Hi, and thankyou from a newbie who just registered when this conversation (linux and comcast and linksys) came up near the top of a google search.


So I have fundamentally the same problems.


1) my Linux is Suze... a disk set i had for about a year or more (9.1)
Uses the YAST installer... that is as far as i am right now.... come to think of it GRUB does not seem to work yet either.
I am looking to switch to Debian ( I think unless someone talks me out of it) when I get this Suze working.... newbie that i am i have this concept in my head that Debian is real linux. I would have started with Debian but I could not get the ISO boot images to work... that is they would not burn as bootable from the NERO burner i was trying to use.... asssumption is that i can install Suze and get the proper linux bootable burn of an ISO.
So, newbie that i am, i am assuming this is the most important thread in existence on the whole internet... in reality, when i get done it will at least be a little better.


2)Linksys router for home wireless. Wireles G plus 4 ether ports. (NOT USING WIRELESS ON LINUX....YET...JUST ETHER)

3) comcast... and it even sounds like i am located near some of you guys, including the orginal guy... maryland

So I will re-read this all again .... I have never had Linux get to the net.... (now on XP and different computer)... the p-4 computer i am installing suze on has two NICs... i figure one for linux one for Win 2000 (on other partition) I figure this so router would not get even more difficult... ie if i know it is one particular OS then i know... whatever.

Anyway, the P4 ( I am not on the P4 right now) is running win2000 and all the hardware works... both NICs work. the Linksysrouter works.

Now I am in middle of Suze install and the network test failed.
So next step in install goes to "config of NIS client"

Obvious question then is: Does Comcast use NIS?
I really dont want to use DHCP because that means new addresses get assigned to Lnksys router (RIGHT??) and i dont want that.... in fact i dont think comcast does that anyway.


Anyway it being just a couple months ago u guys were all doing this ... well maybe this conversation is good to keep going...

I will study some more and get back

Kevin

As far as I know, Comcast does not use NIS. Or at least they don't make it available/required for customers. It is pretty much a straight-forward TCP/IP setup. Besides, if your Suse box is connecting through a router, Comcast's requirements are irrelevant.

It depends on where you're using DHCP. You've got two parts to your network. The Linksys router faces both Comcast (the WAN side) and your computers (the LAN side). The WAN side must use DHCP to get an IP address from Comcast (unless you pay extra for a fixed IP address). In real life, using DHCP to get IP addresses from Comcast isn't a problem. Mine only rarely changes, even when I reboot my router. As for the LAN side, you're pretty much free to do as you wish. If you want to assign static IP addresses to all your computers, you can do so. You can also mix DHCP and static. Since Comcast never sees the LAN side of your network, their rules will never apply.

thanks for the input... i will look at dhcp setting again.

ok i am progressing in that i thought the install would be easy and that it was just my network config that was why i could not install.

I have now skipped the network config step just so the install would work.

I have two NICs and YAST says they are both fine... only one has an ether cable... there was also something saying which of two nics to listen to, i clicked to listen to both... only one is connected to router. other to nothing.

So the next thing i did was try YAST on the "network services"

there is much stuff in there:

1) DHCP server -- this confuses me because the NIC cards got set up already with statement that DHCP set them up, but when i double click on this DHCP server it says that the package dhcp-server needs to be installed, ... oops i thought i had taken the DVD out... well it is loading all that it wants and DHCP server ran inside the "chroot jail"... this sounds like a good thing since i just want ip-addresses once and dont want to run DHCP everytime, just use the same ones it first sets.

2)DNS server: The YAST stuff keeps running this stuff in the "chroot jail"... now the DNS server is more important isnt it? or is all i need DNS here for is to get to comcast then comcast will re-route... SO RUNNING IN "chroot jail" IS FINE AGAIN.
(by the way chroot jail is the default everywhere so far)

3) DNS and Host Name: Now here is something interesting. from XP I was using the IP-address that got returned when I went to the site http://whatismyipaddress.com/ ..... i did not know i could actually specify a DNS name... i have named my router wiltiag... but that is hardly qualified.

