3 JUN 02: I started using Linux as my main OS at the beginning of December 2000. I also
used Linux for a year over Memorial Day weekend, 2002.
This is the story of that very long weekend.
8.2 Cute But Useless
It all started when I first tried out Mandrake 8.2 not long after the final release. I downloaded the first install CD and went to install it. I have two computers: The "Good" one, which I use for most of my work and duel boots Linux and Win98 (for games and my scanner) and the "Other" one, which currently runs Win98 for internet, AOhelL and email backup in case the Good One dies. When Mandrake 8.1 came out I installed it on the Other computer and it worked great, however all eleven of my attempts to install 8.1 on the Good computer met with failure. I never made it thru the installation program. With 8.2 in hand, a partition to play with and some courage -- I went for it.
The good news was, I made it thru the installation program and actually got a working (sort of) and bootable file system.
I understand that there is suppose to be a "minimal" install with this version of Mandrake. I'm not sure, but I'm assuming that means just using disk one of the three that are available for download. This, as I understand it, if for people who can't be burdened with making choices such as which ASCII editor to use. If this is the minimal install, they did a damn good job. Basically I had Linux/GNU, KDE, GNOME, GIMP and that was about it. It worked, but there were no applications. It looked good, but did nothing. Cute, but useless.
Note: I was still using 7.2, and intended to keep using 7.2 as I knew it worked. With my /home on another partition the plan was to use /home for both 7.2 and 8.2. Yes, now I know better. One /home for two installs of 7.2 is fine, but not for two different releases. Bad, bad idea.
The other thing I noticed was that my user ID under 8.2 was 501, while of course my user ID under 7.2 (the version I was then using) was 500. So much for easy file sharing. I should mention that I only have one user login. Thus, you would think -- well, I would think, I can't say what you would think -- that they could keep things consistent and the first user created always be 500, but as we shall soon learn consistency doesn't seem to be a priority at Mandrake.
Like Windows, Only Free
So a few weeks later, after downloading 8.2 CD 2 and 3 I went to install again. I had another empty partition, so I fired it up, went thru the 3 CDs and booted that puppy. Nice stuff. Lots of new versions of things I use and some great games. I found I still have to use XFree 3.3 as the newer versions don't work on my crappy SIS video card. Then I fired up KDE.
Things you need to know: My system has one user, Skippy, and root. As skippi I run Enlightenment (E) and as root I run KDE. I don't like the Windows--like aspect of KDE but I run it as root because when I log on as root it is to do something, get it done, and log out. KDE has lots of nice tools that usually make this faster.
So, I log in as root to set up my login screen. I always do this first thing after installing a new Linux file system. I change the fonts and icons for users and tweak a few other items. Well, after typing in my password and hitting ENTER it took damn near five minutes to get logged in. Pretty sad. But wait, it gets worse. Guess what? The KDE configuration program doesn't even execute. Hell, not even a "crashed application" message as you will often get with KDE if something crashes. Now, under 7.2 I've discovered that after a fresh install the KDE configuration program often only works once. I had installed 7.2 about ten times at this point. At least I know I have once chance to set up the X login screen the way I want. If I try running it again it will simply crash. Under 8.2 it doesn't work at all. Also, right clicking on the desktop brings up the menu, but none of the menu items will actually do anything. Yup, it's looking good. Funny, all of this worked fine in my first 8.2 installation. But as we will see, consistency is not real important at Mandrake.
Playing around with all the new and improved features I had some moments of joy. I found some great games, as I mentioned. The new versions of Gedit and GQView made me happy. Mozilla ran really fast. I built Mozilla from source on my 7.2 system and it was so slow as to be unusable. The much hyped Mandrake Control Center is . . . cute, but not all that useful. Most everything it does can be done easier and faster from the command line. I tried out the networking configuration tool, and as in previous versions it doesn't work. Mandrake has never been able to set up my internet connection, either during or post install. I use Kppp without any problems so it's not that big of a deal. I also tried setting up my scanner, a HP ScanJet 4200C USB scanner. It was listed in the scanner setup dialog, so I pushed all the right buttons, Mandrake did it's stuff and I got a dialog box telling me my scanner was set up and ready to use. Well, it wasn't. It didn't work at all. Xsane simply reports "no device found." I don't mind my scanner not working with Linux. I do mind being lead to believe my scanner is going to work, then finding out it will not.
