[Newbie] Migration from WinXP

[Fery]

Hello...
I'm considering migrating from WinXP to Linux, and wanting to use VL as it seems to be fast while still being (relative) newbie-friendly. If possible, later after all my learnings, I want to completely remove WinXP from my PC.
Please bear with me, as I'm totally newbie in the Linux world.

Partitioning Scheme

Previously, there were 3 Windows installation (on Win2kPro on C:\ = /dev/hda1/; Win2kServer on D:\, and WinXP on E:\; while F:\ is used for data)
To make room for linux, I moved my data around and re-partition (in WinXP) and so I have like 11 GB of space.
The 11 GB space got  divided into 1GB for LinuxSwap (/dev/hda7) and the rest goes for root (/dev/hda6 - Ext3 type). "Windows-Linux" Share-able drive (/mnt/win) goes to /dev/hda5 (browsing its contents, they're the same as D:\)

If you have spare partitions, you can also specify which partition(s) to use for the following directories during installation process
1. /opt
2. /var
3. /home
4. /usr
& a few others I don't quite remember. These are the commonly-found directories in Linux.
More on these later....

Note: If you allocate too little space for Linux (root), you may get into problem  described here. May be at least 7GB will be safe.

Others

Before proceeding installation, it'd be a good idea to:
1. write down your current network configuration:
* IP Address (ex. 192.168.0.4)
* SubNet Mask (255.255.255.0)
* Gateway (ex. 192.168.0.1)
* DNS Server (ex. 202.73.99.4)

Installation

Then, I install VL6.0 Light using the steps described by newt  here: boot using Grub4Dos --> install downloaded iso file from hard disk.
Upon getting into the installation screen where it asks you where you want to install LILO, I opted installing into Sector as I'll still need to be able to boot to WinXP. Later when installation is finished, you need to add the following code into menu.lst file ( in C:\ or /dev/hda1)

Code:

title VectorLinux 6.0 Light
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 ro vga=normal 2
savedefault
boot

Adjust the above to your Linux Partition
So the boot process is like Windows Multi-Boot --> Grub4Dos --> Select VectorLinux 6.0 Light --> VL GUI Login Screen

Installation was successful for me: SoundCard detected, GUI works, and I can browse the internet.

Moving Files

You may want to move some files from your WinXP directories into your /home/userName Linux directories. Have a look in the replies below.


As I'm trying to familiarize myself with VL, I'll be posting more questions in this thread..

========= Reserved for later summary ============

My computer (if it matters)
* Athlon XP 2500+
* 1 GB of RAM (DDR1)
* OnBoard Sound & LAN Card (VIA 82xx chipset)
* ATI 9800 Pro 128 MB
* 40 GB of Hard Disk
* DVD-ROM (unattached)

[Fery]

Here's my first question:
I want to move some files (physically, not just symbolic-link) from FAT32 Windows partition into one of the user account (, say, /home/ferry/data)
How to do that ?
I try typing /dev/hda1 in PCMan File Manager, but it returns "Error - Directory doesn't Exist"

[M0E-lnx]

You need to first mount the device before you can access it.

Code:

$ su
<password>
# mkdir /mnt/hda1
# mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1

Now all you files in hda1 are acessible in the /mnt/hda1 directory.

Notice you created a mount point by using the mkdir command. This only needs to be done once, after that you just mount the device to the same dir every time you need to acess it.

My sugestion to you would be to use the standard version instead of light

The file managers in standard allow you to just click on the drive and it will automagically mount it for you and show you its contents.
Your box seems to have enough juice to run it.

[kidd]

you cannot (well, you shouldn't in 95% cases) deal with /dev/ units when copying or moving files.

Before using a partition, one should mount it to a directory. The same that happens  on your drive /mnt/win  that goes to /dev/hda5 .
When you mount a partition, the filesystem is recognised and everything should be accessible from the /mnt/* drive

Just as an example (you can change the directory names), open a terminal, and try as root:

Code:

mkdir /mnt/win2k
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/win2k
cd /mnt/win2k
ls

Then you should see the files there.




If it worked, try to go to /mnt/win2k using the file manager, and copy the files.  If the file manager cannot access the directory, it might be because you mounted that as root, and PCMan only has user premissions.  It that's your case, post again and we'll come with a solution.

To automount the /dev/hda1 partition every time you boot (and give appropiate permissions), you should modify /etc/fstab .  Search the forums/web for more info on that (or ask here if you are in trouble :p )

HTH

EDIT:  Damn M0E......    M0E 1 - Kidd 0

[M0E-lnx]

jajaja

2 great minds think alike

[Fery]

Thanks M0e & kidd for your replies.
That solves the problem..the key being to mkdir /home/some/dir (a directory to mount to) & mount /dev/hda /home/some/dir

My next concerns...

2. The VL-Light installation doesn't seem to contain any package for working with MS-Word /Office Documents. Either I'll have to install the package manually (AbiWord/OO) or upgrade all the way to VL-Standard.
What would you recommend? (I tend to prefer lightweight ones like AbiWord / LXDE rather than heavyweight ones which I may not even realize what their full-features are)

3. My boot process is now still managed by Grub4DOS.
What should I put in menu.lst file so upon choosing "VL 6.0 Light" on Grub4Dos, it will take me straight to the VL 6 GUI login screen ?

