Vector Linux Hardrive Installation??

[BritishNemesis]

How do you get vector linux to install to the hardrive? The outlines on their website are very unclear and I'm a little lost. All I wanna have it do is boot from the hardrive not the cdrom.

www.vectorlinux.com

[JohnT]

What part are you unclear on?

[BritishNemesis]

Well doesn't vectorlinux only work from the cdrom? (as in it boots and operates from the cdrom instead of the hardrive)

I want to install it to my hardrive and use it as my default OS. Also the machine I will be running it on is a P100 with 96mb of RAM. I've got 10GB of hardrive space so that should be plenty for the install.

When I look at the installation file it says all these things about additional files you have to download . The whole thing is just very unclear to me.

Here's the link for the install instructions:
ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/vectorlinux/veclinux-3.0/install.txt

[JohnT]

Try this instead........................................... .....................

http://www.vectorlinux.com/Qinst.htm


Scroll down to "Linux to Linux".

[BritishNemesis]

Ok well that was a little easier to understand. Now it appears that everything is installed, but when I login and type startx it just returns with an erroor message

-bash: command not found

I installed the XF336.bz cause its for an older computer and I can't get anywhere. What is the point of the ISO cdrom? So far all I've used is veclinux.bz2
to do all the installation and setup. Am I supposed to stick the ISO cd in? How do I set it up so I can get into xwindows?

[JohnT]

Was XFree86 installed? Did you configure it after set-up?


Excerpt from the link I gave you...............................

9. Run the other configuration programs comset, cdset, netconfig, pppsetup and Sax (or XF86Setup if you are installing a version earlier than 1.8). Reboot and enjoy your new VectorLinux system.

[BritishNemesis]

isn't xfree86 installed along in XF336.bz ?? That is the only package I know that I installed. I can configure xfree and everything else... but startx doesn't work.

[JohnT]

What error message are you getting?

[Nu-Bee]

Originally posted by BritishNemesis
isn't xfree86 installed along in XF336.bz ?? That is the only package I know that I installed. I can configure xfree and everything else... but startx doesn't work.

Yes, but why did you install XFree 3.3.6 ?

XFree 4.2.1 is a lot nicer...and worked well with my ancient Cirrus 1M video card.

3.3.6 is a lot harder to work with.

You may want to re-install...

Also, on my P120/32M system it took about 5+ minutes ( It felt like 10) for Xfree to actually load. It might just be that you aren't giving it enough time.

In the interim it blanked...came up crazy...blanked....etc...but finally loaded.

[BritishNemesis]

ok I think there is some confusion here. All that is happening is this....

1. I login in whatever linux calls DOS mode
2. I get the root@vector#
3. I type startx
4. I get this error:

-bash: command not found

It seems to me that startx wasn't installed as a command. I am now reinstalling so I can use XFREE 4.2.1 and hopefully these problems will be solved. However I strongly doubt they will.... what is the ISO cd used for?

[JohnT]

Originally posted by BritishNemesis
what is the ISO cd used for?

INSTALLING FROM A CDROM


1. If you have purchased a Vector Linux cd or burned your own from an iso image then these instructions apply.
2. Change your BIOS settings so that your pc will boot from a CDROM (usually hitting the delete key during bootup will bring up the BIOS menu to select the boot sequence-- but your milage may vary). .
3. If your pc doesn't have boot from cdrom capability then you will need to make a boot and root floppy disk set for installation. Either mount your cd in linux or use windows explorer in Widows 9xx and go to the images directory on the cd. In linux do 'dd if=boot.img of=/dev/fd0 for the boot disk and dd if=root.img of=/dev/fd0 for the root disk. In Windows open up a msdos window and change to the images directory. Then use the rawrite program in that directory, rawrite boot.img a: and rawrite root.img a:. to produce your floppy set. Boot your pc from the boot floppy then when asked insert the root floppy, the installation program will ask you where the veclinux.bz2 file is, select either Acdrom (atapi/ide cdrom) or Scdrom (scsi style cdrom) and continue with the installation.
4. If you are able to autoboot from the cd then simply choose the type of cd device that you are using when asked and proceed.

[BritishNemesis]

Alright I figured the install out... but now I have just one problem. I can't get my mouse to work.

I'm installing to a Compaq Presario 1070 notebook with 16mb RAM and a P133 CPU.

I've tried changing the driver for the mouse using vasm, and I've tried both the built in mouse that comes with the notebook, and I've tried plugging in a serial mouse to no avail. I installed redhat 7 yesterday on it to see whether linux could indeed detect a mouse, and it worked just fine with the serial mouse. Is there something I am missing here for Vector to install my mouse? Which mouse driver should I choose (there are only 7 to choose from)

[JohnT]

This may help.............................................. ................

http://www.datatone.com/~deborah/dee2tech/mobile/articles/linux/presario1000s.html

[BritishNemesis]

excellent thanks john... you've been very helpful. Now my mouse works and everything is running really fast considering how old and out of date this computer is. I just have one more question... how can you change the xwindows fonts, and the default theme. Every time I change the theme it changes it successfully, but then once I log out it changes it back to all the default settings. The default font with this is just sick too, and I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to make a system wide font change to say a truetype font like arial, or even any other font thats not bold like this default one. Thanks :D

[JohnT]

What window manager are you using? Are you logging in as the same user or root everytime you login?

[BritishNemesis]

I was logging in as root, but I should create a new user today. Also I am using ICEWM as my window manager.

[JohnT]

mkdir .wmrc (if you don't have one)

edit it to include........................................

# This is my X server start up file

# Add any programs you want to have running when X starts here
# Make sure they all end with a &

numlockx on &

# Now add your windows manager here.
# I have included some examples, just remove the # in the beginning for yours

# exec gnome-session
exec startkde
# exec blackbox

[BritishNemesis]

how does that set my default theme? I don't mind choosing my window manager at startup but the default ICEWM theme is just killing me.

# exec blackbox

Is that a theme? I thought it was a window manager?

[JohnT]

Anything you do as root stays with roots profile<eg;themes>. Anything done as user stays with users profile<eg;themes>. If you make a theme as root and log back in as user it won't be saved and visa/versa.

[JohnT]

Here's a look......................................

http://cip.physik.uni-bonn.de/~schugt/icewmfaq/uk/IceWM-FAQ-3.html#ss3.2

http://www.icewm.org/index.php?page=docs

These were found with http://google.com/linux