Jump to content

paul459

Members
  • Posts

    10
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by paul459

  1. I am still a newbie to Linux - although much farther along than I was a month ago.

     

    I am finishing a setup Mandriva spring 2008 on a Dell Latitude D400 notebook. The only outstanding item is creating a dialup data connection for my Globalstar satellite phone, which plugs into the serial port.

     

    In the Globalstar manual, it says to use Netconf to configure the PPP connection. It gives detailed step by step instructions with graphics that make it look easy.

     

    The problem is that I can't find Netconf anywhere on my system, and it's not in the list of installable packages either.

     

    Also, the instructions say I need to know the location of my serial port (com1 in Windows), but it doesn't give any instructions for finding this out. So even if I could get into Netconf, I'd still be stuck.

     

    Finally, I read somewhere (so many posts read today that I can't remember which ones) that Mandriva doesn't use Netconf, and switched to MCC. Also read that Netconf was replaced by Linuxconf, but I can't find that either.

     

    I looked in MCC and couldn't find anything that seemed like it would let me configure a PPP connection. Configure network seemed like a good place to look, but nothing leads to PPP in there. I also read somewhere that Netconf/LinuxConf and MCC are incompatible. I don't want to install Netconf if it will damage MCC and my Linux install that I've spent a lot of time setting up. I have a remaster, but would like to avoid having to use it.

     

    Any suggestions on where to get Netconf (or LinuxConf) and how to figure out the address of my serial port? Or how else to configure the connection (like in MCC for example)? Any help will be much appreciated.

     

    P

  2. What I mean is that when I get to the dialog to select the target to write the remaster, the list is blank. I have a couple of NTFS drives in the computer which are mounted, but they don't show up in the list. When I continue, I get a dialog that says not enough space to write the remaster.

     

    I plugged in another drive with a copy of Fedora on it, and was able to mount that. When I run the remaster, it shows up in the list as the only choice. When I select it and continue, it says not enough space to write the remaster.

     

    Next, I took a blank drive unpartitioned drive, and created an ext3 and a Linux native partition. I couldn't mount either of those. So I created a couple of types of partitions (from the dropdown list). One of those I was able to mount. When I try the remaster, it shows up in the list, but when I continue I get the dialog that says not enough space to write the remaster.

     

    I also tried plugging in another 8 gig key drive, but it won't recognize that in the list at the time of remaster.

     

    What could I possibly doing wrong that I can't mount any of the Linux partitions I create?

     

    By the way, when I do this, I'm logged in as root (yes, I'm evil). To mount (or try to mount) the drives, I am browsing to the drives from the "computer" on the desktop, and right click --> mount.

     

    Yes, I'd like a copy of your minime iso. I couldn't open an FTP for you today. The server's down until tomorrow afternoon for a long awaited upgrade. Soon as its back online (hopefully Thursday afternoon) I'll open an FTP for you and drop the info in here.

     

    Thanks again for all your help and for sharing your PDL and minime.

     

    Paul

  3. Paul, I know youre probably NOT going to like this answer, but to be honest my MOST successful method of completely personalizing MCNL is to get a small old pc and install MCNL to the hard drive and work from there.

     

    Actually, that seems like a great option to me - thanks for the suggestion.

     

    "1) for your java issue: have you tried logging in as root, installiong java there and then IMMEDIATELY remastering it?"

     

    Not yet, but I will. Although lots of the posts I've read are "anti" logging in as root. It seems to be a taboo in the Linux community so I've tried to avoid it. But the Java install documentation has some reference to installing it system-wide by logging in as root.

     

    "2) in all you comments about your NTFS drive I never heard you mention going into mcc and mounting them that way? It may be a pain but it works! Also in that same vein do you have ntfs3g installed/? "

     

    I'll try installing ntfs3g. But I also had a problem mounting a Linux drive that was created on another system. Maybe because wasn't logged in as root. I think I should be able to mount drives, so I must be missing something. Is there some concise documentation on this somewhere? I'm not finding any answers.

     

    A second time when I forgot to mount the NTFS dive, I plugged in an unpartitioned drive in a USB enclosure and created an ext3 partition. I was able to write the remaster to that. But then I couldn't read that partition on another Linux system. So I plugged it back in and copied the remaster over the network to a Windows shared drive. Not an elegant solution, but it worked.

     

    So I guess I should rephrase my question. If I plug in a foreign Linux drive, what do I need to do in order to mount it. In Windows I can just plug in a USB drive and read/write to it. There must be a similar (or better) way of doing it in Linux

     

    "something ELSE you may try. get an ISO of MDV2007.1, install it VERY sparsely, but with EVERYTHING you want it to have, on an old test bed pc, then follow my step by steos to remsater from THAT."

     

    I'll give that a go next. and keep your caveats in mind. I'm trying to get it all to fit on a 4 gig flash drive, and leave some room for copying files - so staying under 3.9 gigs is well within my plan.

     

    Regards,

     

    Paul

  4. Thanks again for your advice. I have a few different keys set up with PDL, MCN and MiniMe, so I can try each and see which I like best over time.

     

    I've hit a couple of road blocks.

     

    1. In MCN, I can't install Java because it won't let me write to or open the folders I need to get into, so some of the Java files fail to copy when I run the ./ install (these look system folders to me). How do I get in these so the Java install can complete/

     

    2. On MiniMe, I can't remaster because I can't mount (right click --> mount) any of the Windows drives in the machine in which I have it running. I can get to the drives on the network, but I don't think that works for remastering. What can I do here?

