You would have to stop your head from spinning if you tossed in FreeBSD at this point. Grab a hold of RH before you try to take on a BSD. If you can get anything else at this point, I'd make it Mandrake.

And no, unless you use vulgarity (cussing and such) or directly attack people (even then, for those 2 things, you will get warned first AFAIK), I doubt LQ will ban you. You can ask away, I mean, that's what this place is here for, asking questions related to linux.

The problem a lot of us are having is that we give you clear and simple syntax that may need very slight personalization (such as /home/user means /home/derek if your user's name is derek) and you cannot grasp the concept. I think that's a huge part of the basis for the 'giving up' amongst some of the helpers both here and anywhere else you may ask questions.

There is an assumption that someone asking a question will at least follow links provided, have the most very basic of command line knowledge (cp, mv, cd, ls), and be able to translate some very basic suggestions into your needs.

I guess, basically, we assume a newbie to have at least learned something on their own first. I am one of the few who doesn't really get irritated if you don't though. The Rute User manual that Fancy provided is the book you'll want/need. Either order it up, or print it out (be aware, lots of printing) and keep it handy. That's going to help you more than any single information any one can give you.

When I first came to linux I had an extremely rough time with the command line. I had never used DOS, and didn't know terms like $PATH, startx, cd, ls or anything at all about the directory structure. I was window-ized just like many of the n00bs. The difference between me and you, I took the tutorial over at www.linux.org (linux 101) before actually starting to do things on my newly installed OS. Once I got down some very basic commands (ls, cp, cd) I could navigate around and eventually learned a few more things. I'm assuming Jon will take you through most of that, but it still won't hurt to at least look over the link provided by Fancypiper for the Rute Users manual, and to read through the Tutorial over at www.linux.org These, in addition to Jon's help (or anyone willing to help you in that situation) will give you a decent understanding of "VERY" basic linux usage. From there, the issues addressed in this thread will be in your reach, and eventually (with some work) will seem trivial.

Good Luck, and if I can be of any assistance regarding things other than the modem, please start a new thread and I'll keep an eye out for it (any threads started by you). I try to frequent the forums at least once a day, the exceptions are when I'm on vacation (leaving from the 5-15 this month) and when the internet is down That's why I'm an LQ Addict x7+

Anyway, have fun Linuxing!

Cool

to: Rick. I have a question for Rick about the kernel and gcc. How well do you know the kernel and gcc?? Me and jon are going to recompile my kernel and lower the version gcc. He is leraning this with me. Do you understand that so far?? What is the worst and the least that could happen to my kernel if we screw it up in the recompile process?? I know one it could make redhat not boot. I think there's worst then that. Just like if you install redhat before windows. Windows will overwrite your MBR and then you have to reconfigure it. That's just an example. Please reply back. Thanks Rick.

I do not know much about compiling the kernal. However, I am familiar with gcc. I used the gcc compiler on a Unix computer, about a year ago, when I was taking a C++ programming class. Unfortunately, it has been about a year since I last used it. I do not know enough about compiling the kernal to give you advice on that.

Your second question which was about overwriting the MBR. Unfortunately, my computer is configured different than your computer or most computers. About a year ago I purchased System Commander which I use when installing extra operating systems and when booting those operating systems. I have never installed extra operating systems without using System Commander, so I do not know how to do it that way. Most Linux users do not use System Commander and are still able to install Windows and one or more copies of Linux. They would be better qualified to answer your question. Part of the trouble is that there is more than one way to do that and I have not tried the other ways of doing it.

There is one version of Linux called Knoppix which comes on a CD and does not need to be installed. You just stick it in your computer and boot it up and use it. When you are through, remove it from your CD-ROM drive and you will then be able to boot up into Windows once again. Knoppix probably would not help in getting your modem to work by the way.