I THINK I WILL JUST LEAVE THIS ONE ALONE FOR NOW UNLESS SOMEONE TELLS ME SOMETHING I CLEARLY DONT KNOW.

4) HTTP Server: well this thing wants me to install Apache in order to work... (eventually I want to do that, that is what this venture is all about, a LAMP stack... though I am still confused about the "P"... cant i just use Java?) so i am not installing Apache now... thus all i want is client not server.

5) Host Names: Now here is a ominous one, Do I have to put Comcast in there or what???

6)LDAP Client -- again this looks ominous... but at the end of the package install YAST just defaulted to "dont use LDAP" so i clicked it thru.

7) Mail.... leaving this alone for now... still using MS WINDOWS ... (one step at a time ....)

8) NFS... since this is only Linux machine so far, and i am not going to try to networkd to windows machines yet, i will leave NFS - clinet, and NFS Server alone ( I thought I had to have Samba or something anyway)

9)NIS -- After a little more reading about NIS it seems that is really just a useful tool if u are running email??? I'll leave it alone for now.

10)Network Services: Well this defaulted to "dont start the xinetd" This does not make sense to me. Dont I need the Inetd running if I want to run a web browser on the internet and google shit and stuff?? Or is this(xinted) only for if I want to run servers like Apache or FTP?

11) Routing -- the tip says "enable IP forwarding if the system is a router" so i guess i do that, then what? in the "Default Gateway" am I supposed to put the IP address of my router???
192.168.1.1 -- this is internal address of my router ... i stuck it into the "Default Gateway" slot that YAST had as blank... then i said enable IP Forwarding....
ALL GUESSES... I REMEMBER SOMETHING BEING WRITTEN IN THIS THREAD ABOUT THIS BUT MY GUESS SEEMS RIGHT TO ME... WILL ADDRESS THIS LATER IF EVERYTHING WORKS. (There is also a section called expert something... i think i leave that to experts)

12) SLP Browser... well i clicked on that everything came up blank... even the tips. I assume since this is only Linux machine on this network I can fool with SLP later if ever.

13-14) SAMBA Client and Server... again maybe later... actually this would be nice.... but later

15) TFTP .... later


Okay here goes nothing...

Will repost in ten minutes or so with verdict

Well i rebooted, this reminds me, in order to get boot to work i have to use install disk, then tell it to boot installed system, I have been screwing with Partition Magic and Boot Magic, the conflict between them and Grub is messing up both of them, in oder to boot windows i need to put in the Bott Magic Rescue disk i dumped out after the Boot Magic install.


Anyone know how to use only Grub or Boot Magic??? I am thinking if I go uninstall Boot Magic that will solve it... Then I just have to run Grub and it will work... maybe install Grub again or something... and it should come up and say "WHAT OS DO YOU WANT FROM THE FOLLOWING LIST... LINUX WINDOWS 2000 ETC.


..........................................................................................


OH MY GOD..... I GOT A NETWORK BROWSER ON SUSE TO DO A GOOGLE SEARCH....


THANKYOU PEOPLE.... Special Thanks to Hangdog42.

I was getting ready to ask you where the hell my error logs are (still a good question... but at this point i am not worried about errors... i got a browser to work in linux) i think i first tried that ten years ago... hmmm i think it might have worked back then once or twice... but that was dial up... then came a few years of down time....long story for another time)

thank you new friends.


SOON THE APACHE LAMP.

I'll add some more later, but here are a couple of things I noticed:



Unless you want this box to be handing out IP addresses, you don't need it to be running as a DHCP server. I think what you want is just to run the DHCP client to get an IP address from your router.
Again, unless you want this box to be able to act as a nameserver, you probably don't need this. Part of what the DHCP client will get for you is the address of a nameserver, so as long as you're setting up a card wtih DHCP you don't need to worry about this.


