This is part of The Pile, a partial archive of some open source mailing lists and newsgroups.
Subject: Re: RH 6.1 install ( S3 video/ Apple monitor) From: Rick Forrester <rickf@crow.jpl.nasa.gov> Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 15:24:00 -0800 sparsi@us.ibm.com said: > well, that's part of the problem. I'm trying to do this the easy way ( > boot off floppy, install from CD ), but GNOME install and Custom > install ( in GUI mode ) do an auto-detect of the S3 ( no option to > choose otherwise). Haven't tried others ( KDE), but I'd assume the > video-detect is the same routine. Maybe I should try RH 5.2 ( at least > that gave option to select lowest common denominator). Easy enough to do with 6.1. One of my installations is on a laptop; XConfigurator in _ANY_ release of RH has no vert/horiz rates which are acceptable & they all hang. So the proper step here is to select the best possible fit during the install, then select the "Skip test" option rather than trying it out. I usually use the text based expert install, also, as I find fewest problems that way. Then, as I said, I run XF86Setup. rickf > Rick Forrester <rickf@crow.jpl.nasa.gov> on 11/10/99 02:16:13 PM > Given your problems with the monitor/video chip set, have you tried > installing the vga16 & XF86Setup rpm's from the distro? If not, give > it a go. Often a bit easier for getting started. === Subject: Re: Some basic installation questions From: Rick Forrester <rickf@crow.jpl.nasa.gov> Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:45:02 -0800 nel74@ihug.com.au said: > As I wait for my rh6.1 cd to arrive in the mail I have a few questions > about the installation. I have decided to use my second IDE drive > which is 1.6 GB in space for redhat, but I am unsure on how I should > partition it up. Do I just stick everything into one partition and > have a separate one for swap space? I read somewhere that I should > have separate partitions for /etc, /var, /usr, /tmp, /home for > security reasons. How much disk space would I assign to each > directory? Bear in mind I wouldn't have anymore than 5 users on my > machine. Also, how do I tell the setup that I have separate partitions > for /etc, /var, etc... ? I thought the setup program wacks it all into > the one partition, no questions asked. Nelson, You're going to get many suggestions that vary from "first make 20 partitions, with (a) this big and (b) that big and ... Which, for a new user, is silly. Unless you have detailed knowledge of your own uses of your system, and how much space you need for the different primary directories, don't bother with this. Security is more a matter of how you handle your system overall, rather than how many partitions you may happen to have. The general pattern I suggest to new users is this: create three partitions. Depending on the amount of space you have available, the following should put you in the ballpark: Partition Size / <everything left, minimum of 600 Mb> swap space <a good rough cut is that if you have < 64Mb RAM make swap = 64Mb. If you have 64 Mb or more RAM, I generally make swap = RAM. If, for some project, you need more swap space on a temp basis you can create a swap file. /home <roughly 200 - 250 Mb suggested. Less will work.> I also generally suggest that you create your /home partition at the end of free disk space, your / partition at the beginning, and your swap in the middle. The "why" here goes to the reason for this pattern of partitioning; if you need to reinstall (a not infrequent activity for newbies! 8^D ) you can archive anything you need to save, such as configuration files, downloads, etc., on the /home partition. Then, when you reinstall, just tell the installer where to mount the partition (/home) but tell it _NOT_ to format the partition. Then when you reboot all your archived files will still be there. If your disk has more than 1024 cylinders, and the / partition will extend beyond cylinder 1023, you will need to use a slightly different setup: Partition Size /boot 10-16Mb / <as large as possible> swap space <as before> /home <as before> This will keep your kernel/boot image below the 1023 cylinder, and working properly. === Subject: RE: RH6.1 install blues From: "mgalgoci@redhat.com" <mgalgoci@redhat.com> Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 23:43:05 +0000 (UTC) > From: Alan Mead [mailto:adm@ipat.com] > Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 1999 2:49 PM > To: rwhartung@home.com; redhat-list@redhat.com > Subject: Re: RH6.1 install blues > > At 10:05 PM 12/6/99 -0600, Bob Hartung wrote: > >Okay, I don't get it. RH is worth mucho dinero. RH 6.1 is > >released with a broken installer. So I download the new > >boot image boot-RHEA-1999_044.img from the