this is the thread where you bitch about what a shit program NERO is

"really cool" :P

take your broked thing to kfc. when you say pleased. hell put it all
backed together jusd like a smart won doods it. hes smart becos
he knows about the secret ingreedint. and no wons else. i know becos
i saw onned teev woncetime. he got the big prize. and some candy too. then he got to pretty talk about his learnings. putted a littel candy inned his chewding mouth too. and talk more too. peepol got to clapped there hands too. one man said to the other clapping wons. im having a fun time jusd becos kfc knows things. a woman said the same thing. kfc ated upped more candy till it was gone. and dooded a bow. then they clapped even harder. and kfc clapped too. if kfc dooded the fix upped fored the littel box. would you clap hands too. i bet.

what is ilxor?

"pretty talk about learnings. putted a little candy in chewding mouth too"

i dont really get the 'burn image' thing cos i is fick - to duplicate a CD i just re-place the desired files/folders in the window every time, hmm

You think you had a hard time with an ISO file? Try copying a Sega Saturn image, then we'll see just how much you can whine.

i'm so happy to see a new kfc installment :-)

when you use any of the filters on an audio cd, it will get a buffer underrun unless you click the 'calculate audio filters on the fly' box. i wasted many cds before figuing that out. why not just automatically enable that when somebody has used the filters??

anyway, i made the cds and now i have a redhat installation dual booting with xp. and i was successful in making the nt bootloader see the linux boot info. next problem: linux isn't seeing either my modem or ethernet card. any ideas?? (i have no linux knowledge, i'm kind of flying blind in there)

Is it really called Nero because it fiddles while the CD burns?

> linux isn't seeing either my modem or ethernet card. any ideas??

is it an internal modem? linux probably won't like it if it is. they don't call them winmodems for nothing.

the dmesg command will show you what it's doing during bootup, it's in there that you can see it failing to find your modem and network card. what modem and network card do you have? have you looked them up in linux hardware compatability lists?

andy

nero fiddles as ROM burns.

oh my sides

get toast with or without jam, it works

A lot of internal modems are Windows-only. Some Lucent ones have Linux drivers, though. Old-fashioned external serial-port modems don't need a driver; you just talk to them through the serial port as if it was a terminal

(the DOS COM1-COM4 ports are normally called /dev/ttyS0 - /dev/ttyS3)

The Ethernet card: you probably need to find out the chipset then load a kernel driver module. If it's a PCI card then the 'file' /proc/pci will hopefully have some useful information. If it's an old ISA card, then look in /proc/isapnp instead. The documentation for all the various drivers should be in /usr/src/linux/Documentation/networking. Each driver might be compiled into the kernel already, or might be available as a kernel module. If you think it's been compiled into the kernel, use 'dmesg' to look at the kernel boot messages and try to find errors. If it's been installed as a module, use '/sbin/insmod [module-name]' to load it. If you can't find the module (network drivers are usually stored in '/lib/modules/[kernel-version]/kernel/drivers/net', I think), you will probably need to reconfigure and rebuild your kernel.

(I know this is probably a mass of confusing, contradictory information, but I hope it's useful. Feel free to ask for clarification).

What kind of files are you trying to burn Ron?

Only explorer won't read AKAI sample discs, just in case that's what you were burning ;)

I think this thread is cute. It puts me in mind of quilting bees.

thanks for the helps guys. i will dive into this at some point. maybe tonight. as far as i can tell/remember, there is no /dev/eth0 so i fear it's more than a driver problem. i think i will focus on the ethernet first, since that's what i really want to have working anyway, and you say the modem might be a real bastard.

i'm looking at a few websites for info as well, and i found some documentation on the ethernet drivers disk. there are drivers on it for linux, and instructions for installing to redhat 5.x. i would assume redhat 8.0 would work very similarly (i hope!!) it said to download some files that aren't at the specified url anymore, but one of them is tulip, which as far as i can tell should be already included in this distribution.

btw chris i was burning the redhat disks

thx again andy and caitlin

quilting bees? :-)

my oh my, i am fairly useless once i get into the linux. it took me forever to figure out how to look on the floppy drive

i spent a while looking at the dmesg, trying to figure out where it was talking about the ethernet card. i couldn't really identify it :(

i'm gonna post it even though its long and maybe someone has some ideas.

