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RE: Three things seem to be broken in RedHat 5.1 CD-ROM




On 23-Aug-98 Omer Zak wrote:
> Those things are not fatal, just somewhat inconvenient.
> I installed Linux from the official RedHat 5.1 CD-ROM.
> I found that three things don't work in the installation
> (Please pardon me for some missing/inaccurate details,
> I am writing the following from memory, the installation
> is somewhere else):
> 1. LILO was not successfully made to work, so a boot
>    diskette is being used.  This topic was discussed in
>    other messages to Linux-IL, and I'll check into the
>    option for linear addressing of the hard disk.
>    At any case, this happened in both my installation
>    and the installation of someone who asked for my help.

After installing it on a number of PCs (five or six), I do not think LILO has a
problem. However, if you are installing it on a SCSI, then you should know that
they do not have a SCSI driver built it. They have modules for each card
supported. At the end of installation a ramdisk (file) is created which, when
loaded at boot, inserts the kernel module and tells the kernel to continue to
boot in the "normal" way. If the ram disk was not created correctly, or
incorrect parameters regarding the ramdisk were passed to lilo, then one is
screwed. In anycase, while OK for installation, it is not a good way to have
your system set up. If this is the case, the best way is to recompile the
kernel and have a necessary SCSI driver built in. Then one does not have to
fiddle with the RAM disk. It is possible that RedHat have screwd up on that. I
have seen this problem with 5.0. In that case, however, it is not a problem
with LILO, but with the install program, and if you can boot the computer, you
can easily fix it. 

> 2. glint (RedHat's X-Window RPM manager) stops with
>    an error (accompanied by obscure Python or whatisit
>    traceback) when I command it to browse and list the
>    packages on the RedHat executables CD-ROM (1st
>    CD-ROM).  I can however navigate and install packages
>    which I see.  I only can't see what new packages are on
>    the CD-ROM.

Glint hadn't work properly untill I have installed an update from RedHat. (Yes,
the cdrom version is broken).
 
> 3. The non-GPL'ed BRU backup software does not work
>    on the PC which I use.  When activated, it claims to
>    fail some integrity checks.
>    (The PC in question has a SCSI tape backup drive
>    manufactured by HP, but the 'mt' command works
>    with it without problems).
> 
> Did anyone else see similar problems to problems 2,3
> above?
> What did he/she do about problems 2,3?

I have not tried that.

In general, RedHat is trying to be sometimes too smart and quality control has
always been a problem for them. But it is probably the easiest to install
(especially for an newbie) and probably the easiest to maintain with glint and
rpm. If you have learned the dirty tricks they try to pull on you, you can
successfully overcome them and convinience of the administration pays off.

Of course, this is just a MHO. So, no flames, please!
   
----------------------------------
Constantine Gavrilov
Unix System Administration
MIS, Indigo Ltd.
Tel. 08-9381058
E-Mail: costag@indigo.co.il
Date: 24-Aug-98
Time: 21:30:56

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