My Experience Learning Linux



This document is a journal of my experience installing Linux and learning this version of UNIX.   I hope that after installing Linux, that I will install a graphical user interface (KDE), a web server (apache), a database (MySQL) and PERL.   This page will document my steps and experiences.


Monday, February 16, 2004
Today I make the decision that I want to learn UNIX and that a great way to do that is to install Linux on my old (1996) Micron Home MPC machine.   This old PC is a Pentium 150 with 128MB RAM and an 8GB hard drive.   About the only real work we still do on this PC is run MS Money.   This application is moved to Yolanda's PC, along with an upgrade from MS Money 95 to MS Money 2004 which costs me $10 after rebates.

My initial thoughts are to reformat the hard drive and only install Linux.   I plan to use my laptop as my only Windows PC.   (this plan is later changed to a dual-boot system)

I begin my research at www.linux.org.   I quickly learn that there are many flavors of Linux.   I first investigate Red Hat Linux, the one I have heard the most about.   I learn that they have split their product into Red Hat, which is no longer free, and Fedora, which is free but also a beta of their latest code.   I decide to look around.   The Linux.org web site gives useful information on the various distributions, or "distros".   Some distros require more processor and disk than I have.   Other distros are special purpose such as a email server or web server.   I am looking for a good, basic system which will load on a minimal PC but hopefuly allow me to install packages, possibly a web server, a database package (MySQL) and PERL.


Wednesday, February 18, 2004
I have selected Debian Linux, which is also known as GNU (open source) Linux.   This should meet all my requirements.   I find more information at:
www.debian.org   and   www.aboutdebian.com

I had lunch with Don Catterson today and he agrees that Debian is a good choice.   Don also recommends a dual-boot system.   I download very usefull documentation.

Installation Manual at Debian.org
Getting Started with Linux an online training course at Lenux.org
Intermediate Level Linux another online training course at Lenux.org
various tutorials at www.aboutdebian.com

More documentation is found at:
LinuxPlanet


Friday, February 20, 2004
CompUSA has a hard drisk drive on sale that I purchase.   Now I have a 60GB ATA/EISA 7200rpm disk drive that will make things easier.   It appears that I have the option to leave my 8GB Win98 drive in place and install Linux on the new drive in new partition space.   Then I can dual boot from a floopy disk.   Linux Loader (LiLo) is used for dual boot.   I am not sure I can install LiLo on the existing Win98 hard disk.   Another option is to remove the 8GB drive and start all over for everything on separate partitions on the new 60GB drive.   I could create separate partitions for Win98 and Linux.

Some information on dual-boot is found at www.aboutdebian.com/dualboot.htm and http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue38/veselosky.html

Today I download the installation CDs from www.debian.org/distrib/.   The latest release is Linux 3.0 r2 (released 12/06/2003) with an update 3.0r2.01 (released 02/14/2004).   The CD set is 7 disks for the install and an eighth for the update.   The Debian.org website strongly recommends that I use something called "jigdo" (jigsaw download) to download and assemble the CD images.   I try jigdo, but it takes 90 minutes to download the first CD image.   I switch over to direct download of the CD images from debian-cd.rutgers.edu , ftp-linux.cc.gatech.edu , and carroll.aset.psu.edu.   These work well and it takes about 25 minutes to download each CD.


Monday, February 23, 2004
Information on creating installation boot floppies, (because I don't have a bootable CD-ROM) is found at www.aboutdebian.com/install3.htm.   I use this to make the pair of boot floopies that will be used to install Linux from a CD-ROM.


Tuesday, February 24, 2004
Gathering more documentation.   Some of this I am printing and putting into a notebook that will be my installation guide and reference manual.