So, I'm sitting here with a system that: is cute; has broken KDE; and is lying to me. Not off to a good start. But wait, there is more.
Mandrake whatever--it--is--called for updating and installing RPMs has always been, in my opinion, slow, ugly and a badly written GUI. It also locks up all the time and is a pain to actually use. Hoping it got better in 8.2 I fired it up. Nope. Still sucks. Oh yea, I found my notes. It's called Software Manager. It just locks up. But there is always good old KPackage which I usually use for RPM installs if I need a GUI. I prefer the command line and I'm partial to tarballs. So I start that up. Well it locks up also. Nice. So, off to the command line. Each RPM I install generates about half a screen of error messages. The RPMs seem to install, they just generate a load of errors. No I didn't write them down. By this point I was thinking "do I want to format this partition now or later." I decided on later and played some more of the games that come with 8.2.
Naturally sound does not work under E, despite working fine under KDE. While logged on as Skippy and running E I changed my theme. Normally this takes about 8 seconds for E to do it's thing and you are off and going. In this case it took about 3.5 minutes, after which X crashed and restarted. And finally, my biggest E related bitch . . .
E-Term 0.9.1 has been out for over a year, yet Mandrake still ships with 0.8.10. I really fail to understand why it's so difficult to include the latest release, especially when you consider that every minor release of KDE is plastered all over Mandrakes web site and the RPMs are made available as soon as possible. I mean, if someone at KDE gets drunk one night and upgrades KDE-devel-stupid-windows-looking-crap-1.0.3.5.76 to KDE-devel-stupid-windows-looking-crap-1.0.3.5.77 Mandrake flies into a fit of activity and inundates their users with how slick and sexy and user friendly this new advanced release is. The odds they might update E are pretty slim tho. As one person on the E users list said "If it isn't KDE, Mandrake isn't interested." Mandrake is always preaching how Linux is about choice. Apparently this is only true if you chose to use KDE. Mandrake couldn't care less about the rest of us.
Finally, what the hell is up with package selection? In 7.2 you can pretty much install everything that comes on the CDs without having to do the individual package selection. I selected all the categories of software the 8.2 install program gives you, then popped over to the individual package selection and half the stuff I use isn't selected. I mean look folks, stuff like gkrellm isn't part of the "normal" install. Yea, nobody uses that. I mean come the (pardon my French) fuck on. Why, oh why, why, can't we get back the freaking "install everything" from 7.2. Is it because Linux is all about choice?
The Plan
See, I had this plan. Let me try to give you the short version. I have three hard drives. 15G, 20G and 30G. Currently the 20G is /home, the other two have Windows and Linux partitions on both comprising one Win98, two Mandrake 7.2 and the two new Mandrake 8.2. The plan: Make the 30G /home, make the 15G Windows only. On the 20G three equal partitions with two installs of 8.2 and one install of 7.2 to use until I get 8.2 up and running. I figured this should take me about 12 hours or so. Memorial Day weekend, Saturday, I'm gonna get up early and knock it out.
The next 3 days consisted of one fuck up after another. Some of them mine -- detailed here so that hopefully you will not be as dumb as I was (some would say "as dumb as I am") -- some of them Mandrakes -- detailed here on the off chance that someone at Mandrake cares and will do something about them.
Originally I was going to share /home between 8.2 and 7.2. Not a good idea due to the version difference between some of the programs, but hey I'll deal with that later. (As previously mentioned, don't try this.) First things first. Due to where I had what on my hard drives I had to:
Install 7.2 on hdb.
Format hda as one giant Linux partition.
Copy all my /home from hdc to hda.
Format hdc and break it into 3 partitions for Linux.
Physically move the hard drives around.
Current set up:
hda - 30G
hdb - 15G
hdc - 20G
What it needs to be (due to Windows' need to be on the first drive):
hda - 15G
hdb - 30G
hdc - 20G
Up until this point, things are going well, /home moved, drives swapped. Time consuming yes, but working fine. Next step: Install 8.2 on hdc. Got thru that. In order to get all the packages I wanted I went thru the individual selection and pretty much selected everything in sight unless I knew for sure I didn't want or need it. That only took 20 minutes. Hey, I got all weekend. Then, I did the first stupid thing. (Take notes.) "Hey" I said to myself "why don't you format your /home with the latest and greatest Reiser version instead of the old one from 7.2?" "Wow" said I to myself, "what a great idea. You are a genius." Actually, I'm an idiot. I just didn't know it yet. So, I did this. It's all good. 8.2 is working, /home is safe, time for Windows.