i had no luck so far with any of the things i was supposed to try

[ron@localhost ron]$ dmesg
Linux version 2.4.18-14 ([email protected]) (gcc version 3.2
20020903 (Red Hat Linux 8.0 3.2-7)) #1 Wed Sep 4 13:35:50 EDT 2002
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009e800 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000009e800 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000001fffc000 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000001fffc000 - 000000001ffff000 (ACPI data)
BIOS-e820: 000000001ffff000 - 0000000020000000 (ACPI NVS)
BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec01000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000fee00000 - 00000000fee01000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000ffff0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
0MB HIGHMEM available.
511MB LOWMEM available.
On node 0 totalpages: 131068
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 126972 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=linux ro BOOT_FILE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-14
hdc=ide-scsi root=LABEL=/
ide_setup: hdc=ide-scsi
Initializing CPU#0
Detected 1816.142 MHz processor.
Speakup v-1.00 CVS: Tue Jun 11 14:22:53 EDT 2002 : initialized
Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
Calibrating delay loop... 3609.95 BogoMIPS
Memory: 511452k/524272k available (1326k kernel code, 10252k reserved, 999k data
, 212k init, 0k highmem)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
ramfs: mounted with options:
ramfs: max_pages=64203 max_file_pages=0 max_inodes=0 max_dentries=64203
Buffer cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
CPU: Before vendor init, caps: 3febfbff 00000000 00000000, vendor = 0
CPU: L1 I cache: 0K, L1 D cache: 8K
CPU: L2 cache: 256K
CPU: After vendor init, caps: 3febfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000
Intel machine check architecture supported.
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
CPU: After generic, caps: 3febfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: Common caps: 3febfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.80GHz stepping 02
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
mtrr: v1.40 (20010327) Richard Gooch ([email protected])
mtrr: detected mtrr type: Intel
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xf11f0, last bus=2
PCI: Using configuration type 1
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
Unknown bridge resource 0: assuming transparent
PCI: Using IRQ router PIIX [8086/2440] at 00:1f.0
PCI: Found IRQ 3 for device 02:0b.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 3 with 00:1f.4
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
speakup: initialized device: /dev/synth, node (MAJOR 10, MINOR 25)
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16)
Starting kswapd
VFS: Diskquotas version dquot_6.5.0 initialized
pty: 2048 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS MULTIPORT SHARE_IRQ SER
IAL_PCI ISAPNP enabled
Real Time Clock Driver v1.10e
oprofile: can't get RTC I/O Ports
block: 992 slots per queue, batch=248
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 6.31
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
PIIX4: IDE controller on PCI bus 00 dev f9
PIIX4: chipset revision 18
PIIX4: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
ide0: BM-DMA at 0x9800-0x9807, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio
ide1: BM-DMA at 0x9808-0x980f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio
PDC20262: IDE controller on PCI bus 02 dev 68
PCI: Found IRQ 9 for device 02:0d.0
PDC20262: chipset revision 1
PDC20262: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
PDC20262: (U)DMA Burst Bit ENABLED Primary PCI Mode Secondary PCI Mode.
ide2: BM-DMA at 0xa800-0xa807, BIOS settings: hde:pio, hdf:pio
ide3: BM-DMA at 0xa808-0xa80f, BIOS settings: hdg:pio, hdh:pio
hda: ST380021A, ATA DISK drive
hdc: LITE-ON LTR-24102B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hde: ST380021A, ATA DISK drive
hdg: MATSHITADVD-ROM SR-8584A, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
ide2 at 0xd000-0xd007,0xb802 on irq 9
ide3 at 0xb400-0xb407,0xb002 on irq 9
blk: queue c03c0004, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
