fedora 3

[daniel49]

have installed fedora 3 with grub boot loader (to play with while I wait for ubuntu) on a slave drive by itself.
default at this time is to boot to fedora. Since this is the machine my wife uses I want the default to be xp.


According to my book I need to edit the grub.conf file but this seems to be protected.
I think I have to log on as the root or something to acess it is that right?
give me a brief 5 step synopsis of how to do this so I can compare with what this book it telling me.
thx, dan

 

[n0cmonkey]

Come on, it isn't tough. You can do it. Or at least tell us exactly what you want and give us the config to work with.

 

[nweaver]

su -
root pw
vi /boot/grub/grub.conf
default 1 (or whatever number you XP boot line is)


N0c is right, this one is easy, google shows a bajillion results.

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Come on, it isn't tough. You can do it. Or at least tell us exactly what you want and give us the config to work with.

I did tell you the config ..Winxp on master, fedora by itself on slave...set as fedora with the default on boot. I want to switch that but it won't even let me open the grub.conf file.
so do I need to logout and logback in as root or what ? really the question isn't that complicated either.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: daniel49

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Come on, it isn't tough. You can do it. Or at least tell us exactly what you want and give us the config to work with.

I did tell you the config ..Winxp on master, fedora by itself on slave...set as fedora with the default on boot. I want to switch that but it won't even let me open the grub.conf file.
so do I need to logout and logback in as root or what ? really the question isn't that complicated either.

That is not a valid grub configuration file. Try again.

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: daniel49

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Come on, it isn't tough. You can do it. Or at least tell us exactly what you want and give us the config to work with.

I did tell you the config ..Winxp on master, fedora by itself on slave...set as fedora with the default on boot. I want to switch that but it won't even let me open the grub.conf file.
so do I need to logout and logback in as root or what ? really the question isn't that complicated either.

That is not a valid grub configuration file. Try again.

what you want a copy and paste of what grub.conf says? Told you it won't let me open it.
This reminds me of helping my inlaws with windows. they are so lost with doing the most basic of things. Sometimes its hard not to be smug as I show them

weaver: I am 1) assuming you want me to open a terminal window and enter those commands?
2) assuming su- means switch user? if it does when I enter it it says not a valid command.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: daniel49
what you want a copy and paste of what grub.conf says? Told you it won't let me open it.
This reminds me of helping my inlaws with windows. they are so lost with doing the most basic of things. Sometimes its hard not to be smug as I show them

:roll:

weaver: I am 1) assuming you want me to open a terminal window and enter those commands?
2) assuming su- means switch user? if it does when I enter it it says not a valid command.

su- This is the Switch User command. It will prompt for the password of the user being switched to. If no user is listed, su will try to switch to the root user. A - (dash) simulates a full login. This should change the PATH, HOME, SHELL, USER and other environment variables.

The command is su, not su-. That can be tough to tell, depending on the font.

Look at installing and setting up sudo though, so you won't have to use su as often.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and everything happens at the CLI. The gui is for porn and xterms.

 

[nweaver]

su SPACE -

"su -"

or just su may work (not sure)


if you can't su to root, then you have more problems then grub configuration.

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: nweaver
su SPACE -

"su -"

or just su may work (not sure)


if you can't su to root, then you have more problems then grub configuration.

su - worked ...thx
vi needed a space also to work.
ok so now I am looking at grub.conf file.

boot= /dev/hda
default=0
timeout=5
splash image= (hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

hidden menu
title Fedora Core (2.6,9-1.667)
root(hd1,0)
kernel lvm linuz2.6.9-1.667) ro root= /dev/my ferora/log v0100 rhg quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-1.667.img

title other
root noverify (hd0,0)
chain loader +1

so all I have to do is change default from 0 to 1 and thats it or is ther more to it?
thx

 

[nweaver]

that is it.

yes, you need to put a space between the command and the switch, such as su - is saying "SuperUser" the "-" is saying "use path"

vi is saying "start VI" vi /boot/grub/grub.conf is saying "Open VI and load this file"

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: nweaver
that is it.

yes, you need to put a space between the command and the switch, such as su - is saying "SuperUser" the "-" is saying "use path"

vi is saying "start VI" vi /boot/grub/grub.conf is saying "Open VI and load this file"

ok thx learning quite a bit here you can imagine how happy i was when xp did away with dos..lol

ok waited for your response b4 i did anything then tried to edit that file I can move around in it but it won't let me change the numbers.

I backspaced on the timeout was going to change 5 seconds to 10 seconds but deleted 5 and won't let me enter new #
I assume if i close that file it shouldn't save my boo boo by default?

