Ethernet Card Not Recognized After Fedora Install

[clem_c_rock]

By fully supported I mean only being able to run up2date and get the latest Fedora updates.

W/ that in mind; if I grabbed the redhat 9 kernel and installed it successfully, could any future Fedora updates collide w/ the RH9 Kernel?

Clem C

[Void Main]

If all you are worried about are updates I would suggest you look at my apt page:

http://voidmain.is-a-geek.net/redhat/fe ... _have.html

Instead of up2date you would run "apt-get update; apt-get dist-upgrade". Everything will get updated automatically *except* the kernel. Kernel's must be manually updated with an "apt-get install kernel-xxx-xxx". I would also suggest that you use the "apt" package from here:

http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/apt/

apt replaces up2date, and it gives you access to not only updates but many other packages that are not included with the distro. You do not have to manually download and install software, just "apt-get install packagename".

Did that Red Hat 9 kernel work?

[clem_c_rock]

That is very, very cool stuff. Well, I got the rh9 kernel.2.4.2... and tried to install it and got the ol' BAD, Key ID error. Looks like I need the correct gcc?

Nothing's ever easy. I can feel, in my bones, I'm getting close.


thnx 'gain

[Void Main]

Actually that bad key error has nothing to do with GCC. It's just a gpg signature not matching and you should be able to ignore it. After you install it you should see it in your list:

$ rpm -qa | grep kernel

If it's there reboot and look for it on your boot menu. Select it and try to boot it. After you boot do an "/sbin/lspci" and see if the Broadcom adapters show up at the bottom of the list.

[clem_c_rock]

Ok great - So I guess when I see the full error string "error rpmdbNextItorator" skipping h# 80 header V3DSA signature' line; it's still installing.


Cool

[Void Main]

Well, I didn't say that. What do you get when you do this:

$ rpm -qa | grep kernel

Does that kernel show up in the list? If not, it didn't install. You can add a "vh" to the command line and get a little more info:

$ rpm -ivh kernel-2.4.20*

[clem_c_rock]

well it's still installing (or so I think). So far, when I run rpm -qa | grep kernel I get:

kernel-source-2.6.5-1.358
kernel-source-smp-2.6.5-1.358
kernel-source-utils-2.4-9.1.131
kernel-source-doc-2.6.5-2.358
kernel-source-2.6.5-1.358

could any of this stuff be clashing?

[Void Main]

No it wouldn't clash, but unfortunately it didn't install either. If it did you would see a line that says "kernel-2.4.20-31.9". In fact I don't see a kernel installed at all. Good luck trying to reboot if a kernel isn't installed. If I were you I would just download and install the White Box Linux distro. You can use Dag's apt to update it, in fact you can also use up2date according to the FAQ:

http://www.whiteboxlinux.org/faq.html

I would assume you just use the EL3 repositories and apt package. If you wanted to run Oracle or anything else that required Enterprise Linux 3 then you should have no problem (just don't expect it to be supported). If you want a supported distro from all vendors then you'll have to pay as I mentioned before, otherwise people like me will support you for free.

[clem_c_rock]

I wimped out! This has been taking too much of my time so my boss just purchased redhat enterprise for $350 which should just solve everything.

We were getting nervous about piecing so many things together and having something blow up because of it down the road when things were up and running.

Thanks for your help. Please let me know if I've taken too much of your time and I can move on somewhere else in the future.

Clem C

[Void Main]

This forum is my hobby (one of my many hobbies) so you can't take too much of my time. Of course now that you have paid for the Enterprise license you should go to Red Hat. After all, that's what you are paying for. :)

[clem_c_rock]

Obviously - you enjoy this quite a bit. Obviously you have quite the expertise as well.

Couple of questions: How long did it take to gain a working level of proficiency?

What, if I may ask, is your job position?

I am a web programmer who really needs to get into the administration side of things if I ever hope to earn my black belt in web geekdom.

Thanks again for all your help,

Cheers

[Void Main]

How long did it take to gain a working level of proficiency?

I assume you mean Linux specifically when you ask this so I will limit my answer to just Linux. It is quite difficult to answer this question though because I started working with Linux before there were any distros. It was not too longer after Linus announced on a newsgroup that he was working on a kernel and said anyone who wanted to participate could. This was back around 1992. I was already a senior UNIX administrator and in charge of the UNIX group at the place I worked so I had a head start.

So even if I could answer this question I don't think the answer would be of any use to you if you are just now starting in Linux considering Linux today is, in many ways, quite a different animal than it was when I started. In many other ways it is just the same animal as it was back in the early 90s. The POSIX/UNIX likenesses have always been there in all of their wonderful glorious power and haven't changed a lot over the years. The main difference between the old days of Linux and today's Linux is how easy it is to install. I use Linux today pretty much the same way I used it back in the early 90s, which is pretty much the same way I used UNIX before that.

To me, the important part of Linux is not the GUI that you run or the installer that it uses but the tools that you get after it's installed. The part that makes Linux powerful are it's UNIX/POSIX tools. If you get proficient in that area you should be fairly comfortable with any Linux distribution out there and also be fairly comfortable on most any UNIX system. It took me about a solid month working full time on the first UNIX systems that I began to really see the light and start grasping the concepts. I think that was the point when I knew there would be no turning back. Everything just started clicking. I found out what standards were and why they are important and how my life became so much easier because of them.

I think if I were starting from scratch today it would probably take about that same solid month to get hooked, which turns into a deep desire to learn more. Of course the more you learn the more you realize that you will never really become a "guru". There is just too much out there for any one person to learn. If you like to learn (like I do) then you will love Linux/*NIX.

What, if I may ask, is your job position?

Currently I work in the network operations group at the headquarters of a very large and well known company (you've probably been a customer of ours at one time or another). I have only been here just over a year now and was hired in to find and/or develop open source tools to help manage and keep our network secure. I have a lot of Linux servers and also administer some Sun servers along with some proprietary network apps that run on them. I do a lot of web based network management and security tools development. (PHP/Perl/C/etc).

Prior to working where I am now I worked for another large and well known company and I was the senior systems engineer and had many roles. My official title just before I put the company out of business was "Manager of UNIX Systems" and I was responsible for all UNIX/Linux systems in the company. In addition to that I was responsible for all the NT servers in my city (~120 of them). I also did a lot with networking while I was there (got a Cisco CCNA cert while I was there too). I actually didn't put the company out of business but they did get bought out after filing chapter 11 because fuel prices at the time put us under when we were already struggling (might give you a hint).

I actually learned to program on my own back in the early 80s on a C64 and then got my first PC around the time DOS 3.2 came out and learned to program in Pascal. I also ran the second largest bulletin board in the state I lived in on that machine (started with dual node 2400 baud modems). My first computer job was programming on Mainframes for the Air Force, then switched to programming on and administering IBM AIX systems.

I am a web programmer who really needs to get into the administration side of things if I ever hope to earn my black belt in web geekdom.

Of course I don't think you can achieve "true" geekdom without being heavily in to Linux so I think you are on your way. :) Good Luck! Dang! There went my lunch hour! :)