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Mandrake 7.0 (Linux 2.2)
Frumious Bandersnatch | 9/10/01 | Frumious Bandersnatch

Posted on 09/10/2001 9:43:24 AM PDT by Frumious Bandersnatch

Some notes on installing Linux 2.2.14-15 (using the Mandrake 7.0 distribution) on a DELL Latitude CPi-R series laptop.

I've also installed Mandrake 8.0 (Linux 2.4.3), but ran into problems with the sound card not being recognized for the NeoMagic AV (nm256av) card. Otherwise, it was actually easier to install and configure than the Mandrake 7.0 distribution.

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What to do:

Installing Linux:
1).         Partition the hard drive (see "Setting up for a Dual-Boot system").
2).         Install Linux (see "Installing Linux").
3).         Configure Linux (see "Configuring the Laptop").
4).         Test the Modem (see "Modem Testing").
5).         Configure startup options (see "Messing with LILO").
6).         Configure XWindows options (see "XWindows Configuration").
7).         Enable access to FAT16 partitions (see "Accessing Wintel Partitions").
8).         Miscellaneous (see "Wallpapers and Sound").
9).         Set up connection to LAN ("See Configuring PCMCIA Card").

Installing the Ingres SDK:
1).         Log into Linux as root.
2).         Create an ingres user:
                 # useradd -d /opt/ingres -s /bin/bash ingres
                 # chmod 755 /opt/ingres
                 # passwd ingres
3).         Append the following the the ".bashrc" file of the ingres account:
                 umask 022export II_SYSTEM=/opt
                 export PATH=$II_SYSTEM/ingres/bin:$II_SYSTEM/ingres/utility:$PATH
                 export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/lib:/usr/lib:$II_SYSTEM/ingres/lib
                 export ING_EDIT=/usr/bin/emacs
                 if [ -n "$DISPLAY" ]
                 then
                         export TERM_INGRES=vt100fx
                 else
                         export TERM_INGRES=vt100f
                 fi
         If you prefer vi, change '/usr/bin/emacs' above into '/bin/vi'.
4).         Log into the ingres account.
5).         Install the SDK by typing the following command:
                 $ cd $II_SYSTEM/ingres
                 $ tar -xf /mnt/cdrom/int_lnx/ingres.tar install
                 $ install/ingbuild -express /mnt/cdrom/int_lnx/ingres.tar
         Note that the /mnt/cdrom/... path is where the Ingres tarball resides.
         If you have it someplace else (e.g. on hard disk), then the path will          have to reflect that.
6).         Reboot the system, then log into the ingres account and type in
         'ingstart' to fire up Ingres. To compile SQL code within Gnu C,
         see (Handling 4GL Code Within 3GL Apps).

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Setting up for a Dual-Boot system:
From within the windows environment, I installed BootMagic and PartitionMagic (I later deleted BootMagic and just used LILO instead).
Using PartitionMagic, I resized the hard drive (6 gigs) into 4 partitions.  The primary partition was NTFS and the logical partitions were FAT16, EXT2, and SWAP. The NTFS and FAT16 partitions consumed about half the total space and the EXT2 and SWAP partitions have the other half.
The advantage with PartitionMagic is that the resizing and creation of partitions is done interactively, with no need to reload the Windows OS after you're done.  I do recommend backing up the Windows OS before running PartitionMagic, but I ran into no problems with it.

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Installing Linux

After this, I rebooted from the 7.0 boot CD (I had to go into setup to change the main boot drive from floppy to cd-rom).

I chose the custom option, because I wanted to install the development package.  I chose not to do anything with network cards or modems during the installation process.
I chose to remove the floppy and add windows to the bootloader. I also made the windows OS the default.
For xconfigurations, I chose "Laptop 1024x768" option with 24 bit depth.  When prompted, I refused to test it again, but saved the options that were chosen. I also opted for the command line for my default startup rather than the KDE GUI.

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Configuring the Laptop

When laptop rebooted, I changed the setup back to floppy being the first boot device.

I installed a new PCMCIA-CS module (the original one would not recognize Xircom RBME56G-100 cards).  For more information, see "Installing new PCMCIA Drivers."

I edited the XF86Config file to add appropriate settings so that X-windows will run on my laptop.

I ran sndconfig to initialize the sound drivers for my machine.

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Modem testing

To see if the modem is setup properly, type "minicom."  After the program comes up, it should return "ok" and a blinking underline for a curser if the modem has been intialized properly.

To get out of minicom, type a x.