 

[nweaver]

in VI...

watch what mode you are in down at the bottom. "insert" "Replace" etc..


hit the escape key to move out of modes. Pressing "i" will go into "insert" mode. so hit escape, hit "I" and then you can put the number back in, and move down and edit the default. After you are done editing, hit escape to leave edit mode, and type ":wq" : tells VI you are putting in a command, w is write, q is quit. If you mess up editing, you can do a ":Q!" to quit without saving. ALWAYS MAKE A COPY OF YOUR OLD CONFIG. Even on somting simple like this, you should get in the habit of it.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Read up on vi, it's different. It's different than anything you've probably used before.

Here's what you need to do. Anything in bold is something you type, stuff not in bold will be keys like ESC. Move the cursor over the 5, then:
r1a0ESC
Move the cursor over the 0 (in default), then:
r1ESC

To save and quit:
:wq

To quit without saving the changes:
:Q!

 

[nweaver]

lol, nice. what is the suprised smily key for vi? tring again (with spaces to avoid smileys) to quit without saving it is : q !
(Colonqexlamation)

Vi is different, very different. very very very nice tool for many things. Winvi is for windows is pretty nice, and great for manipulating large text files.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: nweaver
lol, nice. what is the suprised smily key for vi? tring again (with spaces to avoid smileys) to quit without saving it is : q !
(Colonqexlamation)

Vi is different, very different. very very very nice tool for many things. Winvi is for windows is pretty nice, and great for manipulating large text files.

Haha! I hadn't even noticed. Guess I should have hit the "Do not parse emoticons" thingy.

Without spaces:
:q!

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: nweaver
in VI...

watch what mode you are in down at the bottom. "insert" "Replace" etc..


hit the escape key to move out of modes. Pressing "i" will go into "insert" mode. so hit escape, hit "I" and then you can put the number back in, and move down and edit the default. After you are done editing, hit escape to leave edit mode, and type ":wq" : tells VI you are putting in a command, w is write, q is quit. If you mess up editing, you can do a ":Q!" to quit without saving. ALWAYS MAKE A COPY OF YOUR OLD CONFIG. Even on somting simple like this, you should get in the habit of it.

ok that worked so now ihave changed the bold (below) to default=1 and timeout=10
escaped out of insert mode so your saying open terminal window again type .wq hit enter and i am done?

boot= /dev/hda
default=0
timeout=5
splash image= (hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

 

[nweaver]

no, inside of VI, to exit the document and quit the application, you type : w q (only no spaces) and that will write the file and quit the program. if you just close the terminal window, it won't save, and you may end up with a temp file warning next time you open.


my suggestion, CTL + ALT + F2 to get to out of the GUI and into a full command line. Then you won't be tempted to just close the terminal window. tbh, I only use the GUI for GTK (gui) required apps, and for having multiple terminal windows open at once

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: nweaver
no, inside of VI, to exit the document and quit the application, you type : w q (only no spaces) and that will write the file and quit the program. if you just close the terminal window, it won't save, and you may end up with a temp file warning next time you open.


my suggestion, CTL + ALT + F2 to get to out of the GUI and into a full command line. Then you won't be tempted to just close the terminal window. tbh, I only use the GUI for GTK (gui) required apps, and for having multiple terminal windows open at once

***************************
lol Im sorry weaver.
but now that I escaped out of insert mode like you told me I can't type q w or anything else what mode am i supposed to be in? Can't i simply use drop down menu save it and exit.

once were done here going to take 2 asprin and do something relaxing like reading war and peace

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: daniel49

lol Im sorry weaver.
but now that I escaped out of insert mode like you told me I can't type q w or anything else what mode am i supposed to be in? Can't i simply use drop down menu save it and exit.

once were done here going to take 2 asprin and do something relaxing like reading war and peace

You should be in command mode (you hit ESC). Type:
:wq

The : is important. That will write and quit the file.

 

[daniel49]

okay that worked.
pretty easy too
thx for your patience gonna go on line and blow something up now in a tank game.

where can i get a basic listing of all these commands they are all new to me, if I could just print off a page of them for reference may help a little

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: daniel49
okay that worked.
pretty easy too
thx for your patience gonna go on line and blow something up now in a tank game.

where can i get a basic listing of all these commands they are all new to me, if I could just print off a page of them for reference may help a little

vi commands?

Try vimtutor (that's the command to use on the shell, if I'm reading things correctly).

One of many vi cheat sheets.

And I already linked to a basic unix commands document.

 

[daniel49]

ok i missed that first link thx.
may as well bookmark the vi cheatsheet too though thx.

later