[ale] SuSe8.0/8.1etc

[J Starr]

 
 
Reply-To: <A 
href="mailto:ale at ale.org">ale at ale.orgJulian,During the install 
you were asked to provide a root password for your root account.  Also, 
you were asked to make a user account.  If you are logged in as a user 
and not root, then the hardware that doesn't seem to work probably does but 
you haven't given the magic formulae to access them.  The magic is that 
you might be needing to "mount" a floppy's file system to your "filesystem 
tree".  Maybe if you would send another email to the list with this 
info, we could help you with specifics.
 
>I learned that I had to log in as root to make 
any changes, all my 
attempts have been done as root.Do 
you understand the Unix filesystem layout of /, /usr,/tmp,/usr/bin, and so 
on?  If not, we will need to explain it to you.
 
>sort of but not really.Are you 
logged in as root or as a user such as jstarr?  If as root, I would not 
advise doing that since it is easy to damage your system.
 
>I am normally logged in as a user, but always 
go to root to configure stuff etc.Do you know any unix commands 
such as "df -k", "netstat -rn", or "ls -l" and how to understand the output 
or is that meaningless to you right now?
 
>Meaningless, I have used a shell command to 
start and stop the Apache 1.3
 only, this I do as a user but have to enter 
the root password to do it.Access to the CD and burner functions 
is usually transparent under SuSE 8.1 if it is setup properly.
 
>I dont have 8.1 setup, I am using 8.0 (the 8.1 
is still in the box).
 
You will probably need to access the burner as a simulated SCSI device 
such as /dev/scd0 instead of /dev/cdrom.  I use SuSE 8.1 at home and 
will be happy to help you out in getting started.  It is always a good 
idea to get a good newbie starter book on Unix or Linux.
 
>I have 'Linux for Dummies' but it is mostly Red 
Hat, and I have
 'Linux Internet Server', 
 
I am sure someone on the list can recommend a good book.  I can't 
think of one off the top of my head right now.  Hey ALEr's, is "Unix in 
a Nutshell" a good starter book?Dow
 
>I will buy the book Unix in a 
NutshellJulian,Sorry for the previous post!  I am tired 
and just didn't focus on your words.  Obviously you have enough 
experience to have Apache and SuSE 8.0 running and are just having trouble 
with SuSE 8.1. 
 
>No, like I say 8.1 is still in the 
box
 
I do need more info on your difficulties to help you out, though.  
There have been problems with 8.1 recognizing some CDROMS during 
installs.  However, the floppy should work just fine.  Can you 
mount a floppy as root?
 
>NO , I have tried
 
Does the BIOS access the floppy during boot to check for a boot 
disk?
 
>I dont know if it tries or not. It goes through the bios on boot quite 
quickly 
 
 Just looking for info on what your kernel sees via the 
BIOS.  Can you post relevant parts of your dmesg output?
 
>The bios on bootup seems to go pretty smoothly, 
although I havent shut 
down completely for some time(I have an UPS)I am 
hosting several websites
and I am leary of shutting down completely. But I 
will do so to observe if you
can tell me what to look for. Bear in mind this is 
8.0.
 
>Thanks, Julian Starr
justarr at charter.net
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