Cannonfodder

some quick notes..

1. Get the latest version of Mandrake..

2. Backup win98 in case..

3. Read up on lilo and file /etc/lilo.conf and how to use it.

4. read up on file /etc/fstab and how to use it.

5. Safest route is to buy a second drive and install on that. That guarantees your windows is not going to have any problems.

6. Do not use Microsoft's fdisk application after installing Mandrake unless you are doing a simple fdisk /mbr (reinstalling the mbr).

7. When partitioning, use custom partitioning.

8. Check with linux.org for hardware compatibility. If unsure, go ahead and install. If it doesn't work, you will be the first to know :) Make sure you pay attention to #7.

9. Do not use any 3rd party boot managers. Unneeded and possibly dangerous.

10. Need a partition imaging software? Look at www.partimage.org.

There are a number of them... do a search for browser and you will see them. I've been using opera for linux (www.opera.com) since it came out. It's pretty stable and works cross platform with windows.

To remove the bootloader, boot off of CD1, hit F1, type rescue.

Then...

mount your partitions

go to console

type chroot /mnt

Now you are effectively working with your partitions only

type

/sbin/lilo -U

This should remove the bootloader and reinstall the last bootloader (e.g. DOS)

Other than that, you would need to get a dos diskette and use

fdisk /mbr

details details :)

Here's a cool thing I learned today..

http://www.pageresource.com/jscript/j_a_02.htm

I used that for a long time, and while its satisfying to be able to bounce back, it has some drawbacks.

1. bounced email, in turn, overtaxes system. Each spam sent out and bounced actually doubles the traffic. In many cases, the bounce causes other bounces and traffic.

2. Spammers are figuring out what bounced mail is real and what is not. Look at time frames. If it takes 24 hours to come back then maybe its a manual bounce compared to an automatic bounce.

Check out

http://sourceforge.net/projects/popfile

This is a proxy that eventually goes to 99.9% accuracy in identifying email and it will classify them for you so you can redirect spam to a spam folder.

I'll have to take a peek at this since I use opera just about everywhere..

If you have a graphics board in one slot and then move it to another slot, does linux care? If so, what do you need to do to correct the situation after moving the board? Anyone know?

Just to be anal :)

The MBR does not contain all the partition information. The MBR contains the boot information. The partition table (different sector) contains your partitioning layout and other data regarding each partition.

The easy way to reset your MBR from linux is to do a

lilo -U

or

lilo -U /dev/hda

assuming you are using lilo. If you want to fix a lilo issue, then you fix the /etc/lilol.conf file and then type lilo to rewrite the MBR. If you can't boot into your linux to do this, you can boot off of CD1 and hit F1, type rescue. Then select mount your partitions, go to console, and type

chroot /mnt

Then you can type the lilo command..

All this info is in man lilo and other places.

Using MS fdisk with the /mbr flag shouldn't cause you any trouble. It merely writes a standard dos boot mbr into the mbr sector only. Using fdisk to modify your partition table when you have linux extended partitions on your hard drive is what you have to watch out for.

Hope that helps..

You might want to search under freshmeat with the terms

database engine

I saw a few...

usually you type

make uninstall

Well, if you know where the folder is that wine is accessing, lets say..

/home/userdir/.wine (just making it up)

Let's say you have a second 7 gig partition located at hdc10 (for example)

1. Backup your .wine folder as it exists..

2. delete the .wine folder.

3. Mount the partition into the file system tree starting at the .wine folder.

mount -t reiserfs /dev/hda10 /home/userdir/.wine

Now if you go to the .wine folder, you will have all 7 gig available as of that point.

You can update your /etc/fstab file to automount it for you so you can forget it.

You can also backup your existing partitions and then destroy your entire drive and recreate all the partitions with new sizes. I did that recently just to make some major changes..

