Older cptrs

[Gregory J. Neumann]

No intention on giving up on Mandrake, after all, 2 very easy, successful installs 
previous to this, and the Win98 partitions are all still there!  
Just ranting a bit at one of the hazards of using old hardware! ;-)  Still, it 
seems easier for me to do the Slackware thing.  Also, being able to READ the 
graphical lilo(?) screen helps! ;-)  Init3 was no problem, cause you get a simple 
text console.  I <Ctrl><Alt><F2>'d to a text console, butI was rather disconcerted 
that xf86config didn't work.  Again, I'm very used to Slackware, and when I saw 
XFDrake, I assumed it would need "X" to run, and then it'd do psycho-video-thing 
again.  So ... it's a Slackware box.  My daughter used the "newbie" menus.  It all 
went well, except that she blew by the lilo install, so there was no lilo.conf when 
she finished!  8-O  Goes to show that none of the installs is mistake proof! ;-)   
Maybe I'll scrub the box and have her install Mandrake again.  Make her EARN those 
kills in Quake!! ;-)  
You've never used VI before?  Wow!  Slackware considers it a "required" component 
and short of editing the installation scripts (using vi?), I don't think you can 
exclude it!  RAID1 is what I use at work, VERY NICE on the dual ultra-SCSI's, but 
I'm no expert at it, just applied the patch (an adventure in itself!), recompiled 
and followed instructions VERY carefully!  

Any of the hardware I mentioned be of any help?
See you Sunday!

-Greg

> In that situation running in single user  or failsafe (failsafe defaults to
> init1 , then 3 if it can and then 5 if it can, if the monitor cant handle what
> the adapter is pushing though you may go to 5 and blow the monitor) get to your
> /etc/inittab and change default runlevel from 5 to 3.  Then when at a console, you
> can run XFdrake under console and still get a (DOS looking) menu of choices for
> screen, monitor, refresh etc etc then test it from there.  Once its good , a simple
> "telinit 5"  puts you right back at kdm login!  dont give up on Mandrake that
> easily, I really learned to appreciate some of it's " quirks" doing no less than 5
> installs this last few weeks, 3 from FTP, 2 from CD.  then the upgrades, Kernel
> upgrades, etc etc.  I only just got NIS and autofs running on the server (using
> export/home and mapping /home on the server just like a client as suggested
> previously).  I am experimenting with passing the auto.master and auto.home files
> over NIS.  We'll see how it works by the meeting.
> 
> I spent the last 2 weeks rebuilding 3 machines and trying to recover those lost hard
> drives, learned a lot about recovery, running in rescue mode (chroot /mnt) and using
> VI, (Bob you're right VI is a MUST when doing recovery of systems). I'm also using
> md0, 1, 2 for /, /usr/ export/home.  Kinda cool running Raid1. Was actually pretty
> easy once I understood the diskdrake setup sequece...
> 
> I have my old box that I will build at the meeting or before if I have the
> time, I am going to try to download and install the 8.2 BETA 4 if I get a
> chance.
> 
> JJN
> --- "Gregory J. Neumann" <gjn at certainlywood.com> wrote:
> > Hi, JJ!
> > 
> > GREAT Idea!
> > I have some old ISA & VLB VGA cards, but don't expect to run X very well. 
> > Are the 
> > boards are ISA or >GASP!< VLB??  Some DEC Etherworks3 ISA NICs ... not much
> > other 
> > hardware.  Maybe some 4 Meg 72 pin SIMMs ... LOTS of 30 pin 1 Meg SIMMs! 
> > (Remember 
> > them??)  Maybe a 40 MEG HD, but nothing larger, and only 5.25" floppy drives, not
> > very helpful in that department.  :-(  I'll bring the 10baseT hub again.
> > 
> > BTW, speaking of old hardware ... I found a "gotcha" in the Mandrake 8.1
> > install 
> > ... The DEFAULT monitor is a High Frequency Super VGA monitor, well, that's
> > NOT 
> > what I have, and because it's Xwindows, you CAN'T easily change it if you
> > blindly 
> > accept it!  The default video mode drives older SVGA monitors berserk and may very
> > well blow them out!  I'm not impressed w/ an install that can seriously do damage
> > to hardware just by accepting the default.  Good thing I was working on the other
> > computer (which also has an incompatable monitor!) while my daugher was running
> > the install and rescued things before any damage was done.  A rank newbie would
> > just be appalled and confused and SOL if the monitor blew.  I tried to fix things
> > using xf86config, but Mandrake blissfully ignored any changes I tried to make! 
> > Just one of the "hazards" of installing the newer distros on older hardware I
> > guess. It's back to good ol' reliable :-D Slackware! :-D for my daughter and me! 
> > By the time she shows up for the next meeting, she'll be a "Slackware Babe"! ;-)
> > 
> > -Greg
> > 
> > > I have two smaller tower cases that have MB and ~P75 chips and a little
> > memory, they
> > > have video (1 does) and I can slap on some ISA nics.  THey need floppy
> > drives and
> > > hard drives.
> > > 
> > > I will brig them Sunday and donate them to teh group for people the use and
> > > practive on.  If anyone has strange hardware or old hard drives they can
> > doante
> > > bring them along, sound cards old speakers etc will also be welcome...
> > > 
> > > 
> > > JJN
> > > 
> > > __________________________________________________
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> > 
> 
> 
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