PC-Janitor

Hi there, can anyone clear a problem I have. I'm using Debian to power an old Dell XPi pentium and it's be quite reasonable until today when I carelessly removed the pcmcia-cs package and am now without a network. Is there a way of puttin the files on a floppy and installing them in a similar way to that of the "rpm -i [package]" concept? I don't really want to make install as it would probably get real messy (based entirely on personal experience.) and I feel sure that simply downloading a package that already works would be the best course of action. Sorry to ask a dumb Q. I shouldn't be at jobs like this so late at night, (If I can learn that lesson before my grave, I'll be doing well.)

Funny you mention the autocomplete, I tried initially to install the card services by typing "dpkg -i pcmcia-cs" yet when I eventually "dpkg -i pcmcia-cs<TAB>" the file I really needed to reference (complete with versioning numbers) popped straight up. What was I thinking! I do use apt-get, but I didn't get very far with that as I had no network connection. Does Apt work the same way as dpkg does if the package is in the directory you working from? I'm Linux only. My desktop uses Fedora Core 3 and the Debian installation was the simplest thing for me to get working with a floppy and pcmcia setup on my brother's old Laptop. However My wife wants our son to uses Dorling Kindersley CD's and I'm feeling the pressure to go out and buy a copy of what I've avoided for so long:-(. Harsh really, Maisy loved scanning her photos with XP and she's never been as happy with the Gimp. I'm open to alternatives for the Dorling Kindersly "we need your computer to have a perfectly set up quicktime and directX setup before we'll teach your children the important stuff about life." poser. Thanks for your help guys. (oh and that's not a new thread, it's just a by the way - I'll do a search for threads that answer it before I shell out for a move away from my bash:-o)

Thanks Danleff, Spot on, I didn't realise that dpkg was able to do such things but I was hoping that such a tool was available. The dependacies were not an issue because I had removed something that deselected pcmcia-cs as a dependancy. I've been using dselect mostly - to pick and choose packages and then it's very easy to remove any unwanted packages and update existing ones. I tend to use apt-get to install single packages because Dselect has got a little confusing since I requested a system-wide update and now tries to install more packages than there are room for. Untill I get that sorted out, I'll just continue using it to remove packages that take up space - more carefully in future. It was great to copy the file across (on a floppy,) type the command you described and straight-away afterwards do a sucessfull ping out. Thanks again. Jon

Yes that is a good article, and a healthy reminder. I remember a parallel that existed in web design. One would suggest that another really ought to persuade his company to splash out for Dreamweaver, only to elicit the rejoinder "Why, I'm happy with vi."

Code: LABEL=/1 / ext3 defaults 1 1LABEL=/boot1 /boot ext3 defaults 1 2none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0LABEL=/home /home ext3 defaults 1 2none /proc proc defaults 0 0none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0LABEL=/tmp /tmp ext3 defaults 1 2LABEL=/usr /usr ext3 defaults 1 2/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0/dev/cdrom1 /mnt/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0none /var/lib/jack/tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0/dev/hda1 /mnt/windows vfat defaults 0 0 Hi Fezblog, Did this just now, I made sure that my windows partition was /dev/hda1, checked to make sure that /mnt/windows existed (forgot the first time I rebooted) :x and jsut to be on the safe side I did the editing in Vi, but I guess gedit should do the trick. The code is cut and pasted exactly as it appears - I can't remember if the spacing is significant, I'm not sure that it is. Unfortunately for you, I can't see any difference here between the lines that Outstream posted and mine, I assume you made the changes to /etc/fstab as root. hope you find the cause, coz it's worth it, fedora is pretty reasonable really for your everyday work and more if you are up to fiddling about.

Hi there, I looked at this last week, and I like the concept, It costs upto $/€ 69... in which case I think it comes with a USB key as well. If it does, this represents great value for money, not only are you rewarding the developers for their work, but you'd get what is probably the best 'live' distro so far. The basic principle here is that you can pop the Move CD into the drive of any machine that will boot from CD and connect your USB key and the result will be the same desktop that you had the last time you used it, with your files, email settings, passwords all held on the USB key. There may be some here who will say, "I've done that already", but Mandrake are providing a tool for the non-techie, Linux power in your pocket so to speak. I always carry a copy of Knoppix or Morphix even (especially) when troubleshootin' Win Machines... ...I've just read your post again (to check I'm answering the right question!) and it sounds as if you've bought Mandrake recently, Did you get a USB key with your package - It sounds as though the Move CD was included. Read the Move Data Sheet here - pdf Knoppix can also be configured to work in a similar way, a rough version is to cram it all onto a usb key check out this howto Has anyone seen any other links to make a Move-like CD? i.e. a Live Distro whith some mechanism for retaining your settings and data in a better arrangement than storing them to floppy?

