Linux help for a Linux n00b

Locust76

I'm a Linux n00b. I have a class coming up next year "Intro to Linux" and I wanted to kind of see what all the hype was about beforehand so that I didn't run into problems with the thing during the course.

I sucessfully installed a working copy of Fedora Core 6 64-bit on an external USB drive and everything seems to be functioning (as far as I can tell, since there's no fucking Device Manager to be found) with the exception of my wireless network card.

It's built onto the motherboard, but it's technically a Realtek RTL8187 USB2.0 wireless adaptor. I downloaded one driver from realtek and one from sourceforge.net. They both appear to be about the same thing, but I'm having trouble compiling it.

Read: I have no idea how this works. I read the readme file and it says to extract the tarball into a folder, go to that folder and type "make."

Doing so produces some kind of error message (I don't have it in front of me, sorry) that gives some kind of path or directory and says "no rule set for blah blah blah" and nothing happens.

Also, I can't get dual-monitor to work. One monitor (widescreen) displays the standard 1280x1024 resolution (which I can't fucking change, no matter how many times I change it, log off and restart the core), while the other displays a mash-up of green and blue fucked up ASCII text that sits there blinking. I also can't enable desktop effects, even though it seems to have recognized my Nvidia 7900GTX with no problem. Maybe I need to go ahead and get another driver for my display? Dunno...

Speaking of which, I thought that one of the things that made Linux so cool was that you could make system-wide changes and not restart the thing... why do I gotta restart when I change resolution? What kinda bullshit is that?

Casket

The course will teach you everything you need to know if it's worth a shit. What exactly do you want to do? Learn everything before taking the course?

Locust76

Casket wrote:

The course will teach you everything you need to know if it's worth a shit. What exactly do you want to do? Learn everything before taking the course?

Basically I want to have a working installation (as "working" as is possible) that I can play around with and try and figure out what all the hype is about and satisfy my own geeky curiosity.

I don't plan on learning everything before taking the course, but I'd like to be able to have my own working stuff to tinker with right now while I wait for the class which doesn't take place until late next year.

Casket

You already have a working installation, welcome to Linux?

stigweard

Did you get the separate nvidia drivers from the nvidia site or are you just using the ones that come packaged with Ubuntu? And which X server is it using? You will probably have to edit the X config manually to set the second screen and set the custom aspect ratio and resolutions for the two monitors. The best thing about Linux is, if you are having a problem, chances are hundreds of others have had the same problem so finding a solution or howto through Google is pretty easy.

Locust76

Ubuntu? What? I only downloaded the ISO from Fedora and installed it, I didn't see any mention of Ubuntu... but yeah, the drivers were included with the install.

But yeah, network drivers not compiling...

stigweard

Heh, yeah. sorry about that. Every time I see a Linux thread, I get brain locked on Ubuntu because that is what everyone here always recommends. Does your motherboard have a wired Ethernet jack too? Maybe you could use that for a while until you get the other stuff figured out. Either way, if your usb drive is fat32, you could save the log of the install and post the last part, say 10 lines before the error, here so we can figure out what is going on.

mrcheesypants

I've had the same problem with the wireless card when I installed Fedora on my laptop. Do you have Ndiswrapper?

Locust76

I never explicitly downloaded anything called ndiswrapper, so I suppose I don't.

Here's the exact process I go through to make the file:

[root@localhost ~]# cd Desktop
[root@localhost Desktop]# dir
rtl8180-0.21
[root@localhost Desktop]# cd rtl8180-0.21
[root@localhost rtl8180-0.21]# dir
AUTHORS                ieee80211_rx.c  module_unload24  r8180_pm.c
CHANGES                ieee80211_tx.c  r8180_93cx6.c    r8180_pm.h
compat24.h             ieee80211_wx.c  r8180_93cx6.h    r8180_sa2400.c
COPYING                INSTALL         r8180_core.c     r8180_sa2400.h
ieee80211_crypt.c      LICENSE         r8180_gct.c      r8180_wx.c
ieee80211_crypt.h      Makefile        r8180_gct.h      r8180_wx.h
ieee80211_crypt_wep.c  Makefile26      r8180.h          README
ieee802_11.h           module_load     r8180_hw.h       README.adhoc
ieee80211.h            module_load24   r8180_max2820.c  README.master
ieee80211_module.c     module_unload   r8180_max2820.h
[root@localhost rtl8180-0.21]# make
Makefile:8: /lib/modules/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6/build/.config: No such file or directory
make: *** No rule to make target `/lib/modules/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6/build/.config'.  Stop.
[root@localhost rtl8180-0.21]#

I run this using the Terminal from within the Fedora GUI. I'm logged in as root and all that, but I just can't make sense of this error. I've tried several arguments such as -B and -k, but to no avail.

I've also tried navigating directly to /lib/modules/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 and creating the build and .config directories, but that still didn't help.

What am I doing wrong?

Resonant

Locust76 wrote:

I never explicitly downloaded anything called ndiswrapper, so I suppose I don't.

Here's the exact process I go through to make the file:

SNIP, SNIP BITCH.

