Hello.

I am a Linux Newbie looking for a lot of help with a few problems I am having with Fedora Core 2.

I will start with a list of my hardware in case there is a relevance to the problems that I am having.

DELL OPTIPLEX GX1
CPU: Intel Pent. III, 500MHz
BIOS: Phoenix Tech. Rev. A10
Ram: 288MB (256 K byte, 2 sticks 16MB Hyundai?)
Hard Disks: 10GB WD & 1.2GB Seagate
Floppy: average 3.5"
CD-ROM: 20X Sony (was using 50X Afreey)
Video: Integrated ATI 3D Rage Pro 2X AGP 4MB
Modem: Rockwell 56K ACF II (almost sure)
NIC: 3Com 3C918 Integrated Fast Ethernet
Sound: SB 64 AWE #CT4500 (a integrated Crystal chip is currently disabled in the BIOS)

I have the hard disks partitioned with Partition Magic into 4 Primary partitions on the 10GB and 2 primaries on the 1.2GB. The Linux partitions are hda2 (4.5GB), hda4 (120MB boot), and hdb2 (576MB Swap). Boot Magic is used to start the Linux boot partition.

There is the background info that I remember. My first problem is with CD-ROMs. I started out using a 50X Afreey. When I tried to install FC2 I kept getting the message

<0> Kernel Panic: Fatal exception in interrupt
In interrupt handler - not syncing

I solved this problem (after tying many different install commands) by replacing the Afreey for a 20X sony CD-ROM and burning (and using) duplicate copies of the install CDs (from Fedora Linux 2 Bible), but now that FC2 is installed, I have a lot of trouble getting the CD-ROM to mount. Sometimes the device mounts with no problems, but a lot of the time I get error messages. This is the most recent error message I have received (there have been others).

mount /dev/cdrom already mounted or /mnt/cdrom busy.

After receiving this message I left the CD in the drive and went to the device listings. While I was clicking on the duplicates of my hard drives (there is a “/”, “/boot”, “(hda2) /”, and “(hda4) /boot”-- what is that about?) when the CD-ROM suddenly auto mounted. This all happened with the Sony, by the way. I tried to put the Afreey in once and got the system to lock while trying to mount the CD-ROM.
I would really appreciate it if someone could help me with this problem. I would like to get the Afreey CD-Rom back into the computer, but would have no problem using the Sony as long as it works.

I have one more problem that is second on my priority list. My SB 64 AWE (ISA) card isn't detected by FC2. I, therefore, can't get any sound. I really like this card and would like it to work (it works great in DOS). I get this error message when KDE starts.

Sound Server Informational message
Error while initializing the sound driver:
device /dev/dsp can't be opened (no such device)
Sound Server will continue using null output device.

I have read some of the numerous threads on this sight that relate to this problem. I have even tried some of the commands suggested. Sadly they did not help as I am to much of a noob to understand the output of the command or what I should do with it.

If anyone can help me resolve these two issues I would greatly appreciate it. If any more information is needed, please post and let me know.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this.