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2. General System Setup

2.1 Keyboard

First of all, how to configure the keyboard. If you missed this step during installation or have changed your keyboard, you'll have to:

Upon the next reboot, the keyboard will work fine. To avoid rebooting and load the key table only, cd to /etc/rc.d/init.d and issue the command ./keytable start.

2.2 Kernel Matters

IMHO, the first thing to do next is build a kernel that best suits your system. It's very simple to do but, in any case, refer to the README file in /usr/src/linux/ or the Kernel HOWTO. Hints:

2.3 sendmail Lock

On some systems, sendmail locks the machine at boot time. Quick fix: make sure your /etc/hosts contains a line that reads 

127.0.0.1 localhost

See also Section Hostname.

2.4 Hard Disk Performance

Your hard disk's performance can be greatly enhanced by carefully using hdparm(8). If your Linux distribution doesn't include it, you'll find on ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/hardware ; look for a file called hdparm-X.Y.tar.gz.

I can't give you a general recipe, as many details depend on your hard disk and HD controller. Since you risk to toast your filesystem, please read the man page carefully before using some options. At its simplest, you could add the following line to /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit: 

/sbin/hdparm -c1 /dev/hda  # first IDE drive assumed

which enables (E)IDE 32-bit I/O support. As for the `-m' option, this is what hdparm author Mark Lord emailed me:

(...) if your system uses components from the past couple of years, it will be fine. Older than that, there *may* be a problem (unlikely). The really buggy chips were the CMD0646 and RZ1000 chips, used *extensively* on 486 and (early) 586 motherboards about 2-3 years ago.

2.5 Parallel Port Zip Drive

To use the parallel port version of the Zip drive you can use the default driver that comes with recent (2.x.x) kernels. During kernel configuration, make sure that SCSI support and SCSI disk support are enabled (either in the kernel or as a module). Remember, there can be conflicts between the printer and the Zip drive on the same parallel port.

Zip disks are sold preformatted on partition /dev/sda4. To enable the Zip, all you have to do is issue 

#~ chmod 666 /dev/sda4  # everyone can access the Zip Drive
#~ insmod ppa

and the Zip can now be mounted as usual (better write the last line in /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit). You also access the Zip drive via mtools adding this line to your /etc/mtools.conf: 

drive z: file="/dev/sda4" exclusive

There's a better ppa driver than the standard one, though: have a look at http://www.torque.net/~campbell .

2.6 Device Drivers

Devices in /dev (or better, links to the actual device drivers) may be missing. Check what devices your mouse, modem, and CD--ROM drive correspond to, then do what follows: 

~# cd /dev
/dev# ln -s /dev/cua0 mouse
/dev# ln -s /dev/cua1 modem
/dev# ln -s /dev/hdb cdrom

and, if you want, do chmod 666 to these devices (not the links, the actual devices!) to make them fully accessible by every user. Tip: in some laptops the mouse device is /dev/psaux: take this into account when configuring X11.

In addition, you'll want to make the floppy accessible by non-root users with chmod 666 /dev/fd*. This is bound to cause security problems, but I don't know the details. Comments are welcome.

2.7 Bootup Messages

If you want to customise the bootup messages, check whether your /etc/rc.d/rc.local overwrites /etc/issue and /etc/motd. If so, fire up your editor and go ahead.

2.8 Hostname

Issuing the command hostname new_host_name may not be enough. To avoid the dreaded sendmail lock, follow these steps:

2.9 Mouse

gpm mouse services are useful to perform cut and paste in tty mode, and to use the mouse in some applications. Check that you have a file called /etc/sysconfig/mouse and that it reads: 

MOUSETYPE="Microsoft"
XEMU3=yes

Moreover, you must have a file /etc/rc.d/init.d/gpm. Of course, make sure this configuration is right for your mouse type. Tip: in some laptops, MOUSETYPE is ``PS/2''.

For Caldera, all you have to do is append this line to /etc/rc.d/rc.boot: 

/usr/bin/gpm

2.10 Mount Points

It's handy to have mount points for the floppy and other devices. For example, you can do the following: 

~# cd /mnt
/# mkdir a: ; mkdir floppy ; mkdir cdrom ; mkdir win ; mkdir zip

This creates mount points for an MS-DOS floppy, an ext2 floppy, the CD-ROM, the DOS partition, and the parallel port Zip drive.

Now edit the file /etc/fstab and add the following entries: 

/dev/fd0        /mnt/a:         msdos           user,noauto 0 1
/dev/fd0        /mnt/floppy     ext2            user,noauto 0 1
/dev/cdrom      /mnt/cdrom      iso9660         ro,user,noauto 0 1
/dev/sda4       /mnt/zip        vfat            user,noauto 0 1
/dev/hda1       /mnt/win        vfat            user,noauto 0 1

Obviously, you must use the correct device in the first field. To access fat32 partitions, there's a kernel patch and information on http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/people/chaffee/fat32.html .

2.11 lilo(8) and LOADLIN

Many users run both Linux and DOS/Windows on their PC, and want to choose at boot time which os to use. Let's suppose that /dev/hda1 contains DOS/Windows and that /dev/hda2 contains Linux.

Do what follows: 

~# fdisk
Using /dev/hda as default device!

Command (m for help):a
Partition number (1-4): 2

Command (m for help):w
~#

This makes the Linux partition bootable; this step ought to be carried out by activate when running LILO's QuickInst, but it won't work with my Red Hat.

Write this basic /etc/lilo.conf file: 

boot = /dev/hda2
compact
delay = 50
# message = /boot/bootmesg.txt  # write your own
root = current
image = /boot/vmlinuz  # boot linux by default as this entry comes first
  label = linux
other = /dev/hda1
  table = /dev/hda
  label = dos

Now issue /sbin/lilo and you're set. Being lilo a crucial part of your installation, you're strongly advised to read its documentation anyway.

To boot Linux from DOS/Windows without resetting, put LOADLIN.EXE in a directory (in the DOS partition!) included in the DOS path; then copy your kernel to, say, C:\DOS\VMLINUZ. The following .BAT file will boot Linux: 

rem   linux.bat
smartdrv /C
loadlin c:\dos\vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 r

If you use Windows 95, set the properties of this .BAT so as it starts in MS-DOS mode.

Security Tip

Making a backup copy of your MBR before installing Linux could save your bacon. Use restorrb (included in the FIPS package) before installation, or you can use a Linux rescue floppy and issue this command: 

rescue:~# dd if=/dev/hda of=MBR bs=512 count=1

then make at least two copies of the file MBR on floppies. Should disaster strike, you'll be able to restore your old MBR by issuing: 

rescue:~# dd if=/mnt/MBR of=/dev/hda bs=446 count=1

assuming that a floppy containing MBR is mounted under /mnt. Alternatively, use a DOS rescue floppy to issue FDISK /MBR.

2.12 Printer Configuration

Red Hat and Caldera have a fine configuration tool, printtool; if you don't use these distributions, manual configuration follows.

Let's suppose you have a non-PostScript printer you want to use to print raw text (e.g., C source files) and PostScript files via Ghostscript, which is assumed to be already installed.

Setting up the printer involves a few steps:

For more complex or exotic printing configurations, the Printing-HOWTO awaits you.

If you use printtool, be aware that the GSDEVICE chosen by Printtool will work, but not necessarily at its best for your printer. You may consider fiddling a bit with the file postscript.cfg; for instance, I changed GSDEVICE from cdj500 to djet500 and now my prints come out much quicker.

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