From: Ed Weinberg <edw@detel.com>
To: linux-biz@lege.com
Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 22:24:33 -0400
Subject: [linux-biz] LinuxViews: Red Hat 6.1 cheers and jeers

                                       RH 6.1 cheers and jeers

Not sure if I am the first one on my block to install RH6.1, but I
must be one of the first!

Today I installed the version of Red Hat 6.1 that I found on Sunday at
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions/redhat/redhat-6.1/iso/6.1-i386.iso.
That was one day before the official release of Red Hat 6.1 Linux.
You can http to this site too.  This 650+ file is an ISO-9660
formatted file system, which means you just have to download only one
(very big) file instead of hundreds of small files, and it is ready to
burn a bootable CD on your favorite CD-R.

The install went very smoothly, but the install program made a few
errors in the configurations.

First the good news.  The new GUI interface is great.  When the
install program boots up, it figures out what video card you are using
and starts Xwindows.  The rest of the install is done in Xwindows.  

The display consists of two panes.  The one on the right is a content
sensitive help screen.  Every step of the way it described the
implications of each choice.  When it came time to choose which
packages were to be installed, a help pane under the list described
what each package was as you clicked on it.

Yesterday an associate of mine, Bob Fiero, downloaded and installed
it.  Bob has been using Linux professionally for several years and set
up Newtown, CT to run on Linux.  I found some problems during the
installation.  I thought they were do to a mistake I made, but since
Bob found the same things, my guess is that they are bugs in the
install.   Non of the bugs are fatal.

Here are the ones we found so far Bob's comments are quoted, the
solutions comments from me...not for Bob's benefit.

> I specified a default boot to my DOS partition during install, that didn't stick. I had to modify the
> /etc/lilo.conf file after install.

I had the same problem.  When my machine boots up it boots to Linux by
default.  I wanted the default boot to be to Win98.  I can still get
to Win98 by putting in "dos" at the prompt.  

You fix this by editing the file /etc/lilo.conf (I use an editor
called "pico".  It is a text based full screen editor with a menu) and
reversing the order of the two groups of boot information lines.  You
then type "lilo" and it re-writes the boot sector.   The next time you
boot up it will boot Win98 by default.

> I also did a custom install and selected KDE, and de-selected Gnome. Gnome
> was the only GUI installed.

I selected KDE as the GUI I wanted too.  Gnome is the one Red Hat
touts, but I like KDE better.  KDE was installed when I booted up, but
when I logged in and typed "startx" it started Gnome.  

There is probably a desktop switching program in Gnome.  I think I
installed it, but I fixed the problem by creating a file in my home
directory called .xinitrc which contained the word "startkde"
"echo "startkde">$HOME/.xinitrc"

>I also selected to boot to the GUI, that doesn't happen.
When you select "GUI" it is supposed to start up Linux with the
Xwindows running.  You can fix this in a few ways.  One is by editing
/etc/initrc and changing the line:
"id:3:initdefault:"
to 
:id:5:initdefault:

This makes the default runlevel it boots to to be runlevel 5.

An easier way is to run Xconfigurator and, after running through the
menu, checking the box which asks if you want to boot into X by
default.  I did not do this, but it works on older versions of RH.
Could be broke on this one!

I found one other mistake:
During the install I chose to have /dev/hdb1 (win98 drive d:) mounted
on /dosd.  The install program needed to put an entry in /etc/fstab,
which it did, then create a mount point, which it didn't.  I created
the mount point by typing "mkdir /dosd".

All in all, the install went smoothly.  It found all my hardware, and
just needed to confirm my monitor type and my mouse type.  It found my
video card and NIC without asking any questions.  I have not checked
what it did with sound yet.  

I wonder if these problems are going to be in the boxes they ship, or
are just problems with the version they have for free download on
their FTP and mirror FTP sites?  I am forwarding this to Red Hat.  I
will let you know if get a response.

  --  Ed Weinberg,
      edw@LinuxViews.com 

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