E.3 Installation Questions

E.3.1 How do I get my IDE CD-ROM on my SB16 to work?

The Creative Labs kit comes with the IDE Interface set to the third IDE port by default (IDE2, I think). This won't work under Linux as it only recognizes two IDE ports. What you need to do is move a jumper on the card to configure it for IDE1 (the secondary IDE port). I'm not sure if you have to make changes under DOS for this configuration to work, but your manuals should help with this (it will still work, but you may have to edit a file or two).

You may also have to specify command line parameters like:

boot:  linux hdX=cdrom

If you have one IDE drive, X is most likely ``b'' in this case (ie ``linux hdb=cdrom''). If you have two, then it will be ``c''.

E.3.2 How do I run the install program again?

Reboot your machine using the disk that you made for the installation. You will most likely need to completely reinstall your system.

If you just want to reconfigure networking or install more packages, try using the control-panel tools.

E.3.3 Why am I missing some programs?

Try doing a `df' at the shell prompt. If you have ``/'' or ``/usr'' showing up as 100% used, chances are your partition was too small for the entire install. Unfortunately, this does not result in any type of error messages unless you are watching closely (which most people don't when the thing tells you it is going to take 2 hours to install :-). You will most likely need to reinstall and do one of two things: a) make your root or ``/usr'' partition larger or b) install fewer packages.

Also, if none of the partitions you made for Linux is full, you are probably just missing some packages. You will need to use glint or rpm to install those.

E.3.4 How do I mount my CD-ROM?

If you installed from CD-ROM, you should be able to do:

mount /mnt/cdrom

If you get an error that says the mount point does not exist, do:

mkdir /mnt/cdrom

If you did an install via NFS: You need to know what type of CD-ROM you have. The best way is to watch the boot messages as you reboot, or look at /var/adm/messages (more /var/adm/messages). You most likely have an IDE CD-ROM that will show up as /dev/hdc or /dev/hdd, or you have a Sound Blaster type that is /dev/sbpcd, or you have a SCSI that is /dev/scd0.

In any case, you can do the following:

mount -t iso9660 /dev/xxxx /mnt/cdrom

and substitute xxxx for YOUR device. You can then: cd /mnt/cdrom and then: ls and you will be looking at the contents of the CD-ROM.

E.3.5 Why does Linux only see part of my RAM?

There are a couple things that could be wrong. On some 386's, you need to compile your kernel with ``Limit memory to 16M?'' enabled. Some AMI BIOS motherboards have a memory option to split memory into two segments. I'm not sure what the option is called, but it has something to do with ``linear''. You'll find it in your BIOS setup. You may need to specify the amount of memory to the kernel at boot time from lilo. To try this, type: linux mem=32M at the lilo prompt. If that works, you can add that line to the append in your /etc/lilo.conf and rerun lilo. The example from above would be:

append = "mem=32M"

Don't forget to run `lilo' after editing the file.

E.3.6 How do I install to my DOS partition?

You can't. None of the current Red Hat releases support UMSDOS installs. If you have one drive that has one big DOS partition with free space you want to use, you have two options. One is to backup all your DOS data somehow and then repartition the drive into smaller partitions and then restore the DOS data back to a DOS partition. You then have a free partition for linux. The second choice is to use fips. fips is a program that will let you change your partition size of a DOS partition without harming the data on it. It is STRONGLY suggested that you backup your data before using fips. Red Hat Software makes no warranties or claims as to the suitability of using fips for this purpose nor can we guarantee that data will remain unharmed. I haven't heard of anyone having a bad experience with fips, but I won't guarantee it either.

E.3.7 How do I use the NYS/NIS system that comes with RedHat?

Please see the NYS-Tips. You can find it at http://www.redhat.com/.

E.3.8 Why can't I get to Unixware now that I've installed Linux?

You need to boot Unixware off of a boot floppy and run 'fdisk /mbr'. That should allow you to get back into Unixware, but will not let you access Linux.

E.3.9 Why does my Diamond video card do odd things under X Windows?

If you experience problems with XFree86 and your Diamond video card, you may try putting:

"Option Diamond"

In your /etc/X11/XF86Config (or in /etc/XF86Config if you use that).

E.3.10 Where can I find an list of known problems?

To find solutions to known problems, please see:

http://www.redhat.com/errata

and look for both a ``General Errata'' page and a platform-specific Errata page for your version of Red Hat Linux.

E.3.11 I installed Metro-X, now how do I use it?

To get the startx command to use Metro-X instead of XFree86 you must make /etc/X11/X a symbolic link to /usr/X11R6/bin/Xmetro:

rm /etc/X11/X
ln -s ../../usr/X11R6/bin/Xmetro /etc/X11/X