Need a little Linux/Knoppix help

12-28-04 | edchambers

[edchambers]

This is my first post so forgive me if I violated some protocall by not posting to "Breaking News"

Ok, so I tried Knoppix, pretty amazing stuff, a full OS that runs from a CD and I liked it so.. I decide to install it on a partition on my hard drive.I followed the instructions from the Knoppix website and I think I was successfull.The Lilo boot screen shows up gives me a choice of a couple or three versions of Linux and my Windows 98se installation.The 98se partition still boots but when I boot Linux it prompts me for a username and a password which I supply then it stops at a prompt that looks like myusername~$_ I know I'm supposed to type some command here but which of the over 3000 linux commands is it?

[grwcfl537]

I'm surprised it left you in a shell. Knoppix is very KDE centric. If you want to get to KDE (desktop environment) kdm would be the command. You may have to give it a full path --
find / -name 'kdm' -print

Mel

[edchambers]

error message that reads "Only root wants to run KDM" ok so how do I get to root?

[ohCompGk]

Try "startx" . This should fire off x server on most linux machines. If kde and xwindows are configured properly it should work. If it doesn't then you probably have some configuration errors. If it does work then you need to configure KDE to start at bootup.

[ohCompGk]

login as the user root. The superuser of all *Nix systems.

[edchambers]

New error message that reads "could not start kdeinit check your installation" Hmm back to the drawing board?

[grwcfl537]

I don't have a spare machine to do a knoppix install, so just guessing. One option is -- sudo kdm
or -- su - (that's su dash return) then
(password) knoppix

I guess the last time I did a knoppix hdinst, I must have chosen a graphical login option.

Mel

[edchambers]

Ok when lilo boots up I have 4 choices Linux,Linux2.4,Linux2.6 and Windows does it make a difference? I mean the different linux versions obviosly if I boot to Windows ....oh nevermind.

[grwcfl537]

2.6 is the latest kernel.

Mel

[ohCompGk]

I'm not familiar with Knoppix and it's been years since I've done much on a debian based system so I'm not much use here. I'd assume that their Linux boot would be a 2.2 kernel or a failsafe mode. 2.4 kernel is the most likely to boot since 2.6 is the latest and Debian hasn't released a stable 2.6 version yet.

Can I ask why you are loading a minimalist distro to hard drive?

[edchambers]

More questions, when I did the partitioning the instructions said to set aside a partition for a swap file first.That seemed backwards to me but I use Windows so what do I know.Is it possible my partitions are mixed up? I have 6 gigs of space to use for Linux does it really need a seperate partition for a swap file?Maybe I accidentally made the swapfile partition root?I made 1 1 gig partition for the swap file and the remaining 5 for the os.I think I'm going to reboot from the CD and try a reinstall any tips?

[edchambers]

Can I ask why you are loading a minimalist distro to hard drive?

Sure, I've used MS for years wanted to try something different.I really only use a computer for two things, games and the internet.Knoppix has two internet browsers and a bunch of other stuff that I don't need.If I can successfully get it to boot from my hard drive I can do my surfing from the relative security of linux/mozilla and play my games in the OS they were designed for.

[ohCompGk]

Yes. It really needs a separate partition for virtual memory. And it must be formated in swap file format. In general it doesn't need to be any larger that twice the amount of ram on your machine.

I would suggest you let the install do the partitioning for you for the first time. I don't know what the recommended partition sizes are for Knoppix but a mainstream distro works well with about a gig for /, 1.5gig for /usr, 250Meg for /tmp, and the rest split between /home and /var depending on what you're doing.

I like reiser as the file system for all my partitions (other than the swap) because it's journalized and it doesn't take 6 weeks to reboot on a bad shutdown like ext3 does.

[ohCompGk]

I can't find anything on Knoppix's website about modems but if you don't have an external modem you might be buying one to do this. Internal WinModems are a nightmare with linux. There's a LinModem project that has been trying to tackle this for years but I've never had any luck with it. If you're on a broadband connection that connects via a NIC you should be alright.

[edchambers]

Thanks for the help guys, keep it coming, I think i screwed up something in the initial partitioning phase but now qtparted won't let me resize the partitions.I have 1 gig for swap and 5 for the OS does it need free space as well? Does it matter where the partitions are?For example does it matter if the swap partition comes first after the Windows partition or is that where the OS needs to be?

[ohCompGk]

As a general rule / goes first and then your swap. After that it's kinda random. But no, it doesn't matter. Lilo will point to the needed partition.

[edchambers]

OK, I don't know what I did wrong but I think at this point I'll probably go back to FDISK, a program I do understand, and start from scratch.Maybe I'll check the partitioning and formats one more time.

[m_cord.]

find out what your display adaptor is when you reload you find it in the install its in there somewhere i just installed madrakelinux it was a learning experience

[ShadowAce]

Here are some instructions for doing exactly what you want.

[1L]

I had trouble with Linux installs. I admit some of it was hardware based. However, I recently installed FreeBSD on a box that Suse, Slackware, and Redhat wouldn't work on. Now that I got that up, I'm not sure I'm going to mess with Linux.

Before anyone flames, I'm sure some of the problem was either me or the hardware and I'm NOT trashing Linux. However, FreeBSD apparantly has less of a hardware appetite than Linux does. And I'm afraid that some of the "will work on old hardware" claims of Linux distros are misleading. Sure, Linux will install on a Pentium Pro, WITH 128 meg, a decent graphics card, and a 6+ gig HD. When the PP was out, 32-64 was normal for RAM, and 2 gig was a plenty big HD. My FreeBSD box was a Pentium II/233 with 64m and a 4 gig drive. I'm planning on using it as a router/firewall. Any help with that would be greatly appreciated!