TIA

[M0E-lnx]

You seem to have some experience or at least it seems some of this makes sense to you.
I would still recommend upgrading to standard 6.0 to ease your learning curve a little bit.

About word processors.
I agree with you, I too prefer lighter when possible. However, if you will be sharing .doc files with other windows machines, I would recommend OOo. I've had some document corruption in the past when mixing abiword/MS Office to edit the same document.

If your documents will be dealt with in a linux environment only, then abiword is your guy.
You may install OOo if you so wish to by clicking on your menu, and find the 'gslapt package manager' entry.
Search for OpenOffice and you should see it.

About your bootloader, Please post your menu.lst and someone will give you some pointers.

[Fery]

Following installation tips by newt, I have this in my menu.lst

Code:

title VectorLinux 6 Final Light ISO
fallback 3
find --set-root /VL6.0-Light-Final.iso
map /VL6.0-Light-Final.iso (0xff) || map --mem /VL6.0-Light-Final.iso (0xff)
map --hook
chainloader (0xff)
savedefault --wait=2

Upon choosing that entry in Grub4Dos, the system boots...then I need to type linux root=/dev/hda6 ro ...after which it goes to the GUI login screen
So the boot process is like Grub4Dos --> VL6.0-Light-Final.iso --> linux root=/dev/hda6 ro --> GUI login --> IceWM

I think something is wrong, as it should be something like...
Grub4Dos --> VL6.0 Light --> GUI login --> IceWM
(because I still want to be able to boot to Windows)

I tried the following entry in menu.lst  (copy & paste from somewhere)

Code:

title VectorLinux 6.0 Light
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 ro vga=normal 2
savedefault
boot

Well, it boots to text-mode instead (command prompt only) which must be followed with startx to go to IceWM

Could anybody tell me the right way to do it?

Btw, which one would you consider lighter: VL6.0-Light or VL 6.0 with LXDE ?

[M0E-lnx]

all you need is to change that "2" in the kernel line to a "4"

Code:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 ro vga=normal 4

VL-light is still ligter because it runs icewm... but basically the same thing.. they use the same filemanager which provides the exact same desktop

[nightflier]

Word Processors: I would also recommend OpenOffice on VL Light. Abiword requires a lot of additional Gnome packages.

[Fery]

Code:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 ro vga=normal 4

Thanks M0e.
It works

I'll explore a little bit for now and will post more questions later.
Thanks guys
(Very helpful indeed for a Linux-newbie)

[M0E-lnx]

Welcome to VL btw.

[Fery]

Today I try installing Apache (2.2.8 ), MySql (5.0.51b) and PHP (5.2.5) using Gslapt following the How-To here.

MySql
Got confused with this part

Code:

su - mysql

Seems like the installation script created  user mysql into Linux, but I don't know what the password is.
How can I change the password?

Anyhow, in the end (at least) I can get to mysql prompt

Apache & PHP
I learned that I need to be root to do the steps described in the tutorial, so I opened a root terminal to chmod / modify httpd.conf & mod_php.conf / run mysql & httpd. (It'd be nice if you learn how to use Vi here or here a little bit to do all these editing)

Apache started OK (I can browse http://localhost)
However....It doesn't seem to parse the PHP at all.
I have this /var/www/htdocs/test.php (chmod 750; owner: root) containing the code

Code:

<? phpinfo() ?><p>Hello World</p>

And upon browsing http://localhost/test.php, the souce code (in browser) is exactly like above.
I already have these in /etc/httpd/httpd.conf

Code:

ServerRoot "/usr"
.....
Include /etc/httpd/mod_php.conf

and these in /etc/httpd/mod_php.conf

Code:

LoadModule php5_module lib/httpd/modules/libphp5.so
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

The file /usr/lib/httpd/modules/libphp5.so does exist.
I've tried googling for answers / reresh the browser / restart Apache / restart Linux.
Still no luck.

===================

Update: Solved
Turns out it requires <?php as the opening PHP tag (instead of the short one <? )

Code:

[color=purple]<?php phpinfo() ?><p>Hello World</p>

If you want to use the short tag instead, edit /etc/httpd/php.ini (as user root), and modify as follows

Code:

short_open_tag = On

Restart Apache for changes to take effect.

Virtual Host

Apache installation using GSlapt points your www root directory to /var/www/htdocs (i.e. the directory within your Linux box corresponding to http://localhost).
This directory belongs to user root, so you can't put any other files there unless logged in as root.
So I think it'd be a good idea to set up a virtual host pointing the www root directory to somewhere under a regular-user account (/home/fery/www in my case).

To do this, I append the following to /etc/httpd/httpd.conf (as root)

Code:

NameVirtualHost *:80
<VirtualHost *:80>
  DocumentRoot /home/fery/www
  ServerName fery1.pli-c1.net
</VirtualHost>

<Directory "/home/fery/www">
  Options +Indexes FollowSymLinks +ExecCGI
  AllowOverride AuthConfig FileInfo
    Order allow,deny
  Allow from all
</Directory>

Then I modify /etc/hosts and append the following

Code:

192.168.2.8   fery.pli-c1.net fery

Then restart Apache
(You may want to consult Apache manual further & modify the above to suit your needs)

Then I simply login as user fery and create the folder /home/fery/www and put the files I want to browse as http://fery.pli-c1.net under it.