[SLE] Machine Building - Nightmare Alley - Compatibility and Upgrade

• Previous message: Josephine: "[SLE] yast & wifi"
• Next in thread: Ted Hilts: "Re: [SLE] Machine Building - Nightmare Alley - Compatibility and Upgrade"
• Reply: Ted Hilts: "Re: [SLE] Machine Building - Nightmare Alley - Compatibility and Upgrade"
• Reply: Jerome R. Westrick: "Re: [SLE] Machine Building - Nightmare Alley - Compatibility and Upgrade"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]

Date: Wed, 01 Sep 2004 11:52:50 -0600
To: suse-linux-e@suse.com

Anyone having experience and useful information on this subject, PLEASE
respond.

I have tried several times to email you back but the list has been
rejecting my email thinking it to be much larger than it is. Since that
time my entire email system has been in trouble. Some kind of virus was
pumped through my Linux gateway machine and into my XP Netscape managed
email system. I lost some 7000 messages before I had everything fixed
and running again. Only my Inbox was hit and made completely useless.
 Any way I would like to pick up from where I lost my email ability and
so have created a new thread on compatibility issues when building a new
Linux machine. I notice there is a somewhat similar thread of a 64 bit
Gigabyte board.

 Does anyone know where I would get CHIPSET information in the Linux
SuSe 9.1 help files? However I'm not sure if this (as a separate
exercise) would ensure compatibility. See what I have to say further on
and everyone is welcome to comment.

Hans

Thank you so very much for your very informative and detailed reply.

Can you make a specific recommendation from the most recent Gigabyte
boards (including processor choice, memory choice, on board "Chip Set",
etc.). If you feel safe in your recommendation I would appreciate
hearing back from you on your recommendation. I don't want an older
Gigabyte board?

I have 2 CICERO computers (one XP, the other XP Pro, manufactured for
Future Shop, a computer and appliance super store here in Canada) I
mention this only because the XP machine CPU board died and the extended
warranty applied. The service company wanted to put a different board
in because the original was no longer manufactured. I guess this must
be a problem with big retail chains -- they constantly shop around for
the best deal from a money standpoint rather than a quality standpoint.
Anyway, I insisted that the repair service find a board with the same
chipset (so I could use my backup if required) and hopefully so we could
bring the system back up from the existing disk boot MBR. It went well
except some applications reinitialized. The new board was a Gigabyte P4
Titan socket 478 mother board with a Pentium 4 processor running a
little less that about 2 Gig (or so I understand). The model was
GA-8SIMLH-P SIS651/962I/AGP4X/Socket478 for Pentium 4/2 DDR DIMM/Micro
ATX/LAN/6-CH Codec/USB 2.0/.

As a result of this board switch the graphic card misfunctions using
HotMetal Pro 6 web authoring tool and I had to use the built in on board
graphics function (at lower resolution) which steals memory to
operate. BUT I have never used a Gigabyte CPU board for Linux let
alone one with an AMD chip.

Yes, you have somewhat relieved my concerns but I would feel better if
you or someone else could come up with a recent or the same board along
with all the components in the system. That graphics board which I
cannot use was costly. The other day I began to experiment around with
a refurbished unit (Pentium 4 at 450M -- would have preferred at least 1
gig) unit and had installed Linux SuSe 9.0 from a CD-Rom kit that came
with a magazine. It came with 2 CDs, desktop and server. I could not
install TELNET, FTP and other servers as both CDs seemed to be
identical and desktop. The desktop was nice but I did this towards
getting a SuSe based server centric gateway/router system up and running.

The first problem other than no servers to speak of was the the LAN NIC
card was not detected. I put in an expensive 3 Com card (my maintenance
spare) and it was immediately detected. By this time I am getting upset
as I spent an entire day fighting with the Magazine special (full
distribution, they claimed) SuSe 9.0. The other day my wife and I made
a 63 mile one way trip to Edmonton (Alberta, Canada) from our farm
location where I have my home and development LAN (some 15 computers,
Linux, XP, and Win95) to Compuserve where I paid $129.00 CDN dollars for
SuSe 9.1 Pro and I am hoping the Box set will give me all the servers I
want. It costs about $20.00 to $30.00 dollars to drive round trip to the
city and shop around plus meals. So now I have the SuSe User and
Reference Manual and I don't have to go blind (my eyes are very
sensitive) reading a PDF file from a bright glaring screen. I decided
that the price was close enough to the large money exchange difference
between USA and CDN dollars plus shipping and other charges to buy the
box set from the store rather than have it shipped to me by courier from
the USA.

