Linux for "a" high energy astrophysicist

April 24, 2005

INSPIRON 6000 and Redhat 9

Oh well.... I bought my 5th DELL computer, that is my third Inspiron! This time, I seriously considered Powerbook, but still all the programs I need do not run on Mac OS, though I badly wanted Powerbook! On the other hand, Inspiron 6000 was so attractive with 1920x1400 wide screen. I have 2 Gbyte memory, CPU is some 2.* GHz. Still the price was less than $3000 including 250 Gbyte external disk. Only complain I have is that the hard disk is (only) 80 Gbytes.

As usual, let's start Linux installation. Our Linux guru uses Fedora Core1 for desktop machines in our lab (I got a new desktop recently too!). However, he failed to install Fedora on laptop machines. So, I decided to install Redhat 9.0, which is old and should be stable enough.

I went to www.linux.iso.org, and downloaded three iso images (from Windows XP on my laptop). Also, I got MD5SUM files there.

Now I want to burn those iso images to CDs. I used the standard burning software in Window XP on my Inspiron, then miserably failed... The single iso image file just appeared on CD, this is not what I really want!

I got ISOBurn , then this free software worked perefectlly fine. Now I have three CDs for Redhat 9.0 installation.

I used to use "Partition Magic" to repartition the hard disk. Now, I am trying to use "parted" which comes from the Redhat 9 installatio disk. We'll see...

I am following the instruction at http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/install-guide/s1-x86-dualboot-parted.html. Namely, I boot the machine using the Redhat disk1. At the boot prompt, enter "linux rescue". Skip several things, and at the command prompt, I enter "parted /dev/hda", then with the "p" command, I see the following:

   Minor    Start         End      Type  Filesystem  Flags 
   1        0.031      54.909   primary  fat16       
   2       54.910   72802.375   primary  ntfs        boot
   3    72802.375   76316.594   primary  fat32       
It seems like the third partition is for restore. Well, I tried to "resize", but I got the message "No Implementation: Support for opening ntfs file system is not implemented yet."

I need another software, but still I do not want to use Partition Magic. I found "nftsresize" (http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html). There is a very nice web-page, http://www.a-yu.com/system/ntfsresize.html, which I found very useful (of course, this is written in Japanese, the easiest language for me).

However.... I found ntfresize works only from Linux! Namely, to resize the disk partition before installing linux, I need linux. Oh my god... Finally I gave up, and decided to buy Partition Magic 8.0 from www.symantec.com at $49.95.

Partition Magic 8.0 tells as follows on my hard disk:

Partition         Type                         Size MB   Used MB     Unused MB       Status     Pri/Log
DELLUTILITY(*:)   FAT                             54.9       7.4         47.5        None       Primary
Local Disk (C:)   NTFS                         72747.5   12939.7      59807.8        Active     Primary
Local Disk (C:)   CP/M, Concurrent DOS, CTOS    3514.2    3514.2          0.0        None       Primary
I decided to deleted the third partition (for data restore?), and reduced the second partition. After these two operations, here is my new partitions.
Partition         Type                         Size MB   Used MB     Unused MB       Status     Pri/Log
DELLUTILITY(*:)   FAT                             54.9       7.4         47.5        None       Primary
Local Disk (C:)   NTFS                         20175.4   12939.4       7236.0        Active     Primary
(*)               Unallocated                  56086.3       0.0          0.0        None       Primary
C'est parfait! Partition Magis is amaging... Paying $50 saved a lot of my time.

Let's start Redhat 9.0 installation. I chose "workstation" installation.

.... after spending and wasting some hours, I found a serious problem. The /boot directory should appear within the first 8 Gbytes of the hard disk, so under this configuration (the first ~20 Gbytes are occupied by Window), I cannot boot linux! As suggested in http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux/grub-w2k-HOWTO.html, I decided to make a space for the /boot directory before the Window partition. I restart with Window XP, and run Partition Magic again (yes, it is worth $50). Now the new partition is as follows:

Partition         Type                         Size MB   Used MB     Unused MB       Status     Pri/Log
DELLUTILITY(*:)   FAT                             54.9       7.4         47.5        None       Primary
(*)               Unallocated                    102.0       0.0          0.0        None       Primary
Local Disk (C:)   NTFS                         20073.4   12941.0       7132.4        Active     Primary
(*)               Unallocated                  56086.3       0.0          0.0        None       Primary
OK, then I started installation again. I specified "Automatically partiion", then the Redhat installer made the following partition:
Device         Mount point  Type        Size (Mb)  Start   End
/dev/hda
  /dev/hda1                 vfat               55      1     7
  /dev/hda3    /boot        ext3              102      8    20
  /dev/hda2                 ntfs            20073     21  2579
  /dev/hda4                 Extended        56086   2580  9729
    /dev/hda5  /            ext3            54094   2580  9475
    /dev/hda6               swap             1992   9476  9729 

INSPIRON 6000 and Fedora Core 3

Redhat 9 installation was basically OK, but I could not use internal ethernet card, wireless internet connection, the screen resolution is 800x600 etc.... If I look into the net, people have been succeeding to install Fedora Core 3, which I decided to install.

