How to - 9.2 to 10CE or Official

[SteveAmbrose]

EDIT - 18 April 2004 - --- The following how-to will also work with 10 official. I completely dumped my laptop and followed the following instructions except for substituting 10 official where it states 10 CE

 

I am successfully running Linux Mandrake 10 CE on my laptop computer. While this may not be a "big deal" to some, I, as I am sure others will appreciate this fact and may find some of the following information useful. Especially if:

1. Newbie to linux

2. Problems upgrading from 9.2

3. 10 CE would not install

4. 10 CE has repeatedly caused problems trying to dual boot

5. Wanting to upgrade to 10CE but have read a lot of the issues with installing 10 CE and are "leary" of taking the "plunge."

 

After countless bad experiences with trying to install 10 CE, I have it running nicely now. It is a painless (though maybe the long way) installation if you have had no issues with Mandrake 9.2. Some of the issues I encountered with a fresh install of Mandrake 10 CE included the following:

 

1. cd 1 would not boot but other times it would*

2. after configuring network card, installation would lock up*

3. would destroy mbr (could neither boot Windows XP or Linux)*

4. would not recognize hardware on one installation attempt but on others it would*

 

*I am a Linux Newbie and the issues above are problems that I encountered and these issues may be the result of the fact I am a linux newbie and prone to the "newbie error" factor and have nothing to do with the CE version.

 

 

Background:

I am a newbie linux user and have used information from these boards and information from countless google searches to further my education in using linux.

I have no formal computer training. Just a desire to learn.

 

I do web development as a hobby and part time job. As window server programs are more than I can afford, I turned to the Open Source Community to find alternatives. I learned about Apache, MySql, php, python, perl, and Tcl. I finally after much frustration, had a working environment in my windows (98) to do some heavy testing of my web creations. The knowledge of what linux is and what it could do was known to me but little more than that. As curiosity got the best of me, I experimented with many distributions that included Redhat, SuSE, and Mandrake. After a lot of frustrations, I gave up on it.

 

After some time (year or so), my curiosity began to rise again, as I wanted to learn more about programming (not websites). As I have a newborn, money again became an issue. Open Source was and is my answer. While looking at what the open source could offer me, Linux once again, became a topic of interest as most open source projects I was interested in were being developed in a Unix/Linux environment. I am now determined to learn Linux once and for all.

 

So with that in mind, I tried again, Redhat (9.0), SuSE (9.0) Mandrake (9.2) and Gentoo (2004 version). I did not like the Redhat or SuSE versions (personal reasons) but am very interested in the Gentoo Distribution. After trying it (Gentoo) and getting a very small command line OS installed, my lack of knowledge on kernel compilation, flags, dependencies, portage, etc, I decided to go with Mandrake 9.2. BUT my experience with installing Gentoo truly allowed me to gain knowledge about linux and how it works. As a side note of this post and not to take anything away from Mandrake Linux, I truly suggest a newbie try to install Gentoo on a spare machine as even though you may fail, you WILL gain a lot of knowledge about the linux OS and how and why things do what they do and how to troubleshoot some problems.

 

So with my freshly burned 9.2 Mandrake disks, I decided to install linux along side Windows XP (home edition) on a laptop (only computer available at the time that would not disrupt my work).

 

I am not going into all the trials and errors I made along the way. Needless to say, the Mandrake installation program did what it was supposed to do. All errors were attributed to user error (me). I will also add that I have probably installed 9.2 at least a dozen times as I tinkered and corrupted the system in my need to learn.

 

What I am going to do now, is explain in detail exactly what I did to get 10 CE installed along side windows XP after numerous attempts of trying to install 10 CE from disks. This method works for those that have 9.2 installed and do not want to download and burn the 10 CE ISO images to disk. Once again, this may be the long and drawn out solution to a solution that can be accomplished in a shorter way, but this is a newbie's own solution to a problem using a newbie's logic. I give myself credit for only one thing.. attempting to solve an issue instead of giving up. The credit for the accomplishment of this goes to those that host this site and those that take the time and effort to answer questions on this site.

 

How this linux newb finally gets 10 CE installed on his computer!

This is what I did and you may or may not follow it exactly. Adapt what I have done to your needs. I will explain my logic as I progress through this. Feel free to use the logic or pass on it.

 

1. Identify the computer and its hardware for the linux OS installation:

Laptop specifics:

Model == HP Pavilion xf145

Processor == AMD Athlon 1.0ghz Mobile

Ram == 512MB

Hard drive == Toshiba MK2018GAP 20.0gb

Display Adapter == S3 Graphics TwisterK HP

CD-ROM == Toshiba DVD-ROM/CD-RW SD-R2102

Modem == Conexant 56K ACLink DataFaxVoice

NIC == VT6102 [Rhine II 10/100]

Sound Card == VT82C686 [Apollo Super AC97/Audio]

 

2. What is the goal of this installation?

The goal is to successfully have a laptop that can dual boot Windows XP and Mandrake Linux 10 CE.

 

3. Have you had installation issues with 10 CE and or along side a windows OS? If yes, do you have copies of Mandrake 9.2 disks at your disposal and willing to start from scratch?

Yes, I have had issues trying to install 10 CE along side windows and even as the sole operating system. Yes, I have the Mandrake 9.2 disks and willing to start from scratch.

 

4. Do you have your installation disks for your Windows OS? If yes, then follow the instructions provided.

Yes.

 

First step here is to make a clean hard drive. We want a hard drive with no partitions and a clean boot record (MBR). If you boot your pc with a windows boot disk or cd, and use the fdisk utility, it may not recognize your linux partitions. This can be a problem but there is an easy solution. You can go to MasterBooter.com and navigate to the download/shareware directory and download "mrboot.zip". Once you have this package, unzip it for now and we will get back to this package in a bit.

 

Now, lets create a floppy boot disk.

In windows 98 - I will explain 2 ways of creating a boot disk to accomplish what we need to do.

 

1. The first method and the method I suggest is to insert your Windows 98 CD into the drive. Navigate to the \tools\mtsutil\fat32ebd folder. Now insert a floppy disk (any and all info on this floppy will be deleted). In your fat32ebd folder you will see a file named fat32ebd.exe. Left click on this file. A dos window will appear with this text:

This utility creates a FAT32 boot disk
Please insert a 1.44Mb floppy into the A: drive.

Warning! All files on the diskette will be erased!

Enter 'Y' to continue, any other key to exit :

Go ahead and press "Y". A boot disk will be created after a short time.

