Red Hat linux help

[TheBigBasicQ]

I am a very very newbie to Linux. I am a veteran programmer (though not a professional) in Windows Desktop environment(self learnt). I had an old CD of RedHat linux 6.2. So just out of curiosity I installed it on my comp after a long read thorought the manual to make sure i would not erase my HDD. I sucessfully installed the OS. I use the boot disk that was created to start linux. I have WinME and WinXP on separate HDDs. I loaded linux on the drive containing WinXP. I have 2 questions:
1. When I try to start the GUI environment(KDE) I get an error that the mode "800x600" was not found(no such mode exists) and it says "fatal server error". Why does it say that? My comp. supports 800x600 16/24bit modes and upto 1024x768 24bit. The OS doesn't even find a mode in which it can run the bare minimum i.e. say it cannot start in 800x600 16bit mode, it even tries to start in 640x480 8bit mode but fails. How do i rectify it? I don't have extensive knowledge about editing system files to change the start up mode of linux.
2. How do I include Linux in my dual boot(Windows XP's dual boot loader)?

Thanx. I hope that u have understood my query!

 

[bluegroper]

1. X problem is prolly caused by incorrect video driver installed. More to do with the actual hardware (video card) than the screen resolution. Locate the XConfigurator program, and run it. Try all possible choices. Me thinks XConfigurator was included with RH 6.x. Certainly exists in 7.x.

2. For dual (or even multi) boot, read man lilo. Its real easy. Just needs about 5-10 short lines in /etc/lilo.conf, then run lilo, and voila, it works. Gotta do this as su of course.

 

[fluid11]

If Xconfigurator doesn't work, try xf86config.

About the dual-boot, you can use Windows NTLDR or Linux's LILO or GRUB. I prefer LILO, but you asked for the NTLDR instructions so here they are...


Boot into Linux and copy the boot image from the first sector of your boot partition. You'll want to take 512 bytes of this partition once, and write it out to a file called bootsect.lnx. Type this at the command line...

dd if=/dev/hdX of=/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1

Move that file onto your c:\ drive and edit boot.ini in Windows, adding the following line:

c:\bootsect.lnx="Linux"



bluegroper, do me a favor and copy and paste from the lilo man page exactly where it says how to do this or set up any dual-booting with Windows. Its not in there, don't bother looking. Do us all a favor and don't answer a question by telling someone to read the man page. That doesn't help anybody and thats not what this forum is about.


ChrisP

 

[bluegroper]

Well fluid, I figured it out from the first few paragraphs of the lilo man page. If the loader can boot from dos this easy, then windoze is much the same. Here's the man page stuff (just first few lines) as requested. I know the cut and paste is not laid out as well as the man page, but you can still follow it.
If you don't think its useful, then I suggest that you google for "Linux for Dummies".
BTW, I believe in using this forum for "pointers to useful information", not "baby-feeding". Its a better way to learn.



lilo.conf - configuration file for lilo

DESCRIPTION
This file, by default /etc/lilo.conf, is read by the boot loader installer lilo (see lilo(8)).

It might look as follows:
boot = /dev/hda
delay = 40
compact
vga = normal
root = /dev/hda1
read-only
image = /zImage-2.5.99
label = tamu
root = /dev/hdb2
vga = ask
other = /dev/hda3
label = dos
table = /dev/hda

This configuration file specifies that lilo uses the Master Boot Record on /dev/hda. (For a discussion of the various ways to use lilo, .....

 

[bluegroper]

And this took about 5 nanoseconds for google to find.

LILO stands for Linux Loader. The contents of the /etc/lilo.conf file (in RedHat Linux 6) decide what LILO does during booting. This article explains one possible setup on your machine, where you could have Linux and Windows 95 together on one computer. The important lines in the lilo.conf file are the location of your Windows and Linux partitions. If you know the partitions on which you have installed the Operating Systems, then configuring LILO is very simple.

See the rest at

http://www.geocities.com/tipsforlinux/articles/6.html

Good Luck BigBasicQ. I hope ya got it working.

 

[TheBigBasicQ]

Thanx very much it worked great! I am looking for some website that will give me help with learning Linux

 

[fluid11]

Now, why couldn't you have just posted all of that the first time? If every post was answered with read the man page or google for it, this forum wouldn't exist. Everyone knows that you can find most answers through google so there's no sense in telling people that.

Chris

 

[bluegroper]

Or even this "pointer" for more details.

http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue87/tag/1.html