Check out this faq..

http://www.mandrakeusers.org/viewtopic.php?t=4937

Wouuld it be better to learn some dynamic scripting such as asp, or php rather than html? I'm not sure so I"m asking :)

You don't need to reinstall for linux's sake.

All you need to do is make sure lilo.conf and fstab are updated correctly.

Here's a way to go..

I'm assuming you have a backup. E.g. you backup each linux partition with partimage and can restore it to a new partition.

1. Boot with the mandrake installer and when you get to the partition screen, click clear to clear the partition table. All is gone :)

2. Now setup all your partitions exactly the way you want them. Including fat32. Assign linux partitions to their mount points. E.g. /usr /home, whatever.

Some points..

-- make one primary and one extended. Assign the entire remainder of the drive to extended. Primary might be used later to reinstall a windows that requires a primary partition. Linux doesn't care.

-- if you are restoring from partimage images, then make sure the destination partitions are at least as large as the source, otherwise partimage will not restore.

-- if you have a lot of space, you don't need to use it all. Just use what you need with a comfortable margin and leave the rest unassigned. The reason for this is you can add new partitions for various purposes easily without having to search for available partition space.

3. Continue with the install and install a very minimum version of mandrake. Uncheck everything you can uncheck. Finish the install but don't setup anything (don't spend too much time on this step).

4. Reboot and get a copy of your /etc/lilo.conf and /etc/fstab files. They are good as gold.

5. Now restore your partitions from backup.

6. Replace your lilo.conf and fstab files with your new ones. Boot off of CD1 to run lilo and register the changes.

All set, you should be back in business.

Did you use the XP Disk Manager to modify the hard drive? If so, that may be an issue. Stick to diskdrake to make any further modifications to a drive sharing XP and linux. XP isn't designed to deal with some linux partitioning issues.

I pronounce it

"loonix"

because all linux users are crazy

As long as the linux / partition is restored to exactly the same position it would work. But I don't think that will happen. I wouldn't worry about it though. After restoring your linux system, just boot off of CD1, do the F1/rescue thingie and reinstall lilo.

Don't know why you are having win mount issues. I mount mine just fine. I suspect there are some unconventional entries in the partition table (maybe that blank one).

If I were you, really really would do this... back up all to CD's or get onto another hard drive. Then totally 100% erase all partitions. Plan ahead, sketch it out, and recreate in one shot, all the partitions you need for the new setup. Restore the partitions, and edit the fstab and lilo.conf entries so they are all correct once again.

I've done this before :)

I'll rephrase that ;)

My point is that I've frequented both newsgroups and the web forum. The web forum will get you a decent response within a few days. But it doesn't get the traffic from the newsgroup forums. The newsgroups even have regular posters from opera employees who directly work or influence the product. Once I switched, I started to see the difference. Also gave me a chance to use opera's news reader client.

I suspect my problem may be physical and the windows driver can eliminate it from the view with pre-processing where linux doesn't have that ability.. Blue streaking for the first fifth of the screen vertical and then it dies out as you move right. But its consistant streaking.

Steve, you are now officially a true linux user in mind, body, and soul :P

I've also read postings (elsewhere) by individuals who have astra 3400 installed with Mandrake and it works fine. So maybe my problem is the scanner device itself. One idea I've come across is that the driver for the scanner (on the windows side) does post scan work and clears out weird affects before the scanner software gets to it. This may not be true for linux..

Mine does work, it just has color issues. I have a UMAX Astra 3400. If you install the new version, make sure you have uninstalled any older version and files.. you probably know this but I'm being a know it all :)

I would recommend APL.. myself.. :P

Actually in my head, I've been pronouncing it

gee-kremlin

which of course is all wrong :roll:

partimage requires the destination partition to be equal to or greater in size compared to the image. In other words, you can't restore a partition to a smaller partition. Other than that, it doesn't care..

If you boot off the partimage cd, I hope you are aware that you can simply enter

partimage

and it will provide you with a gui?