I made four Fedora Core 3 CD-ROMs from the iso images at www.linuxiso.org. If I specify "upgrade", I got an error, "swap space was not initialized" or something like that. So I decided to install from scratch. I specified automatic partitioning, then I got the following:

     Device        Mount Point    Type    Size(MB)   Start   End
LVM Volume Goups
  VolGroup00                               56032
    LogVol01                      swap      1984 
    LogVol00       /              ext3     54048
Hard Drives
  /dev/sda
    /dev/sda1                     vfat        55         1     7
    /dev/sda3     /boot           ext3       102         8    20
    /dev/sda2                     ntfs     20073        21  2579
    /dev/sda4                     Extended 56086      2580  9729 
      /dev/sda5   VolGroup000     LVM PV   56086      2580  9729    
The installation seemed to be OK, and the system restarted. Then it hung at "Bringing up interface eth0:". Hmm, what can I do??? Anyway, this seems to be a common problem you can find here and there.

I escaped the eth0 set up with "alt-cntrl-del", then continued the normal set up. How impressive, the 1920x1200 resolution was configured automatically! Very nice!

However, I found Fedora Core 3 is v e r y v e r y S L O W. Something must be wrong, but this, too, seems to be not an uncommon problem. A job named "ksoftirqd" seems to be consuming a lot of CPU time. What is it?

It seems like Fedora Core 3 launches several daemons which are not really necessary. I tried to follow this direction to deactivate most the daemons. Still I have "ksoftirrqd/0" which consumes ~60% of CPU! "Top" indicates 99 % of the CPU is consumed by system.

Furthermore, it takes >10 minutes to start up, and does not shutdown properly (either it hangs or some strange error message repeats). Probably, it is time to say "good bye" to Fedora (and Redhat)...

Hello and good bye Mandrake!

What I want is, just like as Redhat used to be, reliable, stable and user-friendly Linux environment without much hassle; I do not mind paying small amount of money, because this is how all the business works! It sounds like currently Mandrake Linux fits in this category. I am impressed by the report at geetduggal.typepad.com/refinery/2005/02/linux_on_dell_i_3.html where Mandrake 10.1 installation on Inspiron 6000 seems to be very smooth out of the box. Mandrake seems to be downloadable, but I want a DVD. So I went to the mandrake shop site and ordered DVD distribution. It was 49.90 EUR. Including shipping, $64.80. Hmm, this is not really *cheap* software... I will see if it is worth or not.

OK, mandrake 10.1 DVD drive arrived in three days. I started installation, then alas, CD-ROM is not recognized! This seems to be a known prlblem and may be avoided by choosing an old version of the kernel from the "expert" mode.

The installtion seems fine, besides that b44 (Broadcom 440x10/100 integrated controller) installation failed. When I restarted, the machin hung up. This is really frustrating! Also, I know that mandrake 10.1 with x11.6.8.1 does not work with ATI Mobility Radeon X300, while Fedora Core 3 with xorg.x11.6.8.1-12 works fine. Hmmm, what shall I do? Shall I go back to Fedora Core 3 or stay with Mandrake 10.1??

Reconcillation with Fedora Core3

OK, once more, probably finally, I try Fedora Core 3. This time I am very selective of the server daemons, such that I disabled all the server settings (System settting --> server setting) besides cups, cups-config-daemons, gpm, kudzu, sshd and syslog.

So far, Fedor Core 3 is working fine, besides that I cannot use the innternal Ethernet card.

Fix b44 large memory bug

The reason that I had many problems before seems to be due to a bug in b44 which happens when memory exceeds 1 Gbyte. Yes, I have the maximum 2 Gbytes of memory! For the time being, I am using a PCMCIA ethernet card to connect Internet, but of course I would like to use the internal ethernet card (Broadcom 440x10/100 Integrated Conroller for which the linux driver is b44).