Quote: Just in case, be sure to check the md5 checksums against the ISOs you have downloaded, and be sure that you burn them as images... 8) Worthy point, check out this discussion if you're not sure about about md5 checksums. (There are probably other similar threads you could search for)

Hi Blender Guy, Welcome to the fold. The Athalon processor in it's most basic sense is a replacement for or alternative to the Intel range of processors. So a i386 distro will work for your Machine. That may be the answer you need, however in the current climate of optimisation, you don't have to be tied by backward compatibility. In theory the basic elements of an i386 distro will run on a well specced Intel 386. If you really wanted to. When it comes to installing your chosen distro, there may be an option to choose from a variety of kernels optimised for your processor, if you are in luck. It's often possible that there is already be a kernel optimised for your processor which could offer some speed benefits, better utilisation of the CPU instruction set and even enhanced use of functions that exist on more modern motherboards. With Red-Hat/Fedora RPM's, you would look out for the 'athalon' designator in the kernel name. Bear in mind however that cutting edge kernels may be fast, but equally may have problems with stability and be totally unsuitable for production machines.

I lost something like this a long time ago, but it's so useful to have - thanks. Jon

Well, caused by me really :x Big woops, I was playing around with FreeDOS on my Main machine while trying to establish a way to transfer files off of an old Compaq 386 (used Linux in the end, but was trying to work out a way to get Linux onto the machine with only a 5 1/2" disk - eventually took the drive out - If in doubt go back to your first idea, it's the one least cluttered by thought)*. I tried to install FreeDOS on a bit of spare disk on my 60Gb drive using... wait for it... fdisk. Oh how foolish, I thought it had read the entries correctly, but it went and bunged a new partition smack in the center of my transfer partition - wish I'd backed up my emails! I might have been more sensible if I'd gone to bed last night instead of this morning. Does anyone know how to resurrect the partition table based on disk structure? I can't help but think that the way the system is laid out, I might be able to restructure the tables. If anyone knows, I'll be very grateful. *addited for clarity

Hi Danleff, Yes you're right, it does exist, either I typed the wrong things or used an older Knoppix Disk, but I found an OpenMosix disk that used version 3.3 of Knoppix and that had QTparted right there. However, I wasn't able to do much with it that I couldn't do with partition magic and I felt it didn't represent the functionality of parted very well, but that could be me. With parted I managed to find all the partitions in the extended part of the disk apart from the 20Gb FAT32 one. You would think I'd be able to work out where it would be bbased on te space that remains after the other partitions (on the 60Gb drive) are taken into account, but although I cna calculate whereabouts it must be, parted just doesn't seem to be able to find it and as mentioned above I've tried a couple of other packages that purport to do the same thing automaticaly, but they only look at primary partitions, I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet on this one! I feel a bit like Dapper Dan must be feeling at the mo. in this post it seems that aswell as the vital suggestions given at the end one would do well to wait for the clarity that comes from a good night's sleep before embarking upon major data relocation (both low level and directory level.) it happens.

OK so I got the files I needed to scan the partitions, gpart (guess the partitions) and MBRWORK.exe to try the same from a Windows perspective. Both seemed to do their job really well, but I don't seem to be accessing data relating to logical partitions in the extended partition. This may be a limitation with both gpart and MBRWORK, but I was able to find two of my lost logical partitions using parted and guesswork (I haven't run qtparted because I am running a live CD version of knoppix - and cannot add anything into the read-only package tree.) I'm going to keep going, cos I've just got to find the last (biggest,) partition and will try to remember in future to keep my transfer* drive on a primary partition. * for transfers between Dos and Linux obviously.