Booted up with the Windows boot disk and ran fdisk to partition hda. Well, fdisk just locks up and sits there. Nice. What can you expect from M$ tho. After a few attempts it was clear this wasn't going to work. I fired up Linux and used DiskDrake (one of my favorite GUI programs from Mandrake) to partition hda. Back to Win boot disk and format C: drive. Got Windows installed with no problem, remembered to run setup with the /ie switch so it doesn't lock up when it's time to create a boot disk. Then format D: and E: drives. Now back to Linux.
The Plan Goes Bad
Now I'm going to perform my first install of 7.2. That goes good, except when I try to mount hdb. It's not liking that, and some of you already know why. It takes me a while to remove head from ass, but then it occurs to me. Duh, 7.2 does not recognize the version of Reiser from 8.2. Way to go. So now it's time to juggle around all my data on hdb to other places and format hdb using 7.2. In the process I have to wipe out the 8.2 install and use that partition. This whole process, due to the amount of data I have to move around, takes ages. I don't recall how long exactly, but a long time. Finally it is done. Some of the data I had was from Windows drives (FAT32 I should mention) so I put that on my new Win partitions and was done dealing with it.
So, at this point I have Windows happy over on hda, my data (readable by 7.2) on hdb and one Linux (7.2) on hdc. I should have made more progress by now, but yes, I'm an idiot. I figure that while I am here I should go ahead and install the additional software I use, so that this system is up and running. I'm at tty1 doing my thing (RPMs and tarballs from the command line) when I get error messages scrolling down the screen. Something to the effect of:
FAT allocation error
filesystem panic
dev 03:01
Well, I have no idea what the hell dev 03:01 is, but I know what a filesystem is, and I know that "panic" is not a good word. So my high tech response:
1. Piss my pants.
2. Use bad language really loud.
3. Shutdown the system.
So I'm thinking (or what I pass off as thinking) and decide to power it up and see what happens. I do so, and things are ticking along really good. For a while at least. Then I get the same messages, this time while moving some of my data around. This time I simply hit the power button and kill it. "What the hell" I ask myself. "I don't know" I respond.
I conclude (don't ask how, by this time it's getting late) that something must be messed up with my 7.2 install, so I install 7.2 again, formatting / and everything. I also decide I need to test to see if all my data in /home is undamaged. The best way I can think of to do this is to copy it from one place to another. Since I put all my Windows stuff back on the FAT partitions I have room on hdb to simply copy it all to another folder on that drive. I do so. Along the way I found out that 6 files have somehow been . . . somethinged. Lucky they were nothing important. They "existed" but could not be read, nor moved, nor deleted. Nice. I'm thinking "great, I just screwed up this file system." After experimenting I realize there is only one way to fix these corrupted files. Reformat the partition. Which means, move all the data to other partitions. Here we go again. Yes, this is the third time I've moved 13G worth of data.
I do the data shuffle, reformat the drive and shuffle it back. Everything is going good . . . Right . . .
Wrong. I get:
FAT allocation error
filesystem panic
dev 03:01
Wonderful. So I go thru the same procedure as last time: Piss, Curse, Power Down. (This is really useful in all sorts of situations.) I'm guessing it's time to try installing 7.2 yet again after formatting the root partition, and this time I will not even mount the 30G drive, that way I don't have to worry about it getting damaged. Yup yup, sounds like a plan. Away we go.
Only . . . You didn't think this was going to be easy did you? My computer will not boot. It powers up, I get the BIOS "splash screen" that says Comcrap then it starts all over, locked in some cycle of death. Great . . . So one of my hard drives is dying, and now it's killing the whole computer, or something else is dying. When it rains it pours you know. So I'm taking apart the computer and unplugging various components to find the failure. Now, I must point out that I'm doing what might be a bad habit at this time, I'm turning off the UPS into which my computer is plugged so that I know the power is going out to everything. After trying a few things I -- yet again -- managed to remove my head from ass. "Wait" I said to myself (I talk to myself you know) "the last time I turned off the computer I jabbed the power button on front, but since then I have been using the UPS. Could it be?" So, I unplugged the power button from the mother board and hit the juice. Damn thing fires up.
