Fedora Core 5 questions and complaint

[n0cmonkey]

These types of things are why I generally don't like Linux.

When Fedora boots it complains about hda4, which is my OpenBSD partition. Why is it complaining about a section of the hard drive it shouldn't notice?

My wireless card doesn't work, I'm not sure why. There's support out there, and it's open. So there shouldn't be any reason not to have support for it. Nothing in yum for it either, that I can find. But that's ok, there's a wired card in the laptop too. I guess I can live without wireless support.

Now I want the kernel source. yum install kernel-source. Nope. yum install kernel source. Nope. Yum search kernel. WHOA that's a lot of text. ******'it, download the RPM manually. Still no /usr******/linux. It's stck in /usr******/redhat/SRPMS, but VMWare doesn't like that directory. Find a half assed "HOW-TO" that says I need to rn some rpmbuild command. So I do.

Now there's a /usr******/BUILD/kernel-2.6.17 directory with like 4 other directories in it. VMWare says none of those are the kernel headers for the kernel I'm running. Where is this download, and how do I get it?

 

[n0cmonkey]

yum install kernel-devel

Not sre why it blocked out some of the words in the above post... One of them deserved it, the others didn't.

 

[InlineFive]

I can't help you with the other problems but I do know that "yum install kernel-devel" is correct. Are you using any sort of proxy?

 

[Tbirdkid]

dumb question, but did you install the wireless support using root? or as user... I know its dumb, but sometimes you have to go back to the basics....

 

[kamper]

Originally posted by: Tbirdkid
dumb question, but did you install the wireless support using root? or as user... I know its dumb, but sometimes you have to go back to the basics....

Read again. He didn't install any wireless support because he couldn't find any.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
These types of things are why I generally don't like Linux.

When Fedora boots it complains about hda4, which is my OpenBSD partition. Why is it complaining about a section of the hard drive it shouldn't notice?

What do you mean by complain? Can you post that part of the dmesg?

My wireless card doesn't work, I'm not sure why. There's support out there, and it's open. So there shouldn't be any reason not to have support for it. Nothing in yum for it either, that I can find. But that's ok, there's a wired card in the laptop too. I guess I can live without wireless support.

Hmm... Mess with iwevent and iwconfig some. Is it detected as an interface? Enabled with ifconfig ethN up? If there's no interface for it, then what does lspci report for the wireless board?

Now I want the kernel source. yum install kernel-source. Nope. yum install kernel source. Nope. Yum search kernel. WHOA that's a lot of text. ******'it, download the RPM manually. Still no /usr******/linux. It's stck in /usr******/redhat/SRPMS, but VMWare doesn't like that directory. Find a half assed "HOW-TO" that says I need to rn some rpmbuild command. So I do.

Now there's a /usr******/BUILD/kernel-2.6.17 directory with like 4 other directories in it. VMWare says none of those are the kernel headers for the kernel I'm running. Where is this download, and how do I get it?

I'm not sure about Fedora, but with Ubuntu I just install linux-headers and point VMware to the headers dir and everything is fine.

I think it's more that you're just accustomed to BSD. I couldn't even get OpenBSD to start installing.

 

[sourceninja]

Yea i'm 99% sure vmware only needs kernel headers.

 

[n0cmonkey]

I didn't know the kernel headers weren't included in the kernel source RPMs. So that's working now. Thanks.

The wireless card isn't setup at all. If it was the iwconfig stuff would be easy (I've messed with it before). It's just an RALink miniPCI card, but I don't see any wireless RPMs using yum search wireless or yum search ralink. I thought there was good support for the RALink stuff in Linux by now, OpenBSD picked it up after the install.

The errors I'm getting are:

Buffer I/O error on device hda4, logical block 5242848

hda4 is the OpenBSD partition. I'm guessing the drive is has some bad spots because OpenBSD had some issues with a part of the drive, but Fedora shouldn't be looking at that part of the drive...

I have to give fedora some credit, it is the only OS so far (including the Windows image that CAME WITH THE LAPTOP) that has a working trackpad. I've had to use a mouse with WinXP and OpenBSD.

I downloaded the Debian netinstall iso and tried booting off of that and at some point the screen went black and it never recovered. That either has to do with the fact I didn't have a net connection at the time or it's just broken,

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
I downloaded the Debian netinstall iso and tried booting off of that and at some point the screen went black and it never recovered. That either has to do with the fact I didn't have a net connection at the time or it's just broken,

Probably you want to disable the framebuffer by passing a boot parameter. I believe the parameter is debian-installer/framebuffer=false, but I'm not sure. It's on one of the help screens you can get at the boot prompt. F7 IIRC. I think that Debian will probably piss you off worse than Fedora initially, though in the long term I think it's a better system for most uses.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: cleverhandle

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
I downloaded the Debian netinstall iso and tried booting off of that and at some point the screen went black and it never recovered. That either has to do with the fact I didn't have a net connection at the time or it's just broken,

Probably you want to disable the framebuffer by passing a boot parameter. I believe the parameter is debian-installer/framebuffer=false, but I'm not sure. It's on one of the help screens you can get at the boot prompt. F7 IIRC. I think that Debian will probably piss you off worse than Fedora initially, though in the long term I think it's a better system for most uses.

I've run Debian before. Next to Slackware it's the best one I've tried.

I think install cds should use "just work" settings by default, and add in the eye candy as optional settings.

EDIT: Fedora is closer to what I use at work, so that's why I chose it.

 

[cleverhandle]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
I think install cds should use "just work" settings by default, and add in the eye candy as optional settings.

The framebuffer isn't used (in Debian, at least) for eye candy - it's used because it provides support for international characters that the standard vga console can't handle.