I'm looking at something similar businesswise. I loved the ease of setting up LTSP, and I have a couple of clients who I have to persuade tommorow to get upgrades of windows, I would much rather offer them Linux. If I were to set them up with LTSP, they could even use an older machine as well, giving them 3 for the price of none. The sticking point of course is Support, I mustn't leave clients dependent on me. I've thought about VNC'ing or X'ing into their boxes for updates, but that's a little risky. I don't think they are particularly willing to learn a new system, although one of them is quite new to computing, their past exposure has been Windows at the office and they've made up their mind that they would like to be able to continue that learning at home - understandable, I wouldn't want to confuse their return to work period with an intro to OpenOffice.org! So in small numbers, the answer seems to be no, but if we can persuade larger companies to upgrade to a LTSP type setup with Crossover office co-installed with OpenOffice.org, the support would be [*] worth the time spent, because others will be able to re-enforce lessons learned, thus making it cheaper to provide. and [*] better accepted due to an overall change of culture within the organisation.[/list:u] I've been playing with the redhat/fedora branch K12LTSP and wonder if it's time for a business branch in the same vein within the same 'fraternity'. Jon P.S. Like your site

I don't know about your software, but can you connect with a 'static' Linux setup? www.Morphix.org has scripts and (pdf link) installation howtos where you can make your own live CD with all the software you need to run. if your modem has linux drivers/software, Morphix should do the trick. Does PPPoA not work for your modem, that should be on every modern live CD?

I had reasonable success with a cheap USB modem (SmartLink SmartUSB56) from ebuyer. In the UK it cost me £15 and had Linux drivers available on the manufacturers web site - took a little time to set up (had to configure, make, make install.) But it worked well, the only reason I don't use it now is the twinkling ADSL modem tucked away under the desk.

Quote: help.. basically all i know how to do is install the programs i dont' knwo how to run them!! Which programs are you referring to? Are you having trouble running wine itself try wine notepad.exe or, no offence is the problem with running Linux programs in general? On another note, don't forget that although Crossover Office is not free, they do offer a trial download unlike WineX which may give you a better feel for Wine itself.

Hi, Do you mean the RPM database? RPM uses a database to keep track of what is installed (and keep track of dependencies - I think).

I do like a healthy argument in marriage - and planning one to last 30 years sounds like a great way to keep the homefires burning I guess with RAM it's down a bit to what your using you PC for. I used to have a laptop with 96Mb (I think it was a PII but that could be me romanticising about the last decent laptop I ever had use of.) Anyway, I ran that really well on Suse 8 about a year ago, loved it, had no worries, used it for fairly basic things, feeling my way around using network tools to help configure work's network. Fooling around with it in my spare time and generally enjoying the freedom that a Linux/Laptop combo brings. Leaving aside those wispy clouds of faroff memories... My Current setup is Fedora on a Duron 1300 with 512Mb DDR RAM and a 60Gb drive along with a poorly supported graphics card SIS315something and that originally had 128Mb RAM and because I don't run the newer RAM any faster than i did the old stick, I have noticed very little difference at all. I think you are correct in thinking that Linux is underselling itself - I imagine that the new distros are doing what windows has done for a long time and pick the highest viable common denominator (remember the packaging that told you minimum and recomended specifications.) Maybe there isn't any mileage in saying that Redhat will run on a pentium or a Celeron when people are mainly looking for P4's Xeons and Athlons. Is that a bit too cynical - it hard to tell through sleep-deprived eyes and my wife will slap me if I'm late to bed AGAIN.

I've also enjoyed playing with bikes, electronic junk, a bit of woodworking, and cars when I have to, I suppose, it's inevitable that people with a problem solving mentality get around to Linux eventually. I started to play with Linux with an early version of slackware, but the hardware I had then, was just feeble (I just about managed a clock, ppp and xeyes, before I'd have to go and make a cup of tea.) and it's only in the last three or four years that I've had more machines and therefore better succcess. I've recently relegated Windows to last position on the Grub Menu (there for curiosity/and Mrs D. - my 3 year old is happy with Linux on his desktop.) So then, back to the thread, I've noticed it had a couple of views, so if you're still reading, and have recently trashed your partition table, head on over to Recovering a lost Partition Table and hopefully sometime soon, I'll write a post to let you know if it works and how I get on, (currently half way through.) Oh, and the car's on blocks! P.S. I do have a couple of Knoppix Distros, but not 3.3 hence I couldn't find QTparted - sad, but there's more than one way to skin a budgie in flight.