I install kernel 2.6.9-1.667 source according to the instruction at http://www.eece.maine.edu/~sheaff/module.html. The kernel source rpm is found at http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/3/SRPMS/kernel-2.6.9-1.667.src.rpm .

    rpm -ivvh kernel-2.6.9-1.667.src.rpm
Now I have many files including linux-2.6.9.tar.bz2 under /usr/src/redhat/SOURCE.
    cd /usr/src/redhat/SPECS
    rpmbuild -bp --target=i586 kernel-2.6.spec
Now, under /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.9, we have kernel 2.6.9 tree.

Let's aplly the patch to b44.

    cd /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.9/linux-2.6.9
    wget "https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/attachment.cgi?id=100988"
    patch -p1 < attachment.cgi\?id\=100988
Now, /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.9/linux-2.6.9/drivers/net/b44.c and /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.9/linux-2.6.9/drivers/net/b44.h are patched.

OK, let's rebuild b44.

    cd /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.9/linux-2.6.9
    make modules_prepare
    cd /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.9/linux-2.6.9/drivers/net
    make -C /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.9/linux-2.6.9 M=$PWD modules

Finally, /lib/modules/2.6.9-1.667//kernel//drivers/net/b44.ko has to be replaced with /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.9/linux-2.6.9/drivers/net/b44.ko.
     mv /lib/modules/2.6.9-1.667//kernel//drivers/net/b44.ko /lib/modules/2.6.9-1.667//kernel//drivers/net/b44.ko.original
     cp /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.9/linux-2.6.9/drivers/net/b44.ko /lib/modules/2.6.9-1.667//kernel//drivers/net
     chmod u+x /lib/modules/2.6.9-1.667//kernel//drivers/net/b44.ko
Yahoo! Now I can connect to internet through internal ethernet card!! Fedora Core 3 is working fine now!!!

1920x1200 display

I am enjoying the wide and crisp 1920x1200 display! I needed only a little manual setting of display with Fedora Core 3. The video driver is ATI Mobility Radeon x300. Fedora Core automatically detected it. I specified the 1920x1440 resolution, but this did not work. Instead, 1600x1400 resolution is used, that means image is stretched/distorted horizontally, that is too bad. I had to modify /etc/X11/xorg.conf file manually to specify 1920x1200 resolution. Here is my xorg.conf.

vwware

I upgraded vmware version 5 from version 4 paying $99 to install Window 98 within vmware. The problem was that Inspiron 6000 does not have a floppy disk drive, but my Japanese Window 98 SE requires a boot floppy disk. This was easily solved. Using another linux machine with floppy drive, I used command "dd if=/dev/fd0 of=win98.flp". Then I used this floopy disk "image" from which I booted vmware and window98 within. Now I am running vmware and window 98 within Linux. I am happy with that. The network set-up is easier than before, such that "bridged" network is set up automatically, I can use internet from within vmwre easily. (However, I needed to add "host-only" network to use samba; see below.)

Samba

Vmware used to have its own Samba, but from version 5.0, they quit. Now I have to install samba.

I found http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/updates/3/i386/samba-common-3.0.10-1.fc3.i386.rpm , http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/updates/3/i386/samba-3.0.10-1.fc3.i386.rpm and http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/updates/3/i386/samba-client-3.0.10-1.fc3.i386.rpm. Install in this order, since the latter depends on the former.

Installation of samba was smooth. I kind of forgot how to set-up samba. Let's reflesh the memory. This Japanese page is very useful.

    smbpasswd -a ebisawa

    /etc/init.d/smb restart
If I do /sbin/ifconfig, I see vmnet1 (192.168.???.???) and vmnet8 (172.16.???.???) IP adresses, which are used by vmware internally. With my account (ebisawa),
    smbclient -L  192.168.???.???
    smbclient -L  172.16.???.???
These give you the services provided by samba. OK, samba server is working fine. I do not know what this means, but make sure that the following works too:
    nmblookup -B   192.168.???.??? __SAMBA__
    nmblookup -B   172.16.???.??? __SAMBA__
Using "bridged" network, I could not see the host (linux) from the guest (vmware).
Namely, "ping   192.168.???.???" does not work from win98.
I made the "Host-only" network enable in addition to "bridge".  Then, on the vmware-window98, with 
"Winipcfg", I can see vmware has two ipaddresses, 10.0.17.XXX and 192.168.XXX.XXX.
(By adding "Host-only" the second ip-address appeared.)  Now from win98,
"ping   192.168.???.???" works. From linux, both "ping 10.0.17.XXX"
and "ping 192.168.XXX.XXX" work all right.

You have to turn off "iptables" daemon temporarily on the linux side. On the vmware-win98 side, network computer does not appear automatically, but go to "Find" menu, search for computer, enther "\\192.168.???.???", the address of Linux side. Then you should see the linux machine from within vmware/win98.

