Baslinux mailing list

[Matrix Mole <matrixm AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

I'll be replying to a number of things said by various people here again.
Most of my replies apply to Robert's post, so his is getting most quote
time, but I haven't forgotten you James :)

 On Tue, 7 Oct 2003, Robert Steinmetz wrote:

> Most PCs won't boot without a keyboard. Unless there is a space issue
> you should consider a monitor even if only for emergencies. Sometimes
> it's the only way to get access,. Say for example the network card fails.

I know this. In fact, I will have a keyboard, and even a mouse connected
to the system. I can easily swap my monitor cable from my Win98 box to the
BL box in a matter of seconds (setup on table is WinBox Monitor BLBox). So
it's essentially headless (or will be when I'm finished), but I will be
able to get at it physically very rapidly if I have to for some unforseen
emergency. Eventually, I intend to have one of those switches on my table
that I can use to simply swap the monitor back and forth between the two
machines. That way I won't even have to move tha cable over. I've seen
recently setups where you can even have keyboards and mice setup like
this, but I've seen Win98 freak in the past when I've unplugged the
keyboard and/or mouse and then plug it back in. I thank you for the
warning though. :)

> Essentially this is setting up the Linux box as a router, it is a fairly
> common application.

Ahh, I didn't realise that's all a router was. I thought the router was a
seperate piece of equipment that all the cable connected to. I was always
confused between the descriptions of router/hub/switches.

> >This I know is a win98 modemshare issue,
> >
> Not necessarily. If the modem is on the BL box, then you can use it as a
> gateway, and access the internet through it for both Windows 98  and
> Mac.

There are two problems with putting the modem into the BL box. One, it's a
winmodem, not too much of a problem there, I can headache my way through
to get it working under linux if I had to I'm sure. More importantly
though is that I'm using Netzero until I can afford cablemodem. Netzero
doesn't have linux version of it's software. They require you to use their
software to dial in and connect with their servers. It's a pain, but what
I've got to work with for the cheap price of only $10/month (all local
ISPs charge minimum 18).

> When you add the cable modem you'll only need to change that part
> of the BL setup, the Mac and Win 98 machine can stay the same. BTW when
> you get the cablemodem, get one with an ethernet connection, not a USB
> if you can. It makes networking several machines easier and is far more
> flexible, you can add a wireless router if you want.

I didn't even know they made cablemodems that were USB instead of
ethernet. Wow, learn something new everyday. Especially in this field of
enjoyment :)  And here we have the concept of a router being discussed
again. I think it's all a conspiracy by the computer hardware companies to
get us to buy more and more hardware "just in case" since we don't know
the difference between them all :)  Although, I think I'll steer clear of
wireless for a while until the price comes down to about where the wired
networkd equipment prices are at for home users right now.

> >As for samba, I can't say anything about until I have the hardware to
> >start connecting the machines together. Once I have that I'll post some of
> >my results here.
> >
> Before you install samba get basic TCP/IP working on all machines. It's
> much easier that way.

Check, I'll remember that for when I have the hardware connected up and
running. I'm sure i'll be back with more questions once I do reach this
stage of my setup :)

> >That's what I was afraid of. I wish I could find some computer user groups
> >in my area to sponge knowledge from :)
> >
> Feel free to ask any questions here.

I'll do that. I like the response I've gotten so far. If they haven't
given me the answers directly, they've told me exactly where to look for
those answers. Which in my experience, is just as good. :)

Steven, you talked about renaming boot.bat into autoexec, and I like that
concept. I may do that, and simply set my win98 msdos.sys file to give the
boot menu with a defaul of standard boot with 2 second delay (that way, if
I must prevent auto-load of linux, I can do so). This way, I can turn my
machine on, and by the time I get back with a drink I'll be at the linux
Login prompt. :)

Ok, now onto responses to James' attempt to keep me from going all
masochistic on building this monstrosity under BL :)

James, I may wind up not using BL for this whole mess. But, BL works for
what I'm wanting right now. To give an example of my computer masochistic
nature though, once I know that can get this whole mess up and running
properly, I intend to set my eyes on LinuxFromScratch and start working on
that. Then I will move this whole configuration over onto what I build
from there. Just for those who don't know, LinuxFromScratch (LFS) isn't
truly a distro as per se. It requires you to have another distro installed
already. What you do is build the entire system from the source documents.
Kernel and all. Thus you basically need a drive with all the libraries and
development tools to build your system. I've read about people buildin LFS
systems that could fit into the space of a single floppy. I think someone
mentioned using LFS in even smaller space than that, but I can't swear by
it.

I do agree, don't re-invent the wheel if you don't have to, but I'm just
one of those people that has to do this kind of stuff on my own, or I
won't learn it. What I've learned about building a linux system in just
the last couple of days since I started working on it has amazed me. I
look forward to continuing the feeling of that amazement in the days/month
to come. Hopefully in the years to come too :)

Sorry for getting so long winded folks. :)

Matrix Mole
matrixm AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org