Re: UPDATE ON "WARNING ON RED HAT"

From: straydog (straydog_at_invalid.com)
Date: 04/11/04 

Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2004 14:07:36 -0700

chris@nospam.com wrote:
>
> On 10 Apr 2004 18:16:18 -0700, straydog@sdf.lonestar.org (mystery man)
> wrote:
>
> >A few weeks ago I reported that RH Enterprise Linux (ver 3.0) could
> >not find my CDROM drives on several of boxes and thus my attempt to
> >install this OS (& aps) ended in serious disappointment (bear in mind
> >I had great success with RH 5.2 and 6.2 on at least a dozen other
> >boxes).
> >
> >I tried to see if RH EL would recognize any more CDROM drives I had
> >(most are vintage mid 1990s, which may have been the problem), but
> >finally I aquired a used box (400 mhz, 64 mb of ram) today and
> >lo-and-behold the software could find the CDROM drive and the
> >installation proceeded without problems AND it even booted up and just
> >barely got the graphical desktop up and running. Almost everythign
> >else I tried to load caused, from the sound of the HD, the swap file
> >to work. Ergo, since the install was successful, I have some
> >motivation to go out and get more memory for the box so I can speed it
> >up. So far, I tried the RH EL disks on about five other boxes with
> >CDROM drives that the software could not find.
> >
> >The main points of this story: i) the drivers that RH provides
> >definitely don't work on at least some CDROM drives (these are in
> >boxes that have or have had prior Linux versions, OS/2 versions, Win
> >NT versions, and DOS/Win3.1 with CDROM access, so its not faulty
> >hardware). ii) you can have faulty hardware show up with some OSes and
> >not others.
> >
> >Thanks to a few guys who responded to my post, but I'm sorry if some
> >guys say "Gee, I didn't have any problems, therefore your problems are
> >in your head" or something like that. Same rationalization as "I don't
> >have cancer, therefore cancer does not exist."
> >
> >I've been working with linux (and reading those 800-1000 page books on
> >linux) since 1999. Yes, I'm happy that I finally got RH EL installed
> >and that it is working.
> >
> >Art S.
>
> Ok, how about - "Gee I haven't had problems installing RH on hardware
> that's listed in their Hardware Compatibility List."

OK, how about I'm Bill Gates, Michael Dell, or the DoD and have the time
and resources to look up that list (its pretty long and incomplete), then
go hunting around and buy all the components new (or spend hours tearing
up my box and maybe find that none of the numbers on any of the boards or
devices match anything on the list [because the assemblers just get
'generic' components that are unlabeled and thats the way a lot of them
are]) . OK, how about you read what I wrote above again. Understand--
I'll re-explain it again to you--that since I had ZERO (that means
'none') problems with RH 6.2 and 5.2 installs on over a dozen boxes with
a wide variety of components), I wanted to find out if RH EL had any
backwards compatibility with vintage '95-'99 CDROM drives. At least one
guy who posted to my prior post said his drive was late '90s so at least
there are some out there that might be OK. So, after trying a total of
five boxes on my desk that have RH 6.2 loaded (and working fine), I can
say RH EL 3.0 didn't find any of the CDROM drives that both 6.2 and 5.2
could find. 5.2 is vintage '95-99, and 6.2 is vintage 2000 (its in the
manuals I have [and I read them, cover to cover]).

I made this post as a FAVOR to people who might be wondering. Fine if
their boxes install RH EL without problems. They are lucky.

And, for the record, if you want to go back to the newsgroups in 1999 and
2000 you will find a LOT (i.e. many) people who were having a lot of
trouble getting Linux installed and running. And, I'm NOT saying this to
be anti-linux. Linux is GOOD. Microsoft is BAD.

 Are the CD-Rom
> drives in question IDE drives?

All but one. And, the one that is NOT, has an interface card AND it
installs either 5.2 or 6.2 just fine. When I got 6.2, I did a fresh
install over the 5.2 that was on that box. I've even had 5.2 running on a
486 box with 8 mb of ram. Command line bootup was fine, GUI was glacial.
But it worked.

> If not, that's probably your problem.

The problem (not MY problem) is that RH does not put out drivers for
certain CDROMs any more. ALL of mine are non R-RW, i.e. old. Maybe that
is the problem (but another guy said he had an old CDROM and it worked).
Well, now, a used computer I picked up yesterday for $50 installed RH EL
just fine. So, at least when the CDROM drivers are there, and there is no
hardware compatibility problem, and there are no defects in the CDROM
disk (I've had these, too), then you might get an installation.

Back in 1999 when I was just getting into this stuff, I was amazed that I
was in the sub-population of installers that had zero problems and lots
of other guys were in the sub-population of installers that had lots of
problems.

And, the disclaimers on the box are poor. And, the instruction manual has
a lot of errors in it as well as poor explainations. I say this after
having read many 800-1000 page books on Linux.

Yes, I 'play' with my computers as well as use them to do gainful
employment. Now, what is YOUR history of experience?
 
Art S>

> -Chris

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