Newbie Questions about Linux, Questions for particular problem areas Options

[burninbush]

"...Can you point me to the how-to to do this? Or tell me how? In my limited experience.."

++++++++++++

Sure, it's just a couple commands. Begin by booting with your live linux cd, logon as root, and open a command window [that crt icon in the taskbar, or find it in the K menu].

# dd if=/dev/hda of=hda.mbr bs=512 count=1 <enter>

That takes a copy [one unit of 512 bytes] of the first sector of your primary master ide disk. This is the "MBR" -- which points to whatever you use to boot, and in the last 66 bytes contains the master partition records for your disk. The first part of the MBR is the actual boot code, but that's fairly easy to fix. It's the partition tables that can't be easily duplicated.

Putting it back is just the reverse of inputfile and outputfile ...

#dd if=hda.mbr of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1 <enter>

Of course, if the MBR gets completely trashed, then the next time you try to boot the machine, you'll find that it has NO valid partitions -- which could ruin your whole day if you had important stuff on the disk. So, you must copy the hda.mbr file off to diskette or other media -- it's useless to leave it on the same hard disk, cuz you won't be able to find it after the partition tables have been overwritten.

# cd /mnt
# mkdir floppy (probably already exists)
# mount /dev/fd0 floppy
# cp /root/hda.mbr /mnt/floppy/
# ls /dev/fd0
hda.mbr (check to see that the copy succeeded)
# umount /dev/fd0

Do that for each of your hard disks and you'll have a way to get back home when some linux install -- or other errant software -- does something undesired with your MBR. This file will be valid until you repartition the disk -- after which you should do the procedure over.

For all of those posts asking "how do I remove lilo or grub from my MBR" -- this is the solution. Of course, you have to take the copy before allowing linux to write to the MBR.

Note that I have just offered a suggestive name for the saved copy file -- use whatever you like, dd won't care. Substitute hdb / hdc / hdd / sda as necessary to ID your machine's hard disks.

If you're booting with one of those live cds that won't allow you to logon as root, then just put a 'sudo ' in front of each of those commands above. I like Mepis here -- with it, you can be the boss as you like. It would be a good choice for a first linux distro to install, too.

[Dard]

Well I used both Google and Alta Vista advanced and I see much mention of it, but what happened to the company?  I mean, it appears that all is left is downloadable CD's?

Bill

Monday, April 11, 2005 03:44:57 PM

Citing desires for both a "new identity" and an end to possible legal liability, Mandrakesoft changed its name to "Mandriva" last week, not long after announcing a merger with Conectiva and many details of a future product roadmap.

In a written statement unveiling the "Mandriva" name on April 7, Mandrakesoft pointed to two reasons for the name change: a name that better reflects the combined identity of Mandrakesoft and Conectiva, and a decision to eliminate any liability stemming from a long-standing lawsuit with Hearst Corporation over the Mandrake trademark.

In 2003, a French court ruled that Mandrakesoft's use of the names Mandrake and Linux-Mandrake--as well as associated Internet domain names--infringed on Hearst's trademark rights around the "Mandrake le Magicien" ("Mandrake the Magician") comic book character.

You can read the rest here...
http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/5811/1/

[Bruno]

Hi Bill

FYI: Mandrake has been number one on the top 100 at Distrowatch for that last 5 to 6 years, only recently it dropped to second place because of a seriously hyped new distro called "Ubuntu". But since the numbers for Ubuntun are falling again I guess it will not take long before Mandrake ( Mandriva ) will be on the number 1 position again.

If you want to buy boxed sets you can have a look here: http://www.mandrivastore.com
The homepage: http://www.mandrivalinux.com/en/
The Mandriva club: http://www.mandrivaclub.com/

Downloads most recent version: ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/Man.../iso/10.2/i586/

Hope this clears up things a bit



Bruno

[linuxdude32]

I do so love a set of well-formulated questions! I'm going to play "pretend" for a moment and be a Linux expert and try to answer them. You'll see that I agree with many on here. And I'll throw in some personal advice to boot because I'm smarter than everybody else (remember I'm playing 'pretend'). Here goes!