I run this using the Terminal from within the Fedora GUI. I'm logged in as root and all that, but I just can't make sense of this error. I've tried several arguments such as -B and -k, but to no avail.

I've also tried navigating directly to /lib/modules/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 and creating the build and .config directories, but that still didn't help.

What am I doing wrong?

Try running nano -w INSTALL

It should give you some idea of what to do.

Jimmy King

Well, resonant covered the first thing I was going to say. Almost everything you download for Linux will have a README and/or INSTALL file. Read them. They will tell you how to install it and sometimes what common errors you may get when trying to install them mean and how to fix them. The most important lesson anyone can give you in using Linux is RTFM.

If you already did and are following those directions but just did not mention it, I apologize for the semi-lecture. Not reading the directions is the biggest problem I come across with people just learning Linux (and almost anything else computer related).

Secondly, stop using "dir". ls is the proper command for listing what is in a directory. dir is put there as a sym link to ls by some distros to help ease the pain of moving from dos/windows to linux. It's not guaranteed to be there, though, especially if you get into a business environment running a true unix system, and if you put dir as an answer to the very common "intro to linux/unix" type class test question "what command do you use to view the files in a directory" you will probably get it marked as incorrect.

vonPoonBurGer

Locust76 wrote:

I never explicitly downloaded anything called ndiswrapper, so I suppose I don't.

Here's the exact process I go through to make the file:

[root@localhost ~]# cd Desktop
[root@localhost Desktop]# dir
rtl8180-0.21
[root@localhost Desktop]# cd rtl8180-0.21
[root@localhost rtl8180-0.21]# dir
AUTHORS                ieee80211_rx.c  module_unload24  r8180_pm.c
CHANGES                ieee80211_tx.c  r8180_93cx6.c    r8180_pm.h
compat24.h             ieee80211_wx.c  r8180_93cx6.h    r8180_sa2400.c
COPYING                INSTALL         r8180_core.c     r8180_sa2400.h
ieee80211_crypt.c      LICENSE         r8180_gct.c      r8180_wx.c
ieee80211_crypt.h      Makefile        r8180_gct.h      r8180_wx.h
ieee80211_crypt_wep.c  Makefile26      r8180.h          README
ieee802_11.h           module_load     r8180_hw.h       README.adhoc
ieee80211.h            module_load24   r8180_max2820.c  README.master
ieee80211_module.c     module_unload   r8180_max2820.h
[root@localhost rtl8180-0.21]# make
Makefile:8: /lib/modules/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6/build/.config: No such file or directory
make: *** No rule to make target `/lib/modules/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6/build/.config'.  Stop.
[root@localhost rtl8180-0.21]#

I run this using the Terminal from within the Fedora GUI. I'm logged in as root and all that, but I just can't make sense of this error. I've tried several arguments such as -B and -k, but to no avail.

I've also tried navigating directly to /lib/modules/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 and creating the build and .config directories, but that still didn't help.

What am I doing wrong?

Have you read the README file? Have you read the INSTALL file? I'm willing to bet that one of those two will tell you that you need to run make config before you run make. The error make is giving you is that it can't find a file called /lib/modules/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6/build/.config, and I imagine that file is generated by make config.

Locust76

vonPoonBurGer wrote:

Have you read the README file? Have you read the INSTALL file? I'm willing to bet that one of those two will tell you that you need to run make config before you run make. The error make is giving you is that it can't find a file called /lib/modules/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6/build/.config, and I imagine that file is generated by make config.

I'm not a computer noob, just a Linux noob... the Readme file was the first place I went to, then the Install file...

Install file wrote:

3.1 Get latest driver from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/rtl8180-sa2400 (in this example
we'll use rtl8180-0.9.1) and build:

tar xzf rtl8180-0.9.1.tar.gz
cd rtl8180-0.9.1
make

(naturally, substitute 0.9.1 with the current version number)

You can ignore any "no CRC" warnings.

It says I can ignore CRC warnings, but says nothing about the "not-doing-anything" error I'm getting. I think either the version of Linux I'm using is radically newer than the version the instructions or I'm simply doing something wrong.

Oh, and I'll use dir till I'm blue in the face... LONG LIVE DOS!... hehe

Jimmy King

bah, I think I know what the problem is. Fedora (and RH and all of the variants such as CentOS) don't actually include a lot of the dev libraries by default. You'll need to use yum to install the packages, and if I can come up with the names I'll post them for you. I'm a long time slackware user, though, who has just been forced to work with RH and fedora a bit for work stuff.

edit: some googling and it looks like kernel-devel may be the package you need. There may be a version number in there, too. I would just do a "yum search kernel-devel" and see what options you have. It may turn out to be other packages you need instead or with it, but that's where I'd start from my time compiling stuff from source on fedora.

ecco the dolphin

Jimmy King wrote:

bah, I think I know what the problem is. Fedora (and RH and all of the variants such as CentOS) don't actually include a lot of the dev libraries by default. You'll need to use yum to install the packages, and if I can come up with the names I'll post them for you. I'm a long time slackware user, though, who has just been forced to work with RH and fedora a bit for work stuff.

edit: some googling and it looks like kernel-devel may be the package you need. There may be a version number in there, too. I would just do a "yum search kernel-devel" and see what options you have. It may turn out to be other packages you need instead or with it, but that's where I'd start from my time compiling stuff from source on fedora.

