instalation woes

[Guest sub_netter]

hello everyone, i am tring to install 9.0 onto an old p1 machine,,,problem is that the monitor on this comp only supports 600*400 resolution,,,i am using a boot floppy to begin install,,,is their a way for me to configure my boot floppy or can i switch resolutions on the fly with some kind of keyboard shortcut,,,this will be my very first linux install but i am very familiar with comps in general,,,

thanks a lot,

netter

[fuzzylizard]

If you are trying to do an install on a machine that only supports 640x480 resolution then you need to do a text based install. This should be an option when you first begin -- before you move into the graphical part of the install.

 

How much ram does the computer have? You will need at least 128 megs in order to run kde or gnome successfully. However, both of these, or any window manager, will be a problem at that resolution.

 

Good luck.

[bvc]

I've never installed from a floppy so I don't know if this applies to a floppy install but with CD1 you hit F1 then type text <Enter>.

 

Maybe you can find something here;

google advanced search: "Mandrake 9.0" install floppy text expert

google

[SoulSe]

Unfortunately the boot-floppy method does not allow you to switch to text mode (which is really stupid). I am also tring to figure this one out, will let you know if I come up with anything.

[theYinYeti]

any window manager, will be a problem at [640x480]

I don't agree. You simply have to use an adequate (and light-weight because of memory) window manager. For this machine's spec, I think the best window manager is Matchbox. It is perfectly adapted, and furthermore, it can read Debian-style menus, which are used by Mandrake.

If you really want something more elaborate, then choose Fluxbox, and be sure to configure the ~/.fluxbox/groups file, so that you have the strict minimum of windows present on screen.

 

Yves.

[theYinYeti]

i am using a boot floppy to begin install,,,is their a way for me to configure my boot floppy or can i switch resolutions on the fly

I don't know because my laptop (also P1, and no CD-boot) can do 800x600. Anyway, I noticed that the Mandrake installer has a way of adapting itself to the situation, so I'm rather confident that the installer will detect if it cannot begin in graphical mode, and switch to text mode (as easy to use, by the way, if not as good-looking). Good luck, we'll try to help you.

 

Yves.

[Guest sub_netter]

wow,,,thanks for the replies people,,,heres where we stand:

i dont know if this was mentioned on this forum or not but i pressed f1 at the beginning of graphical install,,,from here i was presented with a variety of install options to pass,,,one of which was "VGALO",,,this option is apperently intended for low-res monitors(640*480),,,i was able to get through the complete install process all the way to the very end where i chose to update a few packages and on the first reboot with my new mandrake system(now here is where my inexperience with linux will truly shine through) the system just hung there after posting and all i could see were a series of numbers,,,the number 40 appearing over and over taking up the complete upper portion of my screen,,,the lower half of the screen was just black,,,upon a second reboot(cold) the same thing just happened again,,,any suggestions are welcome,,,

thanks again,

netter,

[pmpatrick]

Lilo is your bootloader if you chose the default settings. Getting '40' across the screen is usually indicative of lilo having trouble reading your partition table. What is your hardware configuration re hard drives, partitions, other OSes, any zip drives, etc? I had a usb zip drive that would give me this error every time it was connected at boot time but the system would boot fine as soon as I disconnected it.

 

First thing I would try is reinstalling lilo by inserting installation disk 1, typing F1 at the screen like you did before, type "rescue" w/o quotes at the prompt and hit enter. That should bring up a rescue menu with one entry being restore or reinstall bootloader. That's the one you want to select and follow the on screen instructions to reinstall lilo. When your done, exit the rescue program, remove CD-1, and type "reboot" at the prompt and see if lilo is working properly.

[Guest sub_netter]

update to installation woes 9.0: still cant get past the initial reboot after having gone through install routine! i've tried 4 seperate installs. the last one i rebooted and went into F1 | rescue mode with intentions of repairing bootloader but with no avail, same results, 40 40 40.....etc! the machine is fairly old but standard, heres the specs: P1 166, 64 MB RAM, 2 1.5 GB HDs, standard serial mouse, standard 104 keyboard, 1.44 MB floppy, and of course the samtron low-res monitor! my hard drives appear to function properly when slaved to my win2k machine so i dont think thats it. i've also installed win2k on the same machine mandrake is going on successfully and besides, mandrake wouldn't have let me get that far into the instalation if the minimum requirements were not met, would it? i was originally doing the install with the 2 hard discs but now just trying the one. there are no unnecesary peripherals attached to the box at any point so as to make this as basic as possible. anyways, cheers to everyone and any insight into this issue would be great,

netter

[pmpatrick]

Try reinstalling again, this time in expert mode. Somewhere toward the end of the installation in expert mode you are asked if you want to make a boot floppy which will allow you to boot into mandrake directly off the floppy bypassing the boot loader. Answer yes and make the floppy. Also, when you are asked about the install of your boot loader in expert mode you have some options. Since lilo is obviously not working, choose grub as your boot loader. After the install is done, see if you can boot with the grub boot loader. If it doesn't work, stick your boot floppy in and reboot.

