[Bdi4emc-help] Re: Bdi4emc-help Digest, Vol 1, Issue 7

Sun Dec 18 05:23:14 CET 2005

On Saturday 17 December 2005 19:29, bdi4emc-help at lists.ourproject.org 
wrote:
>bdi4emc-help-request at lists.ourproject.org [aka Gene!] wrote:
>>Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2005 11:36:17 -0500
>>From: bdi4emc-help at lists.ourproject.org
>>Subject: Re: [Bdi4emc-help] Install probs, bdi-4.30
>>To: bdi4emc-help at lists.ourproject.org
>>Message-ID: <200512161136.17511.gene.heskett at verizon.net>
>>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>>
>>
>>...
>>This makes it very hard if not impossible to see who is talking to
>>whom.  Can this be fixed?
>
>Let's hope so!
>
>> The trouble with e2fsck is that it apparently has to be compiled
>> with or without the 'extended attributes' because the RH version of
>> 1.35 cannot check a debian file system, and vice versa, but they
>> both say they are the same version. Yeah, pigs fly too. I already
>> ran into that earlier when I was trying to get FC4 to run on that
>> box. Then I found out FC4 doesn't run on anything, the installer is
>> busted. But I wasted a week trying :( Now I have the images for an
>> unofficial FC4.2 thats suppose to have al the fixes and about 2GB
>> of updates already incorporated in it. But I gave them to a friend
>> so I need to burn another set & see if I can make it run on this
>> box someday. When I find that round tuit probably. :)
>
>It looks like I've finally run into someone who has tried more Linux
>distributions than I have :-) Since the BDI is my first Debian-based
>install, I'm learning from you what works and what doesn't.
>
>A long time ago, I used Tom's rtbt Linux-on-a-diskette
>(http://www.toms.net/rb/)  to deal with a balky system. More
> recently, I had a student-employee at work who did some cool things
> with Knoppix Linux running from a CDROM
>(http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html). I don't know if it
> works against Debian file systems. I've also been told that the
> Gentoo LiveCD and its cousin the SystemRescueCD
> (http://www.sysresccd.org/) are good tools for fixing broken
> systems, but I've never had the need to try them (knock on wood!).
>
>Frankly, I got cold feet with Fedora Core as it jumped from FC1 to
> FC2 to FC3 because it seemed to be spinning out of control (I
> haven't even bothered to read the release notes for FC4).

I stayed at FC2 on this, my main box once I had the majority of its 
warts excised, but TBT, that has taken quite a bit of time.  I've 
looked at mepis (its only 75 miles up the interstate from me in 
Morgantown WV), a couple of knoppix releases and now kubuntu.  But 
that image will get its space reclaimed as its obviously aimed at the 
winduhz user, and protecting said user from shooting himself in the 
foot by hiding all the fix it utils behind a not allowed root login.  
It never asks for a root password when you boot from the cd.  IMO, 
busted.

I also tried to install FC4 on the same box I'm running emc on, 10 or 
more times, not realizing that the x server needed to be yum updated 
before you ever ran x the first time, and its default startup is to 
level 5, which in the RH/Fedora camp is xwindows at boot.  Duh!
And I have a sarge install on /dev/hdb in that bdi/emc box, but haven't 
gotten around to adding it to /dev/hda1 (kak /boot) grub/menu.lst yet.
I'm not totally convinced one can dualboot two different releases of 
linux, sharing the /var and swap partitions and get away with it.

I have a set of FC4.2 images here, with over a gigabyte of updates 
incorporated over the FC4 release, but haven't been brave enough to 
'upgrade' this box and probably break half the stuff I use again.

So you could say I've played with a few releases.  

> Instead, I 
> paid for Red Hat Enterprise Linux to run my key servers at work and
> kept copies of previous versions of RH around for play. I'm slowly
> throwing them out as the security patches stop coming.  Now that
> I've entered my seventh decade of life and my fifth decade of
> computing, I seem to be less willing to fool around with different
> distributions just because they are there. I'd rather play with
> interesting new applications and middleware. That's why I'm thrilled
> that Paul put together the BDI.

Hey, I thought I was the only legit old fart here! 71, with 55 years of 
chaseing electrons for a living, doing broadcast engineering since 
about 64, CE at the local channel 5 from 10/84 to 6/01, and still 
keeping their 1956 model GE transmitter perking along.  First 
programming on an RCA 1802 in '79 (no assembler, just the machine code 
docs from RCA and a hex monitor on the board), so I don't go back 
quite 30 years yet.

And yes, I'm very happy that Paul put bdi together, thanks Paul.

>I see in other messages that you finally gave up and reinstalled. Oy
>weh! That's usually the remedy I recommend for intransigent MS
> Windows problems. The stories I could tell you..., but no, I forget
> myself. It's the old farts who are compelled to bore everyone with
> "there I was..." stories and I can't be an old fart, can I?

Well, as long as we're looking (down) at the grass from the green end, 
we'll be ok. :-)

I could relate stories about the tv cameras that were on the Trieste 
when it went down into the mohole (37000 feet down in the pacific) 
back in the 60's, but I'll just leave it at "they had my fingerprints 
in them" and not bore folks with the details.

I did give the rescue effort the old college try several times though, 
before I said screw it and re-installed.

>Good luck.
>
>Regards,
>Kent

-- 
Cheers Kent, Gene
People having trouble with vz bouncing email to me should use this
address: <gene.heskett at verizononline.net> which bypasses vz's
stupid bounce rules.  I do use spamassassin too. :-)
Yahoo.com and AOL/TW attorneys please note, additions to the above
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Copyright 2005 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.