Finally adding that swap file
by Dotan Cohen
I have one hard disk with three partions: /, /boot, and /home. I want
to add a swap file on the /home partion, because it has the most
available space. I found lots of pages where it gives instructions on
how to add the file, but they all seem to want to put the file on /.
The instructions mostly are:
1. Determine the size of the new swap file and multiple by 1024 to
determine the block size. For example, the block size of a 64 MB swap
file is 65536.
2. At a shell prompt as root, type the following command with count
being equal to the desired block size:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1024 count=65536
3. Setup the swap file with the command:
mkswap /swapfile
4. To enable the swap file immediately but not automatically at boot time:
swapon /swapfile
5. To enable it at boot time, edit /etc/fstab to include:
/swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0
The next time the system boots, it will enable the new swap file.
6. After adding the new swap file and enabling it, make sure it is
enabled by viewing the output of the command cat /proc/swaps or free.
But how do I tell it to make the file on the /home partion? Also, if I
have 512 MB of ram, would a 1024 MB swap file be advisable? I know
that the old RAM*2 theory is out, but what is in?
Thanks in advance.
Dotan Cohen
http://technology-sleuth.com/question/how_can_i_be_safe_online.html
.
18 years, 8 months
FC4 on Dell Inspiron 1200 with NetGear WAG511 Dual-Band Wireless Card
by Temlakos
All right: now I'm not asking for advice. Instead, I'm offering it--free
and "open-source," of course.
The Dell Inspiron 1200 /does/ work with Fedora Core 4. Moreover, one
/can/ install a wireless connection, and with ease.
Here's a quick HOWTO:
1. Install Fedora Core 4 as either Personal Desktop or Workstation--it
shouldn't matter which. Anaconda will auto-detect a generic VESA video
driver--run with that. But change the monitor to a generic LCD with 1024
by 768 resolution at the earliest opportunity.
2. Connect directly to the Internet using the built-in Ethernet interface.
3. Reboot and go through the first-time routine. Don't sweat the
no-sound issue; you'll fix that later. You might get your chance to
select the proper monitor option with this step.
4. If you intend using any package manager other than yum, now's the
time to pull it in. I used smart myself. But yum will do. If you want
another package manager, you'll need to pull that in using yum, and set
up whatever repo it's on.
5. Using yum or your favorite package manager, update all channels and
then update all programs presently on your machine. This might take
forty-five minutes, depending on how much you've installed. You /must/
get the latest version of the kernel, because madwifi (more later) does
not have a kernel module for the kernel version on the FC4 release disks.
6. Now open the Volume Control. Select Edit -> Preferences. Make sure at
least that the following tracks are visible: PCM and External Amplifier.
Now turn External Amplifier ON and run PCM to MAX. You should have sound
at once.
7. Now install kernel-module-madwifi for your version of the kernel.
8. Shut down your laptop.
9. Physically insert a Netgear WAG511 at this time, and /disconnect/
your direct Ethernet connection.
10. Restart your laptop.
11. Go to Desktop->System Settings->Network. If all goes well, you
should see a new device called "ath0" in the Hardware tab.
12. Set up a New Wireless Connection. Get the SSID (and, if necessary,
your WEP key) from your router. You'll probably need your regular
desktop to gain access to this. Then /check/ the box that says,
"Activate this connection when computer starts."
13. Highlight and edit the Ethernet Connection. /Uncheck/ the box
labeled "Activate this connection when computer starts."
14. Shut down and restart your computer. If all goes well, your card
should light up with two LED's (they'll flash at one cycle every two
seconds), all services should start without interruption, and you should
have full network connectivity.
Naturally, to connect to another wireless network with another SSID,
you'll have to change the Wireless Connection settings. Other than that,
you shouldn't have to "mess" with anything.
With any luck, you can have this done in one day.
Many thanks to the Fedora Forum for the key piece of information about
installing the required kernel module, to the MADWifi Project for
building a kernel module that works, to the keepers of the Livna
repository for making this readily available, to Atheros Communications
for their unstinting cooperation, and to all the good folks at the
Fedora Project for providing everything else that I needed.
Temlakos
18 years, 8 months
Updating FC4
by Michael Comperchio
I'm fairly new to using LINUX as my desktop...I'm also a natural
blond...ok not really... I wanted an environment that was not XP to
write some code for fun in. (C/C++) I miss it and don't like what I'm
doing at work....so....Unix/LINUX was my choice.
I downloaded and burned the June fedora ISO's. Installed fine, and the
desktop comes up...I can run KDevelop...command lines and compile fine.
I figured I'd click on the RHN update and see what happenes. It
downloads a sh*load of rpm's. starts the actual installs and goes off
into neverland....ok...so I remembered one of the kids at work telling
about 'yum'. After much putzing around I finally discover 'yum update'
and get the following result:
a bunch of this stuff....
