Q: How do I install Linux on my Windows PC?

A: You need to set the BIOS to boot from the CD drive, then boot from the Linux install CD. You need to have enough unallocated space on a hard drive to install Linux on. 2 to 20 gigabytes is recommended depending on which distro you choose to install.

Q: When installing redhat 8.0 from the CD-ROM, after 2 screens the installation informs me that: "The Red Hat Linux CD was not found in any of your CDROM drives. Please insert the red hat linux CD and press OK to retry." When I look at the cd, the files are there; and I can read the readme file. Is it a bug or a corrupted CD; and is there a solution?

A: A corrupted CD. Look for corrupted text files on the CD. If you find any, the CD is bad. In any case, replace it with a good copy, run Media Check on all three disks, and then install.

I had a similiar problem installing Mandrake 10-1. Installer complained about could not install package foo, missing file: foobar

Second set of cd's: same error, different pakcage/file.
Third set of cd's: same error, different package/file.

Two hours of trouble-shooting traced it to bad IDE cables (rounded type). Three different cables. Sad ending to story? Microsoft stuff never complained.

Q: How do I install an rpm?

A: Sometimes, you can just click on it in Konqueror and it will install. If this doesn't work, in a console/terminal window, cd to the folder where it is, type in rpm -Uvh package*.rpm where "package" is part of the package file name. For celestia, for example, type:

        cd /folder
        rpm -Uvh cel*.rpm 

The other option is to use apt. I use it with the Synaptic gui. It works great and handles the dependencies. Find it at http://apt.freshrpms.net/

Q: How do I unpack a tarball?

A: Put the file in a folder (I made one called tmp2 that I use). Then, in KDE, right click on the file and select "extract here". Or, for a .tar.gz file, in a console/terminal window, cd to that folder, type in tar -zxvf package*.gz where "package" is part of the package file name. For a .tgz file, type in tar -zxvf package*.tgz. This will unpack that package to an appropriate directory, then cd to that directory (or click on it in KDE) and read the appropriate install or readme text. Note that you can copy and paste the file location from Konqueror to the console window. For Mozilla, for example, type:

        cd /tmp2
        tar -zxvf moz*.gz 

Example for a .tar only package:

        cd /tmp2
        tar -xvf package*.tar

        For a *tar.bz file use
        tar -xvjf package*.tar.bz

Q: How do I make a boot disk post install?

A: In a console/terminal window type mkbootdisk or /sbin/mkbootdisk followed by your kernel version. For Example:

        As root:
        #uname -r    (will give you the version number)
        #mkbootdisk 2.4.20-8   (assumes device = /dev/fd0)

Q: How do I fix my bootloader?

A: To repair a broken boot loader (I use lilo), you could try to boot from your boot disk, or boot from your install CD and type linux rescue. Then edit lilo. If all you can get is a command line, you can edit lilo with vi as root. Open the file by running vi /etc/lilo.conf . Use your arrow keys to move the cursor to the line that you want to insert or edit. Press i. Then type what you want to insert. If it looks good, then to save, press the ESC key and type :wq. If you messed things up, you can abort by pressing ESC and typing :q!. Then /sbin/lilo

Q: How do you get Smoothwall install to recognize the second NIC? Or maybe the question should be, how do you add a NIC driver that it seems to be missing?

A: What linux distribution are you using?

A: Smoothwall

A: That's it! You just made me realize my error. I think it's because I downloaded Smoothwall Express when I should have downloaded Smoothwall GPL.