Fwd: Re: [olug] Red Hat upgrade question

Mon Oct 15 15:14:57 UTC 2001

I've never had to struggle to resolve any of the midnight pages I've
received.  They've each been caused by a specific reason that usually turns
out to be me making the wrong choice, such as making a partition too small.

Most issues I see relate to the inherent problems of diverse hardware.
Correct me if I'm wrong but most commercial unix distributions are tied
directly to specific hardware combinations while Linux is built to run on all
kinds of different hardware.  That means that the work of selecting drivers
and programs that will work with your combination of hardware was already
completed.

Redhat 7.0 handles the Cox situation fine with the DHCP_HOSTNAME variable.
It's hard for me to understand your issues with "upgrading" when the issues
you are referring to are for a new install.

We've only been running our Linux servers for around 200 days but I've only
been paged twice in that time and both times it was a result of a
configuration error that I had made, which I would have made regardless of
the platform I was running on.

On Wednesday 31 December 1969 05:59 pm, you wrote:
> 0 at om7470l1>
> Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 09:37:10 -0500
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> Subject: Re: [olug] Red Hat upgrade question
> X-RCPT-TO: <linux_user at grax.com>
> X-UIDL: 4995
> Status: U
>
> I would like to address a couple of different questions here.
>
> First off, I have never been able to successfully install on my current
> server using the standard install method.  The motherboard that I use is an
> old 486.  I've been using this machine for my Linux server since about 98.
> I first started with RH 5.0, and have slowly upgraded.  As far as using
> 6.2, wells lets just say, that upgrading isn't high on my priority list.  I
> do it when I get around to it.
>
> Anyway.  When I attempted to install, using a cd, the install always craps
> out with a signal 11.  I remember reading somewhere that that was do to
> autoprobing my hardware.  I have always used expert mode to install my
> distribution.  I did try installing the standard way, and it did find my
> nic card, and I was able to reach the ftp site, but it still crashed with a
> single 11.  That means, I still need to do it the expert way.
>
> I'll do some more research on that README file to see if I can't figure out
> how to get those drivers.
>
> Second issue.  Yes, I guess you can call me an "enthusiast".  I am not a
> die hard Linux fan.  I am a Sun/Solaris fan.  I have been in the Unix field
> for about 10 years, using different Unix platforms.  Sun/Solaris is what I
> prefer.  I use Linux at home, but I don't think that it has a place, just
> yet, in the corp world.
>
> My biggest issue with Linux is that its very aggravating.  When I install
> something, whether it be a software package, or OS, I want it to work right
> the first time.  With Linux, its always something to get it to work.  For
> example, this upgrade.  I have to pull my hair out trying to figure out how
> to get it to see my drivers.  Another example, was last year when I finally
> decided to go with @home.  Cox requires DHCP.  I couldn't get DHCP to work.
> I was using pump, and I had everything configured correctly.  Found every
> piece of documentation that I could on the subject.  I learned that I had
> to put my host name in one of the config files.  Okay, but it still didn't
> work.  So I went static.  That was until Cox changed my IP about six months
> ago.  Then during my trouble shooting, I discovered, that the startup
> script wasn't passing my machine name like it was suppose to.  So it never
> was sending the machine name when it was requesting the IP.  I've never had
> these types of issues when working on a commercial grade Unix distribution.
>
> Now, not knowing any one of you, I'm sure that I've offended some out
> there. I want to apologize right now, but my opinion comes from many nights
> of pager going off at three in the morning.  I prefer to have a OS that I
> know that if I do get paged during the night, or on off hours, that I'm not
> going to have to struggle to get it resolved.
>
> thanks
>
> Daryl Rose
> jzlvr at home.com
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brian Roberson" <roberson at bstc.net>
> To: <olug at bstc.net>
> Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2001 10:45 PM
> Subject: Re: [olug] Red Hat upgrade question
>
> > trust me, I know what you mean exactly... specifically a company by the
>
> name
>
> > of dialogic, but from the aptitude of the questions being asked, I could
> > tell that we are not talking about a corporate user, rather an
> > enthusiast, which is why I asked the question. my real point was that
> > RH6.2 is not a real good starting point for a first, or near to first
> > time user.
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Nick Walter" <waltern at iivip.com>
> > To: <olug at bstc.net>
> > Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2001 8:27 PM
> > Subject: Re: [olug] Red Hat upgrade question
> >
> >
> > I still use Red Hat 6.2 quite extensively, but I use Linux in a different
> > context than most of the members of this list I imagine.
> >
> > I'm a sysadmin for a company that has been phasing out Unixware 2.X.X in
>
> our
>
> > servers and products and replacing it with Red Hat.  Because of driver
> > availability and development cycle time for products,  we have to pick an
> > O/S and version and stick with it for several years at a time.  We last
> > standardized 9 months ago, on Red Hat 6.2.  Now our telephony products
>
> will
>
> > probably be shipping with Red Hat 6.2 for the next few years :)
> >
> > The moral of the story is that in the corporate world there a lot of
>
> people
>
> > who aren't using the latest and greatest (and possibly unstable or
> > quirky) versions of Linux.
> >
> > Nick Walter
> > Interact Incorporated
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> >   From: Brian Roberson
> >   To: olug at bstc.net
> >   Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2001 7:28 PM
> >   Subject: Re: [olug] Red Hat upgrade question
> >
> >   > I wasn't able to find a modules image.  I looked on the ftp site that
>
> I
>
> > plan on using, and also on my current 6.2 cd.  Neither had the image that
> >
> > you mentioned.  The closet that I came was a driver.img.  Same thing?
> >
> >   yes, checkout the README in that same directory. redhat 6.2 is rather
>
> old,
>
> > why may I ask are you using it?
> >
> >     >> have you tried to autodetect the nic?
> >     >
> >     > No I have not.  How do I do that?
> >
> >   dont go into "expert" mode and It will do it for you automatically
> >
> >
> >
> >
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