Best of Technical Support

I am setting up a DSL and my topology is simple: Linux box connects to hub, which connects to 675, which connects to the DSL carrier. I put a Win95 machine in parallel (it also connects to hub) and it connects fine to the DSL's DNS and the Linux machine. The Linux machine sees the Win95 machine and also the 675 router's IP. The Linux machine does not see beyond the router (the Cisco 675) to the DNS, nor can the Web connect to it, though it should be able to using static IPs. I think this is an issue with this router and Linux; in the documentation there is a note: “must have termcap database installed on Linux or Cisco 675 may not work correctly.” I do have termcap installed (I did a full SuSE install). Do I have to “run” termcap somehow, as an executable program, even though it is “installed”? (I tried to rpm the termcap.rpm and it said “already installed”.) Or is termcap already running automatically?

Cisco was kind enough to tell me they have a contract with USWest which precludes them from customer support for the 675. The quote in full from the Cisco manual: “Computers running Linux without the term/termcap database installed will have trouble connecting to Cisco equipment. The message BAD ADDRESS is sometimes displayed as an error message. The user can install the term/termcap database from his Linux install disks/CD.”--Scott Cameron, lscott11@uswest.net

It sounds as if your network setup on the Linux machine is missing a default router (or gateway) in the configuration. If you type route -n, you will see a list of the routing table that the kernel maintains. The default route is the one the kernel will choose for network packets in the event no other paths are possible to the destination. In addition to having a default route, you will also need to have DNS set up properly or you won't be able to resolve domain names into IP addresses, which is how network communication happens. Thus, if you can ping the IP address of your DSL router and no further, then it is likely you are missing a default route. If you have a default route defined (it should be the 675 router) and you are unable to ping a site such as www.linux.org, then DNS is probably not configured properly. About the termcap statement: termcap is a library that provides a database of the terminal capabilities of various terminal emulations. It is not required to use the 675 for networking purposes. However, if you need to access the embedded operating system on the router, you can telnet to it (or use a direct serial connection—I'm guessing because I have never seen a 675) and access its built-in features. This is where the termcap would be required, as it will use some type of terminal emulation for which your terminal will need to know the mappings for what the character sequences do. So, it is necessary only if you intend to log in to the router and change the settings. —Andy Bradford, andyb@calderasystems.com

I am new to Linux, just three issues into my first LJ subscription and have purchased several informative books. I've installed Linux on my C drive along with Windows 98. My Linux version is Red Hat 6.0. It loaded LILO to provide direction to Linux and W98. Now I wish to install DOS. One of your recent issues provided information on how LILO is to be modified, but not on how to access LILO or where it is located. Frankly, I am confused. On one recent attempt to load Linux, which I aborted, I discovered that LILO was not erased, even when I completely reformatted the Linux partition. So, how do I find the LILO program to change it so DOS can be included? —B.E. (Gene) Johnson, gene-bj075@msn.com

LILO is configured through the /etc/lilo.conf file. Actually, if you install Linux on a PC that already has Windows 98, you should first have enough space on your disk(s) to hold Linux. You need to defragment the Windows disk, then you may have to repartition it. There is a utility called FIPS on your Linux CD which allows repartitioning a disk without reformatting. Use with extreme care! You have to create one Windows partition (holding whatever you have on Windows now) and the rest of the disk; the second partition will be for Linux. Afterward, when the Linux installation procedure is running, you can partition the Linux area of the disk into the boot, root and swap partitions at a minimum to install and configure Linux correctly. When you reformatted the Linux partition, LILO appeared to you as not being erased, because what was left intact after reformatting is the disk's boot sector, which contains Linux's boot loader. To get rid of that, use the Windows (or MS-DOS) FDISK with /MBR as an argument, e.g., A:>FDISK /MBR. This will reinstall the normal WIN/DOS boot loader. —Felipe Barousse, fbarousse@piensa.com

The lilo boot code can reside in different places. It can be on your MBR (Master Boot Record), which is the most common configuration, or it can also be in the boot sector of some primary partition if it's flagged as active. To configure lilo, edit /etc/lilo.conf. On my machine, I can boot DOS with

other=/dev/sda1
        label=dos
        table=/dev/sda

After that, rerun lilo. To uninstall lilo, lilo -u /dev/device should do, or you can also type fdisk /mbr from a DOS boot floppy. In /usr/doc/lilo-0.21/ (or a similar directory), you should have a file called QuickInst. For many more details, it also has a README. —Marc Merlin, marc_bts@valinux.com