Now continue reading at the section called "Adding Edisk"

 

2. The second method consists of clicking the start button and navigating to your control panel. In the control panel, click on the Add/Remove Programs icon. At the top of the window that appears, click on the start up disk tab. Now insert a floppy disk (any and all info on this floppy will be deleted). Now click the button "Create Disk". A start up disk will be created after a short time.

Now continue reading at the section called "Adding Efdisk"

 

In windows XP - I will explain only one way. Be forewarned that this disk is not a recovery disk at all! This disk will contain the files needed to return your hard drive to a sterile state (the state it was when manufactured).

Another method of creating a boot disk for XP will not be explained as it requires 6 floppy disks and consists of different files for the home edition and the professional edition. For those interested, send me a PM and I will explain how to do it that way.

 

1. Insert a floppy disk (any and all info on this floppy will be deleted). Then navigate to your "My Computer" directory. Right click on the floppy drive icon. In the menu that pops up, click on the format option. From the menu that appears, mark the check box entitled "Create an MS-Dos-startup disk." Press start. A Dos boot disk will be created after a short time.

Now continue reading at the section called "Adding Efdisk"

 

Adding Efdisk - Remember the package "mrboot" we unzipped? Navigate to the folder where you unzipped "mrboot" and find the file called "efdisk.exe" Copy only this file to the floppy disk you just created. Once it is copied, remove the floppy and write protect the floppy by moving the tab on the back of the floppy to the up position. When you look at your floppy disk now, you will see 2 open spaces at the top. Congratulations, you have a write protected floppy which is good if you should ever get a virus on your Window's system! Now, what exactly is Efdisk? In very simple terms, it is a utility that will allow you to clean your boot record and partition your hard drive. The fdisk utility that comes with Windows does not recognize the linux file systems (82, 83) etc.

 

***************

My logic for step 4

***************

I wanted a clean install. I have "tinkered, experimented and reinstalled" linux at least a dozen times. Each "tinker", "experiment" and install, has resulted in me learning something from my errors. I have the restore disks that came with my laptop and no information exists on the computer that is needed. Therefore, I am installing both my Windows XP and Mandrake system fresh. When I restore my laptop from the disks, whether I created a specific partition or not, something always goes wrong. So, fresh installs of both XP and Mandrake are in order for me.

 

5. Are you ready to begin the installation of a computer with both XP and Mandrake 10 CE? If so, read on!

Yes, I am ready!

 

Cleaning up the hard drive

Insert the boot disk we created and reboot the computer. After rebooting you will eventually end up at a "DOS A" prompt. Type the command "efdisk /mbr" (without the quotations). This command just changed your MBR to the state it was in when the hard drive left the factory. (you may or may not get a message about a new boot record being written. If you get a message, it will say:

A:\>efdisk /mbr
New MBR loader has been installed successfully.
A:\>

Either way, do not worry, the command will do what needs to be done.

 

Now, to clean up the hard drive and remove any partitions. At the prompt, type the command: "efdisk" (without quotations). You will see a screen similar to this. As you can see from this information, I have a partition with a fat32 FS and an extended partition. Yours will vary and show any partitions created by linux.

 

You will be introduced to the following screen:

+----------------¦ Current partition table ¦-----------------------------------+
¦ Disk    Part.   FS Type        Start/End   Size/MB  Boot ¦ Cyls  Heads Secs  ¦
¦ ------  ------  -------------- ----------- -------  ---- ¦ ----- ----- ----- ¦
¦ First   First   FAT32x             0  1274   10001   **  ¦  3649   255    63 ¦
¦ First   Second  Extended x      1275  3648   18622       ¦                   ¦
¦ First   Third   Empty              0     0       0       ¦                   ¦
¦ First   Fourth  Empty              0     0       0       ¦                   ¦
¦                                                          ¦                   ¦
¦                                                          ¦-------------------¦
¦                                                          ¦    EFDISK v3.2    ¦
¦                                                          ¦   by Nagy Daniel  ¦
¦-------------------¦ Usage information ¦------------------¦                   ¦
¦  - move up,  - move down, SPACE - toggle active flag   ¦      SHAREWARE    ¦
¦ ENTER - create partition, DEL - delete, H - hide/unhide  ¦       version     ¦
¦ ESC - quit, F10 - write new partition table              ¦                   ¦
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

All that is needed, is to delete each partition. When a partition is highlighted, press the delete key. Use your scroll keys to move down to the next partition and delete the next partition. Do this until all partitions are empty. Your partitions should now look like this:

 Disk    Part.   FS Type        Start/End   Size/MB  Boot
------  ------  -------------- ----------- -------  ----
First   First   Empty              0     0       0
First   Second  Empty              0     0       0
First   Third   Empty              0     0       0
First   Fourth  Empty              0     0       0

Now to write the partition table, press the F10 key. You will be asked if you want to continue. Press the "Y" key and then follow the instructions to reboot. Your hard drive is now clean of any and all partitions and you now have a clean MBR.

 

6. Install Windows XP

I do not have a copy of Windows XP, only the restore disks that came with the computer. I had tried creating a NTFS partition and forcing the restore to only use that partition but have had no luck. I finally gave up on trying to force it to restore my laptop to the partition I created, and let it have its way with the 20 gig hard drive. After the system restored, I then deleted all the bundled software that I did not want. I then went through the updates, etc. I then installed the programs that I would use in the XP environment. After that, I ran the scandisk utility. When it finished and found no errors, I ran the defrag utility. After this process, I checked to see how much space my XP utilized. With my installed programs, I had used right at 4.7 gb. Next was the decision of how much to dedicate to my XP system. I finally resolved to giving windows 9 gb of room total. That would leave me roughly 11 gb for linux. An important note to remember is this. Once you have run the defrag utility, DO NOT use your XP system until you install your Mandrake system!! Right now, everything is compact and as close together as possible. If you have used the system or added files or programs, run the defrag utility again. The last thing you should do in XP or any Windows OS before logging out to start installation of another OS is to run the defrag utility.

 

7. Mandrake Linux 9.2 Installation

***For those that have only skimmed through this and did not read my reasoning for installing 9.2 or have forgotten, I have tried numerous times to install Mandrake 10 CE without success. These issues are stated in the second section at the top of this article. I will, in the end, have a functioning Mandrake 10 CE installation and Windows XP installation on my laptop, both running without problems.***

 

A summary of what this installation will consist of:

1. boot the mandrake 9.2 installation disk

 

2. use the mandrake installation disk to "grab" available disk space from the Windows XP partition and make it available for Mandrake linux partitions. (this step will allow you to resize your windows partition, then create partitions for mandrake's use.