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Messing with LILO

The /etc/lilo.conf file contains configuration information to set up the bootloader.

If, for some reason, windows is not listed in here (and you wish it to be), or is not the default OS, then you may need to make changes to this file and run lilo to create a new bootloader.  An example of one is:

boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
vga=normal
default=windows
keytable=/boot/us.klt
prompt
timeout=50
message=/boot/message
other=/dev/hda1
         label=windows
image=/boot/vmlinuz
         label=vmlinuz
         root=/dev/hda6
         append=""
         read-only


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XWindows Configuration;

Change directories to "/etc/X11."

Edit a file called "XF86Config" (I used Emacs, but VI is also available).

Go to the "Graphics device section."  There should be a device configured for the NeoMagic laptop.  Whether there is or not, the following lines must be put in this file (if you are using the NeoMagic 256AV/156ZX graphics card):

Section "Device"
         Identifier "NeoMagic (laptop/notebook)"
         VendorName "Unknown"
         BoardName "Unknown"
         Chipset "NM2200"
         VideoRam 3904
EndSection

The amount of video ram may vary, but this works for me.

Page down until you get to the "Screen sections."  This should be directly after the "Graphics device section."

For all screen sections, the device should be "NeoMagic (laptop/notebook)", the monitor should be "LCD Panel 1024x768", and the default color depth should be 24.

For the screen sections with the "svga" and "accel" drivers, the modes should be "1024x768" "800x600" "640x400".

For the screen sections with the "vga16" and "vga2" drivers, the modes should only be "800x600" "640x400".

For the screen section with the "fbdev" driver, the modes should only be "default".

To test, type in "startx" from the command line.

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Installing new PCMCIA drivers

Download the latest GA release of the pcmcia-cs daemon.  The version distributed with Mandrake 7.0 (pcmcia-cs-3.1.9) doesn't support the Xircom RBEM56G-100 card.

The version that I downloaded was pcmcia-cs-3.1.28 which I obtained from http://sourceforge.net.

Move the downloaded tarball to /usr/src/linux and unpack it.

Change directories to the directory containing the new source code (ie ./pcmcia-cs-3.1.28).

Run "make config." I found the default options to be acceptable.

Run "make all", then run "make install."

Reboot to start the PCMCIA services.

More information can be found at (choose the PCMCIA-HOWTO page): http://www.europe.redhat.com/documentation/HOWTO

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Accessing Wintel Partitions:

In order to access windows partions, it may be necessary to create a new directory in /mnt and a new entry in /etc/fstab.

To see if this is necessary, type in "ls /mnt" to see the available directories.  If there is one with "DOS" prefixed to it or named "windows", then it is likely that access to windows partitions is already provided.

This can be tested by putting some file(s) on this partition from windows, the accessing it from linux (ls /mnt/DOS_xxx).

If mapping hasn't been done to the windows partition from Linux, then a new directory must be created in the /mnt directory. It can be called anything.

The /etc/fstab file must be edited and a new line put in mapping the windows partition to the directory created in /mnt.  If, for example, the windows partition resides on hda5 and the directory /mnt/DOX_hda5 has been created, then the following entry could be put into the /etc/fstab file:
/dev/hda5 /mnt/DOS_hda5 vfat 0 0

After doing this, reboot the machine in order for the changes to take place.

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Wallpapers and sounds

If you have jpegs (or gifs) that you wish to use as wallpaper, it would be best to store them in /usr/share/wallpapers.

Sounds should go into /usr/share/sounds.

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Handling 4GL Code Within 3GL Apps:

The latest SDK seems to handle libc 2.1.x okay in spite of documentation to the contrary.

Ingres header files appear to be included for Gnu c (gcc), so the eqdef_hack.h file (designed for gcc on AXP and Sun OS machines) is not needed.

To compile the code type in the following:

esqlc
gcc -o $II_SYSTEM/ingres/lib/libingres.a -lm

Adding the -lc and -lelf options to the compilation/linking process may also be helpful.

Naturally, the above can be (and should be) put into a makefile.

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See Configuring PCMCIA Card:

To configure the network card, I went into the Gnome window manager and chose the System->LinuxConf program from the main menubar.

Within LinuxConf, I chose "Networking" to bring up the netconf program.

I clicked "Adapter 1" and put in the following information:
         Primary name + domain ca-igna9ogxt4sm.cai.com
         Alias (opt) ca-igna9ogxt4sm
         IP address 130.200.98.28
         Netmask (opt) 255.255.255.0
         Net device eth0
         Kernel module tulip

Normally, you can leave the "Kernel module" blank, and the network configurator will find it, but I happened to know that mine was "tulip."

