Linux FAQ..                                        Beta 4   Created by Roberto Jose Dohnert

 

Updated: July 24, 2003

NOTE FROM AUTHOR:

This FAQ is a Beta a work in progress.  I do not ever expect to leave the beta stage because of how much changes with Linux.  Most of these tips do work with most distrobutions and not just the ones listed.  I will not remove any information.  I will just add updated info when necessary.

If you feel anything should be included just drop me an e-mail.  All questions posted here are questions that have been asked.

All companies and products mentioned here are copyrighted and remain the property of their respective companies.

I receive no compensation or gratuities from either Red Hat software or Terrasoft Solutions for using their products as the examples.   They are just the products that I know are mainstream.

Please enjoy....


This FAQ pertains to Yellowdog Linux 2.x and Red Hat Linux 7.x .

UPDATE: Red Hat Linux 8 and 9 information added as well as Yellowdog Linux 3

What is Linux ?
Linux is a multiuser operating system developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991 whil he was a student at the University of Helsinki.  Linus wanted a unix like operating system to run on his brand new IBM 386 at the time.  UNIX gets its roots from Bell Labs where two men, Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson.  They were working on a Operating system known as Multics,  One of their past times was playing a space travel game.  When bell Labs withdrew from the project they decided to port the game over to a PDP-7 computer to do that they created a operating system based on Multics which they called unics a play on the name MULTICS how the spelling got changed to UNIX no one knows.  Ken Thompson today is retired from Bell Labs and Dennis Ritchie still works at Bell labs,  Linus Torvalds now works at Transmeta corp.

What is Yellowdog Linux and Red Hat Linux ?

Red Hat Linux is a commercial version of Linux made for the x86, AMD and Alpha processors.  It was created by Marc Ewing in 1994.  it remains the most widely sold version of Linux on the Market today.  Yellowdog Linux is based on Red Hat Linux,  yellowdog is built for the Apple Macintosh Computers and IBM PowerPC chip.  Yellowdog Linux has been around for a couple of years and was created by Kai Staats and other members of his company Terrasoft Solutions.  they ported Red Hat Linux over to the PowerPC chipset .  Kai Staats remains in control of Terrasoft Solutions and Marc Ewing remains in control of Red Hat Software.  Yellowdog Linux has followed in its cousins footsteps and remains to this day the premiere distibution of Linux for the PowerPC chip despite great effort by Suse and Mandrake soft to dominate the PowerPC market an effort which failed both companys.

Which Distribution should I choose ?

Well for the x86, AMD and Alpha computers you should choose Red Hat and for any Apple Macintosh Computers Yellowdog is the big dog on the block, excuse the pun,  here are some reasons why.  Both are Extremely easy to install and maintain and if you are a Windows convert both have had the most success and recognition as Desktop Linux Distros.  if you are a Mac OS X or Classic Mac OS convert,  Yellowdog beats Mac OS X hands down as both a server and desktop OS.  

I want to work on a cluster, Which OS would be best for me ?

Both Distros offer solutions for this.  Red Hat Linux Advanced Server and Black Lab linux

I want to install yellowdog Linux onto a 9600 what do I need to do ?

First off if your Computer is stock. Invest in some RAM and a larger hard drive.  But remember on Old World Rom Macs you must have a working version of the Mac OS.  It can be just a minimum install of the Mac OS.  For this Old World Mac BootX is what you would use to boot Linux.  On new world rom machines yaboot is the  new kid on the block and you dont need to have a Working version of the Mac OS.

Whoa, Whoa, Whoa ...  Slow down,  What is an Old World Rom mac and a new world rom Mac ?

An old World Rom mac is a pre colorful machine,  it pertains to the 6500 - 9600 series and the beige G3 models of the Apple Macintosh.  A new world rom mac is the new colorful machines.  All iMacs and iBooks as well as the G3 Blue and Whites and the newer G4 towers.

I have a tiBook, Will Yellowdog install on it ?

of course,  The Titanium powerbook is a new world rom machine so you have your choice of either a Dual boot or as a standalone.

Whats a Dual Boot ?

A Dual boot is where you maintain your current OS as well as a Linux installation.  This is the case with both Yellowdog and with Red Hat.

Whats the Partition scheme for Yellowdog Linux ?