Manuals from www.debian.org:
  • Installing Debian GNU Linux 3.0 for i386
  • User's Guide
  • Debian Reference
  • APT How To
  • dselect Documentation for Beginners

Tutorials:
  • Debian Tutorial (from www.debian.org)
          (mostly how to use Debian Linux)
  • Getting Started With Linux (from www.linux.org)
          (how to install and configure Debian Linux)

How To Guides from www.aboutdebian.com:
  • Linux Basics
  • Installing Debian Linux 3.0 (Woody)
  • Dual Booting Debian Linux and Windows
  • Using Debian Linux Packages
  • How To Set Up A Linux Network
  • How To Set Up DNS Services
  • How To Set Up Debian Linux Internet Servers
  • How To Set Up Debian Linux LAN Servers
  • Linux Server and Network Security
  • Compiling Software with Debian Linux
  • GUI Desktop Linux
A particular interest is having a dual-boot system with Debian Linux and Windows 98 SE.   I have found a couple of good web pages on this topic.
http://www.aboutdebian.com/dualboot.htm , and
http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue38/veselosky.html

This second document has good technical information about using LILO (Linux Loader).   With my existing 8GB hard drive, it appears that if I keep the existing Win98 install, I will have to use a boot floppy.   The other option is to remove the old drives, install the new 60GB drive and install Win98 and then Linux from scratch. The primary (boot) partition for Windows must be less that 8GB to leave necessary address space for LILO.

Some experiences with dual-boot:
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~greg/linux.html fix MBR that was clobbered by LILO using "FDISK/MBR", and
http://devel.reinikainen.net/docs/how-to/n1015v/ , and
http://www.mevagissey.net/linux.htm how to fix some problems, and
http://www.alphalink.com.au/~rbrowne/linux.php , and
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Linux+Win95/index.html , and
Multi-Booting with LILO , and


Wednesday, February 25, 2004
CRASH! Last night I installed the new 60GB hard drive into my old PC.   I started the PC and entered the BIOS set-up program.   The auto-detect recognized the drive as 60GB.   I saved the settings and restarted the PC.   NOTHING, just a black screen.   I tried all sorts of things.   I put the original drives back into the PC.   Nothing.   I worked all day today to save my old PC.   Nothing.   I am so disappointed, sad, frustrated.   Have I fried my trusted, old Micron PC?   Is this then end of it's usefulness?


Thursday, February 26, 2004
The day starts bleak.   My Linux project is in real jeopardy if I don't have a test-bed PC to install Linux.   I spend some time contemplating my options.   Do I buy a cheap, new PC?   Do I build a new PC? (this is another project I want to pursue sometime.)   Just after lunch I visit the Goodwill Computer store to see if they might have a cheap PC.   No PC, but they do sell motherboards, none that will fit my PC (Baby AT).   Maybe I can find a replacement motherboard.   Home again, I search eBay and find a Baby-AT motherboard on sale for 5 cents (plus $8.99 S&H).   Is it compatable?   I find the owner's manual for this board on the Intel site.   Reading this manual I find that the motherboard has a method to recover from a corrupt BIOS.   Maybe my PC has such a process(?)   Reading my Micron PC manual, there are some jumpers associated with the BIOS and CMOS, but no instructions what to do with them.   I pull out and read the documentation that came with the BIOS upgrade I applied a few years back (Y2k upgrade) and again find no instructions.   I check the web site for the Phoenix BIOS and SUCCESS!   I find documentation for the procedure to set the jumpers to reset a corrupt CMOS from the BIOS.   I try it and it works.   My PC comes back to life.   I am so happy.

It takes the rest of the day to determine that the problem is that the BIOS and CMOS cannot really handle a hard drive larger than 32GB.   I am able to set jumpers on the hard drive and settings in the BIOS to limit the drive to an acceptable (to the PC) size of 32GB.   This document gives information about the BIOS settings when a drive is larger than 8.4GB.   It states (near the bottom of the page): 
"Hard drives over 8.4GB are supposed to report their CHS geometry as 16383 x 16 x 63."
"CHS" refers to cylinders, heads, and sectors.   When I use these settings, the drive is identified as 32GB.

