Fedora Core 2 & Windows Xp Dual Boot

[Nerelda]

ok, here's what's going on. Pretty soon (like within the next week hopefully) I'll be redoing my computer with fresh installs of everything. I have 2 HD's which I'll be installing WinXP on the Master, and Linux Fedora Core 2 on the Slave.

What I was wondering is if there is anything I need to know about dual booting these OS's together? Also, I read on a message board once that someone said it was best to install one before the other for some reason. (Couldn't remember which particular one they said to install first) Don't even know if this is true...

If there's anything else you can thinkof that I should know, please say so.

Thanks!

Nerelda

[jcl]

What I was wondering is if there is anything I need to know about dual booting these OS's together? Also, I read on a message board once that someone said it was best to install one before the other for some reason. (Couldn't remember which particular one they said to install first) Don't even know if this is true...

People usually suggest that you install Linux after Windows. That prevents Windows from clobbering the bootloader installed by the Linux installation, and gives the Linux installer a chance to pick up the Windows partitions and register them with the bootloader.

[Nerelda]

That's what I was thinking but wanted to be sure. Thanks for verifying, jcl!

[Nerelda]

reformatted the Master Hard Drive last night, installed Windows and all my antivirus, spyware, and firewall programs. Right now I'm getting all my windows updates. After the updates are finished, I will begin working on my slave drive.

The Slave drive still has my old copy of Windows 2000 on it. Can I just use Fedora to formatt it then install, or do I have to format through DOS, or another way?

[jcl]

The Slave drive still has my old copy of Windows 2000 on it. Can I just use Fedora to formatt it then install, or do I have to format through DOS, or another way?

Fedora will be fine. You'll end up formating it in Linux either way in order to get the partition table sorted out and the filesystems installed.

[Nerelda]

Ok, I've got fedora installed, but now I need help finding a driver for my wireless USB adapter so that I can also get on the internet with Linux.

Netgear Wireless USB adapter

Model: MA101

I Checked the manufacturer's website and driverguide.com, but both only had the drivers for windows.

[jcl]

Ok, I've got fedora installed, but now I need help finding a driver for my wireless USB adapter so that I can also get on the internet with Linux.

Netgear Wireless USB adapter

Model: MA101

Nooooooo! I swear, whoever invented USB WiFi should be dragged out in a street, shot, and left to the coyotes.

The short story is that WiFi is a royal PITA under Linux, and USB WiFi is an imperial PITA. There is a driver available but it requires patching the kernel and you have to know which chipset your particular MA101 uses. There may be a driver included with Fedora, but since I have neither Fedora nor an MA101 nor in fact any sort of WiFi hardware, I'm probably not the best person to be helping.

However, I can at least help figure out which driver you need. Boot up Fedora with the MA101 unplugged from the computer. Once you're in Fedora, get a command-line. Either drop to the console or open an xterm, gnome-terminal, konsole, or whatever Fedora ships. Then plug the MA101 in.

Now, issue this command:

$ dmesg

There should be something at the bottom about a USB device being connected. If so, it means Fedora sees the MA101 and we can continue. If not, erm, say something.

Now, try issuing this command in the terminal:

$ lsusb

that should produce several lines of text similar to this:

Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0864:4102 NetGear, Inc. MA101 802.11b Adapter
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 045e:0040 Microsoft Corp. Wheel Mouse Optical
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

What you want is the ID for the MA101, a number of the form xxxx:xxxx (in the above example, 0864:4102). Post that, and I should be able to figure out which driver you need.

If Fedora complains about lsusb not existing, try this

$ less /proc/bus/usb/devices

That will produce a mostly-unreadable list of USB devices in the form of blocks separated by blank lines. Look for the block with "Manufacturer" and "Product" lines (fourth and fifth lines) that look like the MA101. Then look at the third line of that block, which should say something like "Vendor=0864 ProdID=4102 Rev= 1.00". The xxxx:xxxx number mentioned above is the concatenation of those two numbers. Copy it down and post it.

Oh, and while you're there, see if

$ iwconfig

or

$ ifconfig

produce anything interesting.

[Nerelda]

Yes, I know....USB Wifi...not my choice, not my choice at all.....no money to get a new one, so I'm stuck with it.

0864:4102

"iwconfig: command not found"

"ifconfig: command not found"

yeah....I'd say they turned up something interesting...lOL

Thank you for the help you are providing me with it. I truly appreciate it.

[tictoc5150]

0864:4102

"iwconfig: command not found"

"ifconfig: command not found"

yeah....I'd say they turned up something interesting...lOL

Thank you for the help you are providing me with it. I truly appreciate it.

jcl knows waaaaaayyyyy more than I do but for iwconfig I have to be in root

so go:

$su

password:

then

#iwconfig

and

#ifconfig

and just a mention...I never was able to get my ma101 working with mandrake 10.0 and did have to patch with a firmware update to get a wg511 working on my laptop...so, I'll agree with jcl...a MAJOR PITA...very rewarding and satisfying when you do manage to get things to work though....good luck

[Nerelda]

hey tictoc, tried what you said and got the same results. From what I've read, many people have had a rough time getting the MA101 to work properly, but several people had. If it were possible, I'd just get a new card, but it's not.

Thanks for the help anyway.

[jcl]

hey tictoc, tried what you said and got the same results.

Eep. Try

$ /sbin/ifconfig

or

$ locate ifconfig

Fedora does support networking as far as I know, so it has to be there somewhere. May as well find it now, you're going to need it.

As for iwconfig, I didn't really expect it to be installed, but it was worth a shot.

From what I've read, many people have had a rough time getting the MA101 to work properly, but several people had.