The safest way for Red Hat Linux is to choose Automatically partition.  But with YDL that is not an Option.  You must Manually partition your drive.  If you are new to Linux on either platform I offer this advice.  if your machine will take a Second Hard drive, install it on the second Hard Drive. just make sure it is jumpered as a slave

to Install the Mac OS with YDL do the following:
Insert the Mac OS  setup CD
Choose Drive setup
Under Partition scheme choose 2 partitions, if you are tri booting with Mac OS X like I do choose three partitions.  This should be done only if you have a huge Hard Drive like i do, or if you have a second drive.
Format your Mac OS partition as HFS standard
Format your Second Partion as Free space, unallocated space.
if you are tribooting with Mac OS X choose to format the Mac OS X partiton as HFS +

During the Yellowdog install you will be able to partition your drive so for now take out the Mac OS CD and insert the Yellowdog Linux CD

Reboot your machine,
Now choose your language
If you are Installing YDL on a Single hard drive choose default if you are installing on a second Hard Drive choose Custom install in this section.
Next choose the keyboard type

Now partition your Hard Drive
The Partitoning scheme for yellowdog is as follows.

The first partition is going to be for the bootloader

this Partition should be 10 mb,  Even on old world rom machines create this partition even tho Yellowdog on Old World Rom machines dont use it. click ok and choose bootloader when prompted

the Second Partition is going to be for the Swap partition.

This Partition should be 64 mb to 256 mb.  the recommended value is 128 mb. click ok choose swap when prompted

the third Partition is the root Partition

You should use the rest of the available space for this partition. click OK choose Linux when prompted.


Okay I got partitioning taken care of, now what should i install in terms of Base System, Home office or Development ?

Depends on what you use linux for,  newbies should choose Home/office, veterans such as myself I choose everything.  This should be done only if you have more than 5 gigs of HD space anything less than 5 go with Home/office, now during the installation go get a drink or make out with your girlfriend or boyfriend whichever the case may be, installation takes awhile.

Ok I installed Yellowdog and All I see is text why cant I pull up the cool GUI ?

first dont panic,  All that means is X needs to be reconfigured.  Log in as root and type Xconfigurator.  Your video card should automatically be detected.  Your monitor needs to be tweaked, enter your monitor info.
With most 1024x768 displays and all NEC displays enter the following values
Horizontal Sync Range: 31 - 70 khz
Vertical Sync rang:  55 - 120 hz

After all this type:  startx  and you should be in KDE

Ok How can I see all the running processes ?

Open a terminal window and type: top that will produce a list of Processes and other stuff for you or you can type gtop in Gnome
KDE even has its own way of doing it thru a program called Ksysguard
 

How do i kill a frozen Application in Linux ?

Find the pid number either thru top or gtop and type in a terminal window kill <pid>
With Ksysguard and gtop you can control-click on the process and hit kill now and that will kill it.

X Windows has frozen how can I kill em all ?

Control - Alt- Backspace.

Whats a good System monitor for Linux ?

 That would be Gkrellm for me that is the best
 

Its themeable and very good and offers plugins.

Alright now we are going to deal with PC Linux the Distrobution we will use for this example is Red Hat Linux

What processors does Red Hat Linux support ?

Red Hat Linux supports the Intel processor The Intel Celeron and most of the AMD Family.  One problem I have experienced with the AMD athlon family is freezes during Installation with the Graphical install.  It is my opinion if you wish to install on an athlon do it with the text installer.  I dont have an answer to this problem yet such as why it happens or how to fix it and none of the Red Hat reps I have spoken to can explain it either.  Red Hat Linux also supports the new 64 bit Intel Itanium processor  as well as the Alpha processor from Compaq.

What is the difference between PowerPC linux and PC linux ?

The processor type basically, most of the programs are the same and the commands are the same.  In fact to save you the trouble of reading and myself the problem of retyping for basic commands and system load questions refer back to the powerPC section of this FAQ.  Another difference is the XFree86 setup.  PCs have hundreds of different Graphic cards and some of them are not compatible with linux which means you will have to tweak them to get them JUUUUUUUUUST right whereas with the Macintosh the Graphics cards and the Sound Cards are more or less proprietary and the PowerPC developers have less model graphic cards to write for.  PowerPC linux was a strange beast at one time you had different programmers developing different things to support it so you had to hunt.  But XFree86 for example now has the binary installers and binary files stored on their servers so you dont have to hunt.

Whats the partitioning protocol like do I partition the HD in a PC the same way as with a Macintosh ?

