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Crashdamage

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Everything posted by Crashdamage

  1. I've never had this problem myself so I'm just kinda guessing here. But I suspect doing the copy itself had nothing to do with the problem, it just was what happened to make you aware that / was filling up. Instead, this might be caused by udevd trying over and over to initialize a wireless card or something similar. Did you look to see what's actually in the /sys/devices/pci0000:00 file? That should give you a clue to the trouble. Of course I have the file, but mine's empty so I have no idea what any data in it acutally looks like. I wouldn't delete log files to make space, at least not until I checked them also for clues. Instead, to make room I'd delete the offending /sys/device/pci0000:00 file and re-create it with touch - after checking the contents, of course.
  2. ianw974: Install the latest Win4LinPro 'testing' version, available here: ftp://ftp.netraverse.com/pub/testing/pro/ Then try installing using an ISO image. It will almost certainly work if you have a Winblows disk that's compatible with Win4LinPro. When I installed Win4LinPro about a year ago, I couldn't get it to read the CD either. That stopped things for about 2 minutes while I read the instructions on loading Windoze directly from an ISO. I never bothered to troubleshoot the CD-reading problem. If you have Win2kPro it will work much, much better than that friggin' bloated mess XP. This is true whether one uses VMWare, Win4LinPro, 'plain' qmeu/kqmeu or whatever. Jeez, XP is SOOO bad...didn't the ME fiasco teach M$ anything? Anyway, Win2k SP2 is the best choice with Win4LinPro, but if like me you only have Win2k SP3 discs (not Win4LinPro or qmeu/kqmeu compatible) you can download SP4 and use a nice utility called nLite (free download, but you must have a working Windows computer to use it) to easily slip SP4 in and make a Win2k SP4 ISO. You can then burn it to disc or load straight from the new Win2k SP4 ISO. Of course, for best performance all the usual Windoze speed tweaks like disabling uneeded services, etc, etc. apply as ususal. Win4LinPro likes memory so if you have 512MB or more on board don't forget to increase memory allocated to Win4LinPro from the too-low default 128MB to 256MB or more if you have over 512MB (up to Win4LinPro's 512MB limit). With Win2k 256-384MB or so seems to be enough for most users. If you're stuck with XP use the full 512MB max if possible. And if you don't need sound in Windoze disabling that will let it boot a bit faster. If you have questions about how to do any of this stuff or any other questions, just ask.
  3. I've used Win4Lin for years with great success. I now have both Win4Lin9x w/Win98SE and Win4LinPro w/Win2kPro installed. Nothing else has the combination of terrific speed and solid stability of Win4Lin9x. If it does what you need, it's just unbeatable. Win4LinPro (basically a customized qemu w/kqemu) is kinda slow still, but useable, rock-solid stable, easy to setup and a good concept that eventually should be an excellent system. Just needs more development. Win4LinPro is better than 'plain' qemu/kqmeu, but of course at a price. VMWare works ok but is just too friggin' expensive and has some things about it I don't care for. Parallels (a VMWare clone) is much cheaper, but I haven't tried it yet. Xen has possibilties, (I'm gonna try Xen + Win4LinPro when I get the time) but I haven't tried it yet either so I can't really comment further. ianw1974: What's been the problem? Win4Lin9x or Win4LinPro? Have you tried installing Windoze from an ISO image on a HD instead of from the CD?
  4. Not sure why you have no ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc, but I don't know of any reason you couldn't create them. On my much-modified 10.1 box my ~/.bash_profile is like this: # .bash_profile # Get the aliases and functions if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then . ~/.bashrc fi export BASH_ENV=$HOME/.bashrc ...which as you can see aims to ~/.bashrc, which looks like this: # .bashrc PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/ucb:/usr/games:/usr/local/bin: # Source global definitions if [ -r /etc/bashrc ]; then . /etc/bashrc fi export NNTPSERVER=news-server.kc.rr.com Does that help you out a little?
  5. I've loaded Firefox 1.5 not only on this 10.1 box, but on my Win2kPro workstation at work, my Pentium 450 Toshiba laptop w/WinXPPro, my Dad's Win2kPro Pentium 600, his neighbor's XPHome box, several Win98SE machines, and running Windoze emulated in Linux with both Win4Lin9x w/Win98SE and in Win4LinPro w/Win2kPro. Probably about a dozen different setups. No problems whatsoever with Firefox 1.5 on ANY of those. If I haven't had any problems with any of those configurations, even running in emulation, what is supposed to be the problem??? Jeez, how good, how simple does software have to be before Uncle John and Aunt Margaret can figure out how to use it?
