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Fscking Madness About once a month, no matter what distribution of Linux I use, upon bootup it checks the filesystem and fails. It then asks me to give the root password for maintenance, and then when I try to run FSCK manually, it just says "parallelizing FSCK version XX.XX" and does nothing. What can I do besides re-installing my Linux system each time? -Calvin Robertson The Penguin responds: The Penguin would seriously question the integrity of your hard disk drive. Since you haven't included information regarding whether you have an IDE or SCSI, it's really hard to diagnose a problem such as this. However, just to be safe, we would recommend having a Systems Technician take a look at your PC in order to diagnose a possible hard disk issue--preferably a technician who is certified to work on your respective system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Beginning The Journey I am currently running an X client on my Irix5.3-based SGI machine. Can I install one of the many other themes offered by www.themes.org or www.enlightnement.org? As a newbie to the UNIX environment, I know I learn best by example. I am wondering if you have run across any books that are more like tutorials than dictionaries? I am imagining a book that is built around the idea of "Lesson Plans"--where each lesson is built upon the previously learned lesson. Have you run into such a book that takes a newbie from ground zero and makes the newbie someone to be able to set up and run his own complete machine (and by complete I mean settin up TCP, FTP, APOP, SMTP, HTTP, and other services)? Also, I have access to other flavors of Linux: Caldera, Red Hat, Debian, and MkLinux. I have had no success with some of them, while others have been successful. My question is: If I download a file to install on one of these platforms, does it have to be written for that flavor of Linux? � T.J. Wise The Penguin responds: Ok, we'll start with your first question. Since you've mentioned that it is an Irix5.3machine, it is highly doubtful that Enlightenment has a precompiled binary for your particular system. However, you could always download the source and compile it for your platform. Themes will work, once you have a working version of Enlightenment running. Regarding particular books to buy, we would recommend the Sams Publishing line of books, such as Red Hat Unleashed, Samba Unleashed and many others. The answer to your third question is relatively easy in that most software that you buy will include support for practically any version of Linux that you use. Some software will actually include support for the latest kernel, with most requiring at least a Linux system with kernel 2.0 installed. All newer distributions of Linux contain the 2.2.x series of kernels. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Winmodem Madness I did it! I finally installed Linux! I installed Mandrake simply because I heard it was easy to use (which it is) and it has a built- in partition resizer. I have it installed and I'm slowly figuring out the GUI and the commands. There is, however, one problem--my modem doesn't work and is not detected. I have a Motorola SM56 PCI speakerphone modem on com3. Any ideas? �Joel Citron The Penguin responds: The Penguin happened to run over to Motorola and the answer doesn't look good. Unfortunately, the SM56 is a dreaded Winmodem. Some, and we do mean, SOME modem manufacturers have made drivers for their respective winmodems. But we couldn't find anything on the SM56, other than its support for Windows. Do yourself a favor--go out and buy a non-Winmodem. Besides, Winmodem's often drag the system down slightly because of their dependency on processing power from the CPU, so it is often advised to steer clear from these cheap alternatives. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Giving The Old Geezer The Boot I have a 286MHz computer on which I'd like to install a smaller and probably older version of Linux. It only has a 40MB hard drive and one diskette drive. I can't find a larger drive that is compatible, but it is a cute little thing. Any advice? � Byron Flint The Penguin responds: Well Byron, unfortunately, you can't install Linux on anything less powerful than a 386. That's the story--and we're sticking to it! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Persistence Is Futile! I am proud to say that I purchased your first issue of Maximum Linux, and am a dedicated reader. However, I have to humbly admit that of the three distributions of Linux that I have (Mandrake 6, 7.1, and Storm 2000), I haven't been able to get a single one going! I don't give up easily, but I'm reaching the point where I think the only way to get Linux on my box is as a big gob of melted plastic, courtesy of a blowtorch. I don't want to buy a "Linux for Dummies" book, and I don't know of a "Linux for Complete Morons" publication. So, your magazine, Web site, and my friends are my support group. The distribution that I had the most success with was Storm Linux, however, I have some questions: 1. To dual boot with Windows 98, LILO requires the "kernel" name. Is the Kernel "config.sys", "autoexec.bat", "command.com", "Bill.Gates", or what? 2. When I used the express partition, Linux formatted my drive, wiped out Win98 (I didn't care �cause Win98 installs really easily), installed Linux, asked for passwords, and then re-booted. It stalled a couple of times at "updating regional settings", but a reboot got me passed that point. After hour four, I finally saw the LILO boot-up menu asking me for my name and password. Now here's the kicker. When I tab to the password box and type, nothing shows up! My keyboard is working because I can enter my name. HELP! What's going on? Is there a secret code? �Ian Price The Penguin responds: Hey Ian, don't worry about it. That's what we're here for! LILO does require a label for a kernel name when you want to boot. So, in order to list the available labels for your respective kernels, all you have to do is hit your "Tab" key and then select which one you want to use. A standard, fresh install of Red Hat or Mandrake will present you with the defaults, "dos" and "linux". Regarding your LILO issue, LILO asks you for a password because a password is set in the /etc/lilo.conf file, the LILO configuration file. If you don't recall your password, then you're in trouble. You could, however, check out Tomsrbt, a single-floppy Linux distribution, located athttp://www.toms.net/rb, that has saved a few of us Penguins when we needed to get back into our boxes Back to the Index