Re: Help me get my beer! (or: How RH 5.2 made a mockery of me)

[Justin Young <justiny newsguy com>]

Steve,  I believe that all men have the right to enjoy good beer.

Read on.

On Mon, 01 Feb 1999, Steve Frampton wrote:
(snip)
>Linux.  The final part of the installation process was the
configuration >of the X Window System.
>
>Not seeing the card listed, I decided to go with SVGA.  Upon probing the
>hardware, the system froze solid and upon rebooting and watching it
>install everything again the second time, I had a sinking feeling that I
>was in for a rough ride.
>
>Indeed.  Practically *every* aspect of the installation and configuration
>process is problematic.  These include:
>
>- When I boot the system, I just get a "LI" prompt and then the system
>freezes.  There are two hard drives, both IDE; /dev/hda has 4 partitions
>all with Win98 (not FAT32), and /dev/hdb has the partitions I set up for
>Linux.  I installed the MBR on /dev/hda -- something I have done countless
>times before.  In fact, my own home system has a Win95 on /dev/hda and my
>Linux stuff on /dev/hdb and I have no problems.
>
>- I absolutely, positively cannot get X working.  The card is a Diamond
>Fire GL 1000 PRO with 8 Mb of RAM.  I upgraded the XFree packages to
>3.3.3.1-1 which includes support for that card (from the
>XFree-3DLabs-3.3.3.1-1.i386.rpm package).  Typing 'Xconfigurator'
>segfaults as soon as I choose the card (er, it actually segfaults on
>*every* machine I have tested it on); so I used 'xf86config' to set up the
>XF86Config file.  I did this several times, both with defaults as well as
>with hand-tweaked XF86Config files, but startx seems to want to run the
>vga16 server!  Yet the /etc/X11/bin/X file is symlinked to XF86_3DLab as
>it should be.  Guess what happens if I type /etc/X11/bin/X?  I get a nice
>1024x768 X display exactly as I tweaked the XF86Config file.  So why isn't
>'startx' running the damn correct X server!??!  ;-(
Ooops...

I would strongly suggest that you run the vga16 server first to make sure
everything is okay.  I'm not too surprised about Xconfigurator.  Try the old
fashioned way.  You can also try to directly execute xinit rather than the nice
way of 'startx'.

If not, then you probably have a few other config files wrong.  (Check ~/.)
>- I can't seem to get the modem working.  It is a U.S. Robotics 56K Voice
>PnP modem.  My "client" told me he made *sure* not to get a WinModem, so
>I'll have to believe him.  I'm not too fond of PnP modems, but I *have*
>gotten one working before.  However, 'pnp_serial' gives me an error 'could
>not probe /dev/modem'.  There *is* no /dev/modem -- I tried symlinking
>/dev/ttys0 and /dev/ttys1 to it but to no avail.  Minicom won't work
>either.  :-(  (The modem is apparently using IRQ 3, 02f8-02ff, on COM2).

It's not a winmodem?  Yeah, right.  You can try the setserial command.  BTW, 
/dev/modem should be simlinked to /dev/cua1 unless you are using a 2.1.x or a
2.2.x kernel.


>- Hmmm...the mouse is a Microsoft IntelliMouse with the little scroll
>wheel.  The installation program allowed me to select this, and it works
>fine in the console.  But for xf86config, I had to select the 'PS2' mouse;
>if I selected 'IntelliMouse' I got a very jerky mouse pointer which did
>nothing but jump around the screen.
Yeah...  That's just not ready, yet.

>This experience has embarassed me somewhat.  I feel that my reputation as
>a knowledgable Linux user has been sullied.  Of course, I cannot blame Red
>Hat's distribution or Linux itself; the blame can rest only on the
>hardware manufacturers who do not provide Linux drivers with their
>products.  Yet.
True.  Give 'em time.  You think we're off bad.  Try BeOS or FreeBSD.

>I can live with the embarassment -- but there is a more important issue
>that I feel I must resolve.  The beer.  I decided it best if I left the
>case where it lie until I can get things working properly.

Ouch.  It saddens my heart to see a fellow beer lover so beaten.  Well, check
your cholesterol.  If it's high, then you should drink the beer for medicinal
purposes.

 >I'm hoping that you, gentle reader, can help me determine what is
causing >the above mentioned problems.  I'm going to stay up half the night
looking >through Dejanews in the meantime.  :-( >
>

Yup.  Hope this helps.

--Justin meantime.  :-(
 >
>

Yup.  Hope this helps.

--Justi