No you dont,  In my opinion if you are a newbie by all means let Red Hat partition the drive for you dont attempt it yourself untill you gain more knowledge.  But me being the sweet guy I am and knowing human nature I will just go ahead and tell you to save me e-mails.
Under Red Hat use Disk Druid
the partiton scheme should look like this
Click on Add
1 partition and give it this heading /boot choose Ext3 as your filesystem type and make it 51 mb  Click OK

next click on Add again chose Swap from the  filesystem type now the size of this Partition varies you have to make it 1 mb more than your available RAM.  For example my presario has 768 mb of RAM so my swap file will be 769 mb now click OK

Now this next part is for your root directory  click on add, label this one /  next choose Ext3 as your filesystem and use the rest of your free HD space Click OK

And you are done.  Much less painful than partitioning for Yellowdog Linux

 

I cant get my sound card to work, what’s the best way to get it to work ?

 

The best way is through a program called Open Sound System or OSS for short, It may cost a little bit of money but it is by far the easiest way to get an unrecognized sound card to work and it is quality software.  The cost of the software is $35.00 for the Linux drivers.

 

I have a WinModem with Linux and I cant seem to get it to work, under my PowerPC Linux iBook I have problems with the modem as well, how can I fix this problem?

 

Visit this site called Linmodems.org this has many resources for your PC-Tel and Conexant WinModems , those are the most popular brands and they are shipped with most consumer systems.  As for the PowerPC iBook, the Apple Macs use the Conexant chip-set so you have to go to this site in order to obtain the drivers.  You need to download the RPM for Apples PowerPC.

 

How do I build Source packages under Linux ?

 

Open your Terminal or Konsole ( No it is not a typo, that’s how it is spelled under KDE ) find your package and type the following command tar –zxvf package-a.tar.gz  now type cd package-a (or wherever you stored the uncompressed files) and type ./configure after that is done type make, when make is done type su enter your password and type make install  

 

GENERAL LINUX QUESTIONS

 

Is Linux ready for the desktop?

 

That depends on what you use it for. For the people who want to just do web browsing, e-mail, word processing and multimedia playback then yes it is.  If you want to have all the hottest newest games and you have to have all the professional applications and all the latest Microsoft Applications then no.

 

Can I watch DVDs under Linux ?

 

Yes you can,  The best DVD Player I have seen for Linux is called Ogle but there is Mplayer and Xine which come with most Linux distributions.

 

What Application can I use to rip CDs and encode MP3 ?

 

There are several applications for this but my personal favorite happens to be GRIP but with the licensing provisions with MP3 you may want to rip to ogg-vorbis.

 

What good MP3 and CD-Players are available for Linux ?

 

XMMS is best and it is included with all major Linux distributions.

What is a good CD burning utility available for Linux ?

I like and I use K3b, it is available here

UPDATED FOR RED HAT LINUX 8 and 9

The new Red Hat Linux 8 and 9 have no MP3 playback capabilities, what do you suggest ?

There are XMMS packages available for Red Hat Linux 8 and 9 they are located here

I cant seem to get my Digital Camera to work wth Red Hat Linux 8 or 9, Im also having the same issues with  Yellowdog Linux 3.0.  The camera is  not supported by gPhoto2 either.  What are my options ?

There are only two things that I know of, first recompile your kernel with the necessary USB modules built in.  Or for $15.00 US Dollars you can by a GE smart media or Flash Card reader.  To get it recognized in Red Hat Linux and Yellowdog Linux 3, edit the /etc/fstab file to include this line:

/dev/sda1   /mnt/<directory>    vfat  rw,noauto,user,exec     0 0

Log in as root to edit the file and save the file, next as root mkdir the name of your directory  for example I call my directory camera so my line looks like this

/dev/sda1      /mnt/camera   vfat rw,noauto,user,exec     0 0

To make the directory issue this command as root:

mkdir /mnt/camera

UPDATED FOR YELLOWDOG LINUX 3

Yellowdog Linux 3 now uses a ported version of Red Hat Anaconda.  Both installation methods are the same.  Yellowdog Linux also changed its interface to match Red Hats, Red Hats interface is called BlueCurve, Yellowdogs is called Wonderland

What is the best Linux distribution for a machine with the Transmeta Crusoe processor ?

Transmeta has released their own Linux Distribution called Midori Linux.  Among other options you have SuSE Linux, Debian Linux.