I am giving serious consideration to giving Linux a try based on the fact that Windows 98SE is about to enter non support the middle of next year, and having tried XP, it is so bloated and slow compared with 98SE (Pentium III 933) that I just can't put up with MS like that, and I presume that Longhorn/Vista will be even worse.

Have to comment on that. I do LOVE Linux dearly but have found XP to operate at similar or equal performance of Windows 98 SE personally. I know others have certainly found a radical difference but why? I have no idea. I've heard people telling me that XP takes so long to boot and yet on my machine it boots in about 35 seconds (to a login prompt, after that it depends how many startup programs you have). That being said, Linux in general has much better memory management than Windows IMNSHO (In my not so humble opinion). Btw, we never take offense at the questions - it's usually the answers we get into a big bruhaw about.

1.  What about motherboard chipset drivers?  Can one install them off the CD that comes with the mobo, or will they work in Ext3 or Reiser FS?

Motherboard CDs are only helpful for Windows and so are useless here as already said. As long as your motherboard/hardware is supported under the distro you use, you won't need to download anything else. There are exceptions like with wireless.

2.  What is typical size of OS?  I realize that depends on how much stuff you have on there, but I have Win98SE with photoshop, Firefox, Tbird, Nero, and a bunch of other stuff and it only takes up about 1700 MB.  The same thing took up over 3000 MB in patched (SP1) XP Pro. (These figures do not include swap file)

A typical default desktop distribution weighs in at about 2.3 to 2.5 GB. As Bruno mentioned, that includes stuff you don't get with Windows like full burning software, office suite, image editing, web browsers, digital camera management software, scanning software, PDA software, ripping software, etc. If you installed everything included with a distro nobody would ever see you again and you'd probably end up with 6 GB of software which includes webserver and other server software and multiple development environments and source code for most of it. Linux is the OS with the mostest.

3.  What about size creep with usage?  Does Linux keep getting larger for inexplicable reasons like Windows does?  I clean Windows up with batch files, etc., etc., and *still* it keeps growing with use.

I haven't watched this longterm enough to really give you a good answer. But I can say that I respectfully disagree with Bruno. Every OS is going to grow over time because you'll have to keep downloading patches and new versions of software. Though the latter is optional, many Linux users want the latest. I'm afraid no OS is immune to feature-itis.

4.  I will need to set up dual boot scheme to keep Windows for Photoshop and other photo apps including photo printer software, and I do backups with Drive Image.  Now DI and Partition Magic cannot really see Ext3 and Reiser FS partitions, so how do you do backups of the Linux and C partitions and how in particular do you back up the C partition so that the dual boot MBR does not get messed up when you do a restoration?  I know Langa likes BootIT NG, but having tried it, it seems rather crude and hard to use.  What do you guys use for OS partition backups?

When I do it full image backups of Linux, I use partimage. But on a regular basis, I just use k3b, a CD burning program, to backup my home directory files. Linux keeps configuration changes to desktop programs as well as your data in /home which is a good idea to keep on a separate partition. I have heard that Drive Image and Ghost can backup Linux partitions but usually on a sector-by-sector basis only.

5.  What about external USB HDD's and jump drives; is there any problem?  I mean do Linux distros generally recognize them without any additional drivers?

As long as you're not trying to boot from them, you shouldn't have a problem. If you are, there may be extra work involved but that work usually involves setting up your BIOS to do it. Not really a Linux issue per se. Some Linux distros are designed to boot from Jump Drives like Puppy Linux or Flash Linux.

Update: Split over two post since I found out the forum software doesn't like so many quotes in one post.

This post has been edited by linuxdude32: Sep 13 2005, 06:26 PM

[linuxdude32]

(PART 2...)

