Pooter Gurus - Help Needed

ragingfish · Post by **ragingfish** » Sat May 22, 2004 1:36 am

Ok...So I pulled out an ancient windows box last night that I built an eternity ago (or like 2 years, which is eternity in the world of computer technology). Anyway, I decided to change it over to a Linux box. I was working with it fine, but then, all of a sudden, during a reboot, it started asking for a BIOS password to boot up? I tried to get into the BIOS setup to turn off the password, but somehow the password for that got activated too. Of course, I don't KNOW the passwords.My question is -- is there any way to "flash" the BIOS to get rid of those passwords so I can start using my system again, or am I SOL?

ColonelPanic · Post by **ColonelPanic** » Sat May 22, 2004 2:08 am

Not SOL, there is hope! Generally, there is a jumper on the motherboard that clears the CMOS. That should kill the password (and everything else, so you'll need to go through the BIOS setup again.) Once you find the jumper, you either remove it, or move it to another pin for a few seconds, put it back in the original location, and you should be fine. Look for it around the area where the CMOS battery is mounted on the motherboard.If you can't find the jumper, you may try removing the CMOS battery. Take it out for 30 seconds or so, put it back in, and see what happens. You shouldn't have to flash the BIOS to clear the password...What version of Linux are you installing? Ha ha, welcome to the dark side lol! Let me know if you need any help getting it to work, can be a chore sometimes. Just depends on which distro you're running. I've recently installed SuSE 9.1 Pro on everything here, it's very sweet...

ragingfish · Post by **ragingfish** » Sat May 22, 2004 2:15 am

would that jumper be labeled?i'll try the battery trick...i was gonna install PHLAK cause that's the version i have, but if you can recommend a better version, lemme know!

ColonelPanic · Post by **ColonelPanic** » Sat May 22, 2004 2:17 am

Wow, that was quick. I revised my post a little. It may be around the battery, labling, ugh... Not sure! I've seem some labeled 'Password,' some 'clear' and some not at all.

ragingfish · Post by **ragingfish** » Sat May 22, 2004 2:23 am

woooo! i found the jumper, put it into "configuire" mode, and sure enough, was able to clear the passwords!thanks man, you're the best!!!

Stang2Vibe · Post by **Stang2Vibe** » Sat May 22, 2004 11:48 am

Hmm, I usually resort to violence and threaten mine with a crowbar when things go wrong. So far, so good!

ColonelPanic · Post by **ColonelPanic** » Sun May 23, 2004 2:40 am

Violence sometimes works. I support point-of-sale systems for a living, had one customer whose server just powered itself off. We had exhausted all of our options, nothing we tried would get it to power back up. I just had her kick the side of the server hard a few times, stupid thing booted up and no problems since.. lol

ragingfish · Post by **ragingfish** » Sun May 23, 2004 3:29 am

Same thing here...I had a PC once that wouldn't boot up...tried everything I could think of, nothign worked. Finally, just hit the damn thing. It worked. Turned out hitting it reseated a card that had come loose...go figure!

VibeChick · Post by **VibeChick** » Sun May 23, 2004 3:31 am

I would have liked to try that with mine....wouldn't have helped. The motherboard was dead. On the bright side, I found a used one for $55, and got lucky and didn't have to reinstall crappy Windows. Woo hoo!

ragingfish · Post by **ragingfish** » Sun May 23, 2004 4:10 am

Your mainboard went now? Two words carrie...NEW COMPUTER. Not new CAR. New COMPUTER.

VibeChick · Post by **VibeChick** » Sun May 23, 2004 4:14 am

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish Â»Your mainboard went now? Two words carrie...NEW COMPUTER. Not new CAR. New COMPUTER. Already have new car, which I enjoy more than I would a new computer It was tempting to buy a brand new motherboard and processor...and ram...and and and. But I decided to go the cheap route, get a used motherboard and get another year outta this machine. Don't need a smokin' new machine for surfing the net at home

ragingfish · Post by **ragingfish** » Sun May 23, 2004 4:23 am

Quote, originally posted by VibeChick Â»Don't need a smokin' new machine for surfing the net at home Wait long enough and that old one will be smokin'...and not in the good way!

