From: levin@cosmic.physics.utah.edu (Chris Levin)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: New user Linux questions and summary of answers
Keywords: CD-ROM SCSI X MODEM LILO
Date: 29 Dec 92 20:42:16 GMT
Distribution: comp.os.linux
Organization: Cosmic Ray Physics Group, University of Utah


 
This is a repost of my origonal message.  It contains my questions as well as
the working answers I have received so far.  It also contains new questions.
I hope this helps others with similar problems and I also hope someone can
answer the questions that remain unanswered.
 
Hello,
 
I am using LINUX version 0.98.Pl5-41 installed using the SLS package.
 
I have to say that this is an excellent product.  I plan on using it at home
for school projects, programming etc.
 
I am running Linux on the following hardware:
 
        486DX-33 with AMI bios
 
        8 Megs of RAM
 
        A Maxtor IDE harddrive (124meg) with 3 Linux partitons and a swap
                partition (about 10 megs).
 
        An Ultrastore 14F SCSI controller card with a Maxtor 340 meg SCSI
        and an NEC CDR-77 CD-Rom drive.
 
        An Orchid Farenheit1280 Video card.
 
Overall the system is working VERY well (Coherent is now gathering dust!)
but I am having a few problems that I hope someone here can help with.
 
One:
How can I access the rom-drive?  When Linux boots it sees the drive but
there seems to be no entry in the /dev directory to mount it to.
 
UPDATE: I have learned about the mknod command.  From a previous mail message
I tried the following:
 
        mknod /dev/cdrom b 11 0
 
This works fine, but trying to mount the drive results in a system lockup.
 
I did see a mount command of the following form: mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /rom
but mount does not seem to know what iso9660 means.  HELP!
 
Two:
I want to use LILO so that I can boot without a floppy but the instructions 
refer to a kernal image.  What is this?  There is a file in / called Image and
when I use this, the system starts to boot and then locks.  Help!
 
UPDATE: I have not gotten any response on this.  Is anyone using LILO?
 
 
Three: ANSWERED!
I can not get X working.  I have tried the VGA mono settings but every time X
starts it says that VGAcolor stuff can't be found.  However, if I just type 
X386 I get a graphics screen and a working mouse cursor (but no shell of any
sort). This seems to be a problem with a config file but I can't find it.
Any ideas?
 
UPDATE: The SLS instructions are wrong!  Copy X386mono to X not X386 and everything
        will work just fine. (on my hardware anyway)
 
Four:  ANSWERED!
I have man and man2 but there seem to be man pages missing.
 
UPDATE: I have been told by several sources that man pages are still being 
        created and should be available soon.
 
 
Five: STILL NEED HELP WITH THIS!
I have gotten my HPlaserjet series II working by sending a control string to
it.  However I want to use LPR but I dont know how to make a printcap file.
The directions I have are not readable so can someone explain the settings?
 
Six: STILL NEED HELP WITH THIS!
How can I make my own man pages and add them to the system?
 
UPDATE: I have not tried this but I am told that you can just copy a new man 
        page into the appropriate man directory and it will work.  Man pages
        can be regular text.  Can anyone confirm this?
 
    --------------------------  END OF QUESTIONS -------------------------
 
If anyone can help with these problems I would appreciate it.
 
Also, for anyone interested, I have got the following working (I understand
that some people have problems with the following)
 
1. I have no trouble accessing my SCSI dos partitions under Linux.  The default
        settings set during the SLS install work fine.
 
2. Modem communications using V.32 and minicom work fine (although minicom seems
        to have a minor bug with line feeds.)
   UPDATE: I am using XC and it is working fine.  Also, it seems that if the
           modem port is listed in inittab your com program will not function.
           Can someone confirm this?
 
3. Zmodem is working with #2. ( I am using the zmodem from coherent which compiles
        with warnings but works fine)
   UPDATE: XC comes with its own zmodem which is working just fine.
        
4. The drive Linux is on has no dos partitons at all and it seems to work fine.
        Initaly, it had one partition and that also worked fine.  This is the
        first drive in the system.
 
5. Gcc is working great. 
        UPDATE: It was working great, I can't seem to write any C++ code.
                I am working on figuring this out.
 
Thanks again for any help you can give.  If anyone wants to know how I got the
above working feel free to send me e-mail.
 
Thanks again.
 
Chris Levin
 
Ps. Please reply via email since I loose many messages in this group
before I can read them.  My address is:
 
levin@cosmic.physics.utah.edu
 
I will keep posting summaries of the answers as I receive them.
 
 
        
 
.

 
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux