Re: Introduction

[Bruce Smith <bruce@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> > All doable.  Have you learned "vi" yet?   :{)
> 
> Oh that was an adventure :)  I was even able (in grand Linux tradition) to
> pass on my knowledge to someone via IRC last night.

There you go!  The worst of it is behind you now!    :{)

> > Can I assume you have a boot diskette you can boot your system from?
> 
> You assume correctly.  The lilo.conf from the HD is:
>   boot=/dev/hda1                   # Also tried /dev/hda

Should be:  /dev/hda
Which is the boot sector or your first hard drive.

/dev/hda1 is the first sector of the first partition.

>   map=/boot/map                    # I guess neither of these two
>   install=/boot/boot.b             # Actually need to be specified..

I think those are the defaults.

>   linear

Try it with and without "linear".

Also give "fix-table" a try (with & without linear).

>   disk=/dev/hda
>      bios=0x80
>      sectors=63
>      heads=32
>      cylinders=528

I'll have to take your word for that.

You could try removing that entire section and see what happens.

>   image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.0.36-3
>      label=linux
>      root=/dev/hda1
>      read-only

Sounds right.

> That's about all I got..
> The one on the floppy is quite similar, except it does not specify
> read-only, boots from fd0, has a boot message, and a rescue label.

Don't remove "read-only" from your lilo.conf, it's needed.
I wouldn't mess with the one on the floppy if it works!   :{)

> I don't know why it boots from the floppy and not the hd..  Hm.

Probably a BIOS or LBA thing.  (a floppy boot doesn't read the bios)

> > I've installed Linux on A LOT of PC's, and personally I've found
> > that Linux installs much easier on newer hardware than older PC's
> > like 386s & 486s.  (speaking of later versions of Redhat - 5.2/6.0)
> 
> Hmmm...  should I be installing an older version of Linux then?

NO, that would only make it worse!  You need a newer PC!!!   :{)

> > You may stay with Redhat 5.2 on your machine because 6.0 takes more
> > disk space, and you don't have a very big drive.
> 
> All I really want to do is web, mail, and word processing..  If I get ICQ
> running, that would be very cool, but it is unnecessary.  I'd love to have
> a xwin setup, but if it's as slow as this, I don't know how it could be
> useful at all. 

xwindows would be a challenge with your limited memory.
You might be able to make it work (if you have enough swap space), 
but it'll be SLOW.

> I think it would be rather cool to have a text based web interface.

You can do that in xwindows too!  Just run lynx in a xterm.   :{)

> Anyhow, thanks for the advice...and for any help you can provide on the
> lilo issue. 

Good luck!

> I'm now into the fourth day on it. :)

I admire your persistence!

--------------------------------------------
Bruce Smith                bruce@armintl.com
System Administrator / Network Administrator
Armstrong International, Inc.
Three Rivers, Michigan  49093  USA
http://www.armstrong-intl.com/
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