G
Guest
Guest
This is mainly aimed at people who have recently finished the base installation of linux,
and finding it difficult to configure it for their own use.i've included the problems which are posted the most.
It’s not possible to think about all the possible difficulties a person may face, so please
add to this thread to make it more useful.
Correcting the display
Certain distributions like debian,mandrake etc do not correctly detect the refresh rate and
resolution of the monitor.this is due to an incorrect value of the modelinein the
XFree86Config file.to fix this,go to here, and supply the requisite values for getting the correct modeline.
Now find the XFree86Config file using the #locate command.open the file in any editor
and copy that value of modeline in the “monitor� block in the following format
Modeline “[resolution]@[refresh rate]� [value of modeline]
Now go to the “screen’ block and add the resolution @refresh rate(without hz) under the
default colour depth in the line listing ur available screen resolutions.
Restart X and the problem should be solved.
Accessing the windows partitions
Most modern distros automatically detect the windows partition,if present,while a few others
don’t.to be able to view your windows files when ur logged into linux,u need to mount
the partition that houses those files.
First create the directories to mount the partitions in using#mkdir /directorypath
In my case,the directories are placed in /mnt,so the command is mkdir /mnt/directoryname
.now mount the necessary partition using#mount device path mont-point
,where device path is the name of the partition as in /dev,and mount-point is the name
of the directory u created.
To make the mounting permanent,ie to make sure the mounting occurs automatically u boot,u
need to edit the /etc/fstab file.details of the file can be found
here.
Kernel recompilation
The phrase “kernel recompilation� presents the picture of a geek to most of the new linux
users,but it’s absolutely not true.in fact,it’s just tweaking the heart of the system
in the most user friendly way possible.because u can change the way the linux kernel
works,you can tailor the system to ur needs,which results in more optimized performances.
However,tweaking the kernel is not always necessary,unless you need to enable a few features
that are not enabled by default.for example,if your windows partition uses the ntfs
filesystem,then ur kernel needs to have ntfs read support.but some distros like fc3 do not
have ntfs read support enabled by default.to make these changes,u need to change the
kernel.you can always keep a backup of your default kernel and boot through it to avoid
messing up the system.
The kernels-source is generally located in thr /usr/src directory.or else, u can download
the latest stable kernel from www.kernel.org.if u’ve downloaded the kernel,first
uncompress it using #bunzip2 filename.tar.bz2or #gunzip filename.tar.gz
(if the extension is .gz).then untar it using #tar -xvf filename.tar
Enter the directory containing the kernel source and issue the following commands one
after another:
a)#make mrproper(prepares the kernel installation directories for a rebuild)
b)#make xconfig(this is the most important step where you get to configure all the kernel
features.if this is ur first time,go through the help files associated with each of the
kernel modules.if you are recompiling the kernel for some specific purpose,first configure
that option before you forget it)
c)#make dep(this is to fix the dependencies that have not been fixed manually)
d)#make clean(not necessary if you are using this ource for the first time.this coomands
cleans up the source tree for a complete rebuild)
e)#make bzImage(this creates a compressed image of the kernel with the options you
selected.this step may take some time,depending on the options you selected and the system
memory.
Now copy the kernel image to the /boot directory using #cp bzImage /boot/bzImage.
After the file is placed in the /boot directory,edit the /boot/grub/grub.conf and add the
new image to the boot list.
Then reboot your machine to boot using your new kernel.
and finding it difficult to configure it for their own use.i've included the problems which are posted the most.
It’s not possible to think about all the possible difficulties a person may face, so please
add to this thread to make it more useful.
Correcting the display
Certain distributions like debian,mandrake etc do not correctly detect the refresh rate and
resolution of the monitor.this is due to an incorrect value of the modelinein the
XFree86Config file.to fix this,go to here, and supply the requisite values for getting the correct modeline.
Now find the XFree86Config file using the #locate command.open the file in any editor
and copy that value of modeline in the “monitor� block in the following format
Modeline “[resolution]@[refresh rate]� [value of modeline]
Now go to the “screen’ block and add the resolution @refresh rate(without hz) under the
default colour depth in the line listing ur available screen resolutions.
Restart X and the problem should be solved.
Accessing the windows partitions
Most modern distros automatically detect the windows partition,if present,while a few others
don’t.to be able to view your windows files when ur logged into linux,u need to mount
the partition that houses those files.
First create the directories to mount the partitions in using#mkdir /directorypath
In my case,the directories are placed in /mnt,so the command is mkdir /mnt/directoryname
.now mount the necessary partition using#mount device path mont-point
,where device path is the name of the partition as in /dev,and mount-point is the name
of the directory u created.
To make the mounting permanent,ie to make sure the mounting occurs automatically u boot,u
need to edit the /etc/fstab file.details of the file can be found
here.
Kernel recompilation
The phrase “kernel recompilation� presents the picture of a geek to most of the new linux
users,but it’s absolutely not true.in fact,it’s just tweaking the heart of the system
in the most user friendly way possible.because u can change the way the linux kernel
works,you can tailor the system to ur needs,which results in more optimized performances.
However,tweaking the kernel is not always necessary,unless you need to enable a few features
that are not enabled by default.for example,if your windows partition uses the ntfs
filesystem,then ur kernel needs to have ntfs read support.but some distros like fc3 do not
have ntfs read support enabled by default.to make these changes,u need to change the
kernel.you can always keep a backup of your default kernel and boot through it to avoid
messing up the system.
The kernels-source is generally located in thr /usr/src directory.or else, u can download
the latest stable kernel from www.kernel.org.if u’ve downloaded the kernel,first
uncompress it using #bunzip2 filename.tar.bz2or #gunzip filename.tar.gz
(if the extension is .gz).then untar it using #tar -xvf filename.tar
Enter the directory containing the kernel source and issue the following commands one
after another:
a)#make mrproper(prepares the kernel installation directories for a rebuild)
b)#make xconfig(this is the most important step where you get to configure all the kernel
features.if this is ur first time,go through the help files associated with each of the
kernel modules.if you are recompiling the kernel for some specific purpose,first configure
that option before you forget it)
c)#make dep(this is to fix the dependencies that have not been fixed manually)
d)#make clean(not necessary if you are using this ource for the first time.this coomands
cleans up the source tree for a complete rebuild)
e)#make bzImage(this creates a compressed image of the kernel with the options you
selected.this step may take some time,depending on the options you selected and the system
memory.
Now copy the kernel image to the /boot directory using #cp bzImage /boot/bzImage.
After the file is placed in the /boot directory,edit the /boot/grub/grub.conf and add the
new image to the boot list.
Then reboot your machine to boot using your new kernel.