  6. Yeah, 1.5 opens faster, page-loads are faster, fwd-back is faster - everything is faster. Plus, on my box with 1.0 the scroll wheel would quit for a bit now and then but not with 1.5. More options in the setup GUI too. Nice. But not THAT nice. I'm still using Links-2 most of the time, like right now. AFAIK Firefox doesn't do text mode. Links is still the lightweight speed champ.
  7. Very unlikely that there will ever be an 'official' update to Firefox 1.5 for any existing version of Mandrake. Particularly in MDV2006, many packages are built against Firefox as it contains the Gekco rendering engine used by other apps. This was, IMHO, a mistake because now to satisfy those dependencies a lot of other stuff would have to be rebuilt against Firefox 1.5 because there are major differences between v1.0 and v1.5. If you want to use Firefox 1.5 you'll have to install it from the Mozilla.org package, or upgrade from Cooker when it eventually shows up there (along with other dependent stuff of course), or wait for MDV 2007. To avoid such problems with Firefox, Thunderbird or OO.org, I just install those 3 apps from the standard download packages. Then it's easy to keep them up-to-date.
  8. Very quick, a nice overall improvement. Using 1.5 now instead of my usual browser, Links-2, to post this. I *think* the 1.5 final release was exactly the same as RC3, both the Linux and Win versions.
  9. If you want to see if it's safe, just try a test install: # urpmi -v --test <packagename> If it says OK, then it should work. I use non-MDK packages now and then and haven't had any problems so far, though I don't remember if I've used a Connectiva package in particular.
  10. I started with Redhat 6.1 right after it came out. I guess that would be about 5-6 years ago, so I was 47-48. Switched to Mandrake when 8.0 was released. That was also when I got serious about Linux and went to using Linux full-time because I just can't take M$ business practices and 8.0 was released about the same time as WinXP. When XP was about to come out, it was clear to me I had to get off the M$ bandwagon before it was too late. 53 now and still using Mandriva. Can't think of a reason to change.
  11. Seems you still don't have the concept of the Linux filesystem layout. Again, you tried to search for your slave drive in /home. As I said before, it's won't be there, same as in Windoze a 'D:' drive would not show up in 'C:\Documents & Settings\username'. And again, there's no drive letters in Linux, nor is there a directory named 'hdc' for your slave drive. Please, read my last post again, and look again at the example of my system I posted. Keep in mind that if you're viewing the filesystem in a file manager (i.e. Windows Explorer) the 2 secondary HDs in my system would show up as '/data1' and '/data2', not 'hdb' and 'hdd'. The Windows partition shows up as '/mnt/windows', etc. I could try to explain further, but in this case I don't think it would help much. Probably the easiest way to get an understanding is to open a file manager to get a visual representation of the file structure in front of you and do some poking around. Konqueror kinda sucks but will do OK for this purpose. Open Konqueror, click on 'View' on the upper tool bar and set it for 'File Management' (or something like that, I don't have KDE installed to check). That will give Konqueror a look similar to M$ Windows Explorer. Or better, see if XFE is available in MCC for installation (I don't know if it's included on your discs) install it and try that - it's faster, just generally better file manager than Konqueror and looks almost exactly like Windows Explorer so you'll be comfortable with it right away. I always install XFE for new M$ converts. Once you begin to understand how Linux is laid out, if you really want be able to get things done, try learing to use Midnight Commander...:-) As for plugging in your camera, I really can't help there, I've always just used a USB card reader.