Also I notice that Linux now has more than ext2. My current Linux
machines all run ext2 and they were put together using SuSe 6.4 and 6.2.
One of my concerns is that almost all these computers are unique with
most having a different CPU board than the other. I could not afford
the Enterprise version and am having a hard time understanding the
difference between the 9.1 Pro and the Enterprise version other than the
enterprise version comes with a special server (s) that do MORE of what
I don't know but do it from a central network location and somehow
bridge the differences between machines .

So I am gambling that 9.1 Pro will at least give me what I've got with
6.4 Suse but more recent. Another concern, and I thought I had it solved
with 6.4 SuSe was the ability to make transparent upgrades including the
kernel. But SuSe has told me by email (from the pre purchase sales
department) that I will have to install their SuSe 9.1 distribution from
scratch on all my SuSe machines. I am hoping that 9.1 will allow me to
install the latest browsers as they evolve and other things. I CANNOT
do this now with SuSe 6.4. I tried installing Netscape (again using the
binary from one of these Magazine CDs) and the first problem was I was
lacking certain libraries and even if I went out and got them there was
probably some incompatibilities between the kernel calls of my present
kernel and what the binary for Netscape would be calling and expecting
as results.

And it turns out that with 9.1 Pro I have obtained the latest KDE.

So I am beginning to wonder how best to put a system together when it is
possible it could go obsolete hardware and software wise over night. I
was going to ask some of these questions in a separate email to the
list. I notice a lot of people are having problems of various sorts
with SuSe 9.1 (mine is PRO and not yet installed until I have thoroughly
read the manuals),

So, as you probably recognized, I am trying to get as educated as
possible on my next few Linux projects (since 6.4 distribution) in and
effort to thwart my LAN from turning into a monstrosity to maintain --
although I think it has come close to that state already. I need a 60
hour day to keep up with the problems.

So that's why I am trying to get a dependable and maintainable set up.
That involves being able to upgrade on a continuous basis and do it
transparently to the existing system, including the kernel.

I notice on this list (I subscribe to 14 SuSe lists) a lot of hype about
Red Carpet which appears by the e-mail to be some kind of
upgrade/installation facility based on RPMs. For a week now I have seen
e-mail on this subject but have had time only to read a few. I would
like to read them all. I don't think this facility comes with the SuSe
9.1 Pro distribution BUT I am looking for an application that will allow
me to make "seamless" upgrades" to my Linux systems once I wipe them of
the hard drives and install SuSe 9.1 Pro on the works.

What I am going to do, and this really hurts financially, is simply save
the old hard drives and put in new hard drives . That way I can go back
to the original system and data by putting back the original drives
(about 3 per unit, although one has 7). That is one of the reasons why
I have another email on backups. I want to make a single backup of the
first SuSe 9.1 installation and then use that backup (if possible)
regardless of the difference in computers (CPU, graphics boards, sound
boards, LAN NIC, etc.) . If this is even possible and no one on the
list has yet been able to demonstrate it is possible, then there is
still the task of identifying each LINUX computer with its own
(original) name and original static IP address which involves numerous
config (hosts, smb.conf, httpd.conf, and many others) and other
locations within the distribution.

Can't see the screen very well any more so I will generate more
information if you get back to me on what I have already written. ANYONE
else is also welcome to join in.

Bye to all, thanks, TED

-- 
Check the headers for your unsubscription address
For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com
Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com
Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com

• Previous message: Josephine: "[SLE] yast & wifi"
• Next in thread: Ted Hilts: "Re: [SLE] Machine Building - Nightmare Alley - Compatibility and Upgrade"
• Reply: Ted Hilts: "Re: [SLE] Machine Building - Nightmare Alley - Compatibility and Upgrade"
• Reply: Jerome R. Westrick: "Re: [SLE] Machine Building - Nightmare Alley - Compatibility and Upgrade"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]