Hello,

I just finished installing VectorLinux 4.0. It's up and working but I have two problems I need some help with.


1. Swap is on /dev/hda2. Everything else is on /dev/hda3. I tried to install LILO but the menu won't show up. I logged in as root and ran vasm. It gives me all the choices for things to do but when I select LILO nothing happens. I can reboot from the installation CD by giving it the /dev/hda3 command that it asks for. I was going to put lilo on the MBR.

I was successful running pppsetup with vasm.

2. startx works fine. Up comes Ice WM with all the applications. AbiWord and others work fine. I tried running gkDial to test the browser but I can't connect to my ISP. I tried all the different COM ports. It gave me a general error message about not being able to connect.

For windows, the modem works okay. The driver properties show the modem on COM3 so that's where I put it for linux too. Is that correct?

When I quit X I can see a PPP error message in line command mode. It says the system lacks kernel support for PPP.

Why won't the LILO configuration run? How do I get PPP to work?

It looks like a great distribution. I'd like to use it as I have an old computer and from what I've seen, it runs smooth and fast enough.

Any thoughts will be appreciated.

If you don't have kernel support for ppp, you might have to recompile your kernel. There is an excellent how-to in the slackware forums.

I am not familiar with VL so I don't know anything about vasm, but have you tried installing GRUB instead of LILO? If that doesn't work, you could always try compiling LILO from source

Not sure about the ppp-issue , but Lilo should work right out of the box.
It did with my system as it did with (most of) that from the other "Vectorians".
I'll see what I can dig up on the VL-forums.

Hmmmm....
Things to check:
-Did the installation spit out any errors? It shouldn't have. If there were , you might need to DL the image again.
-Did you make your /dev/hda3 bootable?
-From another "Veccie" :-dl'& install Smart Boot Manager: http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/
Don't know if it will solve your problem but it's worth a try. Good luck.
-Check the Vector-Forums

Hi!

Try running the lilo installer (as root):
/sbin/lilo
If it still doesn't work, please post your /etc/lilo.conf here.

Do you have anything else (Windows or other Linux) installed on the machine?

Oh! Welcome to LinuxQuestions, too.

Regards
Martin

Thanks for responding.

I got lilo working. I reinstalled VL4.0 from scratch. Last time, when it asked if I wanted to install the kernel I might have hit "cancel" instead of "OK". Whatever happened, it works just fine now. I used the automatic install selection for lilo.

All the applications that come with VL also start and run fine.

I'm still not able to connect to my ISP. Yesterday I said there was an error message about the kernel not supporting PPP. I don't get that error anymore.

My big question right now is how do I know which port my modem is on?

Windows is on /dev/hda1. That runs okay with lilo. I looked in control panel > modem. The driver name is "SupraMAX 56i Voice PCI" and it's on COM3.

Other data for the modem is: Diamond PCA XP561 PCI 56k, part number 23540020-001, driver file: 95_2260_136.exe

I've read about the problems with winmodems. I'm thinking that this modem is not such a thing.

Back to VL.

COMSET says that COM3 in DOS is /dev/ttyS2 in linux so that's the selection I made. I didn't see anything in COMSET about PCI.

PPPSET lists a bunch of PCI selections for /dev/ttyS4 and above I think. That confuses me. It makes me want to select a PCI port instead of COM3.

I put the ISP information into gkDial just like in PPPSET.

gkDial keeps saying connection not successful.

How do I figure this out. What should I do?

I think I do have a winmodem and that's why i can't get ppp/dialer programs to work.

How do I know for sure?

Check brand and type of your modem ; A little googlin' should get you a long way.
This info should be on the vendors page.

Or you could try switching it with one , you're sure of , it's not a winmodem.(from a friend maybe?) Just for testing.

Will a PCI hardware modem work,

or would an ISA hardware modem be better?

Whatever fits the mainboard , pal. But PCI should be easier to get , I guess.
I'm not even sure , if v92 modems are available in ISA at all.....

But the final line is : A hardware modem is always preferable over any softmodem.

I think I need a video card too.

The screen is a little flickery even when I up the refresh rate.

It's listed as generic vesa in the x configuation data. It's an AOPEN video card.

I suspect running it with the generic settings is all I can do.

The brand of the card isn't that important ; What counts is the chipset.
If the card has one of the NVidia-chips as its engine , for example , you could see , if you can enable the drivers for that one.

I've been wondering if I could find a way to make my video card go without using the generic settings. This is what I know about it:

Video card: AOPEN, PV75, chipset S3 Trio64 V2/DX

Is there a driver that will work with it?

I found a list of supported S3 chipsets here:

http://xfree86.org/current/Status29.html#29

I didn't see my exact description.

I think the vesa driver is all I can use.

To my knowledge, all isa modems run with linux including Vector which I use. The pci modem will need a chip specific driver. Look at the chipset on the modem and Google/linux for drivers for that chipset. Not all chipsets have drivers written for them.

I see how to choose a video card that works with Linux.

How do I select a video card that works with a Pentium I?