     

    I remember on MCN having a similar problem because the power wasn't turned on in the usb enclosure that my NTFS drive was plugged in. So I plugged in another Linux drive and thought I could get in there. It wouldn't let me mount that either. I lost a lot of time on that goof up setting up, the system the way I wanted, only having to reboot and start over. It was late last night, so I gave up on trying to remaster the minime. But at least I still had all the software I installed when I restarted it this morning :)

     

    I'll appreciate if you can point me in the right direction on documentation for these issues, or provide me with some pointers.

     

    Regards,

     

    Paul

  5. Hello:

     

    I tried you version of PDL, and that gave me the same problem. I reread your post and

     

    "the error will generally mean that not all the files were copied to the USB drive."

     

    This got me thinking. I was using Winzip to unzip the files. I tried with RAR and it booted. I went back to the AIO version and tried that with RAR, and that booted too. I've gone back to the AIO version three times with Winzip - twice it worked, once it didn't. Can't figure out why. Can't fix a bug you can't duplicate and it probably doesn't matter. If someone has the same problem, recommend trying a different unzip utility.

     

    I also tried the minime. That won't boot in my Dell 400 test machines (I tried in two of them). It gives some access errors like

     

    "/initra/bin/asa Can't access tys

    Job control turned off

    $USB 4-4: device not accepting address 2 Error 110"

     

    It does this again for address 4, 5, 6 and 7.

     

    But that's got to be related to the hardware in the Dell, because it works fine in my HP D530 test machine. I think I like the Synaptic s package manager in minime. But no room to install anything substantial like Open Office. I have over 7 gigs left on that 8 gig key drive. I don't see an option for writing a loop file on that one. Any suggestions?

     

    Logically, I'm thinking I might have to install it to a hard drive, install my software, then remaster and reinstall to the USB key. Am I barking up the right tree?

     

    I like the PDL and the MCN Live that I was trying to set up earlier. Much more elegant systems. I have your version of the PDL on a 1 gig key. Looking forward to using it..

     

    Anyway, thanks for your help.

     

    Paul

  6. I tried option 2, and downloaded the AIOPendriveLinux08. I used the HP utility to reformat an 8gig USB drive (after removing U3), and made the drive bootable from Windows.

     

    The boot process starts, then hangs. These are the last few lines:

     

    "Insmod: Can't read "/unionfs.ko" No such file or directory. Failed to load unionfs module

    loading /initrd/bin/ash"

    BusyBox V1.1.2 ................

    Enter help for a list of built in commands

    /inintrd/bin/ash can't access tty

    Job control turned off

    $"

     

    Any suggestions?

  7. Thank you for a pleasant and helpful reply. I think I'm going to like using Linux - it seems the people in the community are just great.

     

    Option 1 looks like a lot of work. After my post I figured out that if I boot with the "livecd persist" boot code my changes will be there. I haven't tested this fully yet, but that looks like a reasonable option. I also figured out that if I install the basics packages I want before I remaster, then its not an issue until I want to update or add something. But for the application the MCN Live has everything I need and then some. I think its really an awesome implementation of Linux.

     

    I will certainly try option 2 next week, and I've downloaded the files. Looks like much better option, and I wish I'd started with that. From everything I've read, I didn't think you could put more than one partition on a USB stick. So I'm eager to try try the partition tool.

     

    But for now, I've already spent a lot of time getting my live image set up, and now its just the way I want it. This took several tries until I found out from one post last night that one of the updates causes a Kernel Panic. I've finally created my remaster.iso setup as I want it (without updates) and it boots. The only thing missing is Java, and I'm having a problem with that which I didn't have when I installed to a system on a hard drive. The solution may be simple, and maybe you can help/

     

    When I run the java.rpm file, (from the console after su/password (root), the installation is not able to write some of the files Still plenty of space, so that's not the problem. If I install the .bin file in a Java subfolder of the home folder, all the files unzip, but not where they're supposed to (/usr/java/).

     

    Also, from the console, I cannot figure out how navigate to the Mozilla plugin folder /root/usr//ib/mozilla/plugin to write "libjavaplugin.ojl.so" file that directs Mozilla to Java (per the instructions for the Java download), and even if I get there, it doesn't look like I'd be able to write the file. It appears anything past the home folder is write protected even as su root. I thought of ending the session and logging as root/root. I started doing this but the red screen and all the postings I've read about the subject deterred me from trying.

     

    Can you suggest what I need to do to finish this last step of installing Java? Thanks again!

  8. I am an newbie to Linux so excuse me if I'm asking a dumb question. Since picking up Linux several weeks ago, I've found answers to most of my questions on-line. I've done some searching on this topic and can't seem to find the answer. This one's got me stumped.

     

    I installed MCN Live to a USB drive. To make changes (like adding a printer which I didn't do before remastering), I used the boot code "livecd persist" and made the changes. From what I read, those changes are saved in the mcnlive.loop file.

     

    If I want to make those changes permanent (so I don't have to use the "livecd persist" boot code), I think I have to recreate the persistent loop (MCN Live Menu --> "create persistent loop"). When I do this I get the error "start the live system without the boot code 'live persist.'"

     

    If I restart on a normal boot, my changes from the "live persist" session are gone. So they're not there for me to create the persistent loop. If I make the changes again at this stage and then "create persistent loop" the process is successful but my changes are not there when I reboot normally. And if I reboot with the "livecd persist" boot code my changes are also gone - in effect I've gone back to the system I installed with the remastered CD.

     

    However, I find that if I make changes in the "livecd persist" boot code, I can get back to them only if I boot with the "livecd persist" boot code.

     

    So my question - how do I make the changes to the USB drive permanent so I don't have to use the "livecd persist" boot code all the time? What am I missing?

     

    Paul

×
×
  • Create New...