That's Rick... I will let you know how everything went. As of right now. We might and might not need to recompile my kernel. We are going to try some commands. Knoppix is 700MB file. It would take me for ever to get with a 56k dial up modem. You could find that O/S at this following site. http://www.linuxiso.org. I mean i download big files before. Maybe someday i will get it. Thanks Rick.

i installed gcc 2.95.3 several months ago because
i was having trouble with some programs compiling.
I put it in opt.
./configure --prefix=/opt/gcc-2.95.3
make
make install

and i made a script that softlinks in between gcc 3.2 and
2.95.3 that looks like this.

/usr/local/bin# cat gcc2.95
rm /usr/bin/gcc /usr/bin/g++ /usr/bin/c++
ln -s /usr/bin/gcc2.95 /usr/bin/gcc
ln -s /usr/bin/g++2.95 /usr/bin/g++
ln -s /usr/bin/c++2.95 /usr/bin/c++
/usr/local/bin# cat gcc3.22
rm /usr/bin/gcc /usr/bin/g++ /usr/bin/c++
ln -s /usr/bin/gcc3.2 /usr/bin/gcc
ln -s /usr/bin/g++3.2 /usr/bin/g++
ln -s /usr/bin/c++3.2 /usr/bin/c++

i had renamed the originals to include their respective
version numbers. This works very well.
Sometimes i want to do thinks like test the difference
the compilers make with lame or transcode or
something, so i compile it with both, and run speed
tests.

i know there's other ways to pick which gcc to use, but
i had already done the symlink thing before i saw
the other way. I can't remember if it's an environment
variable or a command line switch.

hey derek,
look at this.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=57415

a guy got his pctel modem working in redhat 9

ok whansard. I got you something that you could read. Maybe everyone could better help me. I'm going to post it right now.

