[TriLUG] A Newbie's question about changing hardware on my Linux machine.

[al johson]

Thanks a lot, Sinner. I esp. appreciated the advice since you have actually
done the same thing and on the same distribution!! Don't worry about my
handling of hard drives. I've handled more than I could remember over the
years. In the early years you sometimes had to hit them with a plastic
hammer to make them work!!
Or sometimes you could slam them on a table really hard to get them to spin
up. And I'm not lying about that!!  But these particular drives are each
mounted in their own protective plastic drawers. Each drawer contains two
ventilation fans (one in the front and one in the rear) to keep the drive
cool. The only time they get handled at all is when I decide to switch from
one OS to the other. Again, thanks for the super assistance.---Al
========================
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sinner from the Prairy" <sinner at escomposlinux.org>
To: <trilug at trilug.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2002 1:22 PM
Subject: Re: [TriLUG] A Newbie's question about changing hardware on my
Linux machine.


On Wednesday 11 December 2002 12:21 pm, al johson wrote:
> O.K. after the last installfest at NCSU the Trilug helpers got just about
> all of my hardware to finally work on Mandrake. Unfortunately, I'm going
to
> swap out my CD-RW drive (which is presently 4x) for one of the newer
models
> which is around 40x. (and there probably won't be another Installfest any
> time soon, esp. with everyone recovering from the storm) So I'm wondering
> before I do this (and might live to regret it!)  how do I tell Mandrake
8.1
> that there is a faster, newer CD-RW in the box?? Intrex is going to
install
> the new CD-RW, but they "don't do Linux" (at least the guy I talked to at
> the Cary store doesn't--they used to have a guy who did).

Tell Intrex to install it the same way as the old one. That is, using the
same
IDE channel, using the same slave/master configuration.

Then, on your cd burning software, as needed:
- select the newer speed,
- check the scsi configuration,
- select the newer cdrdao driver
- select buffer size

Linux will find it and configure it noprob, as long as you enable the
service
"kudzu" on start (see MDK control center). But my guess is, Mandrake will
configura nothing, as an IDE CD-RW is just an IDE CD-RW. And the devfs will
take care of creating devices entries.

> I have two hard drives in drawers which allow me to put them in and take
> them out of  the box because there are lockable cases for them to reside
> in. This allows me to experiment with Linux at will without disturbing
> anything in the surly MS 98 OS.

beware! Please handle carefuly the hard drives. They are delicate. Do you
know
that you can have 2 disks on the system, one OS on each disk?

> I'm looking forward to the day when I can
> finally tell MS to kiss my @#$#!! Unfortunately there are some amateur
> radio programs from Japanese companies (they manufacture just about all
the
> ham radio gear at present) which are probably going to always require MS
to
> work.

Don't worry too much. Use the best OS for each task.

> I realize that it takes a while for Linux to obtain drivers for new
> hardware. So if I could just be reassured that the newer CD-RW will
> probably continue to work anyway (albeit at a lower speed), it would be
> good news indeed. But the CD-RW is such an important piece of hardware
> because it's just about the only way now to save a large quantity of data.

It should work effortlessly. I changed mine from CDRW 4x2x1 to 32x16x4 no
prob. And with MDK as well.

> As you can tell I'm still a rank newbie with LINUX.

We all have been newbies. I see no problem on being a newbie.

> If you prefer to
> discuss this subject off the list my email address is
> alfjon at mindspring.com. Happy Holidays Everyone.----Al Johnson.

Maybe better on-list, in case it helps somebody else.

I'll attend to the next TriLUG meeting. Look for me ans tell me there if you
find any trouble.

> Al Johnson.



Salut,
Sinner
--
http://www.ibiblio.org/sinner/     Linux User # 89976
Running on Red Hat Linux 7.3 - Kernel  2.4.18smp  Linux Machine # 38068

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