6.  How do you update Linux when vulerabilities are found?  I realize that the kernel keeps getting updated, but does that require buying the next edition of a distro and doing a complete reinstall of the whole thing - too expensive - (as one does with each new edition of Firefox or Thunderbird), or is there some way to patch things, and if so how?

Most Linux distributions can be downloaded for free, though the download version may be different than the retail version usually because of copyright issues having to do with including certain commercial software (even free commercial software). Some people like to do this whenever a new version is released but even then the user still has to download patches that address security concerns for bug fixes, especially if you're on broadband Internet.

How this is done depends on the distro. SUSE, PC LOS, Mandriva (Mandriva charges then) and Fedora all have little update icons that appear to let you know of updates and then you can click on those to download. Or you can just run the update program every so often (Mandiva doesn't charge for running this program).

7.  What about defragging?  I understand that Ext3 and Reiser FS file systems use something called "journeling" (sp?), but does that totally prevent fragmentation?

Every Linux guy I know says that you don't have to defrag with Linux handles handles files better. Others of us, who don't quite believe in magic, think that fragmentation could still be an issue no matter what file system type you use. That being said, distribution makers don't consider this enough of an issue to include a defragmentation program so that probably says a lot right there. Also, Linux distros prompt you to create a separate partition which is used exclusively for swap and this is where fragmentation would most effect any OS. This swap is kept contiguous. Also, fragmentation becomes an issue on nearly full drives. If you keep your drives at only 2/3 full, you probably won't have fragmentation on any OS.

8.  What about Internet reconnect?  I am using DSL that requires reconnection and has a dynamic ISP address so I cannot enter a number into anything during setup as far as I know.  In Win98SE, I use a simple batch file made from a couple of commands that could also be typed into the "run" box to disconnect and connect, but how is this done in Linux?

As already said, DSL is supported under most Linux distributions as long as it's of the kind that involves an ethernet interface. If so, you can use 'ifdown eth0' to pull down the interface. If it's security you're concerned about, make sure you use a firewall between you and the modem instead.

9.  Is there any decent FTP client available.  I have tried Filezilla in Windows as an experiment, and it is downright difficult to use compared with Cute and similar Windows products.

Yes, lots! Your distro will probably decide which one you use though. I haven't used Filezilla so not sure which one in Linux would be most like it. If you can handle WS FTP, AxyFTP is a virtual clone. You'll probably have to try several to find the one you like.

10.  And what about Firewalls?  Are they available?  I know I read in a recent PCWorld article where the guy was trying out Xandros, that it comes with a Firewall (and a high price) but are they common with distros or are there open source ones out there?

Every popular distro that I know of includes a built-in firewall. Usually it's fairly simple - block every port except for some you specify be allowed like SSH or FTP. If you don't like the one that comes with it, you can download something more configurable or learn iptables (the command-line way to define your own rules).

Finally a couple of words of advice. Everybody here has their own favorite distro including me. So you're right in suggesting that asking what they use might start a war or at least a friendly bar-fight. Heck, suggesting what bootloader to use can do that here. Actually, we're pretty friendly here but any information you receive about a distro is pretty subjective.

But it can be useful to know what people here use because they can help you. Bruno uses everything so no need to listen to him. I use SUSE and some people like it and some hate it (or it hates them). Read about teacher's trials and you'll see what I mean. Basically the reason the info isn't objective comes down the fact that if it works on your machine you at least like it. If it doesn't, you hate it. The hardware detection can vary widely from one distribution to another. So can the installer and configuration utilities (the control panel). But the most popular programs are available across most distros (from the CD if not installed automatically) and with a bit of effort you can often get any Linux program running on any distro. It's a very personal decision and you often won't know until you've been using your computer for months.