[dsanta@localhost dsanta]$ cp /mnt/cdrom/pctel-0.9.6.tar.gz /home/dsanta
[dsanta@localhost dsanta]$ tar zxvf pctel-0.9.6.tar.gz
pctel-0.9.6/
pctel-0.9.6/misc/
pctel-0.9.6/misc/Makefile.am
pctel-0.9.6/misc/Makefile.in
pctel-0.9.6/misc/SlackBuild.in
pctel-0.9.6/misc/build_rpms.sh.in
pctel-0.9.6/misc/pctel.spec.in
pctel-0.9.6/misc/autogen.sh
pctel-0.9.6/misc/pctel.spec
pctel-0.9.6/README
pctel-0.9.6/AUTHORS
pctel-0.9.6/COPYING
pctel-0.9.6/ChangeLog
pctel-0.9.6/INSTALL
pctel-0.9.6/Makefile.am
pctel-0.9.6/Makefile.in
pctel-0.9.6/NEWS
pctel-0.9.6/acinclude.m4
pctel-0.9.6/aclocal.m4
pctel-0.9.6/configure
pctel-0.9.6/configure.in
pctel-0.9.6/install-sh
pctel-0.9.6/missing
pctel-0.9.6/mkinstalldirs
pctel-0.9.6/cvscompile.sh
pctel-0.9.6/FAQ
pctel-0.9.6/src/
pctel-0.9.6/src/Makefile.am
pctel-0.9.6/src/Makefile.in
pctel-0.9.6/src/module/
pctel-0.9.6/src/module/Makefile.am
pctel-0.9.6/src/module/Makefile.in
pctel-0.9.6/src/module/ptmodule.c
pctel-0.9.6/src/ptserial/
pctel-0.9.6/src/ptserial/Makefile.am
pctel-0.9.6/src/ptserial/Makefile.in
pctel-0.9.6/src/ptserial/ptserial-2.4.6.c
pctel-0.9.6/src/ptserial/ptserial-2.4.7.c
pctel-0.9.6/lib/
pctel-0.9.6/lib/asus/
pctel-0.9.6/lib/asus/dsp.a
pctel-0.9.6/lib/asus/i810hal.a
pctel-0.9.6/lib/cm8738/
pctel-0.9.6/lib/cm8738/pctel-cm8738.o
pctel-0.9.6/lib/pct789/
pctel-0.9.6/lib/pct789/dsp.a
pctel-0.9.6/lib/pct789/pcthal.a
pctel-0.9.6/lib/sis/
pctel-0.9.6/lib/sis/dsp.a
pctel-0.9.6/lib/sis/i810hal.a
pctel-0.9.6/lib/via/
pctel-0.9.6/lib/via/dsp.a
pctel-0.9.6/lib/via/via686ahal.a
pctel-0.9.6/lib/Makefile.am
pctel-0.9.6/lib/Makefile.in
pctel-0.9.6/lib/control.a
pctel-0.9.6/lib/vuart.o
pctel-0.9.6/modules/
pctel-0.9.6/modules/Makefile.am
pctel-0.9.6/modules/Makefile.in
pctel-0.9.6/include/
pctel-0.9.6/include/pctel.h
pctel-0.9.6/include/halwraps.h
pctel-0.9.6/include/vuart.h
pctel-0.9.6/include/Makefile.am
pctel-0.9.6/include/Makefile.in
pctel-0.9.6/m4/
pctel-0.9.6/m4/Makefile.am
pctel-0.9.6/m4/Makefile.in
pctel-0.9.6/m4/_pctel.m4
[dsanta@localhost dsanta]$
[dsanta@localhost dsanta]$ cd pctel-0.9.6
[dsanta@localhost pctel-0.9.6]$ ./configure --with-hal=pct789 --with-kernel-includes=/usr/src/linux-2.4.20-8/include
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets ${MAKE}... yes
checking build driver for... HAL_PCT789
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking dependency style of gcc... none
checking whether make sets ${MAKE}... (cached) yes
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking for gawk... (cached) gawk
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking /usr/src/linux-2.4.20-8/include/linux/modversions.h usability... yes
checking /usr/src/linux-2.4.20-8/include/linux/modversions.h presence... yes
checking for /usr/src/linux-2.4.20-8/include/linux/modversions.h... yes
checking for Linux kernel version >= 2.4.0... yes
checking for Linux kernel version >= 2.4.7... yes
checking for mknod... mknod
checking for chgrp... chgrp
checking for chmod... chmod
checking for depmod... no
checking for rmmod... no
checking for lsmod... no
checking for modprobe... no
checking for objdump... objdump
checking for objcopy... objcopy
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating lib/Makefile
config.status: creating modules/Makefile
config.status: creating include/Makefile
config.status: creating src/Makefile
config.status: creating src/module/Makefile
config.status: creating src/ptserial/Makefile
config.status: creating misc/Makefile
config.status: creating misc/pctel.spec
config.status: creating misc/SlackBuild
config.status: creating misc/build_rpms.sh
config.status: creating m4/Makefile
config.status: executing depfiles commands
config.status: executing default commands
[dsanta@localhost pctel-0.9.6]$ make
Making all in src
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src'
Making all in module
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src/module'
rm -f *~ \#* .*~ .\#*
rm -f ptmodule.o
rm -f ptmodule.o
rm -f ../../modules/pctel.o
gcc -D__KERNEL__ -Werror -Wno-trigraphs -fno-common -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -fno-strength-reduce -DMODULE -DMODVERSIONS -DEXPORT_SYMTAB -DHAL_PCT789 -I../../include -I/usr/src/linux-2.4.20-8/include -include /usr/src/linux-2.4.20-8/include/linux/modversions.h -DPACKAGE_NAME=\"\" -DPACKAGE_TARNAME=\"\" -DPACKAGE_VERSION=\"\" -DPACKAGE_STRING=\"\" -DPACKAGE_BUGREPORT=\"\" -DPACKAGE=\"pctel\" -DVERSION=\"0.9.5\" -DSTDC_HEADERS=1 -DHAVE_SYS_TYPES_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_STAT_H=1 -DHAVE_STDLIB_H=1 -DHAVE_STRING_H=1 -DHAVE_MEMORY_H=1 -DHAVE_STRINGS_H=1 -DHAVE_INTTYPES_H=1 -DHAVE_STDINT_H=1
-DHAVE_UNISTD_H=1 -c -o ptmodule.o ptmodule.c
ld -r -o ../../modules/pctel.o ptmodule.o ../../lib/control.a ../../lib/vuart.o
../../lib/pct789/dsp.a ../../lib/pct789/pcthal.a
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src/module'
Making all in ptserial
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src/ptserial'
rm -f *~ \#* .*~ .\#*
rm -f ptserial.o ptserial.c
rm -f ptserial.o
rm -f ../../modules/ptserial.o
ln -s -f ptserial-2.4.7.c ../../src/ptserial/ptserial.c
make ptserial.o
make[3]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src/ptserial'
gcc -D__KERNEL__ -Werror -Wno-trigraphs -fno-common -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -fno-strength-reduce -DMODULE -DMODVERSIONS -DEXPORT_SYMTAB -DHAL_PCT789 -DBUILD_SYSTEM=\""`uname -s -m -r -p`\"" -DGCC_VERSION=\""`gcc --version | head -1`\"" -I../../include -I/usr/src/linux-2.4.20-8/include -include /usr/src/linux-2.4.20-8/include/linux/modversions.h -DPACKAGE_NAME=\"\" -DPACKAGE_TARNAME=\"\" -DPACKAGE_VERSION=\"\" -DPACKAGE_STRING=\"\" -DPACKAGE_BUGREPORT=\"\" -DPACKAGE=\"pctel\" -DVERSION=\"0.9.5\" -DSTDC_HEADERS=1 -DHAVE_SYS_TYPES_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_STAT_H=1 -DHAVE_STDLIB_H=1 -DHAVE_STRING_H=1 -DHAVE_MEMORY_H=1 -DHAVE_STRINGS_H=1 -DHAVE_INTTYPES_H=1 -DHAVE_STDINT_H=1 -DHAVE_UNISTD_H=1 -c -o ptserial.o ptserial.c