Indeed. There's a HOWTO for Red Hat 8, but it hasn't been updated in a while (duh, Red Hat 8) so I didn't want to link to it. The procedure it described involves patching the kernel to add the driver and then rebuilding. Not something you necessarily want to jump into right away.

Incidentally, since the subject of using su to find executables came up, there's an often overlooked feature of su that can cause problems. (Perhaps this should be posted down in Tips and Tricks.)

When you invoke su without arguments it resets your PATH (the list of directories searched for executables) as a safety precaution. By default it sets it to "/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin", which is reasonable but often not what you want. If you add '-' as an argument to su, it will attempt to recreate a full root login, likely giving you a much richer and more useful environment. (Also safer, since some parts of the old environment can leak in when you use vanilla su.) For example

$ su
Password: 
# echo $PATH
/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
# exit
exit
$ su -
Password:
# echo $PATH
/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/bin:/usr/i686-pc-linux-gnu/gcc-bin/3.3:
/opt/intel/compiler80/bin:/opt/Acrobat5:/opt/ghc/bin:/opt/stuffit/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:
/opt/sun-jdk-1.5.0_rc1/bin:/opt/sun-jdk-1.5.0_rc1/jre/bin:/usr/qt/3/bin:/usr/kde/3.3/sbin:
/usr/kde/3.3/bin
# exit
logout

Noticeably different.

[Nerelda]

ok, with that first code, I got the following:

Link encap:Local Loopback

inet addr: 127.0.0.1  Mask: 255.0.0.0

inet6 addr: ::1/128  Scope:Host

UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436  Metric:1

RX Packets:3448  errors:0  dropped:0  overruns:0  frame:0

TX Packets:3448  errors:0  dropped:0  overruns:0  carrier:0

collisions:0  txqueuelen:0

RX bytes:3984436  (3.7 Mb)  TX bytes:3984436  (3.7 Mb)

I also know that Fedora DOES support networking since eventually we will be learning that in class, but we won't be doing anything with wireless networking.

Thanks for the information on the SU command.

<edit> was just trying to set up my printer when I realized I have another major problem.....my printer isn't supported for linux.... I have a Lexmark X5150 all-in-one printer. So far, my research has resulted in no luck. Before, when you had me checking to make sure that linux was registering that my wireless card was connected, I noticed it also did detect my Lexmark Printer.

<edit again> Forgot to mention that the printer is connected to the PC via USB.

[hitest]

Linuxprinting.org

I have the same problem at home which is why I still have some windows computers. My Lexmark printer is not Linux compatible. The above link has a list of Linux compliant printers, may have some driver information. Good luck with your printer:-)

[jcl]

ok, with that first code, I got the following:

Good. It doesn't see the NIC, but the important thing was that the program was there.

Anyway, back to square one. Try to find the device ID for the NIC. And if lsusb doesn't work, forget about it. It's not included in that many distros yet AFAIK.

<edit> was just trying to set up my printer when I realized I have another major problem.....my printer isn't supported for linux.... I have a Lexmark X5150 all-in-one printer. So far, my research has resulted in  no luck. Before, when you had me checking to make sure that linux was registering that my wireless card was connected, I noticed it also did detect my Lexmark Printer.

Lexmark may provide a driver. The support page for the X5150 lists a Caldera OpenLinux driver, but it appears that it's actually either a MacOS 9 or OS X driver. Could be the site's broken at the moment (I notice they changed the format recently) and the Linux driver will reappear.

It's also possible that it's supported out of Lexmark's Linux driver development kit.

[Nerelda]

hitest: Thanks, I'll look into that.

jcl: No time tonight, but I'll try and get to finding the device ID early this week and post the results.

I did check the Lexmark site, and came across the same problem with the "unix driver" they listed. When Something for it finally DID show, It was listed as a program for networking with Macs. Although, I think they still could have their links messed up. I'll keep trying, but I'm also going to look into the site hitest posted.

I saw something about Lexmark's Driver Developement kit, but I really dont' even know the first thing about it.

I'm still also researching on my own to see if I can come up with anything for either of these problems. It's been mostly dead ends so far, but I'm not giving up.

UPDATE: No luck on that site from hitest.

[hitest]

hitest: Thanks, I'll look into that.

jcl: No time tonight, but I'll try and get to finding the device ID early this week and post the results.

I did check the Lexmark site, and came across the same problem with the "unix driver" they listed. When Something for it finally DID show, It was listed as a program for networking with Macs. Although, I think they still could have their links messed up. I'll keep trying, but I'm also going to look into the site hitest posted.

I saw something about Lexmark's Driver Developement kit, but I really dont' even know the first thing about it.

I'm still also researching on my own to see if I can come up with anything for either of these problems. It's been mostly dead ends so far, but I'm not giving up.

UPDATE: No luck on that site from hitest.

Yeah I figured as much. Lexmark does make some printers that're Linux compatible, but, a lot of the printers made by Lexmark are windows only which really sucks. I think jcl already mentioned this, but, you can also try to go to lexmark's website and see if they have Linux drivers for your printer. Good luck:-)

[jcl]

I saw something about Lexmark's Driver Developement kit, but I really dont' even know the first thing about it.

Neither do I. Well, I mean, I know what it's for, but I don't what all is included with it. Never owned a printer that wasn't made by HP.

[Nerelda]

I had a few different HP printers, but was never really pleased with them. My brother had a Lexmark X83 (?) for over a year and used the hell out of it with no problems. I'm very pleased with my printer, so if I can't get it to work with linkux, I'll just not worry about it. I'd just really like to be able to get online with linux.