VibeChick · Post by **VibeChick** » Sun May 23, 2004 4:35 am

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish Â»Wait long enough and that old one will be smokin'...and not in the good way! Yeah, but now it's like a challenge - see how long it will last! lolIt will be a whole new computer soon, piece by piece....

rasermon · Post by **rasermon** » Sun May 23, 2004 5:06 am

I just built myself a new pc a couple weeks ago.Specs:CASE ANTEC|Sever Tower SLK1600 MB SOYO SY-KT600 DRAGON +V1.0 VGA INFO-TEK|GXCBE R9200SE 128M AGP CPU AMD|2800/333 ATHLON XP BARTON 2.08GHz (sorry Nick ) DVD|LITE ON 16X XJ-HD166S3X CASE FAN|ANTEC PRO 80mmIomegaÂ® Super DVD Writer 8x All-Format USB 2.0 External DrivePNY 512MB PC2700 DDR MemoryMaxtor 80GB 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive.

ragingfish · Post by **ragingfish** » Sun May 23, 2004 5:21 am

I was just telling Carrie my parents just bought a new PC...I'm very jealous:Intel Pentium 4 Processor at 3.06GHz with HT Technology 256MB DDR at 333MHz 17 in (17 in viewable) E172FPBFlat Panel Display40GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive

rasermon · Post by **rasermon** » Sun May 23, 2004 5:26 am

I needed something faster than my Pentium III 600 for all the videos I been working on. Ragin, you should give SuSe Linux a try.http://www.suse.com/us/

Fialchar · Post by **Fialchar** » Mon May 24, 2004 2:44 am

If anyone wants a 2.8 Ghz laptop, I have one for sale

ColonelPanic · Post by **ColonelPanic** » Mon May 24, 2004 2:59 am

SuSE is great, can't go wrong with that choice... I've been using it since the days of 7.0, by far my favorite distro out of the zillions in existance. Their slick YaST setup/configuration utility has spoiled me to the point where I wonder if I could run Linux without it. I've had 9.1 Pro for a couple of weeks now, and couldn't be happier with it. It's quite a nice product, and it's something that I actually don't mind paying for one bit. You can install it for free via FTP if you have the means (which I don't) but no downloadable ISO's. Nonetheless, especially with the Pro version, you get a lot of bang for your buck - 5 CD's or two DVD's worth of goodies. I've also got the Personal version, pretty bare-bones, but great for general desktop use. And it's about $30.Getting ready to install Personal on my tiny Libretto laptop as I type this... Yeah, at 233 MHz, that's going to take some time. Vroooom!

ShotInTheDark · Post by **ShotInTheDark** » Mon May 24, 2004 5:27 am

how much for the laptop?

Psychobroker · Post by **Psychobroker** » Mon May 24, 2004 3:08 pm

I my Hypersonic Aviator AX6

Stang2Vibe · Post by **Stang2Vibe** » Tue May 25, 2004 11:20 am

Is it fuel injected???

ragingfish · Post by **ragingfish** » Sat Jun 05, 2004 5:45 pm

Quote, originally posted by rasermon Â»I needed something faster than my Pentium III 600 for all the videos I been working on. Ragin, you should give SuSe Linux a try.http://www.suse.com/us/Rasermon --Downloaded the ISO of the live evaluation version, and I'm digging it...my question is...I'm considering the pro version...is this something that in a year will be outdated, like windows? Can I buy now and be good for several years? I'm considering pro because I like all the free stuff they throw in there...especially the ability to make my own web server...Id love to do my own hosting...So, what do you recommend? Is pro worth the $90 price tag?

