New to Linux

[FurqanAhmed]

I need to develop an enterprise application on Linux environment. I've actually developed the application (JAVA based) on windows NT and now I want to compile it on Linux. The problem is that I dont know how to install Linux (both workstation and server side) and i also dont know how to make a network for Linux computers. Can anyone help me. Yay Ghazi taray yay Pur-assrar bunday

 

[NixerX]

You need to read up on a few things first...I suggets Mandrake Linux as a starting point.

http://www.mandrake.com

Its easy to use setup with out sacrificing power.
Install That then DL the JSEE from java.sun.com
As far as Networking ...its not hard you'll just need to reads up on how to use the native tools in Linux.
PS I will help as much as I can.
-NixerX
NixerX@netscape.net

 

[FurqanAhmed]

NixerX, Why Mandrake? and what specifically do you mean by "sacrificing Power"? Yay Ghazi taray yay Pur-assrar bunday

 

[FurqanAhmed]

Now I'm ready to buy Linux but the question remains which one? Mandrake, RedHat, SuSE? which one?
Which one is good at running alongside Windows?

Yay Ghazi taray yay Pur-assrar bunday

 

[mithrilhall]

I have Mandrake 8.1 networked with Windows XP Pro and it was pretty easy. Deciding on what Distro of Linux to buy is really about personal preference, but what preference can you have when you never used Linux?

From what I've heard, Redhat and Mandrake are really good for beginners. I went with Mandrake so I will suggest that one. It has great support through mailing lists as well as websites.

 

[tony500]

I have Mandrake and I do NOT recommend it to new users. It has issues with Display and Resolution as well as sound (not as important) that can sometimes be really tough to work out. I have also had bad experiences with their support. As in, they do not reply or acknowledge addressed questions at all.

Mandrake 8.2 was released this week, but I have not evaluated it yet myself.

I would suggest that RedHat would be a better choice for your situation. You can usually find me at

http://www.constantreader.net

 

[mithrilhall]

I have had NO problems with video, sound I can't comment on since I have no speakers or soundcard connected to it. If you join the Newbie@Linux-Mandrake.Com mailing list you'll get all your questions answered quickly. Or if you have harder to deal with questions you can join the Expert-Request@Linux-Mandrake.Com mailing list as well. There are also tons of online documents that will help you through your process.

Don't be discouraged because someone says there's no help to be found. You just need to know where to look.

Another good source of information is:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/

 

[linmatt]

I've also had problems with sound when I used Mandrake. I switched to RedHat 7.1 and I no longer cuss at my box.

 

[mithrilhall]

Mandrake 8.2 - seems to have no sound problems (That's what I hear).

 

[cyoung]

People, you have completely missed the mark here. It appears that the use of the machine will be as an enterprise JAVA server, so there are no issues with sound or video (remember - you should not be running any programs/processes on a server that are not needed) since X will not be needed.

As to which distro of Linux? Since they all use the same basic packages, it is really not an issue. I tend to use RedHat for my server needs, and Mandrake for my desktop needs, but either distro would work fine in place of the other.

As to the networking, any distro of Linux will be able to handle you needs.

As to working alongside with Windows, again, any distro will be able to work also, using either Samba or NFS for your needs.

Hope this helps!

 

[FurqanAhmed]

Thanx for the support Guys. I've bought RedHat Linux 7.2. Now I want to install the workstation on my 233MHz machine which already has Windows 98 installed on it. I dont want to lose the option of using windows. Can anyone give me a brief guide about installing RedHat workstation (as standalone) alongside Windows. I have a 17GB harddisk, 128 MS DIMM, a builtin soundcard, AGP. The motherboard is from Gateway, intel Chipset.

I also have a NIC which i use to share internet connection with my other PC. I also want to make a Win-Linux network (Peer-Peer), but please help with the installation first. I'm particularly worried about partitioning.

Thanx again for the support. Yay Ghazi taray yay Pur-assrar bunday

 

[Norwich]

The readhat install should take care of it for you. BUT BACK UP EVERYTHING IN SIGHT FIRST. Make sure you defrag the windows installation first to make sure there is enough contiguous. free space at the end of the Windows partition to create the new linux partitions.

To be sure, you may want to use a tool like parititon magic to shrink the windows paritition down first of all. Linux has some good partition management tools but partition magic is probably the most feature rich.

On installation, what you want to achieve is keep the windows partition intact - though shrunk to make room for linux. Linux will want 2 partitions as a minimum - one for the file system and one for the swapspace (linux uses a dedicated partition rather than a swap file as in the MS world.

You can let the install do it automatically (choose delete all existing linux partitions and not delete ALL existing partitons on the setup). Alternatively, don't let the setup so it automatically and set it up yourself. Remember, as you are intalling on the same disk, the windows partitin needs shrinking first. (personally, I would rather recommend a second harddisk for linux).