blk: queue c03c0004, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
hda: 156301488 sectors (80026 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=9729/255/63, UDMA(100)
blk: queue c03c068c, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
blk: queue c03c068c, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
hde: 156301488 sectors (80026 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=155061/16/63, UDMA(66)
ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
Partition check:
hda: hda1 hda2 < hda5 hda6 hda7 hda8 >
hde: [PTBL] [9729/255/63] hde1 < hde5 hde6 >
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
NET4: Frame Diverter 0.46
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size 1024 blocksize
ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
md: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 4096 buckets, 32Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 32768 bind 65536)
Linux IP multicast router 0.06 plus PIM-SM
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
Freeing initrd memory: 127k freed
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
Journalled Block Device driver loaded
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 212k freed
usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
usb-uhci.c: $Revision: 1.275 $ time 13:44:31 Sep 4 2002
usb-uhci.c: High bandwidth mode enabled
PCI: Found IRQ 5 for device 00:1f.2
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:1f.2 to 64
usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x9400, IRQ 5
usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
PCI: Found IRQ 3 for device 00:1f.4
PCI: Sharing IRQ 3 with 02:0b.0
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:1f.4 to 64
usb-uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0x9000, IRQ 3
usb-uhci.c: Detected 2 ports
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
usb-uhci.c: v1.275:USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver
usb.c: registered new driver hiddev
usb.c: registered new driver hid
hid-core.c: v1.8.1 Andreas Gal, Vojtech Pavlik
hid-core.c: USB HID support drivers
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
hub.c: USB new device connect on bus1/1, assigned device number 2
usb.c: USB device 2 (vend/prod 0x56a/0x41) is not claimed by any active driver.
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.18, 14 May 2002 on ide0(3,7), internal journal
Adding Swap: 1044184k swap-space (priority -1)
usb.c: registered new driver wacom
input0: Wacom Intuos2 4x5 on usb1:2.0
wacom.c: v1.21.3 Vojtech Pavlik
wacom.c: USB Wacom Graphire and Wacom Intuos tablet driver
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.18, 14 May 2002 on ide0(3,6), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
hdg: ATAPI 32X DVD-ROM drive, 512kB Cache
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12
SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
scsi0 : SCSI host adapter emulation for IDE ATAPI devices
Vendor: LITE-ON Model: LTR-24102B Rev: 5S54
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
IA-32 Microcode Update Driver: v1.11
microcode: CPU0 no microcode found! (sig=f12, pflags=4)
ohci1394: pci_module_init failed
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
Intel 810 + AC97 Audio, version 0.22, 13:45:06 Sep 4 2002
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:1f.5
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:1f.5 to 64
i810: Intel ICH2 found at IO 0x8400 and 0x8800, IRQ 10
i810_audio: Audio Controller supports 6 channels.
i810_audio: Defaulting to base 2 channel mode.
ac97_codec: AC97 Audio codec, id: 0x414c:0x4710 (ALC200/200P)
i810_audio: AC'97 codec 0 supports AMAP, total channels = 2
Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 20x/40x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
cdrom: This disc doesn't have any tracks I recognize!
ohci1394: pci_module_init failed
floppy1: obsolete eject ioctl
floppy1: please use floppycontrol --eject
cdrom: This disc doesn't have any tracks I recognize!
floppy0: obsolete eject ioctl
floppy0: please use floppycontrol --eject
cdrom: open failed.
floppy0: obsolete eject ioctl
floppy0: please use floppycontrol --eject
[ron@localhost ron]$

