[olug] RedHat 7.3 Installation Woes

[David Walker]

Check your default route 
in /etc/sysconfig/network add the line
GATEWAY=192.168.1.whatever
and make sure the IP matches your linksys IP or the default route from your 
windows machine.

On Friday 27 September 2002 10:31 am, (Via wrote:
> This is driving me crazy!  Why is Linux so danged hard to maintain?!?
>
> Here's the scoop.  I was running Lycoris and got a tad fed up with how
> difficult it was to find RPMs that work for this distro.  So, I decided to
> switch to RedHat 7.3 since you can almost always find RPMs for this distro.
> Maybe not the best reason to switch distros, but I just figured this would
> make it easier on me as I get past the learning pains involved with Linux.
>
> So, I D/L the 7.3 ISOs and burn some CDs.  Go to install the first, and
> several more times and watch a LOT of CD activity (after the "starting
> anaconda, please wait..." prompt appears on the screen), but nothing ever
> really happens.  Eventually I just re-burn the first CD and suddenly the
> install works MUCH better.  Not all that relevant to the questions that are
> coming, but it shows you how my frustration levels are already at an all
> time high... so bear with any rants here.
>
> For the most part, the installation appears to go quite smoothly.  One key
> item I need to mention is that when it came to configuring X I selected a
> mode of 1280x1024x24, which worked with Lycoris and the test during the RH
> installation looked fine as well.  I finished up the installation and let
> the machine reboot... and that's where my problems begin.
>
> First, when KDE starts up, the display is totally hosed.  Further, the
> keyboard doesn't work so I have to reset the computer to get anything
> accomplished.  I manage to boot into single-user mode and modify inittab so
> that it boots to run-level 3, just so I can get to a usable system, even if
> it's command line only.
>
> I run Xconfigurator and probe the hardware... and it can't detect how much
> ram is on the graphics board.  Huh?  Didn't get that problem during
> installation.  Any way, I supply the values I believe are correct and it
> goes to test and... hosed display again.  Lycrois had absolutely no
> problems detecting and configuring all of my hardware, so I don't
> understand why RH is giving me such fits.  I could certainly use any advice
> on how to go about fixing this.
>
> Now, on to the next problem.  I thought I'd try and work through some of
> these issues remotely while at work, so I set up sshd quickly, tested it
> from my Windows box on the same network (sitting behind a Linksys router
> connected to cox.net) and connected fine.  So I assumed everything was
> hunky dory and took off to work.  Once at work I try to ssh back... and the
> connection fails.  I remotedesktop to the Windows box, and curiously I can
> still ssh to the linux box from there.  (I should note, I'm ssh-ing to the
> public IP of the router, i.e. the IP assigned to me by Cox, so I should be
> connecting in the exact same manner as I do from work AFAIK.)  Checking
> around on the Linux box I find that DNS names aren't resolving.  My
> resolv.conf looks like this:
>
> search kempf-ville.com
> nameserver 68.13.16.30
> nameserver 68.9.16.30
>
> I verify that these are the IPs of the DNS servers configured for the
> Windows box and reported by the Linsys.  Curious, I try and ping the DNS
> servers... and get "Destination Host Unreachable".  WTF?!?  On the one hand
> this would seem to indicate the box has no connection to the outside world
> (which I still couldn't explain), but connecting from the Windows box
> through the routers IP would indicate that that shouldn't be true,
> shouldn't it?  All of this is, AFAIK, how the Lycoris box was configured,
> which worked flawlessly, so I'm hunting in the dark for a cause for both
> the X problems and the networking issues.
>
> A little more information on the network setup, in case it's useful.  I've
> assigned both the Windows box and the Linux box some static IPs of
> 192.168.1.25 (windows) and 192.168.1.24 (linux).  I've got a MyDynDNS
> custom DNS of "kempf-ville.com" to resolve the IP provided by Cox (that's
> why the search line in resolv.conf).  The router's got full firewall turned
> on, with only a couple of ports open and directed to the appropriate boxes
> (such as ssh for the linux box).
>
> If anyone can shed any light on either of these problems, or direct me
> towards TFM appropriate to the issues, I'd greatly appreciate it.
>
> Bill Kempf
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