A series of urgent Linux related questions! Please help! :(

[Muzzel]

Wow, love the new look message boards - thanks to whoever owns Hardware Central! :o

I am just wondering two things about Linux. First of all, how do I create a symbolic link?! I've got a Winmodem, but it will only work if it uses a special set of drivers I installed, but I need to link it to the main modem file. Someone said something about /s or /l or something. I want to link the main "modem" file to my new "HCF" modem file.

Also, I want to change the settings of LILO, but I have gone into the only lilo.conf file and edited it all, but nothing has changed at all from editing it. When I go back into the file, you can tell that I have edited it, but when my computer logs in, LILO doesn't do anything I have told it to in the LILO configuration file. I still have the "old_linux", "old_windows", and other entries I don't want, which are not shown in the LILO configuration file.

Finally, why does Linux take so damn long to load up?! It takes about 4 - 5 minutes to load up, sometimes longer, on my computer, but Windows ME takes about 30 seconds.

Thanks for any help! :confused:

[glussier]

Question 1:

For the link you have to do something like this:

ln -s /dev/ttySX /dev/modem

Replace ttySX by the com port being used by the modem.

If you want to know more about ln, open a terminal windows and type de command man ln


Question 2:

After modifying the configuration file /etc/lilo.conf, you have to run lilo to make the new configuration file current.

Question 3:

Linux can take some time to boot, if you have devices (hardware peripherals) which are not configured properly (ex: network cards or modems)

Which linux distro are you using?

[Muzzel]

Hi, thanks for your help! The link worked great, but I can't find out how to run the lilo.conf file. I've tried running it in a console, and double clicking it, but nothing works. How do I run LILO?! I'm running Mandrake 8.2. Thanks again. :)

[glussier]

You have to be login as root. next open a console window and type the command lilo and press the ENTER key. Bingo, it's ready to go. :)

[rangeral]

Much better.:D

[glussier]

Originally posted by rangeral
Much better.:D

Thanks man!!! Now, my avatar looks better than yours, haha. :D

[rangeral]

Darn you, lol.:D

[Luis G]

Originally posted by glussier

Question 3:

Linux can take some time to boot, if you have devices (hardware peripherals) which are not configured properly (ex: network cards or modems)


Not always, you probably have a bunch of services installed (demons or daemons), i don't think you need to have http,ftp,DNS,smtp and another bunch of web services.

Even when you remove all those services, the bootup time will still take longer than winme. Why?, because the Linux kernel is somewhat independent of anything else and to get to the GUI (called X) it needs to load a lot of modules, and when X is already running it still needs to load a desktop manager like KDE or gnome.

Everything has a price, and Linux will run fine without needing a reboot way much more time than any version of windows.