Sound problem?

I do not hear any sound with Fedora Core 3. This seems to be a known problem, and there are many web pages regarding this issue. I haven't been able to solve this problem. We will see...

Install xmms to listen to Audio CD

After some web-search, I found out that the "sound" problem is not really sound, but only cd-player problem. See for example, http://www.jennings.homelinux.net/audio_cd.html. Namely, my sound card and sound software on Fedora Core 3 is fine. In fact, if I choose Application --> Sytstem Setting --> Sound Card Detection, the sound comes out from the speaker (do not forget to adjust the volume with alsamixer). However, I cannot listen to the Audio CD in the CD-drive. This is most likely because the CD-drive does not have the analog cable on which most Linux CD-player depends. Actually, I "extracted" music digitally using "Rhythmbox", then it was played all right.

Still I want to listen to the Analog CD directly. They say "xmms" can do that, so I install xmms-1.2.10-9.i386.rpm and xmms-skins-1.2.10-9.i386.rpm from the Fedora Core3 Second disk. Follow the insruction at http://www.xmms.org/docs/readme.php. Note, instruction explained in http://www.jennings.homelinux.net/audio_cd.html (disable "CD Audio Player" and enable "Audio CD Reader") was not necessary.

Yahoo! Now I can listen to crispy CD sound! I am happy!

Configure wireless network

Next thing I will try is to configure the wireless network on linux. It already works fine on Win XP. My wireless card is Dell Wireless 1350 WLAN Mini PCI Card, which they say difficult to configure.

I got ndiswrapper and installed. Look at the installation page at http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/phpwiki/index.php/Installation. Also, I got the Windows XP driver package named "R94827.EXE" from the DELL support site. On Linux, "unzip R94827.EXE" unpacks the package. Now I have the window driver file bcmwl5a.inf.

Then install the driver:

     /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5a.inf
Make sure the installation is OK:
     /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -l
     Installed ndis drivers:
     bcmwl5a driver present, hardware present
Also, now I have /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5a, under which there many files which I do not understand. Load the ndiswrapper load module:
     modprobe ndiswrapper
In /var/log/messages, I see the following message:
   Apr 24 19:42:55 localhost kernel: ndiswrapper version 1.1 loaded (preempt=no,smp=no)
   Apr 24 19:42:55 localhost kernel: ndiswrapper: driver bcmwl5a (Broadcom,02/10/2005, 3.100.35.1) loaded
   Apr 24 19:42:55 localhost kernel: ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:03:03.0[A] -> GSI 7 (level, low) -> IRQ 7
   Apr 24 19:42:55 localhost kernel: ndiswrapper: using irq 7
   Apr 24 19:42:59 localhost kernel: wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:0b:7d:1a:a6:22 using driver bcmwl5a, configuration file 14E4:4320.5.conf
   Apr 24 19:42:59 localhost kernel: wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP, WPA with TKIP, WPA with AES/CCMP
I found /sbin/iwconfig is already included in the Fecora Core 3 package. Then I did "/sbin/ifconfig wlan0 up".

I found a potentially a big trobule withd Fedora Core3?

So far, so good. But I found a problem which could be a serious bug. I am a bit uneasy to start with Xwindow since from time to time I encounter problem in X11, and test mode is more reliable. So, customarily, I edited /etc/inittab, such that "id:3:initdefault:" instead of "id:5:initdefault:". This always worked in any linux system I used besides Fedora Core 3! In Fedora Core 3, I got an error in the booting process (the error seems to be related to "hplip" HP printer server, which I installed manually in order to use hp psc1350). I do not see this error when "id:5:initdefault". Anyway, in the text mode, the screen freezes, and I have to "kill" the machine by removing the battery.

This is really scary, and I do not like it. I am not sure if this is Fedora Core 3 problem or hplip problem. Anyway, when I got this problem, I insert the Fedora Core 3 disk 1, start "linux rescue" then edit /etc/inittab. For the time being, I am using the machine with "id:5:initdefault". As long as the Xwindow login mode, the system is working all right. This is the end of Inspiron 6000 and Fedora Core3 section written in 2005. The following was written in or earliar than 2002 on other machines.


Redhat 9.0

written in 2002

I installed large USB external disks on my desktop PC, but suddenly these disks start freezing! This may be because my Redhat 7.3 system is too old with >200 Gbytes hard disks?

I want to upgrade to Redhat 9.0. I bought a book named "Red Hat Linux 9 for Dummies". The boot failed from the installation CD1! Then I downloaded bootdisk.img from the Redhat web-site, ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/9/en/os/i386/images/, and made a boot floppy disk with the following command:

dd if=bootdisk.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=1440k
The boot was fine, but still the CD-ROM is not recognized! This is really DUMMY CD-ROMs!!