 

3. a minimum installation consisting of a GUI of your choice (I will use Gnome)

 

4. no servers, multimedia, office, sound, or other applications will be installed except those programs needed by Mandrake and or your GUI.

 

5. configure the 9.2 installation

 

6. reboot

 

7. finishing step in windows

 

Detailed Installation

1. Insert your installation disk 1 into the cd-rom and boot. Press enter at the splash screen. After going through the boot process, the installation informed me it was loading the program into the memory and then it informed me it was entering the 2nd stage of the installation process. After this was finished, I was greeted with the first screen for my installation.

 

2. The first screen is the language screen. I picked english and then clicked on the next button.

 

3. I was then shown the license agreement with radio buttons with the choice to accept or refuse. I clicked the accept button and then clicked the next button.

 

4. The next screen to appear was the mouse selection. My mouse is the touch pad on the laptop. The PS/2 option was highlighted and this choice is what I need, so with it highlighted, I clicked on the next button.

 

5. When the next button was clicked, I was informed that the installation was configuring pcmcia cards, hard drives and dvd/cd-rw drives and installing appropriate drivers. After this was finished, the security screen was displayed. The "standard" security level was the default. After reading the information presented, I left the security level at "standard" and clicked the next button.

 

6. Next, I was presented with the DrakX Partitioning wizard. Of the radio button options available, I clicked the "Use the free space on the Windows partition. After clicking next, the wizard informed me it was computing the free space on the windows partition.

 

Then a warning screen presented itself. In summary, it stated I should run chkdsk from a command line prompt under windows and then run the defrag program. Since my hard drive is fairly new, scandisk worked for me and my system has already had the defrag utility run.

 

So with this information, I clicked the next button. The next screen to appear asked the question, "Which size do you want to keep for Windows on?" You will notice a line below the question that looks similar to this:

partition hda1 [C:] (20.0GB, /mnt/windows, NTFS) ================[ | ] 20000

If you remember from earlier, I made the choice to make the windows system 9GB total. With that choice made, I moved the slider-bar to the left until it showed 9000 (9GB). After this was done, I clicked the next button. The wizard then proceeded to tell me it was repartitioning my window's partition and then proceeded to make my linux partitions and format. You will also receive a message stating that the first time you boot windows that it will need to do a check as the system has change. Follow the warning you get the next time you boot windows and let the utility do the check.

 

**at this point, if you desire, you can reboot your machine and start the process over again and when you get to the partition wizard, you could choose custom partitioning and delete the linux partitions and use a partition scheme of your choice. Just be sure that you DO NOT in anyway change the windows partition

 

7. The next screen to appear was the package group Selection. Here is where you can save some time. The final goal of all we are doing is to have a Mandrake 10 CE installation. We want the packages that come with the CE version, so we are going to keep things to a minimum. First uncheck all boxes except one "Graphical Environment" box. I unchecked the default (KDE) and checked Gnome. Next, check the box in the middle at the bottom of the screen entitled "Individual package selection" and then click the next button. Navigate your way to the "internet workstation." You are looking for a program called Links*. Check this box. Once this is done, click next and your installation of packages will begin. As the process runs, insert the correct disc asked by the installation process.

 

*Links is a text based web browser. We will need this once the system is installed as you will soon find out. Links is pretty much a straight forward program to use, but if you are unfamiliar with a text based web browser, read up on it before using it. I suggest installing it and getting familiar with it before going through the actual installation process.

 

8. After the packages have been installed, you will be greeted with the root password screen. Enter your root password and then enter it again on the second line to verify your password. Press the next button to continue.

 

9. You are now presented with the add user screen. I suggest you do this now. Not having an account other than root is not a good thing to do. As root, you have total control of the system and can easily corrupt your system if you are not familiar with linux. After you finish adding a user, click the next button to continue.

 

10. Now you are presented with a screen that asks if you want to configure the operating system to automatically log on one user and the GUI the user will use. On my installation, I unchecked the box as I do not want to automatically log on. Make your choice and press the next button to continue.

 

11. The computer will do some configuring and configure the bootloader. After this finishes, you are presented with a configuration screen. There are 5 categories; System, Hardware, Network & Internet, Security and Boot, containing sub-categories.

 

Hardware

Keyboard - if the default that is displayed is not correct, click the configure button to configure it. The next screen will have the different keyboard layouts that you can choose from. Click the appropriate radio button and then click the next button and you will return to the main configuration screen.

 

Country/Region - if the default that is listed is not correct, then press the configuration button to select the correct country/region. Press the next button and you will return to the main configuration screen.

 

Timezone - if the default is not correct, then press the configuration button to select the correct timezone. In my case, the default was New York/eastern time. I chose Chicago since it is central time. After making your selection, press the next button. You will be presented with a screen that gives you 2 options. The first is to set the hardware clock to GMT and the second option is to use time synchronization. I want my computer to use "local time" so I will make sure that the option for GMT is off and since I have a permanent connection to the internet, I chose to use the automatic time synch feature. When you are done click the next button. If your choice was to use the time synch feature, you will be presented with a screen to select the NTP time server you will use. I chose the default listed and then pressed the next button. After the system makes the necessary configurations, you will be once again presented with the main configuration screen.

 

Mouse - if the default mouse is not correct, then press the configure button to configure your mouse/pointer device. Being that my mouse is correctly identified, there were no adjustments for me to make.

 

Hardware

Printer - I have no printer connected to my laptop, so the default listing of "No printer" is fine and I have no need to press the configuration button.

 

Sound card - the default listing of "VIA Technologies|VT82C686[Apollo Super AC97/Audio] is the correct setting. I know this from "1. Identify the computer and its hardware for the linux OS installation:" section from above. Since this is correct, then there is no need to configure my sound card and I now move on to the next section.

 

Graphic Interface - there is no default listing here. Just a message in red saying, "not configure". So to configure my graphics adapter, I press the configuration button.

 

I am now presented with a screen of resolutions. The system highlighted "Flat Panel 1024x768". The system correctly identified my resolution, so I press the next button. The screen that appears is asking me to choose my X Server. It has Savage4 highlighted, but the name of my graphics adapter is "S3 Graphics TwisterK HP" So, after using the Google search engine with the key words "hp pavilion xf145" I find that the Savage4 X server will work with this adapter. I leave the Savage4 adapter highlighted and press the next button.

