Re: OT: my new PC rocks!!

• Previous message: Ed Beroset: "Re: OT: my new PC rocks!!"
• In reply to: Beth: "Re: OT: my new PC rocks!!"
• Next in thread: Beth: "Re: OT: my new PC rocks!!"
• Reply: Beth: "Re: OT: my new PC rocks!!"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]

Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2003 06:17:50 GMT

Beth wrote:

> Randy wrote:

>>Windows is the only OS I can currently install on the machine as the
>>hardware is too new for most of the other OSes I've got (no, I'm not
>>interested in installing drivers by patches, recompiling the kernel,
> etc.).

> Mind you, I _still_ can't get Linux installed on my "Linux box" second
> machine...

I can get Linux installed, no problem. (my "first machine" is made of
spare parts, but I guess they're sufficiently "standard"...) Getting
Xwindows configured is another story! I don't have the original manual
for my monitor (secondhand - my last monitor literally "fell off a
truck"!) - maybe if I googled around I could find specs online, but...
Windows doesn't ask me all those tough questions, why should Xwindows
have to? I assume the answer is "better hardware probing". Maybe, just
maybe, assembly language programmers ought to be doing something about
this instead of complaining about it.

> ...I checked the jumper settings and they
> are okay...

I assume you're talking about "master/slave" settings? (pardon the
politically incorrect language) That's a good start. I've had "bad
jumpers", too, that appeared to be in the right place but weren't making
a connection. "Wiggle the cables" is a good high-tech fix for many ills :)

> but it still crashes in a recursive kernel panic when I
> select the "test the CD" integrity test thingy...

What do we know about this CD? Does a Windows "rescue disk" find it
okay? I'm using Slackware - they provide several pre-built kernels with
different support included. If RedHat does it the same way, maybe a
different kernel would help?

> and if I try skipping
> that, then the machine hangs and reboots itself when trying to format
> the partitions ready for install...

Some particular partition it has trouble with? Would resizing them so
they fall on different borders help?

> that's Red Hat, by the
> way...

A long time ago, I heard that if you've got a friend running some distro
of Linux, that's the best distro for you. I didn't really have a friend
running Linux, but I was talking with the son of an old high school
friend, and he was using Slackware, so that's what I picked. Never had
occasion to use another, so I don't know how much difference there is. I
watched a friend install... I think it was Mandrake - seemed to have a
fairly "Windows-like" installer... seemed to go well, but the network
card didn't work. I think I could have fixed it, but she just overwrote
it with something else. Looked like a pretty easy install process... if
it had only caught the network card...

One of my first installs, the network card didn't work. I determined
that it was using the right "tulip" driver. Went to some nasa.gov site
that had the newest versions of the drivers (using Windows, which may be
considered "cheating"). Fortunately, the file included the command-line
to build it - I never would have figured it out by trial and error. To
my astonishment, it worked! "Look ma, I'm a Unix Guru!" But it was just
beginner's luck - haven't had any great success since...

> downloaded off their site...

I suppose you mean an iso image? With Slackware, at least, you can also
get "disk sets" - intended to be installed from floppy, but you can put
'em on a FAT partition and install from there. Might be an option if you
can't get the CD working. I guess you can install from an iso image on
hard disk too - I don't know how to do that one.

The very first thing I installed was "ZipSlack" - a very minimal distro
that installs in a dos directory (or on a "ZipDisk", hence the name). A
handy way to "ease" into Linux without having to repartition anything or
uninstall anything. I keep it around to use as a fancy "rescue disk" -
it's proved useful a couple times. I suppose other distros have a
similar scheme(?). I doubt if it'd work on NT filesystems, but if you're
going to be installing '98 anyway... Something like that might help you
figure out what's going on with the "problem" drive(s).

> ... and I was coming along great with the X-Windows stuff I was
> doing...

Yeah! Been hoping for some examples from you. I've seen a couple
examples from Numi_tor - one using xlib directly and one using the Gnome
Toolkit - they both look pretty complicated - even more "housekeeping"
than Windows to do before you can do anything. I haven't done anything
with Xwindows yet - still haven't got "console mode" figured out...

> ...and doing it all on Linux
> would be a pain because all my best development tools are on the
> Windows machine...

Curiously, the Unix-folk claim that *their* tools are better - and have
invented Cygwin so they won't have to leave 'em behind when developing
for Windows! The famously user-friendly Unix interface bolted onto the
lean, mean, stable Windows chassis. A dream environment! (a nightmare's
a dream, innit?)

What would you miss most that you can't have in Linux?

> I'm also wondering whether to write a book on the psychology of how
> people describe their machines...

Mac users get to say, "Mine's blue!" Well, I suppose we could
spray-paint 'em...

Best,
Frank

• Previous message: Ed Beroset: "Re: OT: my new PC rocks!!"
• In reply to: Beth: "Re: OT: my new PC rocks!!"
• Next in thread: Beth: "Re: OT: my new PC rocks!!"
• Reply: Beth: "Re: OT: my new PC rocks!!"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]