also it's interesting that it mentions the wacom tablet, cuz it looks successful but the tablet is not functional and i don't see it in hardware browser. ditto my other soundcard, but that's not too surprising

Pattern templates are prepared by tracing all shapes needed for piecework on template plastic or other stiff material. Accuracy is very important.

Templates are traced without the 1/4" seam allowance for traditional hand piecing and with the seam allowance included for the machine piecing approach.

When using a template, lines will be marked on to the wrong side of the fabric. The template is then removed and you will cut according to your chosen piecing method. For hand piecing you will be marking your SEWING lines on the fabric, and will cut 1/4" AWAY from these lines. For machine piecing your shapes will already include the seam allowance, and you will be marking your cutting lines. Cut directly on the lines drawn.

"Template-Free" cutting is done by trimming out your required shapes, with an exact 1/4" seam allowance included, using rotary cutting tools. In many cases strips of fabric will be cut, from selvage edge to selvage edge, at a determined width and then "crosscut" into rectangles, squares and triangles. Fold fabric in half, matching salvage edges, for easier cutting. With this approach, you will not need to cut a template for most shapes. Lines may then be added 1/4" IN from the cut edge for hand piecing.

Place two shapes with their right sides together. Pin through the corners of both pieces. Match the stitching lines and place additional pins through the middle as needed.

Begin sewing right at the first corner pin. You will have a knot at the end of your thread, but it is also wise to take a backstitch after your first stitch for added strength. Sew across to the opposite corner and end with another backstitch and a knot . Add on all additional pieces in this manner.

Sew ON THE LINE at all times.

For easier piecing and pressing, DO NOT sew into the seam allowance.

haha i was like "pattern templates"?? i haven't read about that yet on all these linux sites... ;-)_

home studio tech :-) >S

Translation:

I can't use Nero, therefore its shit.

To burn ISO's you need a recent version of Nero, otherwise you need Easy CD which is shit.

You insert a CD-R in the drive
Run Nero
Select File->Burn image
Browse to the image you want to burn
Click open
then burn away

ISO files also don't have to be burnt, you can use Daemon-Tools to mount the image as a virtual CD-ROM

http://www.daemon-tools.com

ISO files are binary files containing the actual bits that make up a CD-ROM in its entirety if an image is of a bootable CD such as an ISO of a Windows 2000 CD then when you burn the ISO it will be bootable.

it's obviously talking about networking in there (the Net4 stuff) but this could just be the tcp/ip software stack which i think can be used regardless of whether there's a network card in the machine or not (i don't have one in machine at home so i can't say)

there's nothing in the dmesg log that i can't account for, unfortunately. maybe you have to create the eth0 device yourself.

oh, on the redhat box at work i get a line
Bringing up interface eth0 [OK]
during the boot messages. but only when it changes to runlevel 3. and this is despite the network card not actually being connected to anything. i don't have a /dev/eth0 either if that's any consolation.

try /etc/init.d/network status
and /etc/init.d/network start

use 'runlevel' to see the current runlevel and if it's not 3 then try 'init 3'

failing all that:
caitlin to thread 8)

andy

A driver for Redhat 5 won't work on Redhat 8, because they have completely different kernel versions. The tulip driver should be included in the distribution, though

(a quick look at a RH8.0 box here shows it in /lib/modules/2.4.18-14/kernel/drivers/net/tulip/tulip.o)

The Net4 stuff in the boot messages does just relate to the generic networking and TCP/IP stack stuff. The 'Bringing up interface eth0 [ok]' message relates to binding an IP address, routing information etc to the ethernet interface.

If you think your card uses the tulip driver, try running '/sbin/insmod tulip' and see if anything happens. If it works, then '/sbin/lsmod' should show the module name somewhere in the left-hand column. Once you've found the right driver, put a line 'alias eth0 tulip' in the /etc/modules.conf file.

RH8 comes with a graphical tool, 'redhat-config-network', which should help you set up your IP address and so on, but it doesn't seem to help with setting up the driver to start with.

i didn't have any luck last night with the insmod on tulip. i'll try it again tonight and post what it said when i tried. the tulip.o is def. in that directory though.
here's what the driver install disk said to do. again, the ftp was not available. when i tried to "gcc..." etc. commands, it didn't work. i'll have to report back on what it said.

driver disk sez:
Step 1 : Get the source code from the following site;

FTP://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/linux/drivers/kern-2.3/tulip.c
FTP://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/linux/drivers/kern-2.3/kern_compat.h

Step 2 : Compile the source code by using

"gcc -DMODULE -D__KERNEL__ -I/usr/src/linux/net/inet
-Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O6 -c tulip.c
'[ -f /usr/include/linux/modversions.h ] && echo
-DMODVERSIONS`"

Note: If you are having problems compiling the source code run:

tail tulip.c

from the directory that you downloaded the source code to.
This will give you additional compiling examples.

C. Installation guide using Redhat 5.XX
=======================================

Step 1 : Copy tulip.o into the latest kernel's modules:
cp tulip.o /lib/modules/2.0.XX/net/tulip.o
Where the XX is the version number of the latest kernel.