I decided dump this Dummy book. Return money, please...

I went to Redhat official page at http://www.redhat.com/download/howto_download.html. Following the instruction, I download the files from ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/9/en/iso/i386.

Oh, well, this ftp site is so busy, and I cannot access! In fact, I am not sure what is going on Redhat recently. I went to a technical book shop in downtown Geneva, trying to purchase Redhat 9.0 box, but they do not sell it (so I bought that DUMMY book). Since Redhat 9.0, the project is merged with an open "Fedora" project? Personally, I liked the convinience being able to "buy" a Redhat (or whaever) CD-ROM box at a book store with a reasonable price.

Anyway, meanwhile, I found a nice web-site at http://www.linuxiso.org, from which I downloaded the CD-ROM images.

I tell you, I subscribed Redhat Network, paying $60 or so per year, but this is completely useless... Of course, I will quit subscription.

Now I have downloaded the following three files:

shrike-i386-disc1.iso
shrike-i386-disc1.iso
shrike-i386-disc1.iso
Reboot from the boot floppy, disk, and start installing Redhat 9.0 from the hard disk.

nvidia video driver

Redhat 9.0 installation seems to be successful. Now, I am going to have a (usual) problem of nvidia video driver and vmware.

Got NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4349.run from the Nvidia web-site, and executed. Update seems to be fine (Nvidia, you made a good job!), but I got the error message, "libImlib.so.1 cannot open". But this seems to be error from "enlightenment".

enlightenment

I found enlightenment-0.16.6-1.rh9.i386.rpm and installed. No, still I get the same error...

I found this guy had the same problem. Hmm, sounds a bit difficult to solve... I got Imlib from the enlightenment web site, built imlib and enlightment from the source. The Imlibs are created under /usr/local/lib, while original imlibs are found under /usr/lib. Remove /usr/bin/enlightenment, and make a symbolic link to /usr/local/enlightenment/bin/enlightenment.

setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH /usr/local/lib\:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
This is not the end of the story though. We need DEFAULT theme, otherwise enlightment complains... We need to get "etheme" from the enlightenment website, and install one by one... Then, finally, enlightenment is OK (best window manager!), and I am happy...

vmware

vmware is OK jut re-running vmware-config.pl. Samba runs fine after running the following commands as root:
  /etc/init.d/smb start
  service ipchains stop

format or not format???

I am still wondering if I needed "/sbin/mke2fs" on those external drives. It seems like "mount -t vfat" works without re-partitioning... Still thinking...

Anyway, I decided to re-reformat the IOMEGA USB 250 Gbyte disk which I had trouble with my old Red hat 7.3. Now mke2fs 1.32 in Redhat 9.0 seems much faster than mke2fs 1.27. You will see if I can use those USB and Fire disk without problems on Red hat 9.0...

Boot problem!

Already I got a new problem... When reboot, if the external disks are powered-on, the systems hangs when "Checking for new hardware". Related to "ohci1394" driver? Found this page which suggests to disable the BIOS Legacy USB support. I tried, but did not help....

This seems to be a known problem, and found several pages to suggest solutions: here and there and there. Following these authors (thanks!), I added "nofirewire" on the command line in my /etc/grub.conf, which looks as follows:

   # grub.conf generated by anaconda
   #
   # Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
   # NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
   #          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
   #          root (hd0,1)
   #          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda3
   #          initrd /initrd-version.img
   #boot=/dev/hda
   default=0
   timeout=10
   splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
   title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-8)
	   root (hd0,1)
	   kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi nofirewire
	   initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8.img
   title Windows XP
	   root (hd0,0)
	   makeactive
	   chainloader +1


Still, if USB drives are on when booting, system hangs. I turn off USB hard disks, and turn them on after booting.

Since ohci1394 is not loaded during boot, I need to do "modprobe ohci1394" before mounting firewire disk. So, here is my procedure to mount one external firewire disk and three USB disks:

  #To recognize firedisk drive
  modprobe ohci1394
  #Make sure it is recognized (tail -f  /var/log/messages)
  #mount the firewire drive
  mount -t ext2 /dev/sda1 /local2
  #Then switch-on the USB disks one by one
  #The first on, wait for a while (check /var/log/messages), then mount it!
  mount -t ext2 /dev/sdb1 /local3
  #second one, on, then mount it!
  mount -t ext2 /dev/sdc1 /local4
  #third one, on, then mount it!
  mount -t ext2 /dev/sdd1 /local5

USB printer problem

Now I cannot use the HP deskjet 940C USB printer... There were no problems with Redhat 7.3. I am going to find a solution.