Also, somewhere along the line I have fried the secondary IDE drive chain.   To install windows, and later Linux, I must have one hard drive and one CD-ROM on the primary IDE chain.   I am able to use a PCI ATA controller card to make a second hard drive and second CD-ROM available to Windows, but I don't think that Linux will see these drives.   I have also damaged my video card.   I have the original video card, but it only has 2MB of memory.   I purchase and install a new 64MB eVGA nVidia Video Card.


Friday, February 27, 2004
On my "32GB" hard drive, I have created a 6GB partition for Windows 98SE.   Today I do a new, clean install of Windows.   I install the drivers for various cards - video, network, audio, USB, and the ATA controller.   I also install the printer, scanner and various software programs.   This is all working well.   The old MS Office 97 disk is no longer good.   I install Open Office for Windows.   I will also use this on the Linux side.

On a normal boot, the BIOS should produce one beep.   Any more beeps appear to indicate a problem being reported by the BIOS.   Whenever the PCI ATA controller card is in place, the system beeps four times when booting.   I do considerable research on BIOS beeps codes.   The Phoenix BIOS has the most complex beep codes, but my beeps do not fit the code patterns.   The system works, so I decide to not worry any more about this, at this time.   I will file it away for futher reference, should problems arise.

More on Phoenix BIOS beep codes can be found here   The codes are four sets of beeps, each set being 1-4 beeps.   I have a long beep, a pause, a short beep, followed by two more beeps with even a shorter pause between them.   This does not fit the "4 sets" codes.


Tuesday, March 2, 2004
Tonight I installed Debian Linux.   I used the The install goes fairly trouble free.   The two boot floppies I made on Monday, Feb. 23 work great and my Lite-On CDRW is recognized just fine.   Early in the Debian Linux install is the partitioning of my hard drive.   My "32GB" disk already has a 6GB primary partition for Win98 and has about 26GB free.   I decide to create six partitions for Linux, which I create as Logical partitions (the max for primary partitions is four.)

Partition Boot Primary
Logical 		Type Filesystem Size
HDA1 boot primary FAT32 Win98 6 GB
HDA5   logical 82 linux swap 256 MB
HDA6   logical 83 /    (root) 2 GB
HDA7   logical 83 /usr 4 GB
HDA8   logical 83 /home 5 GB
HDA9   logical 83 /var 1 GB
HDA10   logical 83 /tmp 50 MB
free space   pri/log     14+ GB

I know from previous research into the drivers that my new eVGA nVidia video card will use the "nv" video driver and my Netgear ethernet card will use the "tulip" driver.   All goes well with the initial install.   The set-up properly configures LiLo (Linux Loader) to dual-boot Linux or Windows.


Wednesday, March 3, 2004
Today I started working with my new Linux system.   I modified my MOTD (Message Of The Day) using the vi editor, and modified my .bashrc (located in /home/chris) to add "export TERM='vt100'" to identify my terminal type as vt100 instead of linux (the default).

I quickly decide I need help using the vi editor and start searching the internet (on my WinXP laptop) for quick reference cards.   I find a couple of good sites:
GNU/Linux Quick Reference a web page, and
Quick Reference Cards a list of links to .pdf file reference cards for several subjects including UNIX, Linux, PERL, BASH, vi, vim, Apache, MySQL and more.


Thursday, March 4, 2004
This evening I attended my first meeting of the Austin Linux Users Group austinlug.org.   The attendance is light, only about 12 people.   This may be due to the last minute change in location.


Friday, March 5, 2004
Today is a day for reading and research on the net.   First I read a lot about the current lawsuits file by SCO against IBM, AutoZone and DaimlerChrysler.   A good site that is tracking this subject is at ZDNet Special Reports which has many articles on the subject.   The best overview article I find linked there is What did SCO buy--Unix or the Brooklyn Bridge? written on Feb. 19, 2004 by David Berlind.

