Installing Fedora: Linux Salad from Linux Shoite
Installing Fedora: Linux Salad from Linux Shoite
Open source has its rough edges, but every time I feel like griping, I remember how much I paid for it, and the loads of hard work that people put in every day to make something like Fedora Core a reality. I suppose in this world of instant gratification, one might be tempted to dismiss Linux as inconvenient (as I often do in a hissy), but really, think of how much you'd pay for Windows, if you play by the rules. Anyhoo -- like I was saying - There are some rough spots you have to deal with. There are a couple things I recommend:
- If you are like me (that is, marginally sane) you will realize that installing Linux on your brand-new Pentium IIX 6.3GHz Pimp Rig that runs just fine with XP is a bad idea. Dual booting systems are notoriously jumpy, and messing with the Master Boot Record when you really have no idea how Linux does bootloading is a recipe for catastrophe. Find yourself a hinkybox -- That old piece of crap in your closet, perhaps. I do all my big-ticket item shopping in Lil' Tijuana -- my affectionate name for the local flea market.
- Know your system. I am a dork, so I have no trouble with the gruntwork; namely, finding and cataloging model numbers and chipset names for my hardware. This can be important. Though most times when I am doing a Linux installation the victim computer is still in chunks and open to the world, you might not be like me, and having this info handy is a godsend if you happen to run into a driver issue. (This becomes more likely the newer your hardware is, but especially if you are building a laptop.) Go online and download the manufacturer's manuals in PDF form if available, and make a note of any BIOS revisions and stuff like that they have recommended for your particular model.
Right
in hand
with
the
"Hard-awareness"
would
be having
a viable
research
tool. Maintain
a second
connected
computer
so you
can do
quick
searches
on seemingly
arcane
Linux phrases
like e2fsck and "kernel
panic:
no init
found".
I'd
like to
think that
it is my
unswerving
brilliance
that allows
me to bring
a Linux
box out
of the
dumper,
but ~99.99%
of the
time, it
is Google.
There are
numerous Linux
Users Groups around
the world,
and many
times that
many mailing
lists on
which you
can peruse
other people's
questions,
and if
all else
fails,
ask a question
yourself.
It is very
rare that
I do not
find an
answer
with Google.
They even
have a
special
focused
search
for Linux
people.
Check it
out. http://www.google.com?linux=- Don't be like me. Download The ISO's of your chosen distro, and please, for your sake, run md5summer! No one likes to make coasters, and even fewer I suspect enjoy getting 3/4's of the way through an install and having it crash and burn. Network installs are great, if you have the bandwidth, but they are sort of complex and require some extra steps to complete successfully. I will cover that bit later.
- Chatrooms are useless. You might as well stab yourself in the head with a spork -- it will provide the same amount of help (repeatedly, and for effect).
- You could always email me. My mailbox is empty most days, and I am a talky bastard. Give me a holler.
Here's the part where you begin. I am going to assume that you are bright enough (that is, brighter than me my first time) and can follow the flow of the install. The guys 'n gals over at the Fedora Project have done an excellent job with Anaconda, and I would give you a 80% chance of getting through the process with a working machine. if not - well, there are options. more often than not you can correct any issue by passing a kernel parameter at the beginning. Consult the aforementioned Google for help, and if at all possible, type in the exact error string that Anaconda spit out at you before dying. If you succeed at this the first time, you can now move on to fattening up your new hotrod with some nifty programs. ◊
It Was a Good Day to Break Something Valuable
It Was a Good Day to Break Something Valuable
Installing and customizing Fedora Core 3 on an IBM Thinkpad
Class is out for the holidays, work is well. . . work. I Have been poking
around with this website once in awhile; starting much, finishing little. But just recently, however,
I had a hankering to do something risky involving an expensive piece of equipment and a soldering iron. Yeap, My old laptop- the
IBM Thinkpad i560 - (all 465.5 MHz of Celeron goodness) needed an overhaul. 
I
started off this process ass-backwards as always - as any engineer worth his salt will tell you (if you get him liquored up), it is the
only way to fly. I decided to go whole-hog on a Linux distro; I thought about Gentoo, or maybe Debian -- I even considered Slackware
for about 15 seconds - but being for the benefit of my own sanity (and less and less these days for my own vanity),
I chose to give the newest release of Fedora Core a shot. (In the past, I had installed both Fedora
Core 1 & 2 on this very machine, and it was both a learning experience and a pain in the tucus to keep it usable on a daily basis.) I
digress; There is a lot more crap to get to in this story. First things last! Install the software!
It is ridiculous sometimes -- what a human being will do out of pure laziness and a desire to avoid the general public. This particular
instance involves 1 (one) CD burner that died, replaced thereafter with 1 (one) DVD burned that also died. Six months ago. I like to test myself,
you see. I could have easily strolled into Best Buy or CompNazi and picked up a burner within these 180 days, but I am MacGyver.
Yes. I am also a git.
So it goes. I was 3 gigabytes into a bitTorrent of Fedora Core 3 when I suddenly realized I had nothing to burn the ISO's with. I was quite
buggered. Simply wishing and blowing kisses at these things was not going to get them on the laptop. So, I did what I always do - I turned
to the village wise-man! On Google I found the niftiest article; it detailed a method of installation that I had not heard of before
- over a network. Yes, all sorts of options: HTTP, FTP, NFS.
It was great. I immediately felt redemption. Smiling happily, I read further about this process -- it seemed simple enough, so I had a sneaking suspicion
that there had to be a catch.
And yes, it was a big one. Fedora Core 3 has a boot disk image available, but one look at the size told me that I was in trouble. I muttered some obscenities and soldiered on, looking for a way to get to this promised land they call the network install. After about 3 hours of trying everything under the sun to boot my poor bastard of a laptop, I tried something unorthodox. I popped in the Fedora Core 1 CD.
[F1 - Main] [F2 - Options] [F3 - General]
[F4 - Kernel] [F5 - Rescue] boot: linux askmethod_
The CD
spun up,
and to
make a
long story
short,
the kludge
worked.
I type
to you
now from
this very
stable
linux laptop,
and I thoroughly
enjoy having
the option
of using
another
operating
system
to putter
around
the internet.
A couple
people
have asked
me how
I managed
this, so
I intend
to write
it down,
with only
a hint
of bloated
verbosity
and a just
a sprinkle
of patent
condescension.
My only
hope is
that you
eventually
get as
much bizarre
enjoyment
out of
Gnu/Linux
as I do
- Lord
knows,
Gateszilla
needs to
be taught
a lesson
in humility
- and a
great way
to do that
is by supporting
alternative
OS choices.
It might
not beat
Windows
in the
end, but
the competition
might make
some of
those tyrants
out at
Redmond
use their
heads when
they sit
down to
code.
Anyhoo. .
. enough out
of me. ONTO the HOWTO. 
Fedora Core 3 SELinux
This is a good article about the major changes in SELinux between Tettnang and Heidelberg. Yeah, uh, they turned it on.
Read up.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7887