  12. Awwww, A.J. who needs GUIs...:-) I'm not into self-abuse either, that's why I mostly avoid GUI stuff. EHCanadian, this should help. Just skip through the very basic stuff for n00bs you already know. I'll leave it in for any who might read this thread. I'm too lazy to edit it out for ya anyway... **Basic urpmi setup and usage** Urpmi will easily and automagically take care of finding, downloading and installing software and its dependencies, if any. The "Software Management" utility in Mandrake/Mandriva Control Center is a simple to use GUI frontend for urpmi (think of it as roughly the equivilent to "Add/Remove Software" in Windows Control Center). But it's also very easy and more powerful to use urpmi from the command line. Of course you can install software from your CDs, but to best use either the GUI installer or urpmi manually, if you have a broadband connection it's best to set up online sources for downloading/installing/updating software. To do this you need to know how to 'su' to root, which is very simple. Just open a terminal and at the '$' prompt do this: $ su Password: <type.your.root.password> # Note that the cursor changed from '$' to '#' indicating you now have 'root' administrator rights, so be careful! Think of this as similar to the difference between being a 'user' or an 'administrator' in Win2k/XP. If you don't fully understand the 'su' process or root permissions some simple Googling will explain it. Now to setup your online software sources. Go here: http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/ Follow the directions to setup your online package sources. Choose them carefully, staying with sources for your particular version of Mandrake/Mandriva. You'll want to add the main sources for your distro version,the updates, Contrib, PLF free and non-free, and maybe some others like the Seer of Souls rpms. Warning: Add the Cooker sources at your own risk. Cooker is beta stuff still in testing for the next release and may or may not cause you problems. When you've finished setting up your source mirrors you can start using the real power of urpmi. You can now install/uninstall a package using your newly-setup online sources either by using the GUI installer in Mandrake/Mandriva Control Center, or better, by using urpmi manually from the command line. To install manually with urpmi open a terminal, 'su' to root, then type: # urpmi -v <packagename> ('-v' for verbose output is optional, but I like the extra info it provides) Note that usually <packagename> can be just the 'simple' version. Using the text email client Mutt for an example, instead of typing the full package name: # urpmi -v mutt-1.5.9i-8mdk.i586.rpm Use: # urpmi -v mutt That's it! That's all you have to do do install! With that simple command urpmi will automagically go to the 'Net sources you choose, find and download the latest available Mutt rpm for your version of Mandrake/Mandriva, grab any other packages needed to resolve all dependencies and install everything in the correct order. If urpmi can't complete the installation, either because all the required software isn't available on the source mirrors you choose or possibly some other conflict(s), it will stop the install process before actual changes are made and give you some info about the problem. Similarly, for packages you've downloaded and saved just use the 'cd' command to navigate to the directory where you saved them: # cd /mysaved/rpm/is.here Then (for this, you may need to use the full packagename): # urpmi -v <packagename> Uninstalling a package is simply 'urpme' instead of 'urpmi'. Be aware that while using rpms compiled for other versions of Mandrake/Mandriva or for other distros sometimes will work fine, they may not and the possibility for problems exists. Think of this as similar to installing Windows software where installing something on Win98 but meant for XP (or vice-versa) may not work. The software should be compiled for use with the distro and version it's installed on. So always try to use correct rpms for your distro and version whenever possible, which in the case of Mandrake/Mandriva is almost always. If you must use a rpm from another version or distro, it may or may not work. But unlike Windows, Linux and urpmi allows you to first do a 'test' installation instead of having to just try installing and see what happens. To do a test install, do this: # urpmi -v --test <packagename> This does a 'dry run' to check if the package(s) can be sucessfully installed but without actually changing anything on the system. If all is well, remove the '--test' switch to install normally. It's important to always install rpms, not from tarballs (.targz, .tar.gz, which are often raw source code) when using any rpm-based distro like RedHat, Suse or Mandriva, at least until you have a good understanding of just what you're doing. This is also true of '.deb' package based distros such as Debian or Ubuntu. Why? Because if you always install rpms (or .debs), then Mandriva's urpmi (or Suse's YAST, Debian's apt or whatever package manager) is able to properly keep track of everything installed on your system and so keep everything correctly configured, updated and avoid conflicts. But if you install any packages from source tarballs no information about that package or the files it installed are entered into the urpmi database. You then have a situation where urpmi may not properly keep things straight since it has no info about the installed tarballs or their contents. The chances of installing from tarballs breaking anything is fairly slight, but it can happen, so why risk it if you don't have to? Also, software installed from a rpm package is often easier to uninstall than that installed from a tarball. Sometimes a particular piece or a newer version of software may only be available as a source tarball. No problem. It's very easy make your own rpms from source tarballs with a handy utility called checkinstall, included on the Mandriva CDs. In a nutshell, checkinstall makes a simple .rpm package by replacing the traditional compile and install commands: ./configure make make install With: ./configure make checkinstall I won't go into more detail about checkinstall here. Google for more info about it or install the checkinstall package and type 'man checkinstall' in a terminal. This should be enough to get you going. For more info, open a terminal and type 'man urpmi" or do some Googling, particularly 'easy urpmi'. Lotsa info available.