--> Package libwpd.i386 0:0.8.2-1.fc4 set to be updated
---> Package dhcpv6_client.i386 0:0.10-14_FC4 set to be updated
--> Running transaction check
--> Processing Dependency: net-snmp = 5.2.1-12 for package: net-snmp-libs
--> Processing Dependency: python-numeric for package: pygtk2
--> Restarting Dependency Resolution with new changes.
--> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait.
---> Package python-numeric.i386 0:23.7-2 set to be updated
--> Running transaction check
--> Processing Dependency: net-snmp = 5.2.1-12 for package: net-snmp-libs
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Error: Missing Dependency: net-snmp = 5.2.1-12 is needed by package
net-snmp-libs
Any help would be much appreciated!!! (this started out 'cuz I wanted to
compile the latest Anjuta release which tells me I'm missing appropriate
VTE? rev levels)
Thanks
Michael C
18 years, 8 months
RE: Smartd message: What does it mean?
by Dan Thurman
Hahahahaha. Sorry folks. I DO appreaciate your comments
but as I said before, that there is *something else* going
on, after all... I had no reported problems before. One
of the respondents clued me in, that this problem was occuring
AT BOOT TIME. Only ONCE.
I tried the comprehensive test (smartctl -t long /dev/hdb) and
there was no reported problems. So when I ran the smartctl -a
/dev/hdb, I saw that there was a message that the drive may need
a firmware update with LINKS PROVIDED!!!!!
THAT IS SO DARN COOL!!!!
So, I went to the site, downloaded the firmware, updated it,
and the drive had the updated firmware. I rebooted and smartctl
reported no problems at boot! I ran the long test again, no problems.
I saved a few bucks for now.... :-D
Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: fedora-list-bounces(a)redhat.com
[mailto:fedora-list-bounces@redhat.com]On Behalf Of Charles Curley
Sent: Saturday, October 29, 2005 6:01 PM
To: For users of Fedora Core releases
Subject: Re: Smartd message: What does it mean?
On Sat, Oct 29, 2005 at 12:02:27AM -0700, jdow wrote:
> Do not pass go. Do not collect $100. Do not dilly dally around. Get a
> new drive and move over to it. Your only hope that it is something else
> is the possibility of a flaky ATA cable. Betting on this is like taking
> the bad odds at a craps shoot.
Joanne is correct.
First off, the fact that smartd is reporting N bad sectors does not
mean that you only have N bad sectors. You probably also have a bunch
that the firmware has already either re-allocated (hiding the fact
that they are bad), or recovered (if the defect is small enough) and
re-written.
When a drive is manufactured, it is tested, and a list of bad sectors
is created. These sectors are re-allocated from spares, and the
substitution is utterly transparent to the OS.
When (not if) a new defect occurs, the drive will re-read the sector a
number of times, and try various tricks to recover the data. The
smaller the defect, the greater likelihood of recovering the data. If
the defect is small enough, the drive will simply re-write the sector,
end of discusion.
When (not if) the defect gets large enough, the drive will re-allocate
a substitute sector from a list of spares, and mark the old one as
bad. That list of spares will eventually be exhausted, which can
happen in a matter of minutes.
However, the fact that the drive has enough bad sectors that the
firmware is reporting them to you means that you have more bad sectors
than there were on the drive since it was manufactured. Your drive is
warning you that it is about to die.
Yes, it may take several years to die. On the other hand it could take
15 minutes. 15 seconds.
Now, how much do you want to bet that it will be toward the several
years end of things?
How much is your time worth? I'd rather spend a few bucks on a new
hard drive, copy the data over, and be good to go than try to recover
data from a dieing drive. Been there, done that, got the
T-shirt. Been paid big bucks to do it for other people.
Do as the lady says. Now.
Then start doing regular backups.
--
Charles Curley /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign
Looking for fine software \ / Respect for open standards
and/or writing? X No HTML/RTF in email
http://www.charlescurley.com / \ No M$ Word docs in email
Key fingerprint = CE5C 6645 A45A 64E4 94C0 809C FFF6 4C48 4ECD DFDB
--
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.12.6/151 - Release Date: 10/28/2005
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Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.12.6/151 - Release Date: 10/28/2005
18 years, 8 months
RE: Smartd message: What does it mean?
by Dan Thurman
Hmmm... or does it mean I need to completely
reformat or fsck this disk throughly to ensure
that it is really going bad? I am using FC4
so I wonder if there is another reason...
I will have to chek this out.
Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: fedora-list-bounces(a)redhat.com
[mailto:fedora-list-bounces@redhat.com]On Behalf Of Benjamin Franz
Sent: Friday, October 28, 2005 7:10 PM
To: For users of Fedora Core releases
Subject: Re: Smartd message: What does it mean?
On Fri, 28 Oct 2005, Daniel B. Thurman wrote:
>
> Hi Folks,
>
> Trying to understand this message, any ideas?
>
> This email was generated by the smartd daemon running on:
>
> host name: xxx.xxx.com
> DNS domain: xxx.com
> NIS domain: (none)
>
> The following warning/error was logged by the smartd daemon:
> Device: /dev/hdb, 14 Currently unreadable (pending) sectors
> For details see host's SYSLOG (default: /var/log/messages).
It means you have 14 bad sectors on your /dev/hdb hard drive. It also
means it is time to buy another drive and copy your data over to it.
--
Benjamin Franz
The designer of a new kind of system must participate fully in the implementation.
- Donald E. Knuth
--
fedora-list mailing list
fedora-list(a)redhat.com
To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
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No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
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Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.12.5/150 - Release Date: 10/27/2005
18 years, 8 months
Re: Linux killer!
by Mark Eggers
This has nothing to do with Linux per sae.
It has everything to do with the way Yahoo codes pages. Yahoo codes
pages to check browser identification. If you try and use an
unsupported browser you will get rejected by Yahoo.
I cannot view Yahoo Music videos on Windows/2000 Professional using
Firefox 1.0.7 due to this. I cannot view Yahoo Music videos on Fedora
Core 4 due to this.
It is simply a matter of me choosing a browser that Yahoo has decided
NOT to support and purposefully excludes.
I guess the solution is to use a user agent switching tool and get the
right browser identification strings for one of their supported browsers.
Once that is done, you can then get mplayer with all of the codecs and
the mplayer plugin for Firefox. Hopefully that should work, unless
Yahoo has packed more DRM unpleasantness into their stream.
Saying you're running IE 6 under Windows does not work. While it will
get you past the Yahoo browser check, nothing will appear on the
screen. I tried it under Windows/2000 Professional as well as Fedora
Core 4.
I recommend writing Yahoo a politely worded letter indicating that
they should at least support Firefox, since they support Netscape
7.1x. I don't think that it will do any good, but if enough of us
write, at least Yahoo will know that they're missing some of the market.
Just my two cents.
/mde/
18 years, 8 months
FC4 on Dell Inspiron 1200 with NetGear WAG511 Dual-Band Wireless Card
by Temlakos
An update on my adventure with FC4 on a Dell Inspiron 1200 with Netgear
WAG511 Dual-Band Type II PCMCIA.
FC4 installed flawlessly--sort of. At least it installed without
interruption. Currently I cannot get any sound on the Dell's internal
speakers. (Nor have I tried to plug in any headphones.) Why am I not
getting sound?
Thus far, that's the only "issue." Right now I am updating 330 packages
using various repositories. As before, I'm using "smart." These packages
include the latest kernel and kernel-devel packages--not to mention the
latest versions of Xorg, OpenOffice, and a host of other applications.
The screensaver must be saved to lock the screen by default. Maybe I'll
leave it that way, this being a laptop and all. I'm waiting to be able
to install the xscreensaver-extras so that I can do more than merely
fade-out the screen.
Once again: Exactly how do I install the MADWiFi drivers and kernel
module? I specifically bought the NetGear WAG511 because it has an
Atheros chipset, which MADWiFi is supposed to recognize. But I haven't
found any decent instructions on how to install MADWiFi drivers and
kernel modules from RPM packages.
Any assistance, even with research, would be appreciated.
Temlakos
18 years, 8 months
FC4 on Dell Inspiron 1200 with NetGear WAG511 Dual-Band Wireless Card
by Temlakos
Further update: Sound is available after all. The proper switch to use
is "External Amplifier." Anyone else out there doing the same thing I
am, /make sure you select the External Amplifier switch and turn it on/.
Only then will you get sound. The test sound will then play flawlessly.
The "smart" update is now complete. That didn't take long--half an hour,
forty-five minutes tops. The Inspiron 1200 has a fast processor, and I'm
on a Cable network.
Next on the list:
Screensaver
Additional "smart" channels
MADWifi
Temlakos
18 years, 8 months
Eclipse plugins
by Matthew Saltzman
How should one install Eclipse plugins in FC4 so that they are available
system-wide?
TIA.
--
Matthew Saltzman
Clemson University Math Sciences
mjs AT clemson DOT edu
http://www.math.clemson.edu/~mjs
18 years, 8 months
Re: LVM question. Missing about 11GB of Space..
by Andy Green
Michael D. Setzer II wrote:
> I wasn't looking at going ot 0, but what would be a more reasonable
> number than 12GB. Even the 12GB would be fine, if there was a
The -m parameter is the percentage of the drive space to reserver, so
tune2fs -m 1 /dev/hda2
will be 1/5th of your current size.
> way to make all or most of it nulls, so it would compress greatly The
> rest of the drives 206GB of space was all nulls, and compress very
> well.
The problem is not that this 5% or whatever is full of nonzero data, all
of the blocks on your filesystem that once belonged to deleted files are
not zeroed upon file deletion and contain whatever they had in them when
they made up your files.
There is a trick that might help though: say you see you have something
more than 1GByte free on df -h
dd if=/dev/zero of=/root/temp bs=1024 count=1000000
rm /root/temp
will zero most all of your free blocks, then free them again (as tested
on ext3).
-Andy
18 years, 8 months
