KITTEN IN A YARN FACTORY - or - the trials of Linux
Edition 1

When I first started computing, it was in the mainframe environment.  PC's
were only a gleam in the eyes of a few geeks and not even they had dreamed of
having one in as many homes as they are today.  IBM was a name for a mainframe
and so was Burroughs and UNISYS.  The UNIVAC was alive and well.  Fidonet did
not exist and Tom Jennings was probably 14 years old while Bill Gates was in
later gradeschool.  Yes, I'm an old computing biddy!

CP/M was yet to be.  UNIX had several versions and every operating system was
based on it in one flavor or another.

This is how I started.  Unix in one form or another was all I knew.  I had a
hard time converting my *nix experience to the PC world once it began, and now
am in the progress (?) of going back to it.  I find much of what I knew, is
either so changed I am not sure how to use it with today's releases, or has
drifted away due to lack of use.

So starts the tale of my abortive attempts to play 'like a kitten in a yarn
factory' with LINUX, Red Hat 5.2, www.cheapbytes.com distribution (1.99$USA).

May all my tangles as reported, assist you in avoiding same.  Don't be
suprised though if later in the series has me change some of the initial set!
I'm learning too .

My first hurdle was getting the software.  That was not hard but required I
have a web connection.  I used AOL and the fidonet LINUX echo information told
me that www.cheapbytes.com had it for sale for the cost of the CD.  2 days
after ordering, it was in my hands (Xmas eve in fact!).  As I had ordered a
book from Amazon.com earlier, I didnt order another one from cheapbytes.
Sadly, the Amazon book wasnt available yet so arrived 2 weeks after my Red Hat
(RH in future) software did.

My next hurdle was getting my spare system, set like I needed it.  This is
still in progress.  The situation is unique as I have a 5YO daugther Charlotte
(kids, gotta love'em 'cause ya ain't allowed to kill'em!) who uses that
machine for her pre-school tutorial/games.  I am not totally stupid.  Step one
was to make sure she cant ever get *at* UNIX so I had to boot it from a floppy
and make sure it naturally boots to DOS/WIN if the floppy is out of her reach!

Mistake 1.  In my first attempt I used the EZSTART.BAT from the CD, and at the
vary end portion, said yes to install a bootloader. This was bad.  The system
then would ask for either LINUX (default if you do nothing) or DOS at the
prompt when booting from the HD.  The time was not more than 5 seconds I
think.  I am sure this is a changable option, but until you have it fully
installed, it's kinda hard to see how to change it.

Result mistake 1.  Charlotte turned on the machine the next morning, tried to
play a game, got confused when it booted to LINUX, then flipped the power
switch a few times trying to 'get it to act right' before she woke up Mommie
to tell her the computer was 'broked again'.  At this point, LILO was resident
in the Master Boot Record but neither LINUX nor DOS could boot.  Spent a few
days looking about until a kind soul told me how to remove the MBR LILO
portion when FDISK would work to make the HD bootable no matter what.

Answer Mistake 1.
    FDISK /MBR            removes the LILO
    Install with no boot member and make the boot floppy

Mistake 2.  This is actually several sets.  I call this the 'I don't know how
much room to give to what' mistake.  While still tweaking, I have a config
that works well enough now off the boot RH floppy.

Result Mistake 2.  Several installs not able to complete due to lack of space.
I have 650 megs for LINUX on that machine to test with.  The trick was finding
how to portion them out.

Answer Mistake 2.
    Root / 100 megs
    usr  /usr 524 megs
    Swap 20 megs

(Current problem- some HD space not allocated so wasted but for some odd
reason have to leave some 6 megs that way or cant get past it).
--------

I never got this one finished .
                                       xxcarol

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