  13. To get a grasp of how the Linux filesystem is organized, you first have to realize there are no drive letters like A:, C:, D:, etc. in Linux. Everything is a file or directory, even entire drives, starting under the 'root' directory ( / ) which can be generally compared to 'My Computer' in Windows. Your /home directory is roughly equivilent to in Windows: C:\Documents & Settings\yourusername IOW, /home is where all your personal configuration files and documents are kept. When you clicked on the 'Home' icon and tried 'Find File' you were only searching within your /home directory. Since of course /home does not include the directory to your slave drive (any more than you would expect to find your D:\slave listed under C:\Document & Settings in Windows), you couldn't locate anything on the slave. To give you some idea of how the Linux fileystem is arranged, here's my partitions: $ df -H Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/hda5 818M 507M 270M 66% / /dev/hdb1 99G 83G 11G 89% /data1 /dev/hdd1 61G 23G 36G 39% /data2 /dev/hda9 11G 8.2G 1.5G 85% /home /dev/hda1 2.0G 811M 1.2G 41% /mnt/windows /dev/hda7 4.2G 2.7G 1.3G 70% /usr /dev/hda8 2.1G 1.3G 687M 65% /var This is probably more complicated than your machine because I have several partitions on the primary system HD and 3 HDs altogether, but it works as an example. Listings with 'hda' in them are partitions on the primary drive, 'hdb' means the 2nd drive (/data1), 'hdd' means the 3rd drive (/data2). To get access to the slave drive, you will need to mount it as scarecrow suggested if it's not already mounted in MCC > Partitions, then make sure you have your permissions on that drive set so you are allowed access. User file permissions are somewhat similar in concept in Linux as in Win2k-XP. OK, now let's say you now have the slave drive mounted, and let's say for example you either put it under /mnt as: /mnt/slave1 or maybe directly under '/' as I did my /data1 and /data2 drives in the example above. You've set user permissions so you have read/write access to it. But for convience, you want to be able to access it directly from inside your /home directory i.e. as /home/slave1. With Linux, this can be done by creating a symlink pointing to /slave1 in your /home directory. Or you can make a desktop icon for /slave1 and access it directly from that.
  14. As michaelcole said, Mandrake Control Center (aka MCC). Look under Hardware in MCC. Again as michaelcole said, exactly what happens when you download something depends on your browser. But any common browser like Firefox, Opera, etc. should ask what you want to do with the downloaded file. When it does, tell it where you want it saved. There are many good ones, including GCombust, k3b, XCDRoast, etc. You can't use your copy of Nero 6 under Linux, but I use Nero for Linux which is very good, available here: http://www.nero.com/en/NeroLINUX.html You can try a free trial of NeroLinux, good for I think 10 days. $19.95 to buy it.
  15. Unless a hardware meltdown forces a reinstall, I'll run my (basically) 10.1 install until at least v2007, maybe v2008. There's nothing in v2006 I need I haven't already got.
  16. Well, --allow-force should never be used except a a very last resort and ordinarily you could have easily trashed somthing. You got away clean with doing it in this case because the rpms supplied by OpenOffice.org for OOo-2.0 by default install into OOo-2.0's own directory under /opt instead of putting stuff in /usr like a native Mandriva rpm for OOo would. So there was no danger of overwriting anything in this case. OOo-2.0 (like Mozilla.org packages for Firefox and Thunderbird) supplies it's own libraries instead of sharing them. It's less space-efficient but makes the OOo.org package distro-independent. But since OOo-2.0 does supply it's own libraries, that also means that in this case there's no advantage to using 'urpmi --allow-force' in place of 'rpm -Uvih' as the installation instructions suggest, since there's no dependency resolving urpmi needs to do. Of course, there's nothing to 'force' either. Anyway, point is using --force is generally a Very Bad Thing.
  17. Crashdamage

    File Structure

    Glad I could spur some new optimism. Urpmi really is very easy once you get some basic concepts down. Let us know how you get on...
