New To Linux

[newrh6user]

Hi Everyone,

I am very new to Linux in which I am not sure on the installation process. I have purchased a book on Red Hat 6.0 (RH 6 included with it) and have read about installing RH 6. I would like to install it on an old HP Pavillion (Pentium 133mhz, 16mg of ram, 2 gig hard drive) which is currently running Win 95. Even after reading the section of installing RH, I am still confused. I know I need to get all the info about my hardware, but how do I do that? I also know that there are problems about compatibility with RH and the hardware. How would I check for that? Besides these two problems, I would like to just wipe out the hard drive instead of partitioning it. How can I do that and do I have to format it to something?

Thanks for the help!

:confused:

[askrieger]

First of all, you can find out what hardware you have from win95. Start | settings | control panel | system | device manager. The things you will really need to know are the identities of your video card, your monitor, your keyboard, your mouse, your modem, NIC card and your cdrom drive. You also need to know whether your HD is ide or scsi.

Look at the newbie help files at this site on how to install linux. Read the setup chapters of your book and check out the Red Hat web site. They have a hardware compatibility list that you can check to see if their software will work with your hardware. If I were you I'd worry that I didn't have enough RAM.

Good luck

[fancypiper]

If you don't have a winmodem, you are set.

There is a lot of info in the /docs folder on how to install. I think they included all the manuals on that. They did on 6.1, at least.

The install disk will format and partition for you.

The 6.0 release was a beta release, so I would recommen upgrading at least to the stable version and all updates, Redhat 6.2.

Discount Linux CDs (http://www.edmunds-enterprises.com/linux/)
Linux Central (http://linuxcentral.com/)
Cheapbytes (http://cart.cheapbytes.com/cgi-bin/cart)

Check the Redhat documentation for any install "gotchas".
Red Hat Linux Manuals (http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/)

If you want to run a desktop environment, get as much memory as the box will hold, I wouldn't recommend any less than 64 MB

[newrh6user]

Thanks for the info. However, at least for the hardware info, I was able to find a program that checks hardware configuration. It is the Belarc Advisor (http://www.belarc.com). For the hardware, I am not really sure if some of the hardware is compatible. Some of it, like the sound (Crystal Audio Hardware) and video cards, I never heard of and cannot find on compatibility lists. If anybody can let me know of a successful installation of Linux on an HP Pavillion built around 1996, that would definitely be reassuring. In regards to the hard drive, wouldn't I need to completely wipe Win 95 and hard drive before I install Linux, since I do not want to partition it?

[JohnT]

List your hardware that your using and we can advise as to compatibility. Not having your computer specs sitting in front of me slightly hampers your request. Just sayin that it's an HP pavilion doesn't help. Post a screenshot of your Belarc Advisor output.

[fancypiper]

2 gig is a little small for a modern distro with lots of software. You may have to install a later kernel than rh6.0 has for the crystal, but I was using that under rh6.1 with no probs.

Linux will need at least two partitions to install if you have less than around 512 MB or more, so you will have to make at least a swap and a / partition. It's not that hard in the install.

Try looking at the red hat hardware compatability list for your vid card and also the LDP's Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO (http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO/)

[CrashTestDummy9]

Originally posted by newrh6user
Thanks for the info. However, at least for the hardware info, I was able to find a program that checks hardware configuration. It is the Belarc Advisor (http://www.belarc.com). For the hardware, I am not really sure if some of the hardware is compatible. Some of it, like the sound (Crystal Audio Hardware) and video cards, I never heard of and cannot find on compatibility lists. If anybody can let me know of a successful installation of Linux on an HP Pavillion built around 1996, that would definitely be reassuring. In regards to the hard drive, wouldn't I need to completely wipe Win 95 and hard drive before I install Linux, since I do not want to partition it? If by not partitioning it , you mean that you dont want to dual boot with Windows then yes you want to wipe it out . If you are using RedHat then just let the install prog run its course and use DiskDruid to wipe out Windows and repartition and format the drive .

[newrh6user]

The following should be everything you need about the hardware I was able to get off Belarc. Thanks Again All for the Help!!!