Redhat 7.3, vmware 3.2, Samba

On my desktop machine, which has Redhat 7.3 and kernel version 2.4.18-3, I installed vmware 3.2. Yes, this works with kernel 2.4.18-3 (almost) perfectly! Somehow it was very slow on KDE. I switched the window manager to gnome, then it seems fine.

A good news is upgrade from vmware 3.1 to 3.2 was free! Well, actually I purchased version 2.0 (just $150 or so), and already versioned up to 3.1.1 for free. This is a very good buy, compared to the products of Microsoft! In any case, I do not dislike Microsoft products (and difficult to avoid), that is the reason I am running Windows on vmware.

Anyway, Redhat 7.3 includes samba. So, when I installed vmware, I did not choose the option "enable to share with host computer". There are a few tricks to run samba included in Redhat 7.3 and make host computer visible from virtual machine.

  1. As root, configure vmware with vmware-config.pl, choose hostonly and NAT for network setting. Disable "enable to share with host computer" (disable samba which came with vmware).
  2. Set up the samba password with smbpasswd. At least once I had trouble with password mixing upper and lower case letters. Maybe better to use all lower case password.
  3. Start samba daemon on the host. Enter "/etc/init.d/smb start" as root. (I had a trouble to find the location of this command.)
  4. As a user, when start vmware, in the configuration editor, enable hostonly and NAT.
  5. Login to the Windows in the virtual machine with the samba username and password. From second time, you do not need to enter password.
  6. You may have to disable firewall temprarily. Enter service ipchains stop. Once host is seen from the virtual machine, you may restart with service ipchains start.
  7. If the host does not appaer in the "Network computer" in the virtual machine, go to "search for another computer" menu on the Windows, enter \\hostcomputername.
NAT enable you to see the outside network "borrowing" the host's IP address. The host only network is used to communicate between the host and virtual machine (as I understand).

In case of trouble with samba, I always refer to the very nice page at http://www.samba.gr.jp/doc/diag.html by Odagiri-san. Of course this page is written in Japanese, and you do not have any troubles to read it, don't you?


August 5, 2002

After installing Redhat 7.3 (kernel version 2.4.18-3), I found vmware doest not work with this kernel version (sigh...). So I had to downgrade the kernel to the one in Redhat 7.2 (2.4.7-10). It turned out this is not as difficult as I was afraid of.

  1. Go to ftp://rpmfind.net/linux/redhat/7.2/en/os/i386/RedHat/RPMS/, and obtain kernel-2.4.7-10.i386.rpm.
  2. As root, "rpm -ivvh --force kernel-2.4.7-10.i386.rpm"
  3. Now you have the following:
      /lib/modules/2.4.7-10
      /boot//initrd-2.4.7-10.img   /boot//System.map-2.4.7-10
      /boot//module-info-2.4.7-10  /boot//vmlinuz-2.4.7-1
    
  4. To my surprise, rpm takes care of updating /boot/grub/menu.lst (symbolic link to ./grub.conf). The following entry was automatically added:
    title Red Hat Linux (2.4.7-10)
    	root (hd0,1)
    	kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.7-10 ro root=/dev/hda3
    	initrd /initrd-2.4.7-10.img
    
  5. Reboot, from the grub menu, choose "Red Hat Linux (2.4.7-10)".
  6. Everything works fine with the old version of kernel, besides that firewire is unstable (my external disk was not recognized) and Nvidia video driver does not work (another sigh...).
  7. From http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=linux, obtain the driver for Redhat 7.2, NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-2960.rh72up.i386.rpm.
  8. Install this one. Be careful that it overwrites /usr/X11R6//lib/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.o, which may not be a problem in the end though (see below).
  9. Then xwindow is ok with 2.4.7-10. To my surprise, the same nvidia video driver seems to be working fine with 2.4.18-3, so I keep using this driver.
  10. Install vmware 3.1.1. Working ok...
By the way, this is my XF86Config-4 on Insprion 8200. The 1600x1200 resolution is crisp. (I do not see many desktop machines which can display 1600x1200...) Note the InputDevice section, where the mouse Protocol is IMPS/2. I am using an optical wireless 3 wheel mouse. I can scroll with the middle scrolling button in several applications such as gnome-terminal, galeon. In enlightenment desktop, scrolling the middle-button switches Desktops! This is so convenient!
August 2, 2002

I bought my fourth DELL computer... Any reward from DELL? That is Dimension 8200 desktop model. Pentium 4, 2.53 GHz, 2 Gbytes of memory, 120 Gbytes of internal hard disk. It came with DVD, CD-RW, and zip-drive. USB and Firewire connections are available.