Step 2 : Update kernel's module dependencies:
/sbin/depmod -a

Step 3 : Check /etc/conf.modules:
alias eth0 tulip
options tulip options=X debug=X

Step 4 : Valid media types selections for options=X are:
0 Auto-select (default to the 10baseT link)
1 10base2
2 AUI
3 100baseTx
4 10baseT-FD
5 100baseTx-FD
6 100baseT4
7 100baseFx
8 100baseFx-FD
9 MII 10baseT
10 MII 10baseT-FD
11 MII (autoselect)
12 10baseT (no autoselect), v0.69 and later only
13 MII 100baseTx
14 MII 100baseTx-FD
15 MII 100baseT4

Step 5 : Valid debug levels for debug=X are:
1 normal output
2 more verbose
3 even more verbose
4 even more verbose
6 insanely verbose

Step 6 : Reboot system:
/sbin/shutdown -r now

Step 7 : when system boots, the driver will be load.

Step 8 : run netconfig to setup TCP/IP
(run 'ifconfig' or 'netstat -i' to see if there is a interface
'eth0')

thanks you guys :-)

If you've already got tulip.o present somewhere under /lib/modules, there's no point trying to recompile it from another source. For one thing, modules are often extremely kernel-specific.

If the driver won't load using insmod, you probably need to specify options to get it to load.

Incidentally, does '/sbin/ifconfig' give any output, apart from for the 'lo' device? And what's the output of '/sbin/lsmod' ?

[ron@localhost ron]$ /sbin/ifconfig
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:84 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:84 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:5690 (5.5 Kb) TX bytes:5690 (5.5 Kb)

[ron@localhost ron]$ /sbin/lsmod
Module Size Used by Not tainted
nls_iso8859-1 3516 1 (autoclean)
nls_cp437 5116 1 (autoclean)
vfat 13084 1 (autoclean)
fat 38712 0 (autoclean) [vfat]
sr_mod 18136 0 (autoclean)
i810_audio 25224 0 (autoclean)
ac97_codec 13384 0 (autoclean) [i810_audio]
soundcore 6532 2 (autoclean) [i810_audio]
binfmt_misc 7524 1
autofs 13348 0 (autoclean) (unused)
ipt_REJECT 3736 2 (autoclean)
iptable_filter 2412 1 (autoclean)
ip_tables 14936 2 [ipt_REJECT iptable_filter]
microcode 4668 0 (autoclean)
ide-scsi 10512 0
scsi_mod 107176 2 [sr_mod ide-scsi]
ide-cd 33608 0
cdrom 33696 0 [sr_mod ide-cd]
wacom 7988 0 (unused)
mousedev 5524 1
keybdev 2976 0 (unused)
hid 22244 0 (unused)
input 5888 0 [wacom mousedev keybdev hid]
usb-uhci 26188 0 (unused)
usbcore 77024 1 [wacom hid usb-uhci]
ext3 70368 2
jbd 52212 2 [ext3]
[ron@localhost ron]$

when i try to /sbin/insmod tulip, it says 'using blah blah/net/tulip.o' and then something about create (?) module - not allowed

does this have anything to do with this root business? do i have to log on under some other credentials or something? i'll have a look around on that issue.

btw don't feel obliged to continue coaching me, but i do appreciate yr helps!!

ok i have made some progress. i have got the tulip module in there now, and have activated eth0, bonkers hooray!

now i will figure out how to setup the actual network connection

also figured out about logging on as root user (i am dum)

It's bad form to login as root, actually. Use a regular login, then sudo to root. Security reasons and all that...

i did that at first, but for some reason i wanted root access in a window, not just in that one terminal.

what is the security problem? do you mean if i were on the net while logged in as root? i've yet to get to the web :`(

i have made a little more progress. i installed a pppoe client, and entered my info. and the network settings are showing the correct IP address of my dsl modem :-)

now, when i try to start the adsl connection, it times out and i don't yet know why...

ok i got the dsl supposedly hooked up, but now things really seem botched. the comp lost the localhost address, i think that's why things are not working well. need to try to add it manually??

and even though it says the dsl is connected, i can't browse any web yet. i'm going to assume that this localhost issue is fucking that up

word to your mother, i am posting this from mozilla in linux which means that the battle is won (but the war is not)

thanks everyone for your help, esp caitlin

Woohoo!

