Do error messages in LinuxLand make sense? and....
 

[blah@noob user]# rm -d -f TransGaming_Drive/
rm: cannot remove `TransGaming_Drive/': Not a directory
[blah@noob user]# rm -d TransGaming_Drive/
rm: remove directory `TransGaming_Drive/'? y
rm: cannot remove directory `TransGaming_Drive/': Is a directory
[blah@noob user]#


......need I say more??? LoL. I haven't begun too look into how to do what I want to do (remove a directory). I RTFM on rm....tells me it's not made to remove directories. GREAT! So why put a 'directory' option in there? Or...Why not point out to me what you use for removing directories? Sorry for the mini rant. Gonna do a search and see what I come up with, but aside from that. Anyone have a PREFERRED method of directory removal in bash/Redhat 9/kernel 4.20-8? and on the kernel thing.....

I did the Red Hat update manager, downloaded version 20-9. It says to me (when I click on the Red Hat Notification Icon), "Your system is currently running kernel-2.4.20-8, but the newest installed kernel is kernel-2.4.20-30.9. It is recommended that you reboot at the first opportunity to test this new kernel.

Being the trusting sort that I am, I rebooted. Multiple times in fact. Message continues to appear. So I went into grub, and it's still pointing to 20-8. "Duh" I say. change it to 20-9 on boot (press 'e' to edit options during Grub2 boot) and it can't find the file.

My question is a two part question. First, am I missing a step?
Here is my /boot/ directory (with non-essential files removed):
boot.b initrd-2.4.20-8.img module-info-2.4.20-30.9 System.map-2.4.20-8 vmlinuz-2.4.20-8
module-info-2.4.20-8 vmlinux-2.4.20-30.9
config-2.4.20-30.9 vmlinux-2.4.20-8
config-2.4.20-8 vmlinuz
grub(directory) System.map-2.4.20-30.9 vmlinuz-2.4.20-30.9
and the contents of grub.conf currently -
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-8)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.20-8.img
title Windows Xp
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
Now, I had changed the initrd-2.4.20-8.img file AS WELL as the vmlinuz file reference. But I think I have a link (still wrapping my mind around those) based on the ouput off ls -la :
vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.4.20-30.9 so is it possible to change to: "kernel /boot/vmlinuz" ???

Part Two of my somewhat retarded question may actually make it moot. I would like to lean to recompile the kernel. MY QUESTION IS, if I compile a 2.4.22 kernel AND a 2.6 kernel, I CAN select which one I want to use right? And will all (of course, a general term, going to need new libraries and librarians or whatnot) of my current "settings' (i.e. KDE, services, WINEX3 stuff, etc. etc.) be.....implemented (or "integrated" or "configured")? I still have 10 GB's of free space on my HDD. I would like to make my OWN distribution (if you will. A Linux From Scratch(TM) project) to put on that partition, but I want the Redhat "experience" under my belt before I delve into that.

rm -d is not the right way to remove a directory! That doesn't remove it, it unlinks it and all the files inside it. The correct way to remove a directory and its contents is:
rm -Rf TransGaming_Drive

to Komakino = THANK YOU! Now that that's out of the way, does anyone have some input on the kernel issue?

Yea you can point to the symbolic link in your grub.conf


Yea you can have 2.4 and 2.6 coexist with each other, but RH9 is not 2.6 ready out of the box so you need to make some changes to system startup scripts.
more on that here: http://thomer.com/linux/migrate-to-2.6.html
Changing the kernel shouldn't affect your configuration at all, it'll work as long as you have it set up properly.

Regarding the poll... It might be a good ideal to give a standard against which Linux error messages can be judged.

For example, if you compare them to M$ "STOP" errors I think you'll find that Linux errors are much more informative. If you compare Linux errors to what you might find in other *nix type OS, you'll find them to be on a par.

Cheers,

MrKnisely

As Charon79m points out, Microsoft's error messages and output are not really designed to be read by the user. Check your Dr Watson output - the error's are designed to be sent back to Microsoft so that they can interpret them and fix them.

Error messages in general are problematic - a badly written program will give an indecipherable or useless error message, a well written one will give a meaningful error message. The info you received is meaningful - had you spent more time on it (and this is not an attack on you, no one wants to spend time reading up on errors ;)) you would have found out what the errors actually meant and come to the answer.

I like Linux error messages - insofar as anyone can like error mesages - they are in plain english, often have some humour in them and are fairly meaningful.

Yes after a bit of time I got things sorted out. It was the MOMENT I got those error messages that I posted them. Just using MY logic I tried what I thought would work and....That was the result. LOL. I'm basically learning a day at a time why my logic isn't always THE logic.
I'm having a lot of issues compiling even the 2.4.25 kernel because of my SATA drivers :-(
Keeps giving me things such as "sil6514" not found during make. Gonna check out that link. Thanks all.

PS. This has nothing to do with winblows.........Since when does a blue screen that says press ctrl-alt-del give much information either! ;-) heheh.