-=> CHARLES ANGELICH wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-

 CA>> I have a working KNOPPIX (bootable) CD now. :-)

 WC> Great!

 CA>> I don't know what was wrong with me before but I suddenly
 CA>> realized that my brother's machine can do overburns (more
 CA>> than 650meg on a CD).

 WC> Just under 733 Meg on the CD you sent.

 CA> I still think there should be an optional 650meg version of
 CA> KNOPPIX for people like myself who cannot do 'overburns' onto
 CA> CDs but with the memory requirements I guess KNOPPIX isn't for
 CA> 'legacy' users anyhow. :-\

No I'd say not what with 128 Meg RAM requirements for the GUI
and some apps.

Hey after messing with Knoppix dialog box setup I was able to
figure out my syntax error in Basic Linux and send SMTP
from there.

 CA>> I used Roxio and it was relatively simple with little
 CA>> required of me other than to insist it was an image (ISO)
 CA>> file that I needed to move to the new CD. :-)

 WC> I need to obtain a burner. I need to obtain a large hard
 WC> drive and I need to obtain a 56K modem. February it looks
 WC> like now.

 CA> I'm OK on drive space since I regularly burn CDs and move
 CA> larger files off the drive. My preference is to fix the 233mhz
 CA> machine and use Linux on a Linux-only machine though. That
 CA> machine has 3+6gig drives which should be enough hard drive
 CA> space for Linux but since I will be using cable connects I
 CA> decided not to invest in another modem.

I could go there pretty soon and already have an NE2000
network card in this machine.
Wish I could figure out what's wrong with my NEC 200 MHz. 

 WC> Well you were right about the 2 Gig's of files. The HTML
 WC> with this info comes up as a local file in Konqueror when
 WC> you boot to Knoppix.

 CA> I thought I'd seen that info somewhere. :-)

It's the default screen load "about:" in the preferences.

 WC> I've got a bootable diskette now too, in German but boot:
 WC> knoppix home=/dev/hda2 still works to restore my saved
 WC> settings in the applications I've setup.

 WC> I really should have used FIPS if only to make a copy of
 WC> the MBR. Will fdisk /MBR work on a Win 98 system and if so
 WC> will sys.com from a recovery disk restore a bootable Win 98
 WC> partition?

 CA> This is where things get fuzzy. I can only refer to BooitNG
 CA> from hands-on experience and (again) I acknowledge the poor
 CA> documentation and difficulties getting it setup properly. The
 CA> upside is that the ability to resize partitions is _always_
 CA> there and can be used at any time. BootitNG only uses _empty_
 CA> partition space for resizing but with some planning ahead this
 CA> is sufficient for my purposes.

Well I can unzip either Peanut or Dragon Linux, forget which,
that has a limited Partition magic included, it only
resizes  empty space.

 CA> I don't recommend multiboot setups. My own is just NTFSv5 and
 CA> FAT32 which are both accessible to W2K. I have no risk factors
 CA> that I might scramble either of them since booting to DOS makes
 CA> the NTFSv5 partition 'invisible' to DOS.

 WC> I've got a real
 mess of scrambled partitions in there just
 WC> now and need to fix it. I can try fdisk d and fdisk n to
 WC> try to make a bit larger partition to take it all. Hit the
 WC> wall yesterday on space using the save configuration and
 WC> checking off applications as well from out of "configure"
 WC> in the little bar across the bottom of the screen's penguin
 WC> ICON.

 CA> If you can clear enough space on the machine and use BootitNG I
 CA> would suggest giving W98 enough room for what you have
 CA> installed there now plus a gig or two for temporary files etc.
 CA> then use the rest for Linux? It seems you would prefer to
 CA> experiment with Linux right now and just use what you already
 CA> have installed for W98?

 Exactly correct in all regards. I'm splitting the drive right
 up the middle next go around.

 CA> Because of the more efficient file format I don't think a
 CA> separate Linux swap partition is really necessary. Two
 CA> partitions, one for W98 and one for Linux, should be a workable
 CA> arrangement and less confusing later on.

I'm still installing 128M for swap so I'll have three partitions
on this drive.
BTW Knoppix boots so the DOS partition is not mounted
so in order to scramble it you have to, shell to root user,
mount that partition and then make a stupid error.

 WC> I like the defualt setup where you use the shell icon to
 WC> enter the command line as user and use the penguin icon to
 WC> enter as root user.

 CA> I haven't read all the documentation and, to be honest, haven't
 CA> figured out all the icons yet. :-)

 I haven't read much documentation at all yet, just lots of
 experimenting which has moved me right along.
 Documentation will play an increasing roll as I sort things out.

 WC> Three Gig's seems the right size for all the near 900
 WC> applications and utilities plus a Gig breathing space. I
 WC> especially like the fact Mozilla's Firebird browser is on
 WC> there and it's the same release I downloaded for Windows!!!
 WC> 2 Gig's is a LOT of space but it still doesn't act like
 WC> bloatware :-)

 CA> W2K uses something like 1.5 gig for the OS and minimal addon
 CA> utilities. With 900 binaries I'd say a 2 gig Linux install is
 CA> quite 'lean'. :-)

 WC> The only hardware Knoppix does not setup is the the
 WC> software modem, sees it but no driver found, and the sound
 WC> card which is part of that same modem card.

 CA> My machine is a 'white box' custom built machine. If the modem
 CA> was a normal hardware modem I would be in good shape here. My
 CA> brother's HP has the same problems as yours. KNOPPIX sees the
 CA> modem and sound card but cannot install them. Both modem and
 CA> sound are 'win' variations that are part software part hardware.

Yeah, though I believe I've already researched this and there is a
Linux driver for it!
Right now the external 28800 serves.

 WC> Fortunately I've a Turtle Beach Sound card here I can swap
 WC> out when I get a real external 56K modem both Windows and
 WC> Linux can share.

 CA> My machine uses the SoundBlaster AWE64. Not sure what the
 CA> 233mhz has for sound but I have another SB card here I could
 CA> put into it.

 WC> I just love the Knoppix CD you sent along, in fact along
 WC> with the hardware J.H. sent allowing me to use it this CD
 WC> is likely the best gift anyone has ever given me :-)

 CA> It's the Christmas season. :-)

 CA> btw: Speaking of Christmas, I've doubled the number of
 CA> Christmas MIDI files on the Christmas MIDI webpage. Added a
 CA> recording of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" in streaming
 CA> MP3/WMA/RA formats at the bottom of the page along with the
 CA> text of the poem:

 CA> http://www.undercoverdesign.com/dosghost/faf/xmas.htm

 CA> Added all the "James Bond" theme music to the regular MIDI
 CA> music webpage too!

 CA> http://www.undercoverdesign.com/dosghost/faf/music.htm

Would you be interested in a very funny MP3 audio file?
It's around a meg so I ask before attaching it e-mail.

HorseRace.mp3 describes the the course of the decline of a
marriage from wedded bliss to something less then that
in the form of a an announcer giving an account of
a race.
VERY clever, funny and well done.
 
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