 

[Tbirdkid]

have you tried ndiswrapper for your wireless?

 

[Nothinman]

hda4 is the OpenBSD partition. I'm guessing the drive is has some bad spots because OpenBSD had some issues with a part of the drive, but Fedora shouldn't be looking at that part of the drive...

Some context would be nice, it's probably one of the new automagic things like hald poking around to see what it can automount and crap.

The wireless card isn't setup at all. If it was the iwconfig stuff would be easy (I've messed with it before). It's just an RALink miniPCI card, but I don't see any wireless RPMs using yum search wireless or yum search ralink. I thought there was good support for the RALink stuff in Linux by now, OpenBSD picked it up after the install.

The RALink drivers haven't made it into Linus' kernel yet and most distributions stick as close to Linus' tree as possible to lower their maintenance. AFAIK the maintainer of them hasn't even submitted them yet because he's still cleaning them up.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Some context would be nice, it's probably one of the new automagic things like hald poking around to see what it can automount and crap.

It's pre-hald. I'll try to grab a fresh dmesg next time I reboot.

The RALink drivers haven't made it into Linus' kernel yet and most distributions stick as close to Linus' tree as possible to lower their maintenance. AFAIK the maintainer of them hasn't even submitted them yet because he's still cleaning them up.

I thought redhat (especially) modified their kernels quite a bit. My mistake. Still a shame simple things like wireless cards as open as the RALink can't be supported. I'll just use Windows or OpenBSD when I want to se the wireless adapter.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Tbirdkid
have you tried ndiswrapper for your wireless?

RALink provides documentation, so crap like ndiswrapper shouldn't be necessary. And if it was an unsupported card, I'd buy a new card. I won't use ndiswrapper, what's the point?

 

[Nothinman]

I thought redhat (especially) modified their kernels quite a bit. My mistake. Still a shame simple things like wireless cards as open as the RALink can't be supported. I'll just use Windows or OpenBSD when I want to se the wireless adapter.

RedHat and Fedora aren't the same. I would guess that the RH kernels are quite different as they do add drivers for some 'enterprise' hardware and they support a single version of the kernel for the life of the distro so they have to continually have to backport fixes.

And they can be supported, you'll just most likely have to compile the rt2500 module yourself. It shouldn't even a lot of work if you already have the kernel headers installed.

 

[xtknight]

Maybe this will give you some insight.

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=60081&page=3
<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/RalinkRT2500">https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/RalinkRT2500</a>

The interface is actually called ra0 by the way.

 

[n0cmonkey]

If the drivers aren't good enough to be included with the OS, why would I want to install them?

RedHat and Fedora aren't the same.

I know they aren't the same, I just thought fedora was the testing lab for new RH versions.

 

[Nothinman]

If the drivers aren't good enough to be included with the OS, why would I want to install them?

Because you have a card that you want to use? I've been using them and they're fine, I'm not sure what's left to be fixed, probably CodingStyle stuff. Stop being a baby about it and either install it or stop complaining about it.

I know they aren't the same, I just thought fedora was the testing lab for new RH versions.

Yes and no. One of the things they're really different on is the kernel because RHEL has to support the same kernel version for the life of their product but FC doesn't.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Because you have a card that you want to use? I've been using them and they're fine, I'm not sure what's left to be fixed, probably CodingStyle stuff. Stop being a baby about it and either install it or stop complaining about it.

I tried. The make install managed to wipe out all of my other modules.

 

[Nothinman]

I tried. The make install managed to wipe out all of my other modules.

That makes no sense, but I can't say that I've built it straight from their site in a long time. With Debian there's source packages for the modules and module-assistant to build them into packages for me.

 

[Tbirdkid]

If you use ndiswrapper, you could use your wireless. However, it seems as though it is not an option for you. So, if its not an option, why dont you try giving back to the community and building a driver for it? Just an idea....

It would also help if you gave us the model number of the wireless card to try to help ya a bit more. I cant say i know everything about linux, but i do know some. Give us a bit more info and maybe we could get it going.

 

[Nothinman]

If you use ndiswrapper, you could use your wireless. However, it seems as though it is not an option for you. So, if its not an option, why dont you try giving back to the community and building a driver for it? Just an idea....

At that point he might as well just use Windows. There are free drivers available for his hardware, he's just having problems getting them working.

 

[Tbirdkid]

At that point he might as well just use Windows. There are free drivers available for his hardware, he's just having problems getting them working.

because of one driver? no. thats like saying using firefox you may as well go back to windows. drivers and utilities are being used across the board. its a driver, and a package that you use.

He's having trouble using the actual drivers? I thought i read in the beginning that he couldnt find support.

Read again. He didn't install any wireless support because he couldn't find any.

So i am thinking that if he cant find support, at least open, with installation instructions, then use ndiswrapper until he can figure it out. Its an option. I cant do without my wireless. I live off of it. I couldnt get mine working with fc5 either, so i used ndiswrapper for now until i can find time to get it going or spend the time building a driver for it.

Dont complain about it, fix it. Nothing gets done in this world without us working it out.

Which wireless card is it so maybe I can help as I said before.

Generally, the wireless support comes in the updated kernel. Mine did, but i couldnt get it working, so as i said, i used ndiswrapper.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

I tried. The make install managed to wipe out all of my other modules.

That makes no sense, but I can't say that I've built it straight from their site in a long time. With Debian there's source packages for the modules and module-assistant to build them into packages for me.

I'll be playing with it more later. It really doesn't make any sense, but when I checked /lib/modules/blah/blah/blah I was left with nada. And a reboot confirmed that something was amiss.