 

Grub may work better for you than lilo which has documented issues with older BIOSes. Here's a quote from the lilo man page to give you some idea of what I'm talking about:

 

Error code 40 is generated by the BIOS, or by LILO during the conversion of a linear (24-bit) disk address to a geometric (C:H:S) address. On older systems which do not support lba32 (32-bit) addressing, this error may also be generated

 

I'm thinking the last line might apply given your old hardware. Even if no boot loader will work you should be able to boot off the boot floppy.

[theYinYeti]

Using grub instead of lilo probably is a good idea in this case. Unfortunately, I don't remember how to replace lilo with grub. When I did that long ago, I always could not remember, so I always booted the rescue CD, then chroot /mnt (after making sure hard drive is mounted under /mnt), and then info grub. The info grub command always gave me the information I was looking for, though I remember it was a pain to locate it.

 

Yves.

[bvc]

Boot cd1>F1>rescue>mount partitions under mnt>go to console>chroot /mnt

 

 

man lilo

-u device-name

             Uninstall  lilo,  by copying the saved boot sector back. A time-

             stamp is checked.

/sbin/lilo -u /dev/hdx (replace the x with the correct a,b,c...)

 

 

 

grub

[bvc@localhost bvc]$ rpm -ql grub

/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5

/boot/grub/fat_stage1_5

/boot/grub/ffs_stage1_5

/boot/grub/jfs_stage1_5

/boot/grub/minix_stage1_5

/boot/grub/reiserfs_stage1_5

/boot/grub/stage1

/boot/grub/stage2

/boot/grub/vstafs_stage1_5

/boot/grub/xfs_stage1_5

/usr/sbin/grub

/usr/sbin/grub-install

/usr/sbin/grub-md5-crypt

/usr/share/info/grub.info-1.bz2

/usr/share/info/grub.info-2.bz2

/usr/share/info/grub.info-3.bz2

/usr/share/info/grub.info.bz2

/usr/share/info/multiboot.info.bz2

/usr/share/man/man8/grub-install.8.bz2

/usr/share/man/man8/grub-md5-crypt.8.bz2

/usr/share/man/man8/grub.8.bz2

[bvc@localhost bvc]$

 

 

/usr/sbin/grub-install /dev/hdx (replace the x with the correct a,b,c...)

 

 

This won't help now but....

To install an old/previous (replacing lilo) grub;

cd /boot/grub

./install.sh

[Guest sub_netter]

hello everyone,,,thanks all for the help,,,we are up and running now,,,in fact i am writing this post from the Galeon browser(WOOHOO),,,here is a recap of the successful routine i used:

 

Mandrake 9.0 install on P1 166 64MB Box:

 

1: boot off floppy

2: F1

3: VGALO(for low-res displays)

4: expert mode (so as to allow me to make a boot floppy as well as choose GRUB over LILO thanks patrick)

 

turns out the LILO boot loader was the culprit,,,upon the first reboot after install was complete

it got past post and eventually booted directly into GNOME desktop enviorenment,,,didnt even need the boot floppy i created,,,booted off hard disc no prob with grub as the loader,,,once at the GUI mandrake was able to detect my settings and get me online as well if not better than any MS desktop OS i've ever setup,,,all in all a pretty good experience,,,now,,,i have a couple questions,,,iim not gonna ask you good people to hold my hand here(well i guess thats what you've been doing!),,,here they are:

 

1: favourite window managerdesktop enviorenment

2: " ftp client

3: " web browser

4: " text editor

5: " html editor

6: " mail client

7: " MP3VID players

8: " irq client

9: " image viewereditor

 

well that should do for now,,,i'll definately be dropping by here from time to time,,,linux appears to be pretty sweet,,,looks like im a newbie all over again,,,

later

[DragonMage]

Congrats on your success.

 

Wow.. running Mandrake 9.0 on a P166.. I can't wait until my finals are over so I can build that server I always wanted.

[theYinYeti]

Good ! I was sure you'd end up with everything ok :D

P1 166 64MB Box:

 

1: favourite window managerdesktop enviorenment

2:     "          ftp client

3:      "          web browser

4:      "          text editor

5:       "         html editor

6:        "        mail client

7:       "          MP3VID players

8:        "         irq client

9:        "         image viewereditor

 

Before answering, I have one advice. You can follow it, or not. It does not really matter.