Quote: And another question I would like to post. She plays games on MSN Zone.com. The problem with the site is that you need to download a program that lets you access the site, and being 'msn' there is no linux version of the program. Do you think it would be possible if i could run the program using an emulator? some suggestions for amsn emulator Sorry I haven't had a chance to check it out yet

Yep, I figured there would be no problem, after all it's only the removal of one dirty great big nut and the replacement of four smaller ones! I hit dependency issues and had to SSHop for a larger model of spanner (rev.30mm - I wanted to compile from source but they are non-GPL) Then, I'm not totally sure which way it's supposed to turn, I'm assuming that it'll be counter to the normal direction of the wheel. I've already done a gentle 175lb bounce on the spanner in each direction. Now of course over here, it's dark so I'm trying to decide whether I go get a blowtorch to help ease the bolt (it's an '87 Mazda 626) or if I go join in the queue for the mechanic now. Do you have any experience with cars Dan, ( the Mazda distro in particular!) - not that this is at all off-topic!

Thanks chaps for the replies, much as I'd love to hack on with it now, I have a car to repair - wish I could open up a bash shell, mount /dev/mazda and drill down to /mnt/jalopy/hub/frontoffside and download a patch for the busted wheel studs, but no, I've got to go get dirty! 8)

The Compaq is now solved, but in the process of trying to find ways to get the data off, I messed up my main machine. Quite frankly it's laziness on my part, I ought to have used my old machine to test out freeDOS but I couldn't be bothered to reboot it! ;( I was just wondering if anyone knew of a way to view the remaining data and/or compare it with the formatted sections of the disk. Whenever I have reinstalled Fedora/RH8/9, I've seen information in the Disk Druid dialog that indicates what the partition was in the previous setup, thus allowing me to reselect /home as /home, but I've not been able to run disk druid as the install fails, and I havn't found it on any of my Knoppix disks, they are not Redhat of course, but I was just wondering if there is a repair tool or action for this sort of thing. Thanks for the advice about Compaqs though, it may come in handy if I need to re-use the 386 (may be a 286, can't remember - I've only got the disk here), though I think it'll be a bit under-powered for anything useful. cheers, Jon

Chacking MD5s is a good safety habit to get into, and of course it's easier in Linux. MD5 checksums work because it is believed that no two files when pushed through the MD5 algorythm (used in encryption) will ever arrive at the same value so the sums make a great way to compare copies of a version of software that you want to be certain you have completely downloaded or have legitimate version of. As I said in linux, checking the sums is easy, but for Windows, I've used FastSum sucessfully. The Mandrake MD5 sums are on the download page here and to use, simply Install FastSum, Copy the executable onto your desktop (or wherever you download to) Get to a command prompt (Start > Run... Type in 'Command' - in XP.) then type something like Code: fsum Mandrake92-cd1-inst.i586.iso and you should get the reply (for this file) 40c8812dce7b9f8fb0a3b364af62b974 Compare this with the list of MD5 sums on the Mandrake Website and you can be assured that the file is as Mandrake intended it to be. I imagine MD5sum is similar. If you are really paranoid, you can download from a completely different mirror on the other side of the world! and fsum that too, to check that the first one was OK, but what a waste of bandwidth

It's a bit like the first time I played with MS-DOS, only now every day I can learn something new. Linux is a real brain stretcher, but not a stupid one like Windows. With Linux, when you find the answer, you've found the answer. In Windows answers are nebulous and lack definition. I think that's why when I'm looking through A+ answers and practice questions, they often take a kind of nodal 'go back two steps and fix something else' option or give a couple of options one of which will fix the problem.... Quote: Question 799a You are an IT Consultant who has been asked to troubleshoot a hard drive failure on a clients PC. When you arrive on site and first turn on the clients computer, you notice a grinding noise... What would be the most likely cause of this failure? [*] The sound you hear is friction from the base of the machine rubbing against the garbage chute on it's way out of the building. [*]A loose drive floundering around the bottom of the case after being thrown at the wall on several occasions. [*]Read/Write head failure. [*]Dodgy wheel on base of tea trolly. or [*]None of the above.[/list:u] or, because one of the options in every good training manual is "Make sure the machine you are working on has plenty of memory" you get events like... Quote: ...one of the schools "tech people" as almost everyone calls them added ram to the computer, ... THATS ALL HE DID, ADD MEMORY ... Before that it thought that the cdrom was either a floppy or a corrupted cdrom drive HOW WOULD ADDING MEMORY FIX THAT? ? Sorry, I'm being silly now, I'm going to the fridge to take my pils.