In general you seem to be struggling with the concepts of client and server. For the most part, a basic Linux install doesn't need to have a lot of servers running in order to be functions. Just keep in mind that servers provide services to other machines and clients consume those services. So unless you want other machines to be accessing your Linux box, then you need to mostly look at clients, not servers.

Not really struggling with concept of server and client... just when a server is needed.


One point being that I will eventually be running Apache, so I will have to revist much of this... ie. I assume that inetd will have to be running if I have Apache installed and running. Also i will have mySQL and some form of access (PHP? JAVA?... can I get away with just that Java Script language stuff at first?)

I am here for the whole pie... not just a replacement for MS Windows.

Also sassume I will have to have Samba running if I want my Linux box to go and look in stuff on local net like "WORKGROUP"... however I can live without that, it just sounds like something fun.


RIGHT NOW MY PROBLEM IS THAT THE DANG GRUB BOOTER IS NOT WORKING. GETTING ERROR MESSAGES SAYING THE FILES IN THE GRUB PACKAGE ARE BAD... THEN IT RELOADS SAID FILES FROM SUSE DVD AND AGAIN THE FILES ARE BAD. AT FIRST I THOUGHT THIS WAS CONFLICTING BOOTLOADERS( BOOT MAGIC AND GRUB) ... COMPLETELY UNINSTALLED BOOT MAGIC, NO GOOD, SWITCHED TO LILO... STILL SAME ERRORS JUST THE LILO VERSION.


I guess there is a way to update my SuSe no that I have Linux on the Network... i suppose that would fix the GRUB and LILO bad files...

I guess this does not apply to this particular thread... i should go looking for an appropriate Booter thread...

You could do it that way, but I don't think it is a particularly good idea. Since inetd would have to start Apache every time there was a request, you'd introduce some pretty significant delays. Running Apache as a stand-alone server is probably a better idea.

It really depends on what you're doing. None of the three you've listed is absolutely required, but may be required by individual web programs. For example, if all you're doing is serving up HTML pages, you might not need any of them. However, if you want those pages to react to users, then you'll have to install at least one of the languages. For the vast majority of distros, you'll get MySQL, PHP and Java out of the box.
Samba is actually pretty straight forward to get going, provided you do your homework.
Probably a good idea, this is starting to get far away from the thread.

I was talking about Boot problems, perhaps it was the Dual MS win 200 and Suse that was causing it... I am fixing it now with the help of a Tip Page from the all time GURU of BOOTS....

If you get into what he has written on booting you will likely agree.

His tip of running "fdisk /mbr" from a DOS startup floppy has already brightened me out of suicidal depression (just kidding bout the suicide... we newbies are kidders)

Tons of Booting tips At:
http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?t=144294

fdisk /mbr can actually be run from within Windows and will just wipe out your Linux bootloader completely. :-\ Unless that's what you want to do.

You can set Yast to go out to the 'net and download a new version of Grub just in case the packages on the DVD are bad.

You know I was kind of giving up on the booter problems... since i want to actually install debian and the Suse was just cause i had an old suse set laying around and decided i neede to burn a Debian Install disk from within a Linux environment... that is, despite all the claims that it is possible to use (Nero or whatever) to burn a Debian boot/install disk from the iso (in particular the "debian-40r3-i386-CD-1.iso" disk... and yes i did try a hell of a lot... i used the 7-uncompresser to uncompress the files and it looked pretty useful... but creaing a bootable CD is another story... particularly if u are trying to burn from MS Windows... I am thinking that an old linux install will make the boot-install disk burning a less foreign adventure.)


I keep using the defense that I am a "newbie" ... by "newbie" i could also substitute the phrase "frustrated linux convert wannabe for many years" ... In the last couple weeks i have gotten further down the road than ever but i still have a ways to go. Maybe I should try this GRUB upgrade... if it does not work quickly to give me a working grub i move onto the CD burn problem and dont look back till i have Debian install...

