My experience with Redhat 5.2 FTP install using Thinkpad 560

[dreadnought at mediaone.net (Mark Spencer)]

(Thinkpad 560 - 100mhz Pentium, 24meg RAM, 774meg HD, 800x600x256c
DSTN screen) 

First things first - I could not get very far in the initial
installation screens until I removed a USR 28.8 PCMCIA card that was
in the machine. With my IBM Ethernet II PCMCIA in the Thinkpad alone,
I was able to continue through the early installation screens. 

I am pointing the install at rufus.w3.org - I get very fast transfers
from this server via my cable connection. 

The first error I receive is :

"I cannot get file
/linux/2/redhat/redhat-5.2/i386/RedHat/RPMS/setup-1.9.2-1.noarch.rpm:
Error setting remote server to passive mode"

I don't know what this means, so I just click OK to continue. 

Immediately after clicking OK, I get this error:

"I'm having trouble getting I'm having trouble getting %s. Should I
keep trying?. Should I keep trying?" 

This is typed exactly as it is displayed, the repitition isn't me
being careless! ;) Since I don't know what this means either, I select
"Yes" to "keep trying". At that point my cable modem lights up and
files start transferring. 

During the FTP installation, this first error I receive is - 

"RPM install of dev failed: execution of script failed" 

It appears the install is on dev-2.5.9-1 when this error occurs. I
click ok to continue.

The next error I receive is :

"RPM install of linuxconf failed: execution of script failed"

It appears the install is on linuxconf-1.12r5-6rh when this occurs. I
click ok to continue. 

I then receive "I cannot get file
/linux/2/redhat/redhat-5.2/i386/RedHat/RPMS/logrotate-2.6-3.i386.rpm:
Error setting remote server to passive mode." Then get the "Im having
trouble getting" dialog again. I click to try again.

Next I get a "RPM install of MAKEDEV failed: execution of script
failed" I click ok.

Finally, the FTP install subsides. ;) Probing my mouse fails, so I
choose "Generic Mouse (PS/2)" 

Then the PCI Probe reports:

PCI Entry: TG 9660 / Cyber9385
X Server: SVGA

The first time I got this far, I got another one of those "Error
setting remote server to passive mode" popups and the install skipped
the whole X section of the install and went to asking me if I wanted
to install a printer!!! I'm really wondering why people put themselves
through a linux install right about now. I shut the computer off at
this point in the first install and try the install from scratch,
again. 

During my third attempt at installation, I did not receive ANY of the
errors above! I was clicking through all the screens very quick as
I've got the drill down at this point. It makes me think the errors
were all related to time out issues w/ the ftp server?  Maybe I should
have found a site that had a higher time out factor??

Now to where my real problems start I guess - 

For monitor type, I choose "Generic VGA" as I don't know what option
is correct. 

When probing my video card, I get an error probing the clock on the
video card. Install reccommends I configure video card manually. ??? I
guess 1 meg video ram, and no clockchip settings. I then select 640x80
and 800x600 in 8 bit as my video modes. On the "programs to run
automatically" I just select whatever is checked as default, I don't
know what most of them do anyway. 

At this point, my install completes and I reboot! 

I am able to login, and immediately try "startx". The screen goes
blank, and thats it. I guess I need to custom configure the settings
for the monitor and/or video chipset? I am pretty clueless at th
is point on how to do the custom config to get x up and running. 

There's no settings/control panel/display settings. Uh, I forgot where
I was! 

That's where I'm at. Any advice would be most appreciated! So much for
installing linux in an afternoon. ;)

Mark
dreadnought at mediaone.net

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