Any advice for installing RH 8.0

[edrod13]

Guys,

It looks like tonight I will try and load RH 8.0 for the first time. I just wanted to know if any of you start with the minimum configuration first then add the rest like NIC, MODEM, and sound. If so what would I have to do for RH to detect the cards and add the drivers. Would I need to search the web for Linux drivers or would the OS already have drivers available for me to use. Any help or suggestions would be great. Oh by the way please don't tell me that RH SUCKS and that this or that distro is the BEST! I want to give it a try regardless of what people might say so that I can be the one to make my own conclusions. If I don't like RH then I will then try either slackware or mandrake. Thanks

Edrod13

[Floppyman]

Hi edrod13,

I just now remember I still owe you a P.M., sorry I haven't replied. What are the specs of the machine you plan to use RH8 on? If it's not the latest hardware out there, most of the drivers should be included. Go ahead and leave it all in, linux will configure it fine. At the end if something doesn't work after the install you'll fiind out, and then you can hunt for drivers, should you need to, or if support for it is included in RH8 try to figure out why it does not work. BTW, are you planning on dual booting? You can setup your partitions during the RH8 setup. I'm not sure but it might give you some tips along the way during the setup. The user friendliness of the setup I think has increased as the versions have gone up. Hope this helps you out a bit, and let me know how the install works out.

[edrod13]

Floppyman,

Specs:

Celeron 600
Intel 815 motherboard w/audio
Esavage4 16mb PCI
Gigafast NIC
WD 40GB 7200 ATA100
LG 52x CD ROM

I am a little worried about the video card since the only info I could find was something like COMMUNITY INFORMATION or something similar for compatability. I need a modem so I can connect to the internet but I am confused. Does RH support soft modems or will I need to shell out more for the hard modem. Not really my main pc but really a spare pc to play around with so if I can get away with using a soft modem I would be happy. Oh since my drive is 40GB I just want to start off with one partition so could you tell me what size would be adequate. Thanks

Edrod13

[christo418]

I would definitely scope out the Hardware Compatability List:
http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/
as with any 'nix, know your monitor settings. Red Hat 8 was a breeze to install. If it's just a test box, I say go for it. Try to get the box up and running, then install apps.

[edrod13]

Well the install was pretty easy but know that the OS is up navigating through it is not so easy. I opened up a game called chromious or something like that in which you are a small rocket and the you have to shoot others, but once I did that the pc just slowed down to a crawl. I then could not regain control of it and had to turn it off manually and restart it. I just don't know where I can see information like in windows when I open MY COMPUTER. I would like to copy a .jpg over for a wall paper but how do I look for the floppy and how do I copy into a folder. I think the culprit for the slowing down could be the video card because I would have similar problems in windows trying to runs some games. Other than that I still don't have a feel for the file structure and organization of folders. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Edrod13

[Floppyman]

Hi edrod13,

If you are used to windows, linux will seem foreign at first, because it's not windows even though it may somehow look like it. I think they key to learning linux is to come familiar with the shell, i.e. use the console. I'm no expert with linux at all (not even close), but the key to learning what little I do know has been learning the shell and shell commands. Go ahead and pick up a couple books on linux and do some reading. It will answer all your questions, and more. Also check out www.linuxnewbie.org, a great site for beginners. I don't want to appear mean by telling you to do some reading first, but I think once you become familiar with the linux shell you'll appreciate linux even more. HTH

[MaXimum SMOKE]

I haven't seen ver 8 yet, but you should find most of your media as offshoots of the /mnt directory like /mnt/cdrom /mnt/floppy, this sort of thing. Also note the "root" operator's desktop often looks a lot more 'spartan' than a 'regular' user's desktop. Some soft modems work, but it's usually a heck of a lot easier to set up a controller modem.

[Floppyman]

Hi again,

Sorry I didn't answer your original questions earlier. I agree with MaXimum SMOKE. All you should have to do to access your floppy is open the console, and the prompt type: mount /mnt/floppy After that go ahead and navigate to the /mnt/floppy directory and the files that are on the floppy should be there. On the game, you are probably right, it might be your videocard. Was this a graphics intensive game? HTH

[lynchmob]

If you're using KDE,an easy way to access your cdrom,floppy etc is this:
Right-click an empty spot on the desktop and select create new>floppy device,cdrom etc.
Click the device tab and from the drop-down device menu select /mnt/floppy,/mnt/cdrom etc.
That will create a desktop icon you can click on to see the inserted floppy or whatever.You can unmount it by r-clicking the icon and selecting unmount.When copying to floppy remember to NOT eject the disk right away-it may hold the data in buffer and not write to it until after the disk is unmounted.It's usually safe to eject after the indicator light has gone out after unmounting.
lynch