As your machine is not very powerfull (I know what I'm speaking about), I suggest you boot in what is called "runlevel 3", or more understandable: in "text mode". The difference is that after booting, the machine won't start X (the graphical environment) directly, but rather ask for the login and password in text mode. After providing them, you'll be presented with a shell prompt (about like DOS, but better). What is good that way, is that you have choice:

- If you need to start X, then you can do it: simply type "startx".

- If you only need command line, just use it; you're already there :) and you'll gain a lot of power, because X is not running.

Now, you'll ask how to change to runlevel 3 :?

Easy :) I'll call it answer 0 ;) Anyway, I'm sure you don't want to learn "vi" (a strange and usefull Unix command) for now, so for now, go to graphical mode, and read on...

 

0:

 

To change to runlevel 3, open a terminal window (in which to issue commands; about like DOS, but much more powerfull). In this terminal window, change identity to become root (the administrator):

$ su - root

password: ...enter root's password...

# export DISPLAY=:0

(when I write $ at the begining of a line, I mean it to be the prompt when you're not root; when I write # at the begining of a line, I mean it to be the shell prompt when you're root)

Now you're root (su - root), and you've instructed bash (this is the name of the shell) that it can draw graphical windows on your screen (export DISPLAY=:0 ).

In this same terminal window, type this command:

# gedit /etc/inittab

In the window that opens, find the line which looks like

id:5:initdefault:

and change the 5 with a 3. So in my example:

id:3:initdefault:

Save the file, and exit the text editor.

Next reboot, you'll be at runlevel 3 as described at the beginning. Any time you want, you can change the 3 back to 5. To do that, just start X (command startx) and edit the file again as root.

 

1:

 

Note: if this answer gets you scared somewhere in the middle, just read its last line.

As I already said, Matchbox is best suited. You can get it from http://handhelds.org/~mallum/matchbox/ For downloading, follow the link to what is called a "source tarball", then download just one file: matchbox-0.3.6.tar.gz. Save this file on your disk, and open a terminal window. In this terminal window, change identity to become root:

$ su - root

password: ...enter root's password...

#

Now you're root. Let's suppose you saved the file in your home directory. You'll do the compiling stuff inside /usr/local/src. Here we go: (if the directory already exists, then first command will fail; it does not matter, simply go on)

# mkdir /usr/local/src

# cd /usr/local/src

# mv /home/you/matchbox-0.3.6.tar.gz .

# tar xzf matchbox-0.3.6.tar.gz

# cd matchbox-0.3.6

# ./configure

...configure takes some time...

# make

...make takes some more time...

# make install

...make install takes some more time...

# exit

$ cd

You're not root anymore. The "cd" command is to change directory. Without arguments, it takes you back to your home directory (/home/you).

Now you'll have to (a) create, (B) edit, © make executable, the file named ".xinitrc" (the dot as first character means that it is a hidden file, under most circonstances):

$ touch .xinitrc

$ chmod 755 .xinitrc

$ gedit .xinitrc

In the editor window, type this:

mbdock &

matchbox

Save the file and exit the text editor.

Now you're ready to reboot. You'll see a text-mode login prompt; enter yours; same for password. You'll see a shell prompt (bash again). To start X, just type

$ startx

And you'll see an empty window, with a panel on bottom. right click on the panel (called "dock") and add whatever you want to it, for example the menu ;-) . The dock configuration will be remembered for next time.

Matchbox is not about eye-candy, or configurability. But it's the fastest you'll get on your machine (and that's important if you want to use big apps, such as OpenOffice).

Last line: Or simply remain in runlevel 5, and use Fluxbox.

 

2: gftp

 

3:

 

My favourite is Mozilla, but for your machine, I would say Netscape 4, but it is not part of Mandrake anymore, due to its license. You may want to try Mozilla or another browser shipped with Mandrake (look for "web browser" in the software manager), but those are big. I suggest you try the graphical version of links. As far as I know, it's part of Mandrake 9.1, but maybe not 9.0, so you can get it here: http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~clock/twi...inks/index.html.

First you'll need to open Mandrake's Software Manager, and search for libpng, libjpeg, and libtiff. For each of those three, install the libxxxx-devel package. Now you can download the links source archive, and follow the instructions. When it is properly installed, you'll be able to access the web by executing this command in a terminal window:

$ links -g

 

4: my favourite is nedit, but most are OK.

 

5: nedit again, but look for "html edit" in those boards; you'll find other answers.

 

6: mozilla mail, but in your case, maybe rather kmail.

 

7: xmms for mp3; I don't know for video

 

8: I don't know

 

9: the gimp to edit, qiv or gqview to view.

 

 

If you've got any problem, ask on those boards, in the appropriate forums. See you later :)

 

Yves.