 

The next screen asks me what version of XFree to use. I have 2 options. XFree 4.3 or XFree 3.3.6. I chose to use version 4.3 and press the next button. The next screen asks me how much ram is installed on the adapter. In my case, it is 8mb. So I chose 8mb and pressed the next button.

 

The next screen that is displayed is the resolution and color depth. If you notice at the top, the graphic adapter you chose before is listed in parenthesis. From the first drop-down menu, choose your resolution. I chose 1024x768. The next drop-down menu ask for the color depth. I chose 16 million colors, which is 24 bits. Make your selection and press the "ok" button. This next screen is important. It asks if you want to test your configuration. I suggest you test it!! The yes radio button is automatically selected. Press next. Your screen may go blank for a few seconds. Then a vertical rainbow pattern of colors will appear with a little window asking if the settings are correct. If they are correct, press yes, if not, press no. In my case, the settings were correct. After pressing yes, the screen that appears gives you the ability to change any of the graphic settings. If your settings are correct, then press next button.

 

The next screen you will see will ask if you want the installation process to configure linux to automatically start the graphic environment when booting. Normally, linux boots to a command line prompt. Selecting yes will automatically bring up a GUI once linux finishes booting. The choice is totally one of preference. If you choose no at this screen, you can still use the GUI. To do so, once the system finishes booting, log in using your username/password. At the prompt, simply type the command:

startx

It is that easy. Once your decision is made, press the next button and you will return to the main configuration screen.

 

Network & Internet

Network - my connection to the internet is through a router. I therefore, connect to the internet through a lan. The installation identified the fact that I use a lan. However, I want to manually configure my network card. I press the configuration button and am presented with a configuration screen asking if I want to use auto detection or expert mode. I decided to allow the installation program to try and detect my network adapter. So, checking the "Use auto detection", I pressed the next button. The next screen to appear had numerous choices. Even though I use a microwave technology and is consider a form of ADSL, my laptop is connected to a router and not directly to the incoming signal. I therefore choose "Lan connection - ethernet card(s) detected" option and press next to continue. The screen that appears tells me that the installation is going to configure the lan connection and waits for me to press next or previous. I choose next.

 

The screen that appears next does a number of things. At the top, you are notified that the system is configuring network device eth0 and shows the driver it will use in parenthesis. In my case, it will use the "Via-Rhine" driver. The next thing this screen does is to display a warning message about the device being previously configured and that modifying any of the information below it will over-ride the current network configuration.

 

*before I continue, I want to take a moment and explain a few things. The first thing is what eth0 means. In linux, "eth" is your network adapter. The "0" tells you which adapter it is. Confused? Let us say you have 2 network adapters in your computer. We know that network adapters in linux are seen as "eth" but how do you tell which adapter you are looking at? In linux, the adapters will be counted and that number will be added to the "eth". So why is it eth0 instead of eth1? Simply, linux counts your network adapters starting with "0". So in the example of a computer having 2 network adapters, linux will count them as "eth0" and "eth1" and not "eth1" and "eth2".

 

**in the next part, I am manually setting my information. If you use a router that has the DHCP server turned on and want to leave it that way, then please do so. Or, if you do not understand networking and let your computer automatically set up the internet, then you can skip the rest of this section. I configure my adapter manually because of personal preference.

 

Now back to the configuration. As stated above, I want to manually configure the network adapter. I will do this through the tools that exist in this screen. First of all, the "Automatic IP" box is checked and that is not what I want. So, I uncheck the box and now the area below it will accept information. The first text input area is "IP address". Enter the desired ip address. In my case, I chose to use "192.168.1.155" The next asks for your subnet. In my case, the default that was present, "255.255.255.0" is correct, so I pressed the next button to continue.

 

The next screen continues your network configuration.

Hostname - in my case, I will use "lapserv.xxxxxx.xxx" (lapserv is the host name of my laptop. The next group of x's are the domain name and the last group are the tld. Make yours accordingly.

 

Zeroconf Host name - I entered "lapserv"

 

DNS server - I do not have my own DNS server so will use my providers DNS ip address. If you do not know your providers DNS server's address, contact them for the information.

 

Gateway - enter the ip address of your gateway. In my case, the gateway to the internet is my router. Therefore, I enter my router's ip address of "192.168.1.1"

 

Once the information on this screen is complete, recheck it and make sure all addresses are correct and then press the next button to continue.

 

The next screen allows you to configure your proxies. I do not use proxy servers. If, in most cases, you have no ideal of what a proxy server is, then most likely you do not have to worry about this. If you are in a work place and are unsure, ask the system administrator if they are using proxy servers and if so, what ports do they use. When finished with this screen, press the next button to continue.

 

You will be presented with a screen stating that the configuration is complete and asking you if you want to apply the settings. Select the yes radio button and press the next button. You will see a screen stating that the network and internet configuration is complete. Press the finish button and you will be returned to the main configuration screen.

 

***you may have noticed that even though I listed a modem as being installed in the laptop, the linux configuration did not identify it. The modem installed is a "soft modem" If I want to use the modem, I will need to go to linmodem.org and read up on soft modems and how to identify and find the correct linux drivers to make my modem work (if any are available). Since the modem in linux is not that important to me, I will save that experience for a later date

 

Security

Security Level - since the default showing is "standard" and that is what I chose earlier, no configuration is needed in my case.

 

Firewall - disabled is what is showing as the default. In my case, that is fine. I use other computers for securing my network. For now, I will leave the firewall disabled and have no need to make any configuration changes now.

 

Boot

Bootloader - the default showing is "lilo-graphic on /dev/hda" and tells me it will be loaded onto the mbr of the first hard drive (in my case, the only hard drive)

 

Services - this I would leave alone until you are more experienced. You can always change what services are activated after the installation is complete and more knowledge on linux is acquired.

 

12. Now that we have finished with the main configuration screen, press the next button to continue. The next screen that appears will ask if you want to download updates, which contain security and or bug fixes. The default is no. Leave it that way and press the next button.

 

This screen tells you that you are finished installing Mandrake 9.2.

 

Congratulations, Mandrake Linux 9.2 is now installed on your computer!

 

*When you reboot your machine, you will see a splash screen with the options of booting linux, linux-nonfb, failsafe, windows or floppy. You would choose "linux" to start your Mandrake 9.2 linux OS or press windows to boot into your windows OS. BUT FOR NOW, lets finish the last step for windows. When you do reboot, choose to boot the windows OS (you only have 10 seconds by default to make the choice before the system boots into linux).