Operating System

Windows95 (build 4.0.950)

Processor

133 megahertz Intel Pentium

Drives

1.62 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
33 Megabytes Hard Drive Free Space
MITSUMI CD-ROM FX600S !B
Generic floppy disk drive (3.5")
Generic IDE hard disk drive (1.62 GB) -- drive 0

Controllers

Standard Floppy Disk Controller
Primary IDE controller (single fifo)
Secondary IDE controller (single fifo)
Standard Dual PCI IDE Controller

Main Circuit Board

Board: Copyright 1985-1995 Phoenix Technologies Ltd., All Rights Reserved.
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, Ltd. 4.05 10/10/96

Memory Modules

16 Megabytes Installed Memory

Local Drive Volumes

c: (on drive 0) 1.62 GB 33 MB free

Printers

Epson Stylus COLOR IIs on LPT1:
HP LaserJet Series II on LPT1:
RZS Fax on FAX:

Display

SiS 6205 (Display adapter)
HP D3857A Multi Media 15-inch Display. (Monitor)

Multimedia

Crystal CS4232 PnP Audio Hardware
Crystal Semiconductor Audio control registers
Crystal Semiconductor Gameport Joystick
Crystal Semiconductor MPU-401 Compatible

Communications

V.34 VOICE VV DP Plug & Play [Modem]
AOL Adapter

Other Devices

Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
Standard PS/2 Port Mouse

[JohnT]

Here's a read on your vid card you might want to look at.................

http://www.exocore.com/technologies/linux/sis6215c/

A list of printers....................
http://new.linuxnow.com/docs/content/Printing-HOWTO-html/Printing-HOWTO-4.html

[newrh6user]

JohnT, thanks for the info. After skimming through the article on the video card, will RH 6 work with it. I know it says RH 6.2, but will it maybe work with 6?

For CrashTestDummy9, is disk druid included with RH?

Thanks again everybody for helping!

[JohnT]

Originally posted by newrh6user
JohnT, thanks for the info. After skimming through the article on the video card, will RH 6 work with it. I know it says RH 6.2, but will it maybe work with 6?



See what version of XFree you have and see if it matches the older one mentioned in the article. I believe it was a XFree86 3.3.6 ?

[JohnT]

I've been doing some research and it seems that RH 6.0 comes with the 3.3.5 version of XFree86. Can't locate a listing of supported cards yet. All I can say at this time is it might be supported. Chances are good that it is.


Some more info on the SiS chip with 3.36 and 4.x.x
http://www.xfree86.org/4.1.0/Status30.html#30

[CrashTestDummy9]

Originally posted by newrh6user
JohnT, thanks for the info. After skimming through the article on the video card, will RH 6 work with it. I know it says RH 6.2, but will it maybe work with 6?

For CrashTestDummy9, is disk druid included with RH?

Thanks again everybody for helping! Yes , DiskDruid is RedHats disk utility . I personally dont like using Partition Magic for anything other than resizing a windows partition . And now with WinXP you can resize partitions from XPs Disk Management tools .

[newrh6user]

Well, thanks everybody for the help! I think I am going to try to install linux on the computer and see what happens. If it doesnt work, I will check back with all of you. Thanks again!

[newrh6user]

:( :( :(

Well, I tried to install and it seems now that my cd-rom went on the computer (it was working fine yesterday). The tray opens and closes but will not recognize any cd in it. The light doesn't go on or anything. When I try to open the cd drive, the computer says that it is not ready. Could it be software related or hardware problems?

Thanks again, but this could be the end of putting RH 6 on the HP, being without a cdrom or a NIC card where I could connect to my DSL account (I also have a Win XP box that I am now using regularly) and download RH.

[JohnT]

Have you change the cdrom to be the first boot device in your computers bios?

[newrh6user]

From what I can tell, Yes I have. But after the computer booted as it usually would even with the RH cd in it, I reset it to default. Then after I did this, I wanted to make boot floppies and try to start the installation that way. After reading my RH book, I did what they recommended and Win 95 suddenly would not recognize the RH cd I had in it. I tried an other cd and it would not open that either. I wonder if I might of changed something in the bios that I shouldn't have, or could it be the cd-rom?

Thanks again for the help!

[newrh6user]

Well, it seems that it could be a hardware problem. I opened the computer and made sure all the connections were connected. Then I started it up and it worked! After trying a music cd, I put in the linux one and the cd rom died again!! I am trying to contact HP to see if there could be something else causing the problem, but I will retry opening the computer and pushing in the cables. Thanks again for the help!

[newrh6user]

I got it!!!!!!! The cd rom now works and I installed linux. But now I got another problem. Being that it is not about installation, I will post it in the Tech Support forum if anybody wants to view it.

Thanks Again for all the Help!!!!

[RudeCat7]

Considering that PC's resources, you may be less than thrilled with Redhat's performance, especially with only 16mb memory.

Since it seems you have another PC (runs xp so must be healthier) why don't you install Redhat on that one?

There is no need to worry. If you're still not sure, back up everything that you consider important.

PS- you should not use your hard drive as a file cabinet, whether you run Linux or windows. File cabinets do just fine during blackouts, and power surges, hard drives on the other hand.....:D