You shouldn't do normal everyday stuff as root, mostly because much more can go wrong if you make a mistake. As you spotted, though, you need to be root for some stuff, such as loading device drivers, installing new software, and so on.

my next missions would probably be trying to get better drivers for several things. i've been having lots of problems with my mouse (intellipoint explorer) - but from a quick look around i don't see much in the way of linux-specific help for that particular mouse. the wacom tablet isn't working, and i have hope for that because it seems to be recognized by the OS.

also problems with the monitor (samsung mp170) - sometimes it says 'cannot start xserver' and goes into a setup routine which forces me to bump down the resolution/ color settings a bit, then it works. btw, is there a way to run dual monitors? maybe what i really need is better drivers for the display adapter. while it seems to be recognized correctly, the drivers it's using for the video card aren't anywhere close to what i've got in XP

fun fun fun

oh yeah i meant to ask - am i supposed to download every single update/release on the redhat errata pages? that would be quite a lot of fixes :(

Yes, you are supposed to download and install all of the redhat errata packages.

I've never enjoyed setting up graphics drivers and monitors. You can in theory do multiheading, but I've never tried, and I'm not sure if Red Hat supports it very well. I've managed to get a Wacom tablet to work on my home machine; it involved hand-editing the X configuration file.

What error messages do you get when X fails to start?

You can just type "up2date" from the command line, and it will start the auto-update process. Checkmark "yes" for everything and you'll be set, though it will take awhile to download all those files.

I don't think I'll be switching to Linux.

yes, n. - at this point i am very glad that i didn't pay for this ($$ that is)

;-) it's fun as a project, i'm only doing it to learn. i'm sure if i were a programmer it would be a whole other deal

cool, thanks jen. i installed a gang of updates. it said that i had chosen to ignore the kernel stuff. (some setting during installation??)

should i run those updates as well? is there any reason why i shouldn't??

There isn't really any reason not to - they can be fiddly, though, and require rebooting the machine.

As far as I can remember, there haven't been any *serious* kernel updates for RH8 - ie, things to fix bugs that let people from Outside break into your computer. There have been ones to prevent people using your computer from becoming root without knowing the password, which are quite serious. There's also been a few device driver updates.

in trying to get the wacom going, i found a really helpful website. (linuxwacom i think). he was talking about using 2.4.18-24-8.0 i think. mine right now is 2.4.18-14. at some point last night i let up2date load all the kernel updates, and it did its install routine. in the middle of it, i got an error 'test run of lilo failed' or something. sure enough, on reboot, nothing. so i reinstalled lilo and recopied the bootsect.lnx to my boot.ini and the ntloader boots linux just fine once again. however, my kernel still shows 2.4.18-14.

i wouldn't care except that in one step of the wacom install, it says something like 'driver configured for 2.4.18-24-8.0, kernel shown as 2.4.18-14, kernel mismatch error' (not verbatim). i went to kernel.org and started downloading 2.4.20, but dsl went out then so i'll have to try later. i would like to get a copy of the kernel in question.

i thought that the update program would install the new kernel itself. do i have to go through the whole process of manually building the kernel? is that the right terminology? i am definitely going to get a linux book this weekend.

new kernel (and all the associated modules) may be available as an rpm from redhat. i think the last time i tried it on mandrake (which is based on redhat) everything went smoothly.

ooh, here seems to explain the lilo update problem. looks like there may be enough info for you to fix it too:
http://www.redhat.com/support/resources/howto/kernel-upgrade/

andy

lilo is notoriously finicky. If the location of the kernel file on the disk ever changes, it will refuse to boot. Therefore, when you install a new kernel, it gets mightily confused.

You shouldn't have to rebuild the kernel manually - the RPM should be OK as long as you update lilo properly. The 'test run of lilo failed' message probably means your lilo configuration needs to be fixed. Try running '/sbin/lilo -vt', which should tell you what the error is.

i have been enjoying the Exact Audio Copy/ LAME combination for doing mp3's. it's fairly slow, but it doesn't clip the ends off the songs, and unlike nero, settings actually stay in the program, so all i have to do is pop in a disc and hit 'go'. LAME also gives you lots of control over the quality, etc. although it's all done with switches instead of a nifty GUI, so slightly awkward in that regard. and it's FREE

probably lots of people know these progs, just posting this in case somebody was looking for new mp3 software. (i had ripped a bunch of mp3's and later found that the ends were all chopped off - deepening my hatred of nero.)