Yea . . . Don't slam the power button so hard in the future and it wont stick. Shaking my head at my own stupidity I put the computer back together and plunge back in.
In the name of expedience I will now condense many hours (many, many, many hours) into a paragraph. I keep on getting the file system error, and I keep on assuming that it's a problem with my hard drive on which Linux is installed (at this point I have removed the 30G from the picture by not mounting it -- do you see the problem yet?) Well after installing 7.2 two more times I -- yet again -- removed head from ass (notice the pattern here?) Doing an internet search on the error message I discovered my problem. Seems this filesystem problem is occurring on the 15G drive, which houses my Windows OS on FAT32. Well my ass. I was letting the Mandrake install program mount the damn things as that is a default thing it does and hadn't given it another thought. I remove all my FAT32 partitions from my fstab and reboot (Windows habits are hard to break) and what do ya know. Problem is gone.
Flashing into the future, here is what has happened so far with this problem. Once my Linux stuff was all happy I booted into Windows and ran Norton Disk Doctor. I discovered some file system problems on my C: drive and fixed them without incident. To this day (October 2002) I have not bothered to try mounting my FAT32 partitons under Linux as I simply have no need to do so. The question is: Did Linux somehow corrupt the FAT32 system on C: or was it corrupted while I was installing my Windows stuff and Linux found and responded to the problem? I don't know. I have had FAT32 mounted under Linux since day one (I first installed Linux right before Mandrake 7.1 came out, back in 2000) and never had this problem, so I'm thinking that is not it. Unless, it was a result of the evil Mandrake 8.2. Have I mentioned that 8.2 sucks? In any case, the cause is still unknown to me. I was happy knowing that Linux and my data were not in danger. Hell, I only use Windows for games. I really couldn't care less about having to reinstall it.
Conclusions
Ok, back to the weekend of hell. By this time it's Monday, and I'm just about sick of dealing with the computer. Did I say "just about?" Rip out my tongue. I have been sick of dealing with it for quite a while. I have aborted all attempts to mess with 8.2. My goal at this point is simply to get one version of 7.2 that works. By this I mean that I can get email. I have noticed that when doing fresh installs of 7.2 (much like 8.2) it randomly decides what will work & what will not work. So far I have found three issues that arise for me when installing 7.2:
1. I can send email but not pick it up. Fetchmail will connect and find messages, but when trying to deliver them to my computer it will time out.
2. ESD will not load under Enlightenment. This works sometimes, other times it doesn't. I have since learned how to hack around and fix it, at least I think I have. I haven't actually done it yet but will be trying soon.
3. Eterm 0.9.1 will not install. I have a set of RPMs, built from the SRPMs, that install all the things required for Eterm 0.9.1, but sometimes Eterm will just not build.
Mind you, this is all on a freshly installed system, not one I have been messing with. The sequence is as follows. Install 7.2. Install Pygmy (email program) from RPM. Test it. If I can get email then install Eterm RPMs then ./configure, make, make install for Eterm. Why this should work one time and not another is one of the fatal flaws of Mandrake in my opinion. Windows at least sucks consistently. Hmmm. Like that's a good thing.
Anyhow, by the time I went to bed Monday night, after installing 7.2 five more times in one day I had three 7.2 systems. One in which everything worked. One in which neither email nor sound worked. One in which sound did not work and Eterm would not install.
I happened on another discovery. In the past when installing 7.2 the first user was always UID 500. For whatever reason this time around it kept setting up the first user as 501. Annoying? Why yes, thank you for asking.
Aftermath
Now it's June. I have finally calmed down enough to write up this adventure. I have also manged to get email fixed in the second install of 7.2. The third install in which Eterm will not make is going to go bye-bye so I can play with 8.2, since it does have some nice games. Of course, hopefully 8.2 will actually install and work this time around, but that is still in my future. Maybe the next three day weekend I get. After all, it's not like I have a life.
Aftermath 2
Now it's October. Mandrake 7.2 still going strong. I have hardly used 8.2. Mandrake 9.0 is released. Do I dare? Do I tempt fate. Of course I do. Stand by for Linux Wars -- Episode II -- Attack of the Piss Poor Installation Program.
All images and writing copyright On The Fly Photography / Skippy, except where noted. These images may not be used for public display, altered or displayed on another web site without my permission. These essays, poetry & other forms of written word may be printed & distributed on paper so long as my e-mail address & web page address are on the paper.
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