FAQ: Athene Commercial Version

"Does Athene work alongside other operating systems?"

Yes. Hard drive partitioning software is provided as part of the installation process so that you can make room on your hard drive for Athene. A boot manager (GRUB) is also available so that you can select an operating system when you turn the machine on.

"What file systems are supported?"

All the popular formats like EXT2, EXT3, FAT, FAT32, NTFS, JFS, XFS and others are supported. Athene installs to an ext3 partition by default. The additional file sysystems are supported via kernel modules.

"What packages were used in compiling Athene's Linux foundation?"

Please refer to this package list for details.

"How do I configure my Ethernet card?"

Your Ethernet card will be automatically detected on bootup. You can configure how the card should be used in System Options, under Networking - Network Devices. Double click the card to choose configuration options.

"How do I edit the 'GRUB' boot menu?"

To edit the menu, load Athene and open the 'drive1:boot/grub/menu.lst' file with the Text Editor. You may edit the menu as you please and your changes will be represented the next time you boot your machine. Please note that if you make any errors in the menu configuration, it can be rendered useless (although GRUB will still work in command-line mode). For the specifics of using GRUB, open ZTerm and type 'info GRUB'.

"My graphics card is only supported in VESA mode - how do I get updated drivers?"

First ensure that the native graphics system is enabled by opening ZTerm and running 'athene -native'. Restart the desktop to test the changes. If you're still in VESA mode, unzip this file and copy the graphics.bpd file to the directory 'athene:system/modules/snap/', then restart the desktop to test the changes. Contact us if your graphics card is listed here and still isn't giving you the expected results.

Another possibility is to go to my.scitechsoft.com and download a custom graphics driver for your system. You will need to register, login and generate a Linux graphics driver package. Download the generated package and do the following from Zterm:

   1. Run "export SNAP_PATH=/usr/local/pandora/system/modules/snap/"
   2. Unzip the package.
   3. Run the installer.

"Why is my sound card not detected on startup?"

Failure to detect the sound card can occur with some non-plug-and-play audio hardware, or a combination of software detection problems. Open ZTerm, enter 'athene -setup' and choose the sound configuration option. Choose your sound card from the list presented to you, then restart the desktop. If you choose the correct sound card driver then audio will now be enabled. If you still cannot hear any audio, you should check for driver errors by typing 'modprobe snd-card-0' into ZTerm.

"How do I change the resolution of the login screen?"

Open the file system:users/default/config/display.cfg. Change the Width and Height to the required dimensions. You can also alter the screen depth and refresh rate here.

"How do I change the default keymap for the terminal?"

Run this command, replacing YOURKEYMAP.GZ with the correct keymap file for your locale (look in the referenced directory for available keymaps).

   ln -s /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/i386/qwerty/YOURKEYMAP.GZ /usr/share/kbd/keymaps/defkeymap.map.gz

"Please sir, can I have the source code?"

You want WHAT?

Just kidding :-). The source code to the Linux kernel is available on the CDROM if you purchased the full release. Source code to Athene and Pandora is also on the CDROM, or you can find the latest files at our download site. Check the Linux From Scratch project if you would like the source code to any of the Linux binaries used in Athene.

FAQ Index