Also I read about the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation, open source software, and some articles by Matt Asay such as Linux, the GPL, and a new model for software innovation.   This page has a link to a .pdf file titled "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Market Linux, the General Public License, and a New Model for Software Innovation", a good read.

Also, I read the The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond, a great article to read.


Monday, March 8, 2004
Today I tried to install and run the KDE GUI interface.   I used the command:             apt-cache search kde | more
to find the KDE package.   I then used the command:             apt-get install kde
to install the package.   Next I ran the command (as root):             xf85config
This got tricky because you have to know the details of your keyboard (104 key), mouse (2 button PS/2 style), video card (nvidia gForce2 MX400) and the horizontal refresh rate(30-64KHz) and vertical refresh rate (50-120 Hz) on the monitor.

After this, I ran:             startx
to load the KDE.   It did not work. nbsp A log of the attempt is kept in /var/log/XFree86.0.log.   Looking at this log, the only error is the failure to load (start) APM (Advance Power Management).   I shut down the PC and restarted to access the BIOS setup.   There is a setting for APM which was disabled, but I changed that to enable APM.   This was not enough.   By default, the Debian kernel has APM disabled.   One method to enable APM is to recompile the kernel, something I do not feel comfortable doing with my limited knowledge.   Another method is to modify the /etc/lilo.conf file to add the statement:             append="apm=on"
This I did, however when I run startx, I still got the error "Screen(s) found, but none have usable configuration".   A review of the log at /var/log/XFree86.0.log contains no errors, nor any warnings.   However there are messages such as "Active PCI resource ranges after removing overlaps".   I am concerned that the PCI ATA Controller, which is causing the BIOS some problem, may also be a problem here.

I decide to reconfigure my hardware by enabling the secondary IDE in BIOS, removing the PCI ATA Controller, and hanging all the disk drives (2 hard, 2 CD-ROM) on the primary and secondary IDE chains.   Unfortunately, the PC will not boot into Linux (it hangs) and will only boot into Windows in Safe Mode.


Tuesday, March 9, 2004
After sleeping on my problems, I try several different configurations, but none of them work.   I decide to scrap my Linux partitions and try to save my Windows 98SE.   Using fdisk, I am unable to remove the partitions created for Linux.   If I try to delete the extended partition, it tells me I must first remove the logical partitions.   When I try to delete the logical partitions, it tells me there are none.   I try to use the Linux rescue boot disk, but initially I get to the same hang in the boot process.   I try several things.   What works is turning APM off in the BIOS.   Then I am able to boot Linux install from the boot floppy.   I then use the Linux version of fdisk called cfdisk to delete the Linux partitions.   I then try to fix the mbr (master boot record) using the command:             fdisk /mbr
but I still cannot boot Windows other than in safe mode.   I finally give up trying to save anything.   Fortunately I have saved all my data.   I delete the primary partition on my hard drive and begin the whole process over.

I have created a 6 GB partition for Windows 98SE.   I have installed Windows and some of the software.   I have most of the hardware drivers in place.   In a while I will install Linux again.


Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Today is my second install of Debian Linux.   I decide to use one installation tutorial and follow it through from start to finish.   I choose Installing Debian Linux 3.0 (Woody) an installation tutorial at AboutDebian.com.   It is the most accure tutorial in that it actually follows the install process step for step.   I learn that my first install of Linux, last week, was not completely successful, which may account for some of the problems I had afterward.

One surprise is the the LiLo dual boot process now lists Linux, Windows(hda1), and Windows(hdb1).   This second windows is my old installation of Windows 98SE which is on my second, smaller hard drive.   Now that both my IDE drive chains are recognized and all my drives are visible, LiLo now sees that this is also a bootable version of Windows.   When I try this option, I get an error that the disk in not a bootable disk.   I may try to fix this using fdisk, or I may just avoid using this version of windows.




© 2004 Chris Guinn
updated 03/11/2004

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