 

Now remove the cd-rom from the drive and then press the reboot button.

 

13. When the computer reboots, using the "Tab" key, select the windows option to boot into the windows OS. The purpose for booting into windows will serve two purposes. First and most likely for those that have been unable to dual boot, it will show you that your windows partition and OS are in working order. Secondly, it will allow windows to configure itself for the lack of disk space it once had. (remember we stole from windows to give to linux!)

 

Once windows boots, it will automatically run a check of its file systems. Do not stop it from doing this. Once this is completed, you will then be presented with your familiar Windows desktop or sign in. We are now finished with the windows. You may restart your computer and when the splash screen appears, choose "linux" and press enter.

 

Once linux runs through its boot process and initialization process, you will either end up at a graphical login or a command line prompt. If you are at a command line prompt, enter the username "root" and type your root password. After you are logged in, start the X server with the command "startx". If you are at a graphical login, enter the username root and the root password.

 

We are now ready to start the installation of Mandrake 10 CE.

 

8. Mandrake Linux 10 CE Installation

 

Summary of what this installation will consist of:

1. use the program "links" to navigate the web.

2. use a virtual terminal to enter commands

3. use the program "urpmi"

 

 

Detailed Installation

1. If you look around your GUI, you will notice that it is a fairly basic installation. You may also notice that there is not a terminal to type commands in. Do not panic. Your linux OS allows virtual terminals. Press down and hold the following two keys: "Alt" and "Ctrl", while holding them down, now press the "F5" key. You will now see a screen that has a login! Enter the user "root" and the root password. You are now a command prompt. You may be asking what happened to your GUI screen. Relax, it is still there. You can go back to your GUI screen by using the "Alt-Ctrl F7" keystrokes. For those that did not know you could do this in linux, well now you do! Ok, now we need to go back to a command prompt to use the text-based web browser called links. If you are not a the command prompt, please use the "Alt-Ctrl F5" keystrokes to get back to it.

 

Now to get down to business. What we need to do in order to install the 10 CE distribution is install a set of sources that will be used to get the files needed for a 10 CE installation.

 

2. At the command line, type the following command: "urpmi.removemedia -a" (without the quotes). What this command did was delete the files that 9.2 would normally use for adding software from the 9.2 cds.

 

3. We need to now install the sources needed for the 10 CE version. The community has made our job easy through a program called Easy Urpmi. What we are going to do now is use the text-based web browser I talked about earlier, called Links. At the command line, type the command: "Links"(without the quotes). All you should see on your screen is a flashing box in the top left corner of the screen. Do not panic, as it is normal. Hopefully, you followed my earlier instructions and installed links and became familiar with it. For those that did not, do not worry, I will give the commands to use it but I will not be explaining them. But I really do suggest getting familiar with this program as it serves its purpose well.

 

4. Press the "esc" key on your keyboard. A menu bar appears at the top of the screen. Press the "F" key and then the "G" key. Enter the following url into the command line:

http://www.urpmi.org/easyurpmi/index.php

Now press the "enter" key. You will see at the bottom of the screen a message saying "request sent" and then your screen will show a text version of the web page.

 

Looking at the screen, your cursor should be flashing over the version number. The version number should say 10. If it does not, use the right arrow key to open up the menu, then use the down or up arrow key to navigate through the menu to highlight the 10.0. Then using the right arrow key to close the menu. Now that we have the version 10.0 we move to architecture menu by using the down arrow key. Choose your architecture. In my case, the default showing is i586 and is correct, so there is nothing there for me to change.

 

Use the down arrow key again to move the curser over the "proceed to step 2" menu. Press the enter key. At the bottom of the screen you will see the message "request sent". Once the request is received, you will see a screen that says "2) Select a mirror for each source you want". The cursor should now be flashing over a box below "Source contrib". Press the right arrow key once. The box should now contain an "x". Press the down arrow key once to move the cursor to the right. A country and url should now be highlighted. Press the right arrow key once and a menu will open. Choose a mirror close to where you live using the up and or down arrow key. Once you have your site highlighted, use the right arrow key to close the menu. Now to navigate to the "Source main" section. Press the down arrow key once to move the cursor over the box below the "Sources main". Press the right arrow key once to check the box. Now move the cursor over the country/url by pressing the down arrow key once. To open the menu, press the right arrow key once. Using the up and down arrow key, highlight the appropriate mirror and press the right arrow key once to close the menu. Now press the down arrow key once to navigate to the check box for the "Sources updates". To check the box, press the right arrow key once. Press the down arrow key once to highlight the country/url menu. To open the menu, press the right key once. Choose your mirror by using the up or down arrow key. To close the menu, press the right arrow key once. Now press the down arrow key twice to maneuver to the check box below the "Sources plf". Press the right arrow key once to check the box. Press the down arrow key once to highlight the "url" menu. Press the right arrow key once to open the menu. Using the up or down arrow key, highlight a mirror that is appropriate and then press the right arrow key once to close the menu. Now press the down arrow key twice to highlight the "proceed to step 3 menu".

 

After the request is sent, you will see some code similar to what is displayed:

3) Type this in a console as root

  urpmi.addmedia plf http://mandrakeusers.com/PLF/mandrake/10.0 with
  hdlist.cz
  urpmi.addmedia --update updates
  ftp://ftp.belnet.be/linux/Mandrake/updates/10.0/RPMS/ with
  ../base/hdlist.cz
  urpmi.addmedia main
  ftp://ftp.belnet.be/packages/mandrake-devel/stable/i586/Mandrake/RPMS with
  ../base/hdlist.cz
  urpmi.addmedia contrib
  ftp://ftp.belnet.be/packages/mandrake-devel/contrib-stable/i586 with
  ../../stable/i586/Mandrake/base/hdlist2.cz

  If you get an error, please check the mirror is accessible, and not over
  connection limit.
  Also, you might want to type urpmi.removemedia -a first, in order to
  reinitialize urpmi's setup.

  ------------------

Now, you need to grab a piece of paper and pencil and copy each urpmi.addmedia source exactly the way it is shown on your screen. Do not add the line breaks.. just type each source on one line. Once you have the information written down and checked and double checked for errors, we can close out our "Links" program. To do this, press the escape key once. Press the "F" key once and then the "X" key. You will be asked if you really want to exit the program. Answer yes. You will be at the command line prompt again.