ColonelPanic · Post by **ColonelPanic** » Sat Jun 05, 2004 11:22 pm

I figured I'd chime in on this one, raging... Is it wort it? Absolutely. That $90 not only gets you all of the server goodies, but zillions of apps, many of them useful! I did a full install of Pro, which sucked up over 5 GB of hard drive space. Linux is changing at a rapid pace. Because of that, SuSE puts out a new version usually in the spring and in the fall. I've bought every Pro version since 8.0. That's a quite chunk of change for "free" software. But I don't mind one bit, hopefully the money I've spent has gone somewhere to better the Linux community. I hope so at least. I could have saved hundreds of dollars by using Mandrake, Redhat, or *insert distro here* but I find there is just too much to like about SuSE's product. YMMV, ask ten Linux junkies what the best distro is, and you'll get 100 different responses and arguments. However, you can prolong the life of your distro by doing things like kernel upgrades, upgrading KDE, and whatnot. SuSE's YaST Online Update will be able to fetch updates until the end of support, which won't be for a few more years. I think they just stopped supporting the 7.x versions last year. So, with a little work, you could keep it current. I'm too lazy for that though, I just give them more money for the new stuff. So, I'd say if you've got the money to spend, buy it! You'll not only get a solid platform to run various servers on, but you'll also get a cozy and flexible desktop Linux experience. The manuals they provide are quite helpful too. If you're going for the retail box set, I'd recommend getting it locally - usually CompUSA and sometimes Best Buy carries it. It's heavy, so shipping is a tad expensive - you'll save money by finding it locally. Or, you could install for free. Usually one month after the release, SuSE puts the new distro on their FTP server and if you have a speedy connection, you could install via FTP. I've never done that though, not sure what packages you can get that way. The new version would be release by the time I was done installing over dial-up.

ragingfish · Post by **ragingfish** » Sun Jun 06, 2004 2:54 am

Well, I found that buy.com has the pro version for 60-something and free shipping.I was gonna install via FTP, but it says they cut out a lot of the applications for licensing reasons.Will Pro give me all the tools to run my own web server?

ColonelPanic · Post by **ColonelPanic** » Sun Jun 06, 2004 6:29 am

9.1 Pro comes with Apache 2.0 web server... There's a simple module within YaST for configuration, but I'm not sure what other tools are installed to configure it. So, it's there - running on my box, but I'm not sure how to use it.

ragingfish · Post by **ragingfish** » Sun Jun 06, 2004 6:31 am

Sweeet...I think I'm gonna take a risk and buy it...After all, buy.com has it for 65...

ragingfish · Post by **ragingfish** » Sun Jun 06, 2004 7:52 am

Woo! Bought! In the mail to me...how exciting...I'd love to ditch winblows...

ColonelPanic · Post by **ColonelPanic** » Sun Jun 06, 2004 11:13 am

Cool, not a bad deal. I paid $59 + shipping for just the upgrade version of 9.1 Pro, so you got yourself a deal there. I think you'll like it, it's an easy distro to live with. Once you get it, feel free to let me know if you have any questions or need any help! Always happy to help someone trying to escape the evil empire.

ragingfish · Post by **ragingfish** » Sun Jun 06, 2004 11:42 am

Sweet, thanks, I'll likely be taking you up on that offer!

ragingfish · Post by **ragingfish** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 7:44 pm

Ok, so I'm trying to install SuSE and come to realize I only have 64mb of ram -- half the minimum requirement. So when I run install it says insufficient memory, activate some swap space. Then it has a prompt and says Quote Â»Please enter swap partition (e.g. /dev/sda2)Now I've tried /dev/hda and /dev/ide0 but it wn't take either. How can I activate swap space until I can get my hands on physical ram?

ColonelPanic · Post by **ColonelPanic** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 8:43 pm

DOH! I had the same thing happen when I was installing on my Libretto which only has 64 MB of RAM. Fortunately, I already had a Linux swap partition on /dev/hda6. 96 MB is the magic number to get the graphical version of YaST to run as well, so you'll probably have to deal with the text-based YaST for the install like I had to on the laptop. Which works the same as the GUI version, just not as pretty.We need to get ya a linux swap partition created somehow... What's on the hard drive right now? Any OS installed on it right now? If you've installed some sort of Linux distro on it previously, perhaps you could boot into that and, as root, run fdisk -l which will list your partitions... On my box, here's what I get:Quote Â»Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40060403712 bytes255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4870 cylindersUnits = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System/dev/hda1 * 1 1241 9968301 83 Linux/dev/hda2 1307 4870 28627830 83 Linux/dev/hda3 1242 1306 522112+ 82 Linux swapPartition table entries are not in disk orderDisk /dev/hdc: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylindersUnits = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System/dev/hdc1 1 1306 10490413+ 83 Linux/dev/hdc2 1307 9659 67095472+ 83 LinuxSo, if you did have Linux previously installed, you could use /dev/hdwherever the swap partition is. In my case, that's /dev/hdc3 on this box. But, YaST did find my swap partition on the laptop, so it sounds like the above may not be of any use to you - if there was a swap partition there, it probably would have found it.If it has Windoze on it, perhaps you could run something like Partition Magic. It's been years since I've used it, but I think it allowed you to create swap partitions.Or, easiest solution, if you have a box that uses compatible memory, yank some out of it long enough to do the install.I'll see what I can find out for you for getting that partition created.

