How to fix the most common Linux problems. We'll come right out and say this - Linux breaks.

There, we've got that off our chests. No matter how much we might like our chosen distro, there is no denying that things can go wrong, or that it might not even be right in the first place. Of course, Linux distros are not alone in this - a computer system is a huge, complex collection of interacting software and hardware, even more so when the basic install includes several gibibytes of extra software over and above the OS. We can't show you solutions for every problem that might arise, but we can show some of the common issues people face and, more importantly, show you how to go about identifying a problem.

One more thing to bear in mind as you're reading is that even if you can't work out the solution yourself, an accurate description of the problem will be of great help when asking others for advice. The typical distro has more components than a car engine, yet is open for, and even encourages, user fiddling, which leads the curious user to indulge in some provocative maintenance.

To make it worse, a computer is often built from bits made by different manufacturers - motherboard from one, graphics card from another, soundcard from elsewhere - and an operating system that many hardware manufacturers pay no more than lip service to, if that. So here's our guide to dealing with some of the most common problems, and some advice on how to deal with new disasters.

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The types of difficulties most often seen can be split into a number of broad categories: booting, hardware and drivers, misbehaving software and networking are among the most popular topics for discussion. Distro fixes. Distro installers are pretty good at identifying an existing Windows installation and setting up dual booting, but should you have to reinstall a spyware- riddled Windows install you'll find that your machine boots straight into Windows and that your Linux installation is gone! Don't panic: all Windows has done is overwrite the Grub bootloader with its own equivalent, removing your boot menu. All your data is still there - you just need to reload the bootloader configuration into the disk's master boot record (MBR). You'll need to boot from a Live CD to do this, this, then open a terminal and run. This assumes you have everything installed on the first (or only) hard drive.

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Grub- install will usually make a good job of detecting a Grub installation and set things back to rights. If it doesn't, you'll have to do it manually, which is a lot easier than it sounds. Run sudo grub to enter the Grub shell. If Windows is on the first partition Grub is likely to be on the second, in which case this command will return something like (hd. Now set Grub up with. The first command identifies the boot partition, the second writes the bootloader to the MBR and then you leave the Grub shell. Grub is only concerned with the location of /boot, so if you have a separate /boot partition, omit the /boot part from the find command.

Live CDs. If an errant Windows reinstall has zapped your Grub boot sector and you can't load Linux, you might want to try using a Live CD distro. These run directly from a CD (or DVD) and don't need to install anything on your computer to make it work. One of the pioneering Live CDs, and still one of the best, is Knoppix, which we just happen to have on our LXFDVD.

Knoppix, especially the DVD version, is a full Debian- based distro that happens to run from a CD/DVD, so anything mentioned here can be done with it. For a more compact alternative, you could try System Rescue CD, also on this month's DVD. There are no prizes for guessing what this is designed for, but it has the advantage if being compact (less than 2. MB) and it has an installer to copy it to a USB pen drive.

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It comes with a lightweight graphical desktop and plenty of tools for fixing up your computer. If you have a problem with a piece of hardware, boot one of these discs and see how they configure it. Knoppix is indispensable for system rescues. When booting stalls.

In times of yore, the Linux boot sequence scrolled pages of text up the screen. Most of it was undecipherable to mere mortals, but if it stopped you could see exactly where it stopped, with the last line or two of text containing a clue to the problem. Nowadays, distros show a splash screen while they're booting, which is all very nice until things go wrong, then the boot stops and the splash screen hides all the clues. If the failure is early in the boot sequence, you may find that adding noapic to the kernel boot line helps.

Do this in the same way you remove the splash references (see box below). If this does fix it, edit the Grub configuration file at /boot/grub/menu. You can use the same technique if you system is slow in shutting down, watching the output to see where it stalls or pauses for too long.

As with so many problems that can arise, it's easier to find an answer once you know the problem. Step by step: identify boot errors. Remove the splash screen: To disable the splash screen and show the boot messages, highlight the first item on the menu and press E (for edit), move the highlight on to the line starting with 'kernel' and press E again to edit the kernel line.

Remove any references to quiet or splash, press Enter then B (for boot). It's different for SUSE..: SUSE works differently in that the splash settings are built in. Boot options are typed directly at the menu screen - add splash=0 to disable the splash screen entirely. Press F1 to bring up a list of options and use Tab and Enter to get further information on any of them.

Find the problem: Now that you're able to see the messages, you can see where the boot process stops. Google for the line containing the error (or the last line) to see what you can do. It is possible that some piece of hardware is causing the problem, so unplug all unnecessary devices and try again. Hardware fixes. Don't expect to find Linux drivers on the CD that comes with your shiny new gizmo. That's not because the manufacturers don't care about Linux but because drivers for most devices are already installed on your system as kernel modules.

Kernel modules can be loaded from the command line or a startup file, but the HAL/D- BUS system usually recognises hardware and loads the modules automatically. What do you do if it does not? How do you know which module to load? Identifying the hardware.

The first step is to get the details of the hardware with lspci for internal devices or lsusb for USB devices (some laptop hardware is also connected via USB) with these commands. SATA controller: Intel Corporation 8. HR/HO/HH (ICH8. R/DO/DH) 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 0. VGA compatible controller: n. Vidia Corporation Ge. Force 7. 10. 0 GS (rev a.

IDE interface: JMicron Technologies, Inc. JMicron 2. 03. 60/2. AHCI Controller (rev 0. Ethernet controller: Attansic Technology Corp. L1 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (rev b. Bus 0. 01 Device 0. ID 0. 3f. 0: 2c. 17 Hewlett- Packard.

Bus 0. 04 Device 0. ID 0. 51d: 0. 00.

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ID 0. 67b: 2. 30. Prolific Technology, Inc. PL2. 30. 3 Serial Port. Once you've identified which device is which, you can get further information by using the - s option to query a specific device and - v for more information, like. This is particularly useful with lspci, as the extra information shows the kernel module in use for the device (if there is one). The - k option also shows this, without the other extra information.

You may be wondering what use that could be if you're trying to find out which module to load to enable the device. If you find lspci a little cryptic, there are graphical alternatives. We particularly like Hardinfo.

The answer lies with that firm favourite of troubleshooters, the Live CD. If the device is recognised when booting from the Live CD, run lspci - k to see which module it uses, then you can go back to your installed system and try to load it with.