 

5. We need to now enter the sources one at a time. As an example, on my computer, this is what I type at a command line:

urpmi.addmedia main ftp://ftp.belnet.be/packages/mandrake-devel/stable/i586/Mandrake/RPMS with ../base/hdlist.cz

When you enter the command, you will get a message saying "added medium xxxx" where the "xxxx" is the type of source. It will take a few moments but more text will appear on your screen. Your computer will now begin downloading information. The "main" sources is roughly 22mb and the "contrib" sources is about 19mb. The "plf" sources are roughly 1.5mb and at the present, the "update" sources is 0mb. Continue to add each source, one at a time until you are finished.

 

6. After all the sources have been added, we can begin the process of creating our 10 CE version. The first thing to do, is update all your sources. This is done to ensure you have the latest sources. You may have taken a break and are now back to finish up or maybe updated packages were added while you were downloading another source. Regardless, it is a good practice to update your sources before updating your system. This is especially true since we are turning a 9.2 system in to a 10 CE system. The command to enter for updating your sources is:

urpmi.update -a

Type this command and press enter. Your system now checks for any changes to the sources you downloaded. If there are any changes, the system will download and make the changes. Now that this is done, we begin the installation of 10 CE!!

 

7. Type the following command at the prompt:

urpmi --auto --auto-select

When this command is entered, your system will go through some checks behind the scene. It may appear your computer is doing nothing. Be patient. Soon, you will see your system start downloading packages and installing them. Please be aware of the fact that depending on your internet connection, this process can take some time.

 

*Now you know why a minimum distribution was installed to begin with. Once the system downloads the packages for the programs already installed and upgrades and updates your system, you can then add packages you may need or want.

 

This process downloaded and installed 278 packages on my machine. That number was shown just above the boot prompt on the left side of the screen.

 

8. Once the system has downloaded and installed all the packages, you will be returned to the prompt. The next command will update your menus in your GUI to reflect any changes. The command is "update-menus -v" (without quotes). This command should be used every time you add or remove a package from your system. So, remember it. The "-v" in the command stands for verbose, which in short displays information on screen while the command is running. So, at this time, enter the command:

update-menus -v

at the prompt.

 

9. After updating your menus, will once again use the now familiar command "urpmi.update -a" (without quotes) to ensure that during the lengthy process of downloading and installing of the system, no changes were made on the mirror site. Enter the command, and once you are returned to a prompt, we will now proceed with downloading and installing the kernel.

 

10. You may ask yourself why did I have you install a graphical interface, when up to this point, everything has been done in a command line environment. The answer to this question will now become obvious. I prefer urpmi (the command line utility) over the GUI front-end. But the GUI front-end does serve a purpose. It allows the user a clearer picture of what packages are available and makes browsing the available packages a lot easier. I can see the packages and see the package information, all on the same screen. We now will move back to the GUI environment. If you have forgotten how to get back to the GUI, the command is the keystrokes "alt-ctrl F7"

 

At the GUI, press the gnome foot in the lower left corner to bring up the main menu bar. Navigate through the menu (system-configuration-packaging-install software) and click on install software. The GUI front-end is called "Rpmdrake"

 

When you click on the "install software" menu, a window will pop up asking if you want to continue. Press the yes button. A window will tell you that it is searching for available packages and then finally another window will replace it called "Software Packages Installation" Looking at the window is straightforward. On the left side of the window are 3 radio buttons. Check the third button called "All packages, by group" You will notice in the panel directly below the button, a list of groups will appear. Scroll down to the "System" group and click on the arrow. This will open a sub-menu. Scroll down the sub-menu to "Kernel and hardware" group. Click on the arrow beside the group and it will open a list of packages. Scroll down the list of packages and you will soon see a listing of kernels. If you move the cursor over any area of a kernel package (not the box), you will see information about the package in the panel on the right side of the screen.

 

Choose the kernel you want to install and write down the package exactly as it is displayed. In my case, the "kernel-2.6.3.7mdk-1-1mdk" is the one I want. If you are unsure about what "smp" or what is in the description of other kernels, I suggest using the kernel I stated I was using above. Once again, make sure you have the package name written down correctly.

 

Now go ahead and close this window by pressing the "quit" button in the lower right corner of the window. Now go back to the command prompt console we have been using. The command for those that do not remember is "alt-ctrl F5"

 

11. Now before we download and install the kernel, we are going to download a text-editor called "Nano" This program is similar to the program "pico" I like it and learned about this program when installing the Gentoo distribution. It was easy to use for someone that has never used a command prompt text editor. So, using our "urpmi" program, download and install Nano wit the command:

urpmi nano

This is a small program and will take no time at all to download. Once the program and installed, you will see prompt. We are now ready to download and install our kernel.

 

12. Using "urpmi" download the kernel. The command you enter will look either like the mine or similar, depending which kernel you chose to download:

urpmi kernel-2.6.3.7mdk-1-1mdk

Press enter.

 

The nice thing about the "urpmi" program is that it will check for dependencies, list them and then ask you if it is ok to install them.

 

Unless you are an experience linux user and know what you are doing, press "Y" if you are asked if it is ok to install the dependencies. After answering "Y", the system will now download the dependencies and the kernel. Depending on the kernel and dependencies, this make take a while. I decided to get stretch my legs, so I got up from my desk and went and got a cup of coffee and spent some time with the wife and my beautiful baby girl!

 

13. Once your system is finished with the download and installation, you will once again be at the command prompt. We need to now edit our lilo.conf file. To do this, open up the file with the following command:

nano -w /etc/lilo.conf

*while we have the lilo.conf file open, you can take the opportunity to change the default "10 second" timeout if you like. On line 8, you will see the code:

timeout=100

In this code, the "100" is equal to 10 seconds. I changed the line to:

timeout=300

Now my system will wait 30 seconds before booting into the default OS (in this case, linux).

 

If you wish to change the default boot to windows, change the code in line 4 to this code:

default="windows"

 

Now, using the arrow down key, move down the list until you come to the section where your new kernel entry is located. I used the 2.6.3.7mdk-1-1mdk kernel and found my entry identified as the following:

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.3-7mdk
 label=263-7
 root=/dev/hda5
 read-only
 optional
 vga=normal
 append=" devfs=mount resume=/dev/hda6 splash=silent"
 initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.3-7mdk.img

 

I am not going to explain all the options you see here as this configuration is fine for my purposes. If you want to know more about the lilo.conf file, then using the "man lilo.conf | less" (without quotes) will further explain each option. There is one thing that I do not like about this configuration. That is the name assigned to the label. The label is what will be visible when you boot your system and lilo starts. So, I will change the label name and then I am going to change the default boot image to that of the 2.6.3-7 kernel by changing line 4 to the name of the linux kernel I just installed. Confused? Hang on and look at the changes I make.