  18. Crashdamage

    File Structure

    That's a good place. /usr/local is more or less reserved for software that you do not install from a rpm package. Some people use /opt, but IMHO /usr/local makes better sense. No, but you can avoid some of the problems you're having by using the preferred method for installing software on your system, in this case from rpm packages. Installing from tarballs (.targz, .tar.gz, which are often raw source code) isn't hard, but is best left for more experienced users. Stay with rpms until you really get the hang of Linux. Even then, it's still best to use rpms when possible. Hint: best to uninstall Firefox and Thunderbird per their directions (I think that's simply deleting the respective directories in /usr/local, but check) before installing them again from rpms. Also, in your case I'd delete the /.mozilla, /.fullcircle and /.thunderbird directories in your /home directory. Not to worry, they'll be recreated fresh when you reinstall Firefox and Thunderbird, but of course you will lose any info there. As for your other questions, well, this looks like a good time to again post my standard Software Installation Guide for n00bs. No offense, everyone here was a n00b once. It should answer most of your questions and get you on your way. Once your get the hang of it, installing software in Linux is actually slicker and easier than in Windoze. It's just different. Here it is - hope it helps, and feel free to post back here with more questions: **Basic urpmi setup and usage** Urpmi will easily and automagically take care of finding, downloading and installing software and its dependencies, if any. The "Software Management" utility in Mandrake/Mandriva Control Center is a simple to use GUI frontend for urpmi (think of it as roughly the equivilent to "Add/Remove Software" in Windows Control Center). But it's also very easy and more powerful to use urpmi from the command line. You can, of course, just use the CDs and install software from those. But to best use either the GUI installer or to use urpmi manually, if you have a broadband connection you should set up online sources for downloading/installing/updating software. To do that you need to know how to 'su' to root, which is very simple. Just open a terminal (konsole, xterm, aterm, whatever) which will show a '$' prompt character and do this: $ su (hit enter) Password: <type.your.root.password> (hit enter) # Note that the cursor changed from '$' to '#' indicating you now have 'root' administrator rights, so be careful! This is similar to the difference between 'user' and 'administrator' rights in Win2k/XP. If you don't fully understand the 'su' process or root permissions some simple Googling will explain it. Now to setup your online software sources. Go here: http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/ There's also a handy link to that site in the upper right of any page of this forum. Follow the directions to setup your online package sources. Choose them carefully, staying with sources for your particular version of Mandrake/Mandriva. You'll want to add the main sources for your version, the updates, Contrib, PLF free and non-free, and maybe some others like the Seer of Souls rpms. Warning!: Add the Cooker sources at your own risk. Cooker is beta stuff still in testing for the next release and may or may not cause you problems. When you've finished setting up your source mirrors you can start using the real power of urpmi. You can now install/uninstall a package using your newly-setup online sources either by using the GUI installer in Mandrake/Mandriva Control Center, or better, by manually installing with urpmi from the command line. To install manually open a terminal, 'su' to root, then type: # urpmi -v <packagename> ('-v' for verbose output is optional, but I like the extra info it provides) Note that usually <packagename> can be just the 'simple' version. Using the text email client Mutt for an example, instead of typing the full package name: # urpmi -v mutt-1.5.9i-8mdk.i586.rpm Use: # urpmi -v mutt That's it - that's all you have to do do install! With that simple command urpmi will automagically go to the 'Net sources you choose, find and download the latest available Mutt rpm for your version of Mandrake/Mandriva, grab any other packages needed to resolve all dependencies and install everything in the correct order. If urpmi can't complete the installation, either because all the required software isn't available on the source mirrors you choose or possibly some other conflict(s), it will stop the install process before actual changes are made and give you some info about the problem. Similarly, for packages you've downloaded and saved, just use the 'cd' command to navigate to the directory where you saved them: # cd /mysaved/rpm/is.here Then (for this, you may need to use the full packagename): # urpmi -v <packagename> Uninstalling a package is simply 'urpme' instead of 'urpmi'. Be aware that while using rpms compiled for other versions of Mandrake/Mandriva or for other distros sometimes will work fine, they may not and the possibility for problems exists. Think of this as similar to installing Windows software where installing something on Win98 but meant for XP (or