errata at > >redhat.com and make the diskette image with dd etc. I boot > >with this diskette and choose KDE workstation to keep it > >simple. > > What do I get? Gnome of course. The kde files seem to be > >loaded but the old "usekde" file is not found. > > Does anyone have any insight? Right now my office is > >giggling uncontrollably. Linux is now confirmed as > >difficult if not impossible to install by those I work with. > >[I have installed 5.2 & 6.0 on numerous machines without > >this kind of problems]. > > I don't know about a broken installer, I ordered the $30 version from RH > and installed it on two machines without a hitch. I always install Gnome > and KDE; that seems simple to me. > > On the other hand, I've sunk all day trying to get NT and then Win95 to > install a stable OS on a single machine. How I'd love to just do Linux.... On Tue, 7 Dec 1999, David H. wrote: > I just re-installed a RH6.1 sys last night, and I didn't even select GNOME > for the install, yet, what do I get when I boot it up and run startx? > GNOME...... what's up with that? Do this: echo prefered=kde > /etc/sysconfig/desktop Then, change runlevels or reboot the machine. It's a gotcha. === Subject: Re: impossible to install rh 6.1??? From: Bernhard Rosenkraenzer <bero@redhat.de> Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 18:34:49 +0100 (CET) On Wed, 8 Dec 1999, Mel wrote: > as to the expert-modus: sooner or later this modus (dont ask me why) > ends up in a white screen, probably rh trying to run a gui. the > grahpical-installation, of course, i can forget as well, cos there are > simply no drivers for my graphic-card available. Try running the text based install (enter "text" at the boot prompt), or the expert text based install (enter "text expert"). Also, please give me some more details on your hardware - I haven't seen keyboard lockups like the one you mentioned before. By any chance, is the keyboard using an internal USB bus or the likes? === Subject: Re: impossible to install rh 6.1??? From: "mgalgoci@redhat.com" <mgalgoci@redhat.com> Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 17:41:02 +0000 (UTC) On Wed, 8 Dec 1999, Mel wrote: > i wonder if someone could help me out. > i have a notebook and want to install rh6.1. > the problem is that i cant access the installation program > cos it doesnt recognize my keyboard, that is to say i dont > get over the first dialog-box. before, i am asked to > choose a language for the installation process (that time > the keyboard works fine), i chose german, and after that i > shall choose the language for the keyboard. believe me > guys i tried all of them, but i dont get over that next > dialog-box... > as to the expert-modus: sooner or later this modus (dont > ask me why) ends up in a white screen, probably rh trying > to run a gui. the grahpical-installation, of course, i can > forget as well, cos there are simply no drivers for my > graphic-card available. > so pleeeezzzee if someone can help me out, let me know! What kind of laptop is this? It wouldn't happen to be a toshiba, would it? Also, try pressing the shift key in rappid succession before and during the boot process. I am not kidding :) === Subject: re: impossible to install rh6.1??? From: Bernhard Rosenkraenzer <bero@redhat.de> Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 20:22:30 +0100 (CET) On Wed, 8 Dec 1999, Mel wrote: > 1.) graphical > -ends up directly in a white screen, dont ask me why. Seems your graphics card doesn't work with XFree86. Once the system is installed, you can try the framebuffer driver, which should work. > 2.) expert > - i am asked to insert the drivers-disk. what drivers disk? You can use the PCMCIA disk here, if you need PCMCIA support during installation. > by clicking <continue> i > end up in a white screen... (uuhh, this is really strange, i know) It's normal - at that point, the expert mode installer tries to switch to X. You might want to try expert text mode, the "4." you missed. But I don't see how it could change anything about the keyboard. > 3.) text > - first i am asked to choose a language for the installation process, i > choose german. next thing: i shall choose a language for the keyboard > (notice: NOT the type of keyboard i am using, for example PS/2, just the > language). i tried them all: de, de latin1, de nodeadkeys, us, ..... > then another dialog-box appears, saying blablabla, but i cannot click the > ok-button, cos my keyboard does not show any kind of reaction. Can you boot into rescue mode? (The rescue disk image for Red Hat Linux 6.1 can be found at ftp://people.redhat.com/bero/rescue-6.1/rescue.img) Does the keyboard work there? I presume you already tried the updated installer images from updates.redhat.com? > bernard: i