file:///usr/src/linux"
|
|
name="/usr/src/linux">
|
|
is, of course, the ultimate documentation. In other
|
|
words, <em>use the source, Luke</em>.
|
|
It should also be pointed out that the kernel comes not only with
|
|
source code which is even commented (well, partially at least)
|
|
but also an informative
|
|
<url url="file:///usr/src/linux/Documentation"
|
|
name="documentation directory">.
|
|
If you are about to ask any questions about the kernel you should
|
|
read this first, it will save you and many others a lot of time
|
|
and possibly embarrassment.
|
|
|
|
Also have a look in your system log file (
|
|
<htmlurl url="file:///var/log/messages"
|
|
name="/var/log/messages">)
|
|
to see what is going on and in particular how the booting went if
|
|
too much scrolled off your screen. Using <tt>tail -f /var/log/messages</tt>
|
|
in a separate window or screen will give you a continuous update of what is
|
|
going on in your system.
|
|
|
|
You can also take advantage of the
|
|
<htmlurl url="file:///proc"
|
|
name="/proc">
|
|
file system that is a window into the inner workings of your system.
|
|
Use <tt/cat/ rather than <tt/more/ to view the files as they are
|
|
reported as being zero length. Reports are that <tt/less/ works well here.
|
|
|
|
<sect1>Web Pages
|
|
<p>
|
|
<nidx>disk!information resources!WWW</nidx>
|
|
<nidx>disk!information resources!web pages</nidx>
|
|
There is a huge number of informative web pages out there and by their very
|
|
nature they change quickly so don't be too surprised if these links become
|
|
quickly outdated.
|
|
|
|
A good starting point is of course the
|
|
<url url="http://www.linuxdoc.org/" name="Linux Documentation Project">
|
|
home page, or this one: <url url="http://www.tldp.org/" name="Linux
|
|
Documentation Project"> an information central for documentation, project
|
|
pages and much, much more.
|
|
|
|
Please let me know if you have any other leads that can be of interest.
|
|
|
|
|
|
<sect>Getting help
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<nidx>(your index root)!assistance, obtaining</nidx>
|
|
|
|
In the end you might find yourself unable to solve your problems and need
|
|
help from someone else. The most efficient way is either to ask someone
|
|
local or in your nearest Linux user group, search the web for the nearest
|
|
one.
|
|
|
|
Another possibility is to ask on Usenet News in one of the many, many
|
|
newsgroups available. The problem is that these have such a high
|
|
volume and noise (called low signal-to-noise ratio) that your question
|
|
can easily fall through unanswered.
|
|
|
|
No matter where you ask it is important to ask well or you will not be
|
|
taken seriously. Saying just <it/my disk does not work/ is not going
|
|
to help you and instead the noise level is increased even further and if
|
|
you are lucky someone will ask you to clarify.
|
|
|
|
Instead describe your problems in some detail that
|
|
will enable people to help you. The problem could lie somewhere you did
|
|
not expect. Therefore you are advised to list up the following information
|
|
on your system:
|
|
|
|
<descrip>
|
|
<tag/Hardware/
|
|
<itemize>
|
|
<item>Processor
|
|
<item>DMA
|
|
<item>IRQ
|
|
<item>Chip set (LX, BX etc)
|
|
<item>Bus (ISA, VESA, PCI etc)
|
|
<item>Expansion cards used (Disk controllers, video, IO etc)
|
|
</itemize>
|
|
|
|
<tag/Software/
|
|
<itemize>
|
|
<item>BIOS (On motherboard and possibly SCSI host adapters)
|
|
<item>LILO, if used
|
|
<item>Linux kernel version as well as possible modifications and patches
|
|
<item>Kernel parameters, if any
|
|
<item>Software that shows the error (with version number or date)
|
|
</itemize>
|
|
|
|
<tag/Peripherals/
|
|
<itemize>
|
|
<item>Type of disk drives with manufacturer name, version and type
|
|
<item>Other relevant peripherals connected to the same busses
|
|
</itemize>
|
|
|
|
</descrip>
|
|
|
|
Remember that booting text is logged to <tt>/var/log/messages</tt> which can
|
|
answer most of the questions above. Obviously if the drives fail you might not
|
|
be able to get the log saved to disk but you can at least scroll back up the
|
|
screen using the <tt/SHIFT/ and <tt/PAGE UP/ keys. It may also be useful to
|
|
include part of this in your request for help but do not go overboard, keep
|
|
it <em/brief/ as a complete log file dumped to Usenet News is more than a
|
|
little annoying.
|
|
|
|
</article>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|