 

First, I edit the label to something I like better. I choose to assign the label the name of "kernel-2.6.3-7.1.1" (without quotes). Now I know for future reference what the exact kernel version is, including minor revisions. Now the above code looks like:

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.3-7mdk
 label=kernel-2.6.3-7.1.1
 root=/dev/hda5
 read-only
 optional
 vga=normal
 append=" devfs=mount resume=/dev/hda6 splash=silent"
 initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.3-7mdk.img

 

Now to change the default boot to the new kernel. This is done on line 4 at the top of the file. Simply assign the label of the kernel to the default as in the following example:

default="kernel-2.6.3-7.1.1"

 

Once your changes have been made, use the keystrokes "ctrl o" (without the quotes), then press the "enter" key, and then press "ctrl x" to exit the program.

 

When ever you configure your /etc/lilo.conf file, you must use the following command at a prompt:

lilo -v

 

14. Now, lets update our system with the "urpmi.update -a" command. Now, lets follow double check our system by entering the "urpmi --auto --auto-select" command. If more packages are downloaded and installed, then let the system finish and then repeat the above commands until you get the message "Everything already installed"

 

15. To finalize this installation, lets update our menus with the "update-menus -v" command. Once the system updates any menus, we can exit the terminal.

 

16. At the command prompt, type "logout" and then using the "ctr-alt F7" keystroke, go back to your GUI environment. All that is left now, is to reboot the system. Click on the foot (gnome) in the left bottom corner and click the logout menu. Select the "Restart the computer" button and press the ok key to reboot.

 

17. At the splash screen, choose the newly installed kernel (which should be the default if you followed my instructions) and log in as you normally would.

 

Congratulations, You now have Linux Mandrake 10 CE installed on your machine along side your Windows OS!!

 

 

The next question you may ask is:

 

NOW WHAT DO I DO?

 

The answer actually depends on what you want your system to do. If you remember, we installed a minimum system. You now have the chance to install the packages and programs that you require and or want. There are 2 ways of doing this.

 

The fist way, and most likely the easiest way for the "newbie", would be the use of the graphical front-end, Rpmdrake.

 

The second way, would be using the command line program "urpmi"

 

The choice is yours. I have read the pro's and con's of both and actually take the middle road. I use the GUI to indentify packages and the descriptions, but use the urpmi program to download and install them. With a terminal program, such as Gnome Terminal, it is easy to tab back and forth.

 

In closing

 

I hope that what I have written is easy to understand. I am not a writer and nor do I have any formal education in writing. Especially when it comes to technical matters. If this article, post, or mini how-to or what ever you want to call it, is helpful or you find the information provided to be wrong, then please feel free to post feedback.

 

Regards, Steve Ambrose

Edited April 18, 2004 by SteveAmbrose

[Steve Scrimpshire]

This is an excellent tutorial, very well-written. Not to detract from this fact, I would like to point out this:

Once linux runs through its boot process and initialization process, you will either end up at a graphical login or a command line prompt. If you are at a command line prompt, enter the username "root" and type your root password. After you are logged in, start the X server with the command "startx". If you are at a graphical login, enter the username root and the root password.

 

While in the context of what you are doing at this moment, this is perfectly acceptable, I would remind users that one should never, never, never, never log in to the graphical interface as root (unless your name is bvc and/or you wish to negate all the added security/safety benefits of Linux :P)

 

I am no guru, but thought I would share my feedback on your HowTo.

[kob]

This looks greats!, it gives me the drive to keep trying with Linux. THANKS!

 

Two questions (I am slllllooooooww):

 

1:

Now, you need to grab a piece of paper and pencil and copy each urpmi.addmedia source exactly the way it is shown on your screen. Do not add the line breaks.. just type each source on one line.

 

What are "line breaks"?

 

2:

11. Now before we download and install the kernel, we are going to download a text-editor called "Nano" This program is similar to the program "pico" I like it and learned about this program when installing the Gentoo distribution. It was easy to use for someone that has never used a command prompt text editor. So, using our "urpmi" program, download and install Nano wit the command:

CODE 

nano

Did you intend to write "nano" or "urpmi nano" (to download and install Nano with the command:)?

 

Note: I have not tried your guide yet but I intend to. I have had problems with just a clean install of Mdk 10.0CE. No able to configure the graphics adapter (ATI 8500AIW).

[Steve Scrimpshire]

(1) When you do Easy urpmi, it will give you three or more sources and it will tell you something like

 

'Enter these commands on the command line:

urpmi.addmedia main ftp://ftp.club-internet.fr/pub/linux/Mand...r/Mandrake/RPMS with ../base/hdlist.cz

urpmi.addmedia RPMS2 ftp://ftp.club-internet.fr/pub/linux/Mand.../Mandrake/RPMS2 with ../base/hdlist2.cz

urpmi.addmedia RPMS3 ftp://ftp.club-internet.fr/pub/linux/Mand.../Mandrake/RPMS3 with ../base/hdlist3.cz

 

You need to enter them all on one line with && between them and no carriage returns after them. If you try to copy/paste them all at the same time, it won't work, your command should wind up looking something like this:

 

urpmi.addmedia main ftp://ftp.club-internet.fr/pub/linux/Mand...r/Mandrake/RPMS with ../base/hdlist.cz && urpmi.addmedia RPMS2 ftp://ftp.club-internet.fr/pub/linux/Mand.../Mandrake/RPMS2 with ../base/hdlist2.cz && urpmi.addmedia RPMS3 ftp://ftp.club-internet.fr/pub/linux/Mand.../Mandrake/RPMS3 with ../base/hdlist3.cz

 

Of course, this board truncates the URLs to save space and it adds carriage returns if the line gets too long, so you really can't see what I mean...lol...so you'll actually have to look at the Easy urpmi site.

 

(2) Yes, he meant 'urpmi nano' with no quotes.

Edited April 4, 2004 by Steve Scrimpshire

[SteveAmbrose]

Sorry for taking so long in my reply, but was out of town (Nascar race) and appreciate Steve Scrimpshire's reply.

