Linux Help

[Eagle]

OK, I installed Gnome, but not KDE, I'm already having trouble

1. How do I get it to read/write to my vfat hard drive its location is /dev/hdd so how would I locate it and do I need to mount it?

2. How do I run a command shell in Gnome?

3. Is there an ICQ for Linux, or only AIM?

4. My refresh rate isnt set correctly, how would I change it?


I'm still learning how to navigate through this so any help is appreciated.

 

[Eagle]

Also it seems Grub doesnt like my Windows 98 drive, I can boot to Win98 if I turn off my other two hard drives in the BIOS but not from Grub. It just hangs after sending out two lines.

 

[AlphaWolf]

OK, I installed Gnome, but not KDE, I'm already having trouble

1. How do I get it to read/write to my vfat hard drive its location is /dev/hdd so how would I locate it and do I need to mount it?

Create a mount point for it first. Put a name for the drive like "win98" or something as shown below (but you can put anything you want, also, you only need to do this once):

# mkdir /mnt/win98

Since you said /dev/hdd, I'll assume you mean the 4th hard drive in your system, otherwise it would be hda or hdb or hdc. You would then to follow that by the partition number. So say I have a partition on the 3th hard drive, and its the second partition on the drive, I would use /dev/hdc2

In the example below, this assumes you want to mount the first partition on the fourth hard disk, and it's a fat32 partition:

# mount -t fat32 /dev/hdd1 /mnt/win98

2. How do I run a command shell in Gnome?

Should be a little icon that looks like either a seashell or a black window. If not, go to the run dialog in your menu, and type xterm.

3. Is there an ICQ for Linux, or only AIM?

There are a bunch of them:
http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/trove_list.php?form_cat=23

Gaim is most commonly used though, it supports as many networks as trillian does (plus more), and most linux distributions (including redhat) already include it.

4. My refresh rate isnt set correctly, how would I change it?

I have always used LCD's so I have never had a need for this, but I think you can just edit your XF86Config-4 located in /etc/X11. If not ask malcom.

 

[Eagle]

Oh, I didnt realize Gaim could do ICQ. I guess the name is just misleading.

I looked for the seashell, thats what the school computers have, but mine doesnt have that. I thought it was only installed with KDE.

 

[Eagle]

One more question, what kind of software is there for my TV-Capture card?

 

[Eagle]

I lied, where can I just find some online tutorials on linux. I can do most of the command line stuff the GUI is rather hard to figure out.

 

[AlphaWolf]

you had the brooktree one right? Just about any tv capture software for linux should work with it, and there are lots of them:

http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/trove_list.php?form_cat=126

Freevo is a very notable one especialy. Also do a google search for fscktv.

And linux documentation/howto's are all over hell and back. Google is the best way to find that as well.

Also if you are going to be into the media stuff, try mplayer . It has more features than any media player software anywhere (namely 2xsai for anime clips), and can play all known media formats.

 

[Eagle]

OK, I'm trying to mount it but it says fs type fat32 not supported by kernel

 

[AlphaWolf]

Try vfat, I could have sworn I used fat32 back in my dual booting days, but I just took a look at my kernel module list, and noticed that it only had vfat. The module itself probably supports fat12 (for floppy disks) up through fat32.

 

[Slougi]

As for grub, you need the following in your conf file:
title=Windows 98
root=(hdx,x)
chainloader +1

Of course you need the correct harddrive entry.

Gnome has a terminal called gnome-terminal:
Gnome menu -> System -> Terminal
(or something like that, I am at school atm and we use KDE)

For mounting the fat partition do:
mount -t vfat /dev/hdx /mnt/whatever

You can add an entry in the file /etc/fstab. Try adding the option uhost=0000, so others than root can read the partition. I think nothing else is needed, I'll check when I get home.

 

[Eagle]

Ok the current contents of the Grub show it as

title=Windows 98 Second Edition
rootnoverify=(hd2,0)
chainloader +1
Should that be hdd, or hd4? The drive is the secondary slave drive.



I found Terminal, I was looking for Konsole, but thats KDE.

I did get the mount working as you can see in the "Show me your desktop" thread, but how do I get it to auto mount on logon?

 

[Slougi]

Ok the current contents of the Grub show it as

title=Windows 98 Second Edition
rootnoverify=(hd2,0)
chainloader +1
Should that be hdd, or hd4? The drive is the secondary slave drive.

Should be hd2,x
x is the partition number.
Here is my grub config file:

default 0
timeout 30
splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title=Gentoo Linux
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/bzImage root=/dev/hda5 vga=0x31A video=vesa:mtrr:1280x1024@61 hdc=ide-scsi
initrd=(hd0,1)/boot/initrd

title=Windows 98
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

I did get the mount working as you can see in the "Show me your desktop" thread, but how do I get it to auto mount on logon?

Gnome Menu -> Applications -> Desktop Preferences -> Advanced -> Sessions.
Take a look at startup programs. Just execute "mount /whatever", just make sure you have an entry for the partition in /etc/fstab, and the user option. Here is my entry:

/dev/hda1               /mnt/win        vfat            noauto,rw,uhost=0000,user       0 0

Hmm, I think that's all

 

[Eagle]

OK, got that done, still cant get 98 to boot with Grub though.

Also, I can enable 3D Hardware on my graphics card, I have it set to Nvidia Geforce 3 Generic, is there a better driver for it?

 

[Slougi]

Ok, you'll have to trick windows into thinking that it is on the first partition: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=18319

As to the driver, go to www.nvidia.com, and download the appropriate files. Be sure to read the readme!

 

[Eagle]

Hah, I never saw the Linux drivers there . Which ones do I need, IA32?

 

[Eagle]

Hah, I never saw the Linux drivers there . Which ones do I need, AMD64?

 

[The Khan Artist]

IA32. Grab the first GLX RPM, and, I would presume, the RedHat 8.0 UP i686 Architecture kernel RPM.

You only need AMD64 if you have an Athlon64 or an Opteron.

 

[Slougi]

Yep. You might need to configure your XF86Config file, not sure if the rpm does it automatically. Replace nv with nvidia like this:

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "NVIDIA GeForce"
    Driver      "nvidia"
    #VideoRam    65536
    # Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection

Also you need to load the glx module:

Section "Module"

# This loads the DBE extension module.

    Load        "dbe"   # Double buffer extension

# This loads the miscellaneous extensions module, and disables
# initialisation of the XFree86-DGA extension within that module.
    SubSection  "extmod"
      Option    "omit xfree86-dga"   # don't initialise the DGA extension
    EndSubSection

# This loads the Type1 and FreeType font modules
    Load        "type1"
    Load        "freetype"
    Load        "speedo"

# This loads the GLX module
    Load       "glx"

EndSection

That should be it

 

[mesman00]

yep make sure you do that...the rpm doesn't do it for you, and i didn't, so i had to edit it from the bash prompt. remember?

 

[Eagle]

I dont know what you guys just told me to do, but it looks like after doing it I'm gonna have to reinstall Linux. I cant get past the command prompt now. I think I'm just going to have to find a good tutorial that I understand.