linux install

[scruffidog]

ok, after much researching, and not really finding too much out there, i decided to bite the bullet and perform my own linux install. i will use rh8.092 (phoebe, yes, it's a beta, but it's also 2.4.20 kernel and glibc 2.3.1) but mandrake is probably better from a feature perspective (ie: devfs, etc)

using the dl'ed isos from redhat:

the boot parameters are:
linux nousb nopcmcia noprobe noauto

run through the normal install up to the point where it asks you to do the bootloader. at the bootloader section, make sure to install the bootloader on the actual boot (/boot or / ) partition and NOT the mbr. you'll need to click into the advanced section of that menu. i use a completely separate disk for my / , which is /dev/hdd1.

the next important thing is the kernel parameter that grub uses to boot with. the only one that is necessary is nousb. this is all in the bootloader section mine you.

after all this, do NOT comfigure the sound, save that until after you are completely done. under redhat, video should configure properly, getting the reight video adaptor. as for the screen, use the generic laptop screen 1280x1024 (yes, that choice is in there). the color depth is 24bits.

now here comes the tricky part: you will need to disable the pcmcia services that is normally started as that causes the system to completely hang. two ways to do this, either boot with the install disc and go into rescue mode (linux rescue) or hit "i" for interactive startup and just say no to the pcmcia initialization.

i recommend the second option since there is less steps (you don't need to mount and chroot). anyway, once you are in the system, you'll need to:
chkconfig del 2345 pcmcia which will remove the service from starting up.

that's pretty much it to get one started on a workable system for further customizing which is the next step that i'm going to be working on.

ok, now i set up a chainloader for dual booting. on the linux system:
dd if=/dev/hdd1 of=/bootblk bs=512 count=1

this grabs my boot block so i can use it in conjunction with another bootloader. if you boot device is different, use that instead of hdd1.

copy that to a floppy and transfer it to your windows partition (i'm using xp pro). i left it in the c:\bootblk

open c:\boot.ini file and add:
c:\bootblk="redhat linux"

if any one else gets further along on figuring out the usb driver issues, i would really like to know.

hope this was helpful.

[ROBOTHOUSE!]

I tried most of what you posted here...
(all except for the sound thing which was never an option) but when I logon as anything (with any session other than failsafe) it locks up on me. Weird. Any ideas?

[ROBOTHOUSE!]

It particularly fails at the Init Perhipials stage when logging in under a KDE session. Can't tell under a Gnome session. I know there's a way to look at what get loaded and remove anything in particular that's causing the problem, but I dunno how to do it yet.

PS: I could only run chkconfig like this: "chkconfig --del pcmcia" is that ok too?

[scruffidog]

what OS are you using ?

I only loaded gnome with the phoebe release and i choose NOT to enable graphical startup.

[ROBOTHOUSE!]

Well, I tried RH8.0 and with graphical login. I'm burning Phoebe iso's right now to try over lunch. I'll try with graphical login first, then without. I'm guessing it's barfing over the sound card since it doesn't ask me anything about sound untill the "firstrun". It's been a while since I dabbled in Linux, but I gotta get on the ball for a project. So... which log files should I be looking at for errors, and where are they located at?

[ROBOTHOUSE!]

Alright, the default Phoebe install worked fine... now it's on to figuring out the devices... From what I can tell, USB and PCMCIA are disabled, and the sound card is screwy. Anyone had any luck with these?

I'm also going to try getting KDE to work instead of Gimp which I never really liked.

PS: Thanks for the help so far scruffidog! :banana:

[denkc]

I'm using mandrake 9, it's not bad. A little laggier than windows, but it was even more laggy before i got rid of some server packages during install. I also increased swap partition to 1 gig (waaaay too much for this 192 ram weakling) and disabled 3d hardware accel on my voodoo3.

I tried enlightenment, didn't like. I prefer gnome. KDE is too ... windows-like.

I wouldn't be using mandrake if i could get debian to work. Anyone actually try it?

[dirtboy]

I tried debian and it worked fine. The only problem I had with it is that I prefer grub to lilo, and the version on the debian sources hosed my windows partition everytime. And I do mean EVERY time. Tried it about 6 times. But, if you can survive with lilo, its great.

[denkc]

I thought debian used grub and not lilo.

[dirtboy]

Not the woody version. You can install grub as a package afterwards.

[denkc]

Ah, yes. lilo is easier to configure though, even though people seem to like grub more. Any reasons as to why?

I had the woody version and I'm pretty sure i had grub and not lilo ... was it a black screen with a red box? Kind of ugly compared to mandrake's screen. =P

[dirtboy]

Well, in my install I like to setup a script in Linux that will change the default in the grub.conf file to windows, so I can run it and walk away, and when I come back, windows is booted. But, I also like to do the same thing in windows to change the default to Linux. That means the configuration for grub will have to be on a fat32 partition. So, what I do is setup a small 100MB partition in fat32 for /boot and ext2 for /, since grub's config is configured to be on /boot/grub/. In Lilo, the config is located in /etc, which contains way too many config files for me to want it in fat32 and available to windows and windows viruses. Also, I found a gimp plugin that will take any image you can find and it will reduce it to the correct size and color depth to be used as a grub menu background.