make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src/ptserial'
ld -r -o ../../modules/ptserial.o ptserial.o
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src/ptserial'
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src'
make[2]: Nothing to be done for `all-am'.
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src'
Making all in lib
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/lib'
make[1]: Nothing to be done for `all'.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/lib'
Making all in modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/modules'
make[1]: Nothing to be done for `all'.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/modules'
Making all in include
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/include'
make[1]: Nothing to be done for `all'.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/include'
Making all in misc
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/misc'
make[1]: Nothing to be done for `all'.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/misc'
Making all in m4
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/m4'
make[1]: Nothing to be done for `all'.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/m4'
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6'
make[1]: Nothing to be done for `all-am'.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6'
[dsanta@localhost pctel-0.9.6]$ su
Password:
[root@localhost pctel-0.9.6]# make install
Making install in src
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src'
Making install in module
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src/module'
make[3]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src/module'
make[3]: Nothing to be done for `install-exec-am'.
make[3]: Nothing to be done for `install-data-am'.
make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src/module'
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src/module'
Making install in ptserial
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src/ptserial'
make[3]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src/ptserial'
make[3]: Nothing to be done for `install-exec-am'.
make[3]: Nothing to be done for `install-data-am'.
make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src/ptserial'
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src/ptserial'
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src'
make[3]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src'
make[3]: Nothing to be done for `install-exec-am'.
make[3]: Nothing to be done for `install-data-am'.
make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src'
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/src'
Making install in lib
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/lib'
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/lib'
make[2]: Nothing to be done for `install-exec-am'.
make[2]: Nothing to be done for `install-data-am'.
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/lib'
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/lib'
Making install in modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/modules'
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/modules'
/bin/sh ../mkinstalldirs /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/misc
/usr/bin/install -c -o root -g root -m 644 pctel.o /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/misc/pctel.o
/usr/bin/install -c -o root -g root -m 644 ptserial.o /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/misc/ptserial.o
/bin/sh: line 1: depmod: command not found
make[2]: *** [install-exec-local] Error 127
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/modules'
make[1]: *** [install-am] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/dsanta/pctel-0.9.6/modules'
make: *** [install-recursive] Error 1
[root@localhost pctel-0.9.6]# /sbin/insmod -f pctel
Using /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/misc/pctel.o
Warning: The module you are trying to load (/lib/modules/2.4.20-8/misc/pctel.o)
is compiled with a gcc
version 2 compiler, while the kernel you are running is compiled with
a gcc version 3 compiler. This is known to not work.
Warning: loading /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/misc/pctel.o will taint the kernel: non-GPL license - GPL linked with proprietary libraries
See http://www.tux.org/lkml/#export-tainted for information about tainted modules
Warning: loading /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/misc/pctel.o will taint the kernel: forced load
Module pctel loaded, with warnings
[root@localhost pctel-0.9.6]# /sbin/insmod -f ptserial
Using /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/misc/ptserial.o
Warning: loading /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/misc/ptserial.o will taint the kernel: non-GPL license - GPL linked with proprietary libraries
See http://www.tux.org/lkml/#export-tainted for information about tainted modules
Warning: loading /lib/modules/2.4.20-8/misc/ptserial.o will taint the kernel: forced load
Module ptserial loaded, with warnings
[root@localhost pctel-0.9.6]# vi /etc/modules.conf
[root@localhost pctel-0.9.6]# /sbin/depmod -a
[root@localhost pctel-0.9.6]#