Windows XP was installed already. It took me while to set up the Windows XP/Linux Dual boot system. After some trial, the procedure I finally took is the following:

  1. Use the XP install disk, completely erase the hard disk, format with NTFS, and install XP.
  2. Use Partition magic, and create a blank partition after the NTFS partition.
  3. Install Redhat 7.3 on the blank partition, which will be formated as ext3 with Redhat installer. Specify "grub" boot loader, and install it on Master Boot Record.
  4. Redhat 7.3 is installed. When the machine is started, "grub" screen appears, but Windows XP is gone!! Start Redhat, and edit /bootd/grub/menu.list. It looks like as follows:
      # grub.conf generated by anaconda
      #
      # Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
      # NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
      #          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
      #          root (hd0,1)
      #          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda3
      #          initrd /initrd-version.img
      #boot=/dev/hda
      default=0
      timeout=10
      splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
      title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-3)
    	  root (hd0,1)
    	  kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-3 ro root=/dev/hda3 hdd=ide-scsi
    	  initrd /initrd-2.4.18-3.img
    
    Append the following:
      title Windows XP
    	  root (hd0,0)
    	  makeactive
    	  chainloader +1
    
  5. Then the dual boot system is completed! However, I found NTFS partition, unlike FAT32 partition which was used by Windows 95/98, may not be seen from Linux. This is inconvenient, and I wanted to add a new FAT32 partition which may be seen both from Windows XP and Linux. I tried to create a new FAT32 partition with Partition Magic, but I Partition Magic did not allow me to create that between NTFS and Linux partition. If a new partition is made after Linux partition, Windows XP did not start. Presumably, in the procedure 2 above, I should have created a FAT32 partition after the NTFS partition, but before the blank partition where Linux will be installed.
Redhat 7.3 with Kernel 2.4.18-3 is great. I had no troubles to use a USB printer and firewire external hard disk. Firewire support seems to be more stable than Redhat 7.2
July 1, 2002.

I am using Insprion 8000 with Redhat 7.1.

Configuration

My Inspiron 8000 laptop has the following configuration:

That is a dual boot system, so you choose either linux or Window ME when you boot. From Linux, you can mount the dos partition, and read/ write from/to the dos partition. Within linux, I have vmware, and I have Window 98 (Japanese) under vmware. The Window 98 and Linux communicate using Samba, so I can share the same files between Linux and Window 98.

Powerpoint presentation

I do most of work under Linux, but I want to use Powerpoint for presentation. So, this is what I do: I make figures under linux (usually postscript files), and convert them to jpg with 'xv'. Often I use the xv 'grab' command to grab part of the figure. This way, for example, you can get figures from publication and save as jpg files. You save them under linux. From Window98, you can see those jpg files through Samba, so you can insert them into Powerpoint easily. I save the Powerpoint file under linux. When I am finished, I copy the file from linux to the dos partition (under Window Me). When I do the presentation, I boot the machine with Window Me, and use that Powerpoint file. This is so convenient, once you get use to it. Of course, I have Powerpoint both Window Me and Window 98.

You may want to ask "Why don't you use Mac OS X?" Yes, I love to! I am waiting for FTOOLS, CIAO and ISDC software to work under Mac OS X. Then I would buy one.

kernel update

I needed to update to kernel 2.4.7-10 to use firewire drives.

video

The nvidia video chip requires a special driver from the nvidia web site. Please take a look at http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=linux. NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-2313.rh72up.i386.rpm is working fine with me.

winmodem

My winmodem is usable with the ltmodem-6.00b14.tar.gz package which I obtained from http://www.heby.de/ltmodem. I use 'wvdial' to call. My '/etc/wvdial.conf' looks like as follows:
  [winmodem]
  Modem = /dev/ttyLT0
  Baud = 57600
  Init1 = ATZ
  SetVolume = 0
  Dial Command = ATDT

  [Dialer Defaults]
  Username = my_user_name
  Password = my_password
  Phone = 8401111
  Area Code = 0840
  Inherits = winmodem
  Stupid mode = 0
  Modem = /dev/ttyLT0
  Baud = 57600
  Init1 = ATZ
  SetVolume = 1
  Dial Command = ATDT
  Init4 = ATM1L1

My ISP is www.bluewin.ch. I have an ISDN connection, but not been able to connect linux with ISDN. I will see...

vmware

vmware is great. I needed to upgrade to version 3.0 to work with kernel 2.4.7-10.