It is funny I am sitting here totally stupid as to what I must do... Knowing that perhaps I could do the install of debian without burning a CD but just putting the files into the direstories with cp statements or make files or something.

This is why MS sells so well... they just give u a disk and pretend that u will not have problems... and I did have many less problems with MS... of course they charge you through the nose... even after the install then u get paranoid that viruses and backdoors for which you have no clue are just waiting the next teen exploit "script kiddie"

"No Free Lunch" I suppose, so now I am trying to pay for my lunch... I seem to have expensive taste in that Linux, though beautiful, is difficult... The Linux concept is like: "Well if you are afraid of flying then you should learn to be the pilot and fly your own plane... at least then you are closer to being the master of your fate"

At least that concept makes perfect sense to me.


So Yast has an option to grab new version of GRUB... I wonder if that will fix the thing.

I was looking at the GRUB tips ... that I sited a post or two ago... the SUSE instal blew away the MS Windows and left me a grub that did not work(thus the fdisk /mbr is exactly waht i wanted). I think the reason is because the Windows is on the master Drive... the Linux I tried to put on the slave drive (two 75 gig HD's) thus i think grub cant find itself or something like that.

Or is it because i used NTFS for windows (no that probably aint it)

So I will try this new version of GRUB downbload... maybe that will do it

If you have an ISO, look on the web for a little tool called "ISO recorder" for Windows. You can just burn the ISO right to the disc. And you don't need to open up an ISO at all. It's a direct copy of a disc, so just used ISO recorder and select "Burn to Disc" (or something like that).

Newbie is okay. . .noob is what you want to avoid. Newbie is someone that's new, a noob is someone that is unwilling to find a solution to their problem. Either way, everyone started somewhere, and we pretty much all had the same growing pains.

And from what I've heard, be careful installing Linux. . .I've heard several distros will blow out Windows without a second thought in "wizard" mode.

Mr. Arc,

I had been looking thru MS CD burning sites for a bout a week before i gave up and decided i need to install old crappy Suse (9.1) just to get into Linux to burn a bootable Debian CD.


I reluctantly tried Mr. Arc's suggestion ten minutes ago, fully expecting it to be another wasted CD burn to add to my cup-holder collection.


I took the CD out and for the first time see the Debian Logo and boot prompt.
This is the first time in my life I have ever beheld such a beautiful site.

"ISO Recorder" is a very little file... u have to figure out what version to run before u download it. It does not even get installed on the Start Menu... It runs only by right clicking on ISO files... ( well that is all I wanted, there is a disk imaging thing too... Hmmm that sounds good now that I think about it) A great Tool.

Also Kudos to Alex Feinman who apparently wrote it and gives it away.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

(I put up the google page because after I downloaded it and installed it i could not figure out how to use it, the directions were not easily findable... but google has them on an obvious clickable link)

Thankyou.

ON WITH MY "LAMP" stack-server Quest.

Okay Debian is installed...

Had a ton of trouble with GRUB.... the problem is that I had Windows installed on the Master Harddrive, and Linux (debian or suse was getting same grub problem... I just was ignoring it to deal with other problems... till now) on "Slave" drive.

Thus Grub kept thinking it only wanted to be on the "Master" there is little documentation saying that this can be a problem, I did searches on the "error 21" (later was getting error 18 but the 21 is the main one)

So did google on "grub error 21" and had my suspicion confirmed that Grub wanted to be master. Then I decided to solve it by swithcing the jumpers. Now the hard drive with Linux was the master.

Low and behold screwing arounbd with grub manual and "just boot tips"
http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?t=144294

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/man...l#Installation


and voila!!!... Final thing I did was to go into BIOS on the Dell and change the Windows drive from "OFF" to "AUTO"....
When u r in windows it does not matter that the "Slave" is set to "OFF" Windows can still see the slave, but Grub does not see a drive set to "OFF" in BIOS.