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Installation - Five Simple Steps

michael7 - 24.09.2006, 16:52 Uhr
Titel: Five Simple Steps

I installed RC3 several days ago. It's a great release candidate. Kano and friends are to be commended. Thank you.

I have a large hard drive with numerous partitions on which I load and experiment with distros. Kanotix is what I use everyday, however, and IMHO, there's nothing better.

For those of you who are new to Kanotix, here are five simple steps to tweak your desktop.

1. If you have other partitions, like I do, they will be automounted at startup and icons for them will appear on the desktop with strange names like "15 G Media" that aren't helpful. You can stop unneeded partitions from automounting by editing the /etc/fstab file. Open a terminal window, login as "su" (or root) and start a text editor. I use the mcedit text editor. The commands are:

Code:

$ su

$ (root password)

# mcedit /etc/fstab

In the fourth column under <options>, you'll see the word "defaults". For the partitions that you don't want mounted, change "defaults" to "noauto", Save and Quit. When you reboot, only the partitions with the option "defaults" will be mounted (which in my case is /(root) and /home). Those partitions with the option "noauto" will not be mounted and icons for them should not appear on the Desktop. (If they do appear, you need to make a small change to the KDE Control Center: K -> Control Center -> Desktop -> Behavior -> Device Icons. Uncheck "Unmounted Hard Disk Volume" and reboot.)

2. To change the name of a mounted partition from "15 G Media" or somesuch (which is not helpful) to "hda1" (which is helpful), right click on the icon and select "Properties". The device name will appear highlighted. Press the right cursor key to remove the highlighting without erasing the name and alter the name. For example, change "hda1" to "hda1_" or perhaps "hda1 (/root)". Then click OK. Now the Desktop icon will have a meaningful name.

3. If you have a nVidia video card, you can install an nVidia driver with:

Code:

Ctrl + Alt + F1

$ su

$ (root password)

# init 3  (If the prompt seems to hang after this command, press Enter again.)

# install-nvidia-debian.sh

There's a similar script for ATI cards (install-radeon-debian.sh).

4. To change the monitor's resolution:

Code:

$ sux

$ (root password)

# fix-res 1280x1024  (or whatever your monitor and your eyes will handle)

# fix-dpi-kdm 96  (The default is 100; the smaller the number, the smaller the font.)

Ctrl + Alt + Backspace

Then log back in as user.

5. To install MS fonts:

Code:

$ sux

$ (root password)

# apt-get install msttcorefonts

# fix-fonts

These changes will make your Desktop look clean and crisp.

Swynndla - 25.09.2006, 06:05 Uhr
Titel: RE: Five Simple Steps

Thanks michael7 ... it's tips like these that make the linux experience so much smoother for people new to kanotix. I like how you even say for init 3 "If the prompt seems to hang after this command, press Enter again." ... this is the sort of thing that can confuse a linux newbie, and linux guru's would never dream of including such an "obvious" statement in their explainations Winken

One question about /etc/fstab ... where you say:
change "defaults" to "noauto"
... well, it's my understanding that "defaults" includes some other goodies, and replacing it will "noauto" will mean the other options aren't set. I thought it was possible to put the "noauto" after the "defaults" ... ie so it'd be "defaults,noauto" ? ... or something like that, I haven't tried it ... hmmm maybe using your method, the goodies in "defaults" will be there by default? ... I don't think so, but I'm not sure?

stryder - 25.09.2006, 08:04 Uhr
Titel: RE: Five Simple Steps

Well, just 1 simple precaution - when I edit a file, I like to make sure I have a copy of the original, just in case. So I would cp fstab fstab.orig before I mcedit fstab. They are such small files, no problems storagewise. This gives me a lot of confidence to experiment and explore.

michael7 - 26.09.2006, 21:24 Uhr
Titel:

Swynndla wrote:

Zitat:

Frankly, I do not know the answer. Here's a couple of webpages that offer some information on fstab stuff, but neither specifically answers your question:
www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/fstab.html
http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Fstab

This "option" field tells the kernel how to handle the filesystem and the word "defaults" means that the following options will be used:
rw (mount read-write),
suid (permit the operation of suid, and sgid bits),
dev (interpret character or block special devices on the file system,
exec (permit the execution of binaries from the filesystem),
auto (the filesystem can be mounted automatically),
nouser (only permit root to mount the filesystem), and
async (all I/O to the filesystem should be done asynchronously).

At the bottom of the wiki page, however, there is an example of a typical fstab file with the following lines:

/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,ro,user 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy ext2 noauto,user 0 0

The first one allows anyone to mount the CD but the CD is not mounted at boot and the second does the same for the floppy. From that, a reasonable person could imply that yes, you can use the option "defaults,noauto" which would instruct the kernel to use the defaults when the filesystem is mounted but don't automount it. I won't know for sure, however, until I try it. Right? I'll get back with you. Smilie