From: Vince Skahan (vince@halcyon.com)
Date: 05/30/92


From: vince@halcyon.com (Vince Skahan)
Subject: linux newbie (should be) FAQs
Date: Sat, 30 May 1992 06:10:01 GMT

I've just gotten the mcc-interim release up on my 386-33 (8MB memory)
and firstly, the mcc install stuff is wonderful!!! Virtually plug-n-play
once I figured that fdisk wanted no extended partitions after the DOS
stuff and that it would make the linux partition(s) for me...

I have the following questions:
        - mtools (etc.) doesn't seem to work right. I have the
                harddisk on /dev/hda1, swap on hda2, and dos on hda3.
                1.2 MB as a: and 1.44 MB as b:

                what should my /etc/mtools file look like? I couldn't do
                anything with it without running mformat first even though
                the floppy was already dos-formatted. When mformat was
                done, it was reporting over 2 MB on a 1.44 MB floppy, making
                it unreadable from DOS (which is I thought why mtools exists ?)
                Obviously, I have something screwy (?)

        - ok, I have the binaries working and linux on the hard disk.
                Now what ? How do I get all the goodies that are on PC
                floppy into the linux partition ?

        - I have an internal 2400 baud modem on COM2. What do I need in
                my .kermrc to set it up ? show dial in kermit reports
                modem unavailable.

        - the mcc-interim release sets up the utilities floppy to be the
                new boot floppy pointing to root on the hard-disk (cool...).
                I have the 0.96a boot disk also. Should I be using that
                rather than the mcc-interim ? How to set it up for root
                on the hard-disk ?

        - my system is SVGA but a cheapie card actually. Linux reports
                that I can get into a couple SVGA 132xNN setups but when
                I pick one, the monitor goes whacko...so I'm stuck at the
                moment at 80x25. How do I go about looking into getting my
                video into different modes that work ?