The Linux Letter for
December 6, 1999
Hello again! Yes, it's been a long hiatus
for the 'Letter, but the wait has been worth it. In the midst of
testing new hardware and software, working through bugs and
still managing to attend a class or two, it's been a three ring
circus here!
Here's the latest scoop on what's happening
in my little chaotic corner of the world!
The nameserver for several domains that The
NOSPIN Group controls, ns1.fluidlight.com, has a new RAID 1
controller keeping critical data mirrored to another drive. The
controller, provided by Arco Computer Products, is part of a
long term test to compare the efficiency of IDE and SCSI RAID
arrays under Linux.
Another long term test that's just about to
get underway is with Abit's BP6 motherboard. This board supports
dual Celeron CPUs and, with its two controllers, up to eight IDE
devices. We're already using one for ns1.fluidlight.com, and the
new board that just arrived will provide us with a long-term
test platform to experiment with overclocking and system
reliability.
The mail server, mail.nospin.org, which
many of you use for your email is now a little bit more reliable
with a replacement motherboard, CPU and memory. The system now
has a Tekram P6-ProA5 motherboard and PII-300 processor,
replacing the failing Intel motherboard and Celeron 333. Also,
it's been beefed up with more hard drive space and a tape backup
system.
That's enough news. Let's get to this
week's business!
Several people have written to me asking a
pretty common question. They've got old PCs that have small hard
drives, not too much memory and Windows 3.1. They want to know
how to convert the system to Linux. These systems, usually with
486 or slow Pentium processors are all over the place now. They
don't have enough "oomph" for Windows 95 or 98 and the
components usually aren't worth scavenging, but it seems a shame
to just throw them away.
Fortunately, these systems are great
candidates for Linux. And installing Linux is easy! First, of
course, you need to get a copy of Linux. You can usually find
them at your local computer store, in one of those really thick
books on Linux (such as Que's Using Linux: Special Edition), by
downloading it from one of the popular sites on the Internet,
such as cdrom.com, or by mail (like
The NOSPIN Group's RedHat Linux 6.1 PowerKit…yes, a shameless
plug).
Once you've got your copy, you'll need to
make a boot disk. Although most of the Linux distributions will
boot from a CD-ROM, you'll probably find that an older computer
won't support this function. Different distributions have
different methods of making boot disks. Usually there is a text
file on the CD that describes exactly what to do.
The biggest problem that you'll face is
deciding what to install. If you're limited by a hard drive
that's well under a gigabyte in size, you aren't going to be
able to install everything. Fortunately, most new Linux
distributions have several "default" configurations to
choose from. For instance, with RedHat 6.1, there is at least
one workstation configuration that will install just those files
to support a system with limited resources. You'll find things
like the kernel sources, development libraries and complex
graphic support won't be installed, and that's all right,
because you aren't going to be doing that kind of work on an old
computer.
A few hints will help you to a trouble-free
installation. Before you do anything, make sure that you know
exactly what is in your computer. Write down the model of video
card and the amount of memory that it has. Note what kind of
hard drive controller you're using. If it's a SCSI controller,
be sure that you know exactly what kind it is. If the system has
a network card installed, write down the name. Know what kind of
monitor you have, and, if possible, what the maximum resolution
and refresh rates are. Make a note of where your mouse is
connected. If it's a serial mouse, you may need to tell Linux
what port it's using…and under Linux, the serial ports are
numbered starting with zero, not one, so COM1 under DOS is
actually TTYs0 under Linux. If you have a modem, know what
serial port and IRQ it uses.
Linux is great at probing hardware and
detecting what is installed in your system, but the probing
functions seem to work better on newer hardware than on older,
so a list prepared ahead of time will save you trouble in the
long run.
The Linux HOWTOs
are an invaluable resource to help you install and configure
your system. You can find them in HTML format at The NOSPIN
Group's public service web site, listed below.
Arco Computer Products: http://www.arcoide.com
Abit: http://www.abit.com.tw
Intel: http://www.intel.com
Tekram: http://www.tekram.com
Que: http://www.mcp.com/publishers/que
NSG PowerKit: http://www.nospin.com/linux/linux_promo.html
cdrom.com: ftp://ftp.cdrom.com
Linux HOWTOs: http://www.nospin.org/linux/HOWTO
Networking is hot! Prices are dropping like
crazy on network interface cards, hubs and other accessories
that you can use to connect your computers together. But if you
don't want to drop the money to buy all that stuff, there's a
cheaper way to do it…and the software is already on your
system!
What you need: a null modem cable and a
serial port (one port for each computer), two computers running
Linux. Here's what you do: Connect the cable to both
computers. Type this command on each computer:
/sbin/slattach -p cslip -s
<speed> <serial port> & /sbin/ifconfig sl0
<your IP> pointopoint <other system's IP> up
It's a handful to type…watch your
spelling. The speed parameter is any valid speed that your
serial ports support…they should be the same on each computer.
The serial port is the port that the cable is connected to…and
remember, the serial port number scheme under Linux is different
than Windows. COM1 is ttyS0 with Linux.
That's it, your systems are now networked.
No, it's not as fast as Ethernet, but it'll get the job done on
the cheap!
Thanks to Dimitris Economou and the gang at
tuneup.linux.com!
Happy computing!
Drew Dunn