It's best to download several Live CDs, try each of them out to see if your hardware works right away and then install that version. SUSE only comes as a Live DVD unfortunately. Two distros that are available on a single CD that can be installed from that same CD later (if you like it) are SimplyMepis and PC LOS. Of the two, PC LOS is easier to use because it has a full Control Center (like Windows Control Panel). Ubuntu has a Live CD but I don't think you can install it from that CD (they have a separate Install CD). However, that's only two CDs.

The other thing is that if you want to go full-blown Linux, you can operate Photoshop under Linux with a product called CrossOver Office. It's $50 USD but you can try it for 15 (or 30? don't remember) for free from http://codeweavers.com . You can also try with WINE ( http://winehq.org ) which a free version of what CrossOver Office is based on.

[linuxdude32]

I think the other reason for the name change was so that they could drive Man crazy. I've actually gotten to like it though I hated it at first. That is, I name, the distros always been OK.

[teacher]

I think Jason did a wonderful job of answering your questions. Any remaining? By the way, I may have my troubles with Suse but I stll like it! I have it on my laptop as my main Linux distro for wireless and I run PCLos as my main distro on my tower! (I have about 8 there but only spend real time in a few).

[greengeek]

SuSE was the first distro that I paid for (the full boxed pro version) and it worked with all my hardware on all machines. I'm not using the latest version of this distro, I'll most likely wait for 10.0. I don't believe in updating every time something new comes out, if things work as I like them I don't bother with updates. Xandros was just an experiment, it worked so well on the 'net machine that I just left it there. It multi boots with WinME, XP Pro and Xandros although Windows is only used for my train simulators.

[BillD]

OK, thank you people. You have been a tremendous help, and I greatly appreciate everyone's comments.

Bruno, my problem in finding Mandriva was that I made the mistake of typing in the name followed by some other qualifying stuff in the advanced search. After reading your post, I just typed the name in the main box in Google, and there it was! Duh.

I am going to follow the advice and try pclos as a live deal and see how it goes first.

And thank you for the extended details on the mbr business.

And yes, I am familiar with WS FTP (I tried LS FTP years ago before it disappeared) but liked the Cute deal better and never looked back, so I appreciate the input on AxyFTP.

I'll be back (I fear) . . .

Bill

[linuxdude32]

I think Jason did a wonderful job of answering your questions.  Any remaining?  By the way, I may have my troubles with Suse but I stll like it!  I have it on my laptop as my main Linux distro for wireless and I run PCLos as my main distro on my tower!  (I  have about 8 there but only spend real time in a few).

Thank you Julia! Everybody did a great job though. That's the great thing about this forum, we all love to give advice! Btw, I just thought of something that you may have already tried. Next time you try a newer version of SUSE, try using the update tool in the tasktray. I've seen wireless drivers listed in there as well as drivers for some winmodems before. It may be that SUSE has moved your former drivers to this area.

[epp_b]

So if you want me to change the title of this thread, just tell me and I will biggrin.gif biggrin.gif

Naw, I was just surprised that it wasn't the very first thing you said

[Peachy]

10.  And what about Firewalls?  Are they available?  I know I read in a recent PCWorld article where the guy was trying out Xandros, that it comes with a Firewall (and a high price) but are they common with distros or are there open source ones out there?

Just to clarify, the Linux kernel since 2.4 has had the firewall built-in since 2.4, first with ipchains and now iptables. Each distro will package their own version of a graphical front end to handle the firewall rules. If you wish, you can manage the firewall rules from the command line with the iptable command.

[kenver1_5]

Hello BillD good to see you popped in:)

I can't really add to the great information given by the other
members of this board. But would like to mention an option.
I an new to linux and decided not to dual boot to avoid
problems with my windows while I leaned. I chose to build
an older system so I could test without worry.
if you have this option it may be better.

I too found a lack of written information {like books}
I decided on the distro that I felt gave the most info,
help, and support.

nomater what distro you chose it will be a learning curve
but like myself you will do ok:)