Under "Name server specification (DNS)," I put in (as the IP addresses of the name servers):
         141.202.1.108
         141.202.248.3
         141.202.150.5

For "search domain 1 (opt)," I put int "localdomain", pressed the "DNS is required for normal operation" button, and pressed the "Accept" button.

Under "Routing and gateways," I chose to enter 130.200.98.1 as my "Default gateway" and pressed the "Accept" button.  Afterwards, I "Quit" the "Routing and gateways" option.

For "Host name search path", I pressed the "Multiple IPs for one host" and "host, dns" buttons, then accepted the result.

I chose the "Misc" tab at the top of the network configurator and selected the "information about other hosts" option.  I put in the IP number (130.200.98.28), the name (ca-igna9ogxt4sm.cai.com), and the alias (ca-igna9ogxt4sm) of my computer.  A loopback (127.0.0) for the localhost will be put in there by the program.  I chose the "Add" button, then quit the network configurator program.

After rebooting, I was able to ping my machine from a different computer, and access the intranet using netscape communicator.  However, in order to access the internet, the proxies must be set up correctly withing netscape.

I went into Netscape Communicator, and chose the Edit->Preferences menu option. I chose the "Proxies" option under the "Advanced" category. Manual proxy configuration was selected, and the following was put in:

         FTP Proxy naproxy.cai.com 80
         Gopher Proxy naproxy.cai.com 80
         HTTP Proxy naproxy.cai.com 80
         Security Proxy naproxy.cai.com 80
         WAIS Proxy naproxy.cai.com 80

Additionally, I chose "No Proxy for:"
*.cai.com;*.ca.com;127.0.0;141.202.*;localhost

There are others I can put in here, but these are the ones I use the most.
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TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS:
I am getting ready to see if I can't pick out the nm256 audio modules from Mandrake 7.0 and incorporate them into Mandrake 8.0.  As always, your mileage will vary.
1 posted on 09/10/2001 9:43:24 AM PDT by Frumious Bandersnatch
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To: Frumious Bandersnatch
I have no idea why you posted this on Free Republic, but I recently picked up a Dell laptop for cheap, and had problems getting X windows to work and noticed that the sound didn't work. Thanks for the information. It is printed out now, and I should be able to freep from the living room if I can get X to work correctly.

/john

2 posted on 09/10/2001 9:59:06 AM PDT by JRandomFreeper
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To: Frumious Bandersnatch tech_index
To search for other threads on the tech_index
(Indexed by using tech_index)
click here:

tech_index Interesting~Maybe I will look at my Toshiba , should be about the same/

3 posted on 09/10/2001 10:03:33 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Toshiba laptops are somewhat different on the video drivers. I'm using one for my firewall, I had no problems with it.

/john

4 posted on 09/10/2001 10:07:25 AM PDT by JRandomFreeper
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To: kd5cts
I'm freeping now using Linux.  The reason that I posted to FR, is that there is a hardcore of FR users who are Linux weenies, and I've asked for help before on Linux issues.

Besides, Mandrake level 1 support is clueless.  All this stuff I had to find out by doing the research.  Hopefully, it will save someone the 2 weeks of pain that I had before I got Linux working perfectly.
5 posted on 09/10/2001 10:11:43 AM PDT by Frumious Bandersnatch
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To: Frumious Bandersnatch
Hopefully, it will save someone the 2 weeks of pain

As I said before, thanks. It will save me some time researching which driver I needed. So it's already worked as planned. ;>)

I use only (slackware)linux and SunOS at the house, the only Windoze box is the Wife's.

/john

6 posted on 09/10/2001 10:23:01 AM PDT by JRandomFreeper
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To: Frumious Bandersnatch
Posting the static IP address of the computer is usually not recommended unless you are operating it as a public server.
7 posted on 09/10/2001 10:25:47 AM PDT by HAL9000
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To: Frumious Bandersnatch
Good work.
8 posted on 09/10/2001 10:57:23 AM PDT by SoDak
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To: kd5cts
the only Windoze box is the Wife's.

Poor thing.

9 posted on 09/10/2001 11:02:32 AM PDT by CheneyChick
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To: Frumious Bandersnatch
thanks.
10 posted on 09/10/2001 11:07:18 AM PDT by Michael Barnes
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To: CheneyChick
Her choice. I knew about before I married Her, and married Her anyway. grin!

/john

11 posted on 09/10/2001 5:01:35 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper
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