samba

Samba which came from vmware 3.0 did not work appropriately. I had to install samba 2.2.3 indenpendently. I have set up the /usr/local/samba//lib//smb.conf file so that only vmware can see my linux machine. Here it is:
  [global]
    interfaces = vmnet1
    coding system = euc
    client code page = 932
    encrypt passwords = Yes
    workgroup = WORKGROUP
    map to guest = Bad User
  [tmp]
	   path = /tmp
  [msdos]
	   path = /mnt/msdos
	   writable = yes
  [homes]
    comment = Home directories
    browseable = no
    writable = yes
  [printers]
    comment = All printers
    path = /var/spool/lpd
    browseable = no
    guest ok = yes
    writable = no
    printable = yes

firewire external disk

I have a script /sbin/fireup, that is:
  insmod ieee1394
  insmod raw1394
  insmod ohci1394
#  insmod sbp2
  mount -t ext2 /dev/sda1 /mnt/fire
There is /mnt/fire directory, where the fire-wire disk is mounted. Watch out for insmod sbp2. That was required for kernel 2.4.7-10 (Redhat 7.2). On the other hand, on 2.4.18-3 (Redhat 7.3), it has made the system freeze so I removed it. I am not sure what is going on... My 80 Gbytes and 120 Gbytes external hard disks are working perfectly.

(On July 1, 2002)
I have bought a new 160 Gbytes external firewire drive (Maxtor) in USA. It was $400 at Comp USA.

I started "fdisk" and removed the DOS partition, which was originally "start cylinder=1 and end cylinder= 19928, blocks=160071628+)". I tried to create a new Linux partition, but it says the upper-limit of the cylinder is 14593 (1 cylinder = 16065 *512 bytes), that means only 14593x16065x512 bytes = 120 Gbytes is available (does fdisk v2.11n have a 120 Gbytes upper-limit?). I went to the fdisk "expert menu" and increased number of cylinders from 14593 to 19928. Then I created the linux partition, which seems to be OK. After that, I reformatted the disk with "/sbin/mke2fs /dev/sda1".

    [root@isdcprv7 ebisawa]# /sbin/fdisk /dev/sda1

    The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 19927.
    There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
    and could in certain setups cause problems with:
    1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
    2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
       (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

    Command (m for help): p

    Disk /dev/sda1: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 19927 cylinders
    Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

	 Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
    /dev/sda1p1             1     19928 160071628+  83  Linux

    Command (m for help):
    [root@isdcprv7 ebisawa]# df
    Filesystem           1k-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
    /dev/hda3             34985476   8327520  24880768  26% /
    /dev/hda2                46668      8851     35408  20% /boot
    none                    257180         0    257180   0% /dev/shm
    /dev/sda1            157558536        20 149554936   1% /mnt/fire

Enlightenment

After updating kernel, the default sawfish window manage is not working properly. I installed Enlightenmetn, which I came to like much better.

ISDC software

Reference Platform 3.0 was complied ok, except that the ISDCroot is not compatible with the latest root (3.02.07). You will need isdcroot.3.3.2. To compile isdcroot.3.3.2, I needed to upgrade to ril 3.1.3 and common 1.3.12.

Osm is working fine with root 3.00.06, besides two modules which I could not compile.

You need the following packages seperately (I acknowledge Reiner Rohlfs for the information), from http://isdc.unige.ch/~isdc_lib/delivery/sorted_projects_list.html.

tools_lib		(has to be the first to be installed)
iosm_library		(has to be the second to be installed)
osm_spi_display
osm_operational_data
osm_omc_display       <-- I could not compile this on my environment. 
osm_oem_display
osm_mode_display
osm_jemx_display
osm_irem_count_rates  <-- I could not compile this on my environment. 
osm_ibis_display
osm_hk_values
osm_hk_list
osm_hk_display
osm_gti_display
osm_desktop
osm_alert_display

Printer

I am using both postscript printers connected to the network and a local inkjet printer. To set up printer, use /usr/bin/printtool with root account. As a local printer, I use HP deskjet 940c with USB connection. Choose /dev/usb/lp0 for the printer device. On Redhat 7.1 I could not find a driver for this printer, so I chose Deskjet 950C for the printer driver, which is working fine. I can print color postscript files on the inkjet printer.

From VMware, I can see the local USB printer directly. To use the USB printer from VMware/Window98, you have to quit using the USB printer from linux first, by removing the printer module with "rmmod printer". Then on VMware configuration and device manu, grab the local USB printer. After that, you can see the USB local printer as if it is directly connected to Window98. Set up the printer as it is a "local printer" (not the network printer).

Also, from VMware/Window98, I can use the network printer connected to linux through Samba. Set up the printer as a "network printer".