[tlug] Linux Log (March 29th, 2004)

["Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon" <ronfaxon@example.com>]

Linux Log

I'm using Linux and therefore I am a Linux User, but I'm not a 
programmer and so a lot of it seems like black (or maybe blue) magic to 
me.  I know there are other people out there in my position, so I'll 
list some of my recent experiences in the (unlikely?) event that 
something might be of interest to someone.  To the programmers, I 
apologize for putting into the wires what is no doubt pure garbage to 
your expert eyes.  I beg you to have pity on a pour soul long tormented 
by the illegal activities of a certain predatory producer of overpriced 
and defective mainstream software.  I really really hate that company 
and want to be free of their tyranny.


SuSE 9.0 Professional

After only experimenting for years, I am now a proud Linux user - on 
SuSE 9.0.  The main machine I use on the internet was installed all in 
English though and the one big frustration I'm experiencing at the 
moment is that my attempts at starting up Japanese language composing 
capabilities have not been successful to date.  A second SuSE machine 
that I installed n Japanese is working great for Japanese, but as I'm 
still in the learning phase of Linux I really do want to work with 
English menus.  Pretty much I want the reverse situation from a typical 
Japanese language computer that has nearly all menus in Japanese, but 
has no problem with writing English.


Red Hat 8.0

I liked Red Hat well enough, but while I was able to update it regularly 
for awhile, they changed something on their end and I couldn't continue 
with the old style of updating it - so, not knowing how to update it in 
a manual way, I ended up deleting the entire disk and putting in 
Mandrake (it's a test machine after all).  Right from the start, I don't 
know how to update Mandrake, but since I'm using the free version, I 
suspect they've made updating it easiest for paying customers.  (SuSE 
has been fairly easily updatable so far - I haven't been able to get the 
auto-update feature to work, but the manual update is working fine).


Mandrake 10.0

A couple of the CDs I pulled off the Internet seem to be short - which 
no doubt caused several error messages during the install.  Something 
would come up missing - requiring a hit on the <Enter> key to move 
ahead, and then the message would pop up again, requiring several hits 
on the <Enter> key to proceed, so I put a dictionary on the corner 
<Enter> key and just left it there!  I know - not a good thing to do, 
but it was a test install after all and I was busy, so....  The result 
is that the program actually works, but the menus seem a little lonely - 
I think it's missing a bit of... something.  After playing around with 
it a little, I came to the conclusion that - for most things - I like 
SuSE 9.0 Professional better, but I should test a full version of 
Mandrake before saying much.


Debian 3.0r1

I put Debian in on top of the Mandrake install, and it (thankfully!) 
seems to have used the partitions and some other things from the much 
more automated Mandrake install.  The command lines were very 
informative and the install went well, but... I can't do anything other 
than log on via command line when the log-on prompt comes up.  I don't 
know what commands to use to get the machine working for me!  One really 
stupid mistake on my part is that I ended up downloading the previous 
version of Debian, and not the most recent release.  Would the most 
recent release come to life with something graphical after installing?  
I suppose it doesn't matter with Debian, which (apparently) is better 
suited to using for a server than for a desktop or laptop machine.


Fedora Core 1 (Version #?)

One thing that comes up straight up with Fedora that is an excellent 
idea - is the media check function that allows you to check if the disks 
are corrupted or not.  Having been burned with some bad downloads, I'm - 
as I type this - running a "Media Check" on the three install disks I 
pulled off the wires today.  The first disk "Passed" and I'm checking 
the second disk now.  Assuming all three disks are okay, I'll put Fedora 
in over Debian 3.0r1 - as I have no idea how to use Debian as a desktop 
machine.  At some point I'll probably try using it as a server though - 
I did like all the on-screen help during the installation and - so I 
hear - it's known to be more stable than the versions of Linux that are 
geared towards desktop machines.  (Any tips on things to watch out for 
with Fedora Core 1?)


Download issues.

I experienced some odd error messages and sudden interruptions when 
downloading things at a couple of site here in Japan.  Then I ended up 
downloading an old version of Debian from a US university (3.0 r1).  
Giving up on nearby and US mirror sites and downloading Debian from 
Europe solved those problems (it's on a hard drive waiting for seven 
blank CD-ROMs), but I have to wonder what is going on when nearby sites 
are corrupted, the US site I used was dated, and I had to go to Europe 
for a download?  Have other people in Japan been experiencing 
nonsensical error messages and interrupted downloads when attempting to 
pull things off of a locally located source?


Fedora Core 1 Setup

The test computer is busy putting in Fedora Core as I write this (or I 
suppose I should say that Fedora Core is busy putting itself into the 
computer).


LHS