Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Thu, 21 Dec 2006, Greg Mayman wrote:

> I have downloaded BL3.40, hard disk version and installed it.
>
> Starting from a clean boot, I managed to find my way around some of the
> things with a little help from my friends.
>
> Eventually, I did a pppsetup, then ppp-on and it connected to my
> ISP!

I am very impressed that you got this working on the first try.

> But abiword gave a "zcat: unexpected end of file" error.

Sounds like your file got truncated during download, or corrupted.

> And sc and xfreecell gave "tar: invalid tar magic" error.

Compare md5sums with those at the BL site.  Or even file sizes, since you 
probably ran out of space.

> Links2 and sylpheed appeared to install properly but give
> "floating point error" when I try to run them.

Did you first type Xsetup and choose resolution and color depth and then 
run X (startx)?  The programs both need X.  What did you type just before 
the error message?

> "gunzip greenfield96Linux.ps.gz" tells me there is no space left
> on drive.
>
> That's crap! There is over 300 Mb of free space on the HDD.

If you installed the 20MB loop hard disk version, that is all the space 
you get to work in, which won't hold all the above.  Make a separate 
partition for linux.  Ask us how.

> Now, after booting, ppp-on will not work.
>
> The error message is
>  /usr/sbin/pppd: This system lacks kernel support for PPP. This
>  could be because the PPP kernel is not loaded, or because the
>  kernel is not configured for PPP. See the README.linux file in
>  ppp-2.3.7 distribution.
>
> But by running pppsetup first, then exiting without any changes,
> I can then run ppp-on. The system dials in, but now links won't
> work.

ppp-on runs a pppd program used by an eznet program which dials, but the 
kernel was kept small so you need to insert two modules for pppd to work, 
slhc.o and ppp.o, and pppsetup does that for you.  You can insmod slhc 
then insmod ppp then type ppp-on (or eznet up 0).

Can we insmod slhc ppp on one line?

> This is all EXTREMELY disappointing!

On the other hand, it is extremely surprising that so much worked, when 
you probably did not even read all the instructions.

> Is it true that BasicLinux does work, or is it just another urban
> myth?

I use it for everything.  Just got a pcmcia wireless connection with it.

> .   ,-./\
> .  /     \     from Greg Mayman, in Adelaide, South Australia
> .  \_,-*_/     "Queen City of The South"    34:55 S  138:36 E
> .       v

Sindi (AKA 'SI').