ColonelPanic · Post by **ColonelPanic** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 9:05 pm

I plopped in CD#1 and started the install... Found that right at the beginning, where you can select the language, if you hit Alt+F2 (or if the graphical YaST is running, Ctrl+Alt+F2) it drops you to a shell.You may be able to run fdisk from here... Here's a procedure for a really old version of SuSE, maybe this will be of some help:http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2001/09/sk_486.htmlI'll keep looking.

ragingfish · Post by **ragingfish** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 9:56 pm

Hmm...seems to get stuck every time I try to get into a shell...

ragingfish · Post by **ragingfish** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 10:22 pm

NM! Those isntructions were great. I downloaded a rescue cd for Fedora Console and managed to pull up a shell via that. I'm in the process of installing!Thanks Colonel!

ColonelPanic · Post by **ColonelPanic** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 10:59 pm

Good deal. Let me know how it turns out...

ragingfish · Post by **ragingfish** » Sun Jun 13, 2004 12:45 pm

All installed up...and it runs, but very slowly. Thankfully, I got a good deal on ebay for 256MB of ram. So as soon as that comes in, I'll be running in better shape.In the interim, does anyone know if Suse 9.1 pro comes with a video capture program that I can use with my tv card? I have my tv card installed, and it works fine with kdetv, but when i used MainActor to try and capture stuff off it, the thing says capture drivers aren't detected. any thoughts?

ColonelPanic · Post by **ColonelPanic** » Mon Jun 14, 2004 11:24 am

Glad you were able to get it installed! Did you run into any other snags along the way?Yeah, especially if you're running KDE, you'll need lotsa RAM! 256 MB should give you much better performance, especially in KDE. I love KDE, but man, it is hungry for hardware! I run either windowmaker or blackbox on my laptop, since KDE tests my patience a bit too much - 64 MB RAM and a Pentium 233. As for the TV thing, I've got two SuSE 9.1 boxes here with TV cards so I'll see if it works here. I tried back in the 8.2 days to play around with some video capture with MainActor. it worked but left a lot to be desired.

ColonelPanic · Post by **ColonelPanic** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 4:51 am

Did you get this message?Quote Â»No drivers were found - you will need to manually load these as root using modprobe or a similar tool. Both raw1394 and dv1394 are supported."I haven't looked around too deeply, but my guess is that MainActor would only capture from firewire devices. At least that's what I get from the suggestion to load the x1394 modules. So, I guess if you had some sort of firewire camera or the like you could grab it from there. The predecesor to kdetv (kwintv) used to have an option to grab video from the TV card, but I could never get it to grab audio as well as video. I think others, like xawtv, would grab video, but I never got it to work.You can check out some of the links for all things video4linux here: http://www.exploits.org/v4l/

ragingfish · Post by **ragingfish** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 1:16 pm

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic Â»Did you get this message?No drivers were found - you will need to manually load these as root using modprobe or a similar tool. Both raw1394 and dv1394 are supported."Yep, that's the message.Kinda irritating. What good is capture if it has to be firewire IMHO.Quote Â»You can check out some of the links for all things video4linux here: http://www.exploits.org/v4l/Thanks, I'll check it out.I put the 256 RAM in and this puppy's flying much smoother now...

ColonelPanic · Post by **ColonelPanic** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 12:44 am

Yeah, kinda irritating for sure. There are many Linux PVR products in the works, perhaps sometime soon there will be a good way to capture video. I toyed around with the thought of a Linux PVR box a while back, but that never materialized. I guess for the time being, the best Linux PVR box is a TiVo. I don't even have cable, so it really won't do me a lot of good anyway. lolOther than that, how are things going with SuSE? What are your likes/dislikes/gripes so far?