Re: Install stopper.

[Eddie Maddox <emaddox@sihope.com>]

On 5 Feb 1999 jfm2@club-internet.fr wrote:

> > > Screen: "comps Error"
> > > Errors:
> >   package XFree86-devel at line 1400 does not exist
> >                                 1628
> 
> Is this the only one, or are they more?  I simply cannot download

If you kept or recall my first install report
there were three packages listed, now only this one.

But, I don't understand about the downloading.
I don't have that package. I don't need it or want it.
So, why is "comps" even bothering with it?

You need to keep the Indy site updated since some newbies
might want such a package. CS students, say.

But, most of us should not be expected to have a personal
mirror of stuff we don't want. And for me that's
source/development packages and non-English docs.

> > > ------------------
> > > Phase 2, during reboot from boot floppy written in Phase 1.:
> > 
> > Forgot this before, but still a problem:
> > The Red Hat/Indy boot/supp disks read in fast (30 seconds?),
> > but the reboot disk (written during Phase 1)
> > takes about 5 minutes to be read.
> 
> > The boot/supp disks and reboot disk should all read in
> > just as fast, not some fast and the other slow (~5 min.)
> > 
> > This _must_ be fixed.
> 
> The rescue disk?  Don't know I never needed it and it is untouched
      ^ You're right, I didn't even mention that, 'cause I didn't
use it, so I don't know how fast it would have been read.
I only know about the three I mentioned.

> > -----------------
> > Also, please remove the LILO timeout.
> > 
> > It's very hard to hunt-n-peck "l i n u x S" or whatever, during reboot
> > when the keyboard isn't yet configured (I use dvorak-r) and LILO then
> > decides to take off without waiting for us to finish typing first.
> 
> But why were you rebooting single user?

Let's be careful here.

Instead of asking "But why were you ...",
you need to ask,  "But why is LILO ..."

You see, I'm not the one timing out prematurely, LILO is.
So, you have to ask, "why is LILO", not, "why were you".

I think you'll find the answer to, "why is LILO",
is that there is a "timeout" entry in /etc/lilo.conf.
Remove that line, and you remove the bug.

(A newbie can't be expected to know such things.
They would just answer your question, "why were you",
and pretty soon both of you are off chasing this tangent
about what the newbie did 
rather than fixing what LILO does.)

> > ---------------------
> > 
> > > Last message on screen I saw said something about "Appletalk".
> > > 
> > > Then screen scrambled with "Usage: route ..." junk at various places
> > > all over the screen.
> 
> This is linuxconf who is called in the last phase of the boot to set
> some networking things.  But it tries to identify the distrib in order
> to know what mechanisms to use.  I will rebuild it first thing.

Thanks.

> > -----------------
> > 
> > I did reboot with "linux S" which got to "bash#" ok.

But, since you asked, it should be obvious now why I tried
the single user reboot. A newbie would not have thought of it.

Newbies don't hunt bugs. They have too much work to do.
And so do I.

> > -----------------------------
> Until I upload a fixed linuxconf do a
> 
> ln -s Independence-release /etc/redhat-release (I dont remember if it
> is Independence or independence

No.

I have enough frustrations just typing in all this stuff
for all this email. It's nice to know there is your workaround
for a really desperate fast typing expert.

I'm not an expert.
I don't type very fast.
I need stuff that works, not workarounds.
Just like a newbie.

> > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------   
> > > 
> > > With Debian 2.0 booted I checked my Indy partition.
> > > 
> > > I happened to notice /var/lock had permissions of 775 and ownership of
> > > root.00000014.
> 
> root.uucp.  Normal in redhat and clones.

I don't get it. uucp != 00000014 !

Debian 2.0 has root.root and permissions of 777.

Furthermore, the only other time I've seen strange ownership
entries like "00000014" is with some buggy versions of lynx
that clobber ownership stuff wholesale, but usually both parts.

----------
Eddie