Cannonfodder

Before you continue, did you chroot /mnt after booting from the CD? Booting from the CD gives you a /MNT folder that contains all your hard drive folder, so you can find your /etc folder at /mnt/etc or you can immediately type chroot /mnt which changes the root location to /mnt (rendering it invisible). Afterwards, you can type cd /etc Just check this before you assume its gone..

Where is Mandrake looking for those drivers? Can you symlink it to the ATM location?

After login, try typing init 5 and see if your GUI comes up.. This is your runlevel. Linux starts up in stages (defined as runlevels). If you are set to init 1 or init 3, then your gui won't come up.. \etc\inittab (I think that's where it is) in the first line has a reference to it. If it's not set to 5, then it will start linux at a different runlevel.

eth0 is your network interface.. either the hardware went bad, or you need to reconfigure your network interface... can't stop to tell you how, gotta run!

I guess you really don't need to do that.. Before starting, run diskdrake and view your hard drive and partition layout. You will see that your linux partitions match your fstab... e.g. hda Now, after you upgrade your hardware, you can boot off the mandrake install cd and "pretend" to do an install. When you get to the partitioning screen, select custom partitioning. Now you should be able to look at your "new" layout. If your drive is still hda, then you are all set. Otherwise, you need to either redo your IDE cables or update your lilo.conf and fstab files from hda to whatever your new label is (e.g. hdc). If you know how to use vi, you can easily boot off of CD1, and go to the command prompt. There you can vi your lilo.conf and fstab files to update them. Also, note that on booting up, if you go into bios setup, you can usually see how you have your hard drives setup. Make sure that after setting up your new hard ware that the drives all show up in bios. No point in trying to fix linux up if one more drives are not plugged in correctly..

Also, WinXP's disk manager has a feature for merging separate partitions into one. Can't recall what it's called. Right-click on a partiation. I don't know if its safe to use with linux on the same hard drive though so this may not be YOUR solution :)

Why don't you tell us what you understand about partitioning and we can fill in the details for you? Might get you a better answer..

How is this different from copy -pax [source] [dest] Just curious, me?

What is this? Mental m... whoops!

Axel, putting windows and linux on separate drives is a good idea, especially since you are new to it. One golden rule is... never use the windows disk manager to manage partitions created by Mandrake. Extended partitions can be defined differently under windows and linux. Linux seems to get Windows extended but windows doesn't know anything about linux. The same rule applies to partition manager software applications that run under windows. As for your FTP server, you can investigate SAMBA for networking drives. I'm pretty know nothing about the topic, but know that's what you want to do.. :)

Do you mean that if you open a console and type in alias rm='rm -f' and then try rm, it doesn't work? what happens if you open a console and just type alias is the rm command redefined?

I figured it was just too good to be true, are you guys messing around with it for any benefit or just plain curiosity?

Thinking of giving this a shot.. looks like OS X when its running?

a13x, As a suggestion, if you try something such as the locate command and it doesn't work, post what you typed verbatim so you can get good feedback. Let us know how you make out..

Since I'm not going to be using it, my dad is, I'm going to XP it. At 70 years old and still working, he doesn't have time to learn Linux and I don't have time to support him on Linux :) So I'm going to put XP on with some business software and possibily put Lindows on as well so he can learn it whenever..

Cool! Feel much better about it. Now I have my first copy of Lindows heh..

I bought a cheapo pc from frys electronics for $179 bucks (on sale) and am wondering if I made a good buy? The pc is for my dad who is just gonna do the light tasks (internet/word processing). It runs Lindows and boots up fine. Only real question I have is the power supply which is 180 watts. I do not really feel much of a fan back there, is the pc gonna overheat? Whatcha guys think? (need scratching head smilie here) http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4074922 :unsure:

lanturn20, If I got you right, you have linux on a hard drive and want to put windows on the same hard drive alongside of linux, right? If this is right, then how is your hard drive partitions currently setup? If not sure how to figure this out, then let us know.

One thing I didn't see from skimming this topic is how does the end user interface with the database? Is it a search system that can be satisified by simple queries? Or is it the type of search that requires the end user to know SQL and be able to create ad-hoc queries? How is data entered? How is it presented? All these questions are just as important as trying to decide which database engine to use. Another thing to keep in mind, is if your department develops this, you can develop it to keep the different layeres separate and non-dependant on each other. Here's an example: If you use access to connect to the server through the background and develop screens and reports, you have developed a database plus an interface through access. Now you want to change your database to a different engine, you are stuck with changing the interface as well. If you separate the interface from the database (SQL is supported by almost all database engines so this is possible), you can develop the interface and have it call the database engine using standard SQL to get yoru results. Additionally, if you were really doing a bigger system, you would have a middle area which could be business logic. When I say business, I mean the logic that handles what is actually happening. So, at work for example: I would develop the interface for a web browser (very little decision making code inside, zero database). This area just calls the business engine (any server or local software can be the business engine). The business engine makes all the decisions. Oh, user clicked on report, well lets gather the info and pass the report data back to the interface. The database just sits there, it holds the data in an organized format. In some cases, for heavy demand systems, it too may have business logic stored within the database (doesn't sound like your requriements) So you have 3 independant systems that can be swapped out. Let's say someone wants to provide a different type of interface with a different business engine but that accesses the same database, can do! Something to stress with the department is that by going linux on the server, and using a web interface, you can support any type of end user computer. You can also provide server software, databases, and any unforseen server tools without spending money. Moneys is always a big point..

Maybe this would make a good workbench project?

Might want to post your XF86Config-4 file so we can see it..

*bump*?

also, in case you don't know, you can add comments to your fstab and also organize it however you like. E.g. put call entries for one drive # HDA # HDB Makes it easier to learn and keep track of things..

Forgot to make my point.. a lack of enforcement means you learn how to deal with issues such as memory management, garbage collection, type enforcement on your own and I think that just makes you a more rounded programmer..

C++ is a good language to learn because it has a lack of "enforcement" that other languages have and is very heavily used. Enforcement in terms of memory management for example. However, more modern languages do these tasks for you automatically (its a debate as to whether this is a good thing or not). You might want to do C++ for a while and then try 2 or 3 other languages such as Java, Visual Net (or Mono.org for linux), or web based lanugages such as PHP, or Python. Web based languages require a different set of skills as you have to kind of think differently about how code is processed. This is referred to Stateless vs state (I think). When your code gets executed on a server, its stateless as in (brand new), have to retrieve the current situation somehow. Otherwise, you have one application that can maintain its life time as long as it is running.