[vox-tech] Newbie: On building a Linux box

[B Raiford]

For those of you who answered my call for help: Thank you!

Rick, I understand I did not give you any information, and you all helped
quite a bit having nothing to work with. I figured I would have to have this
information readily available, so I'll pass it on in case you come up with
any suggestions. Here is what I have (now that I think I have figured out
what is important).

Now, more than ever, I see I am going to have to take it slow.

The machine which finally accepted Red Hat and SuSE:
Processor: Type: Pentium III    Speed: 933MHz    Mfg: Intel
Motherboard: CUV4X-E  Make: Asus
  Chip Set: North Bridge Chip Set PCI to ISA Bridge
              VIA VT82C694X 133/100/66MHz RAM
            South Bridge Chip Set PCI Super I/O
              VIA VT82C686B Ultra DMA and USB
Mouse: Mfg: Precision Instruments  Type: 3-button serial COM1 (ttyS0)
       2-button mouse simulating 3-button
    Disk: 0 (Pri Master)
      Type:  ATA/IDE   Size:  41.1GB Model: IBM Deskstar DTLA-305040
        16383 Cylinders/ 16 Heads/ 63 Sectors
      Partition:    Size    File Type   Used for:
        hda1        24MB    ext3        Red Hat
        hda2      8001MB    ext3          "
        hda3      1020MB    linux-swap    "
        hda4     30216MB    Extended
          hda5      24MB    ext2        SuSE
          hda6     133MB    linux-swap    "
          hda7   30059MB    ext2          "
    Disk: 1 (Pri Slave)
    Disk: 2 (Secondary Master)
      None
    Disk: 3 (Secondary Slave)
      CD-ROM: IDE/ATAPI Mfg: Mitsumi Model: FX240S (CRMC240S)
X-Windows:
  Video Card:  Mfg: ATI  Model: Rage Pro 38813-100
                           P/N: 109-38800-20
  RAM: 256 Mb   133MHz
  Monitor
   Mfg: EverVision   Model: MON400A
   FCC ID: DBLCVG-5431

Then there is the 6.4GB hard disk:
Maxtor 86480D8
CHS: 13392/15/63
Jumpers set for Master w/slave; Maxtor does not show that jumper
configuration on their web site any more.
I was using it on a DOS machine with 3 partitions of 2GB each.
I don't remember why, but I installed Maxtor's ez drive. I think I was
having trouble getting it to work with fdisk partitions.
I tried a couple years ago to use it for Windows 2000, but it would not
recognize more than the first 2GB, even though fdisk would partition almost
all of the 6.4GB. Now I have the same problem with trying to put Red Hat on
it. I will probably try to use it again once I am a little more comfortable
with Linux (you may not have noticed, but I don't know much about Linux).

And the ZIP drive:
Type: ZIP/IDE   Mfg:   Model: NEC/iomega  Size: (100MB)
Jumpered for slave operation. Now that the machine is working I'll try again
to install it.
Any thoughts, besides removing the jumpers?