 

To clear up what I meant about "line breaks", I will use the following code as an example:

urpmi.addmedia main ftp://ftp.belnet.be/packages/mandrake-
devel/stable/i586/Mandrake/RPMS with ../base/hdlist.cz

 

As you notice, this code is shown as two lines. When you write the code, write it all on one line.

 

As for your second question, I meant the code example to show the following:

urpmi nano

I am glad you asked this question as I have now edited the code in my original post to show the command properly.

 

Steve

Edited April 5, 2004 by SteveAmbrose

[dydige]

This was really well written. I'm just looking for that "Printer Friendly" option here on the forum to print it out.

 

Edit: That was pretty lame on my behalf not seeing it, but I did look for it actually.

Edited April 6, 2004 by dydige

[tyme]

This was really well written. I'm just looking for that "Printer Friendly" option here on the forum to print it out.

try the "print this topic" link at the top right of the first post.

 

I was going to move this to tips and tricks, but I think it would serve better as a stick in this forum.

Edited April 6, 2004 by tyme

[Cannonfodder]

Some other issues I thought of while reading this are..

 

When I initially got into linux, I had one hard drive with Win98 on it. In quick procession, I managed to destroy my entire partition layout over and over again. This required me to reinstall win98 and then linux and then it would be destroyed again.. Finally I hit on what the issue was.. Both windows and linux have extended partitions. However, they are not defined in the same manner in the partition table. After installing linux and including an extended partitions (with logical linux partitions), I would then go back to windows 98 and use fdisk or some other partition manager to make changes. *CRASH*. Windows fdisk.exe doesn't understand linux extended format. The result was that it would try to fix it and would hash it up badly.

 

My solution was to tell linux to created windows type extended partitions or to predefine the partitions by using fdisk before installing linux. In both cases, you should select CUSTOM PARTITIONING when installing Mandrake Linux. THis gives you the ability to select which partitions are to be used for what.

 

Eventually, the best solution is to buy a second hard drive. They are cheap enough nowadays that its a good purchase. You can install windows on your first drive and install linux on your second drive. In this manner, you can use the disk manager or fdisk designed for the OS.

 

If you select Custom Paritioning, you can click the More options button to get an option called Preference. In Preference you can indicate whether the new partition you are creating should be a primary, extended, or extended-85 (I think). This last option corresponds to the windows definition of an extended partition.

[Cannonfodder]

Split the nano/ncurses request to its own thread..

 

http://www.mandrakeusers.org/index.php?showtopic=13058

[kde-head]

Now, you need to grab a piece of paper and pencil and copy each urpmi.addmedia source exactly the way it is shown on your screen

 

I don't quite understand why you would want to do this - if you've booted into the Mdk 9.2 GUI, why don't you use Konqueror to access the Easy URPMI site? Then all you need do is cut-and-paste the uprmi commands into Konsole and your done.

[SteveAmbrose]

don't quite understand why you would want to do this - if you've booted into the Mdk 9.2 GUI, why don't you use Konqueror to access the Easy URPMI site? Then all you need do is cut-and-paste the uprmi commands into Konsole and your done.

 

The reasons are multi-fold.

 

I installed Mandrake 9.2 with "GNOME" and not "KDE"

I do not know about KDE but when you install the gui interface with the instructions above, you will not have a terminal available in Gnome.

 

I wanted a minimum install that would allow a newbie linux user, such as myself, the ability to utilize some of the various features in Linux. With the install preformed as above, the user learns that there are virtual consoles, learns how to get to the consoles and back to a GUI, and also gets a brief taste of linux from a command prompt environment.

 

This tutorial or how-to or whatever we call it was aimed at someone not familiar with linux. When my first go with linux went sour, it was not because of the fact I was to lazy to learn, just found it difficult to understand the "lingo" and the "general knowledge" that I found a lot of users on message boards expected you to understand. (did not know about this site and over the course of the last year or so, the linux community has come along way in the understanding that there is a need to explain thing in "plain english."

 

I will never forget some of the responses on the Redhat forums I visited with questions (not bashing redhat). The responses, most of the time was "RTFM" or a link to a how-to that (at the time) was cryptic to me.

 

So, with all this in mind, I wrote the above, with the underlying hope that some exposure to various linux features and functions would give a linux newbie a better understanding.

 

Regards, Steve

[Guest mrt]

Thanks for writing this guide! It was really helpful

 

Unfortunately, I've run into some problems

 

after running the 'update-menus -v' command...I guess I waited too long. when I came back to the computer, it had gone back to the login prompt. I suppose the good news is about the login prompt it says 'mandrake linux release 10.0 (Community) for i586' but there still is a watermark for the prompt screen at the bottom right that has 9.2.

 

The main problem is that I can't login anymore. my old account doesn't work, root doesn't work, nothing I can think of lets me login to the command line. now I hit ctrl-alt-f7 and I got myself back to xwindows and I was able to open up a terminal. when I hit su it just immediately responds with 'invalid password'. I can't access any of the configuration utilities because it all says 'su returned with an error'.

 

What should I do?

 

thanks in advance

 

T

[SteveAmbrose]

Hmm, not sure as to what happened with your installation. As for the answer to your question, I am not sure. I am a newbie myself. I know there was a few posts about what to if your root account password no longer works. Will research that today and post any findings.

 

My suggestion would be to ask this question in the general "installation" section as it may get more views and you will most likely receive a reply. I just finished upgrading a PC to 10 official using the how-to and had no problems.

 

Will as stated above, do some research and see if we cannot get you up and running soon.

 

<edit> -- aRTee has a "how to" on reseting root passwords on his website.

 

Here is the link: http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/howtos....tml#resetrootpw

 

Regards, Steve

Edited April 18, 2004 by SteveAmbrose

[Guest mrt]

Hey Steve,

 

thanks so much for your help! I didn't think about posting it in the actual forum ehhe, I thought people would read this pinned thread frequently, but I guess not! I posted it out in the public and let's see what happens!

 

But just and fyi I tried the second "old" method on the link you gave me and it doesn't work. I need to have root access to be able to even ls in those directories...

 

but let's see what happens with my post!

 

Thanks for your input, if your research turned up anything, please please please post it or email me!! Thank you!

 

T

[sir_max]

I hope it won't be intended as a breach of trust that I've made a printer friendly pdf version of this topic...

 

:unsure: I hope you don't get angry about this... :unsure:

 

you can download it from

 

PDF.TAR.BZ2

 

Greetings... bye