vice-versa) may not work. The software should be compiled for use with the distro and version it's installed on. So always try to use correct rpms for your distro and version whenever possible, which in the case of Mandrake/Mandriva is almost always. If you must use a rpm from another version or distro, it may or may not work. But unlike Windows, Linux and urpmi allows you to first do a 'test' installation instead of having to just try installing and see what happens. To do a test install, do this: # urpmi -v --test <packagename> This does a 'dry run' to check if the package(s) can be sucessfully installed but without actually changing anything on the system. If all is well, remove the '--test' switch to install normally. It's important to always install rpms when possible, not from tarballs, when using any rpm-based distro like RedHat, Suse or Mandriva, at least until you have a good understanding of just what you're doing. This is also true of '.deb' package based distros such as Debian or Ubuntu. Why? Because if you always install rpms (or .debs), then Mandriva's urpmi (or Suse's YAST, Debian's apt or whatever package manager) is able to properly keep track of everything installed on your system and so keep everything correctly configured and updated and avoid conficts. But if you install any packages from source tarballs no information about that package or the files it installed are entered into the urpmi database. You then have a situation where urpmi may not properly keep things straight since it has no info about the installed tarballs or their contents. The chances of installing from tarballs breaking anything is fairly slight, but it can happen, so why risk it if you don't have to? Also, software installed from a rpm package is usually easier to uninstall than that installed from a tarball. Sometimes a particular piece or a newer version of software may only be available as a source tarball. No problem - it's very easy make your own rpms from source tarballs with a handy utility called checkinstall, included on the Mandriva CDs. In a nutshell, checkinstall makes a simple .rpm package by replacing the traditional compile and install commands: ./configure make make install With: ./configure make checkinstall I won't go into more detail about checkinstall here. Google for more info about it or install the checkinstall package and type 'man checkinstall' in a terminal. This should be enough to get you going. For more info, open a terminal and type 'man urpmi" or do some Googling, particularly 'easy urpmi'. Lotsa info available.
  19. Well, I was never really knocked out by k3b anyway, I kept finding myself still using BashBurn a lot 'cause GUI apps still kinda drive me nuts. But I antied up the $20 for NeroLinux for 3 main reasons: 1. Since I use Nero in Win, to have a more consistent UI going from from Win to Linux. 2. Show support for software makers trying to get serious about supporting Linux. 3. Allowed me to finally uninstall friggin' KDE.
  20. NeroLinux 2 is really pretty good. It's replaced k3b as my default GUI burner. Anyone disappointed by the original NeroLinux they were giving away a while back (an aplha or beta version just to test the Linux waters) should give NeroLinux 2 a chance. It doesn't do everything NeroWin does, but it's only $20.
  21. You can install Bluefish from rpm easily, but you're doing some things wrong. First, you using an old rpm update command to install. The old rpm commands are outdated and of limited usefulness (though in rare instances they do still have a place). Use 'urpmi' instead - see 'man urpmi'. There's also plenty of info about urpmi on this forum. Just do a quick search. Urpmi works much like and is just as powerful as apt-get in Debian and will automatically handle dependencies for you, including (if you setup online sources) auto-downloading and installing packages and any dependencies. The old rpm commands do none of that. 'Software Management' in MCC is just a GUI frontend for urpmi, but urpmi is very easy and more powerful if used from the command line. To best use the considerable power of urpmi, go to the 'Easy-Urpmi' link near the top right of any page of this forum. Follow the simple instructions to setup your online package sources. You'll want to add at least the 'Main', 'Updates', 'Contrib', 'PLF' (both free and non-free) and maybe some others like the Seer of Souls rpm repository. Second, you're trying to install a rpm for Fedora Core 4. You should be using a Mandriva rpm if possible. A quick check showed bluefish-1.0.4 not available yet in a Mandriva rpm. I didn't spend much time looking, but the newest rpm version a quick check turned up is v1.0.2, from Seer of Souls. If that's not new enough, by using urpmi to handle dependencies there's a fair chance you can install the FC4 rpm. If that fails too and you still feel you must have the very latest 1.0.4 version, you'll have to use the source package you downloaded, but install it by using checkinstall to very easily 'roll your own' rpm instead of installing the source package itself. If you aren't familiar with checkinstall, just install it with: # urpmi -v checkinstall ...then 'man checkinstall' or a quick Goole will pull up plenty of info. Checkinstall is very handy.