"Please reply back" Thanks whansard.

it says it loaded. set your dial to use /dev/modem

that other guy just posted on this site that he got his
pctel modem working in redhat 9 and offered help to
anyone needing it. I think you should take it, but if
the modules loaded, and the info says it did, your
modem may be working.

i keep forgetting that you're not posting from linux.
if you boot redhat
you'll need to
insmod pctel
and
insmod ptserial
to load the modem drivers.
they will not load automatically until you set it up to do so.

I really don't think my modem is working. It did not detect my modem for some reason. I don't think that other guy is online. I'm really trying to be patience but jon has not reply to me at all. So i decided to post here. insmod pctel did not load. It came up with that same error from last time. I do not know how to set my modem to /dev/modem. Is there a test i can do to see if my modem is working?? Please reply back.

I think i need to recompile my kernel and use a lower version of gcc. Can you help me with that?? Please reply back.

He jon. Get back to the other thread. I'm waiting for you. So far you only mad 1 post on this thread. Are you going to help me recompile?? Oh he might be sleeping. Jon stays up all night. If i could grab a hold of you. My foot would be up your ass. now get back to our thread. Seeya jon. Hey whansard. Do you want to help recompile?? It seems like jon is never going to reply. Please reply back.

Hey..... I'm helping you. Relax. I only got 4 hours sleep cause I had to drive 3 hours to my grandparents farm and bury my cat that just died. Then I had to drive 3 hours back.... I'm having a really horrible day. Just got home....

Those commands did exactally what I wanted it to do. It wanted to whine about gcc and we told it to shut the hell up....( If only I would do that more often). We got no warnings about unresolved symbols so the entire output was redundant except for the very last line...

"Module pctel loaded, with warnings"

/sbin/lsmod and see if those 2 are loaded. We changed your modules.conf, so they should be...

Fire that modem up... And stay on our thread for now. We may just need these folks... Let em' recoup...

Jon

I tryed under the network. No modem found on your system. What do you want me to type in at the terminal?? Please reply back.

Jon. I'm waiting for you on the site. Come on dude. "No modem found" I'm never going to get it to work.