Just digging through the error message, it looks like you're right and he's either missing the configuration files used to configure his kernel (either that, or it's in the wrong directory).

Would you, Locust76, be able to go:

uname -a

and

ls /lib/modules

? Or if you feel especially keen, use dir to list the contents of /lib/modules.

Locust76

[root@localhost ~]# uname -a
Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 #1 SMP Mon Oct 16 14:39:22 EDT 2006 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[root@localhost ~]# ls /lib/modules
2.6.18-1.2798.fc6
[root@localhost ~]# dir /lib/modules
2.6.18-1.2798.fc6
[root@localhost ~]#

ecco the dolphin

Locust76 wrote:

[root@localhost ~]# uname -a
Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 #1 SMP Mon Oct 16 14:39:22 EDT 2006 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[root@localhost ~]# ls /lib/modules
2.6.18-1.2798.fc6
[root@localhost ~]# dir /lib/modules
2.6.18-1.2798.fc6
[root@localhost ~]#

Cool. At least the version names match.

Could you find out what's inside /lib/modules/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6?

ls /lib/modules/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6

Specifically, if it's also got a sub-directory called "build".

If it does, then go into the sub-directory, and type:

ls -la .config

edit: for clarify

Locust76

[root@localhost ~]# ls /lib/modules/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6
build           modules.dep          modules.pcimap    updates
extra           modules.ieee1394map  modules.seriomap  weak-updates
kernel          modules.inputmap     modules.symbols
modules.alias   modules.isapnpmap    modules.usbmap
modules.ccwmap  modules.ofmap        source
[root@localhost ~]# cd /lib/modules/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6/build
[root@localhost build]# ls
[root@localhost build]#

Also, the fucker's gettin' uppity and was nice enough to corrupt my main Win XP boot drive when I last booted into Fedora. Had to boot into safe mode and schedule a chkdsk on next bootup. Gonna have to fucking disconnect my internal drives before booting Linux. Fantastic

I'm wondering why people are so in love with this thing.

ecco the dolphin

Locust76 wrote:

Also, the fucker's gettin' uppity and was nice enough to corrupt my main Win XP boot drive when I last booted into Fedora. Had to boot into safe mode and schedule a chkdsk on next bootup. Gonna have to fucking disconnect my internal drives before booting Linux. Fantastic

I'm wondering why people are so in love with this thing.

That's not cool of Fedora. I have no idea why it would do that.

Anyway, could you do

ls -la .config

in the build directory?

Just doing ls won't work because .config is a hidden file (the . at the start of the name makes it "hidden")

Alternatively, you could try a cheap hack method:
In the drivers that you extracted, open up "Makefile"
Go to line 8 - it looks like:

include $(KSRC)/.config

Add a hash # in front of it

Save, and type make again in the directory you extracted the drivers to. No idea if that'll work, probably won't, but can't hurt.

pengrate

I'm sure Jimmy King has it exactly right. The only problem is that you said in a post that you went and created "build" and "build/.config" directories. This is probably going to cause a problem when yum tries to install the kernel-devel or kernel-headers or whatever package. It'll probably find that you created a directory called ".config", and won't be able to create the .config file (which is actually just a text file) due to the conflict.

I'd suggest the following:

rmdir /lib/modules/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6/build/.config
yum search kernel-devel

Then, as Jimmy King said, see what packages there are by that name, and install them with, for example,

yum install kernel-devel

If you manage to successfully install the kernel development package, then you can try running "make" again.

Also note that "ls -la" and "ls" will not produce the same output. For one, "ls -la" will list hidden files (i.e. files that start with "."), so "ls -la" is definitely what you should have used.

Edit:

eecc wrote:

Save, and type make again in the directory you extracted the drivers to. No idea if that'll work, probably won't, but can't hurt.

...I can see that possibly hurting the build process.

stigweard

I think Jimmy has it right too. I don't use RH / Fedora, does the kernel-devel include kernel sources? You might need those too.

Mr.FragBait

Locust76 wrote:

Also, the fucker's gettin' uppity and was nice enough to corrupt my main Win XP boot drive when I last booted into Fedora. Had to boot into safe mode and schedule a chkdsk on next bootup. Gonna have to fucking disconnect my internal drives before booting Linux. Fantastic

I'm wondering why people are so in love with this thing.

Hey, hey. Don't scream at the match when you burn your hand. Both windows and linux can fuck with the whole computer if you do something wrong. I've had XP corrupt Linux Partitions mounted in windows when it froze one day. Windows and Linux do not like each other. I would also recommend you switching to ubuntu/kubuntu. Both are easy to install GUI distros based on Debian that are newbie friendly, in a good way.

Plus, is your motherboard a Asus P5W DH Deluxe? Well, you should be able to get it to work(#44) with NdisWrapper.