The only other issue you may come up against with sharing one disk between to OSes is the 1034 cylinder problem. This only effects old BIOSes that could not real past the 1024th disk cylinder to load the kernel so may be an issue on an old system with a large disk. Once booted, linux handles disk access rather than the BIOS so once the kernel is loaded, all is fine. So to get around this, you'll need to create a small partition to hold the kernel and place it towards the beginning of the disk - called the /boot partition, holding the /boot directory which contains the kernel. Again, make sure the MS windows partition does not start beyond the 1024 cylinder so the best layout would be something like:

boot | windows | linux | swap

The best way to set this up would be to use partitino magic to prepare and relocate partitions prior to installing linux . Again, if you use seperate disks, this 1024 thing isn't an issue.

As most BIOSes are now OK, I would suggest only worrying about the above is booting fails onc installtion is competed (make a rescue boot disk during install of course.



Finally, when it comes to installing the boot loader, whichever one you choose (which should automatically configure itself for both systems), make sure you install it in the Master Boot Record (MBR) of the primary disk. That way, the loader will be the first program loaded and will allow access to both systems. Don't install it on the first boot sector of the root )/) partition as the MBR will still contain the windows loader and it will never get to access the linux partitions.

There is good documentation in the support section of the redhat website so check the for install details.


Norwich

 

[FurqanAhmed]

Thanx. I've installed RedHat. No problems with partitioning or boot loader. Now I'm stuck outside linux. It asks me for login and password. I enter the ones i created as regular user accounts. But it doesn't accepts it. Now, I'm standing outside linux and by bal** are fried.

Can anyone help me? Yay Ghazi taray yay Pur-assrar bunday

 

[Norwich]

Linux passwords are case sensitive just in case you didn't know.

Anyway, how to get into a linux box without root or user passwords - provided you didn't install a bootloader password that is forgotten too.

What you need to do is boot at run-level 1 - single-user mode. By default, run-level 1 on a redhat box will start a few service and log in as root user - just enough to fix problems, change passwords etc.

If you set up redhat to use the lilo bootloader, when the bootloader screen comes up, get to get the "boot:" prompt and type:

linux 1

If lilo is running with the pretty graphics, hit escape to get to the boot prompt - I think.


With the grub bootloader, do similar but hit the 'e' key twice and add init 1 to the boot command and then ENTER. Then 'b' to boot.


Once into the root shell with the '#' prompt, type:

# passwd

and enter the new root password twice. for info:

# passwd <username>

will allow the root user to chang another user's password. (Aside: Always remember to run as a regular user and change to the root account - 'su' command - when needing to go admin tasks).


To run up into you normal run-level 3 (console only) or 5 (X windows), type exit to leave the single-user shell and start up again.

Norwich

 

[FurqanAhmed]

Thanx norwich. It kind a worked. Actually I used the &quot;linux rescue&quot; installation to do it. Then i used the commands you've given here. thanx for the support.

Now I'm in and I'm writing this from Mozilla.

Thanx for the support guys. Yay Ghazi taray yay Pur-assrar bunday

 

[Norwich]

Cool, the &quot;linux rescue&quot; image is just that with the init 1 run level set for that purpose.

Norwich

 

[FurqanAhmed]

Now I'm having problems again. linux boots but with &quot;Bringing up interface eth0 failed&quot;. I log in with my user account but there is not panel and no desktop. I created other user accounts with the root password but now they dont exist.

Another problem, my system cant shutdown. It only reboots. It was working fine yesterday but things aren't working right now.

Are these problems associated with 7.2 or is it just me? Yay Ghazi taray yay Pur-assrar bunday

 

[Norwich]

Hi,

If you are using the gdm login manager (thats a program which is started when X-windows runs via the run level system to manage user access), make sure you haven't altered the window manager being used for that user (7.2 defaults to gnome) by checking the menu. The panel setc are for the gnome system. Window managers KDE, WindowMaker etc handle the desktop differently.

You may want to examine the log fils to see what's going on.

for the X-windows system, look at:

/var/log/XFree86.0.log

for the network and most else, check out

/var/log/messsages

The command &quot;less <filename>&quot; will allow you to scroll through the file's contents. &quot;tail -n <NUM> <filename> | less&quot; will print the last <NUM> lines of the file and pipe it through 'less' so you can scroll through these.




If you cannot get into an X-windows session, then log on as a console user. You can either do this by running up to run level 3 (multiuser mode without X-windows) using the method mentioned above but using '3' rather than '1' or boot up normally and press <CNTL><ALT><F1> to bring up a console screen -- (<CNTL><ALT><F7> will bring the X-window :0 screen back).


Did you do all the other work when you were logged on via the rescue disk? I wonder if this uses some kind of ramdisk that means files aren't saved to disk? Guessing here...

Don't know why users would disappear. Look in the /etc/password and /etc/shadow files to see if they exist in there. Can you log in as these users at the console login prompt?


How are you trying to shutdown/reboot? These are achieved as two different run levels themselves - 0 and 6. The console command shutdown and reboot can choose which one. The system default for <CNTL><ALT><DEL> is set in the /etc/inittab.

Mine defaults to &quot;shutdown -t3 -r now&quot; which is reboot - change &quot;-r&quot; to &quot;-h&quot; to halt the system on that key-combination.

 

[Norwich]

Just a though? Did you change any hardware while you where running MS Windows? If you've got plug-n-pray enabled in the bios and are running plug-n-pray ISA cards, then it could mess things up for linux