  22. YinYeti's right, putting 'linux' in the search is not the same as using www.google.com/linux. I don't know how it works differently either, I just know it's pretty cool. Just another of those Google mysteries. I have it bookmarked in all browsers and use it a lot. I would've mentioned google/linux before, but I didn't want to confuse disco_lad and putting 'linux' in the search terms gets the job done.
  23. I could explain how to do this, but...I think disco_lad needs to dance on his own a little... Putting the search terms "linux how to check md5 sums" in Google pulled up 311,000 references in 0.24 seconds. Putting "check md5" in the search box of this forum pulled up 3 pages of posts. So I think another explanation by me might be kinda redundant. Like I said - Google is your friend. So is this forum. Both are loaded with good info. You can find almost anything you need with just a few minutes of looking. You can do it. The info you need is already available. Check your md5 sums. If your disks verify as good, try again to do the 'F1' thing and get into a text install. Like YinYeti said, it's very strange you can't do that. Anyway, if the disks are good and a text install still fails, post back here **with any error messages** and we'll try more to get to the bottom of this.
  24. I'll try a quick explanation of some basics...at least as I understand them...anyone feel free to correct me... Low-level formatting refers to creating the 'structure' or layout of the disk - sectors, blocks - i.e. the 'factory' format. 'High-level' formatting is creating the filesystem (FAT32, NTFS, ext3, Reiser, whatever) upon that disk structure. In Win/Mac terminology, 'formatting' normally refers to BOTH a 'low-level' AND 'high-level' formatting of the disk. For example, notice in Windoze when you format a floppy disk you can choose between 'format' or 'quick format'. Format rebuilds the structure of the disk, quick format only creates a new filesystem on the existing structure. Using Windows, when you format a HD, say as with a Win98 boot floppy and the command: format C: you actually are doing both types. The command rebuilds the disk structure and creates a FAT32 file system on it. But in the Unix/Linux world, 'formatting' normally only refers to setting up the structure of the disk, and 'creating a filesystem' refers to - of course - creating the filesystem on that disk. However, the term 'format' is often (mis)used in the Win/Mac way even in Linux, creating some understandable confusion. Anyway, the difference between 'format' and 'creating a fileystem' sorta explains how the formatting tools used in Linux can easily create several different types of fileysytems on a single drive - the different fileystems are simply created on the same disk structure. It also explains why Windows normally cannot do so (well, WinNT can - but it's very limited). Of course, with Unix/Linux you can also do 'low-level' formatting if needed, but in actual practice a 'low-level' format is rarely necessary. Now, even if that clears up some stuff about basics a bit, it still leaves the root question of how to recover and format your entire 4G disk. You can't use a simple Windoze boot floppy to reformat as in the example above because you apparently have formatted part of your disk with a non-M$ filesystem. Since a Windoze boot disk is too stupid to recognize any space used by a non-Windoze filesystem the full HD is not recovered. So you must use something that can deal with non-M$ filesystems to get back the full 4G. You can: A. Use a bootable Linux disk (i.e. Knoppix, pcLinuxOS, or better in your situation of limited memory, one of several 'lighter' bootable rescue disks - Google can find several I'm sure) to get a workable system up and running, then use the formatting tools included to 'fully' reformat your disk. B. Use commercial software like PartitionMagic 8 (ugh) or similar to do a total formatting. Remember Google is your friend. You can find out pretty much anything you need to know with a little looking. But before you do anything, you never really answered some basic questions... 1. Is the drive properly detected by your BIOS? IOW, what does the BIOS say about the type and capacity of the drive? 4G? 2.5G? Unknown? Nothing can be done with the drive if the BIOS can't get a proper read on the drive. Any OS takes the BIOS info and goes from there. 2. What does the BIOS say about your type and speed of CPU and memory?
  25. Is the drive shown correctly in the BIOS? Have you tried starting a text install and reformatting the drive from there? The formatting tools in Linux are about as good as they get and can format the disk in FAT32, NTFS or your choice of several Lnux file systems. And remember, now that you have a Linux file system (partially?) installed trying to format the disk with something like a Win98 boot disk will not work - Win is too stupid and stubborn to recognize anything but Windoze file formats. So to try and fix the drive you now have to use something to reformat that can deal with Linux file systems.
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