I have a new respect for Jon Stewart since he went after the CNN boys and his show continues to bring that liberal perspective forward so well.
Bloggers and the trouble they cause
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Friday, February 18, 2005
Update on the Suse side of things
So I spent a hour or so screwing around with the problematic Suse install and discovered a couple of things:
Using the GUI to access the network card was doing next to nothing. If I added DNS entries they did not show up in the resolv.conf file, if clicked it off the file did not modify upon recieving a DHCP update.
Using the GUI, I could never create a default gateway, I had to add a default gateway via the command line. This should also be learned via the DHCP packet.
So basically somewhere in the process of the system/kernel update DHCP got screwed up. I can only grab a DHCP address, I don't appear to learn anything else from the DHCP packet - although firing up Ethereal shows that the information is contained within the packet.
I am not sure whether I really want to troubleshoot any deeper or whether I want to chunk the machine and try again. I would prefer to run Fedora, I know the OS better and seem better able to dig around within the file structure but then the company I am working for has their tool ported to Suse argh choices.....
Using the GUI to access the network card was doing next to nothing. If I added DNS entries they did not show up in the resolv.conf file, if clicked it off the file did not modify upon recieving a DHCP update.
Using the GUI, I could never create a default gateway, I had to add a default gateway via the command line. This should also be learned via the DHCP packet.
So basically somewhere in the process of the system/kernel update DHCP got screwed up. I can only grab a DHCP address, I don't appear to learn anything else from the DHCP packet - although firing up Ethereal shows that the information is contained within the packet.
I am not sure whether I really want to troubleshoot any deeper or whether I want to chunk the machine and try again. I would prefer to run Fedora, I know the OS better and seem better able to dig around within the file structure but then the company I am working for has their tool ported to Suse argh choices.....
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Problems with Linux
So in an effort to keep my mind fresh I decided to set my laptop up to dual boot - Windows XP and Suse 9.2. This is a usual occurance for me. I have built dozen such laptops but I think I have finally reached my boiling point. I have an IBM Thinkpad R51, Pentium M 1.6, 768 Meg RAM, 40 Gig HD, built in ethernet, and 802.11b/g. This is a nice little laptop, shouldn't have any problems with Suse 9.2.
Where things went wrong - I decided to patch the box - patching is similar having your teeth pulled.
I began the patching process, everything appeared to go correctly, and then I did the reboot as I had also told YaST to upgrade my kernel. Well everything appeared to be working, so I decided to browse the web. It didn't work. It took me a couple of tries before the onboard ethernet grabbed an ip address. I still can't browse the web. I grab an ip address but DNS doesn't appear to work. I hard code DNS entries, still nothing, disable firewall, still nothing. Threaten to toss the laptop out the window, still ntohing. So I am left with an upgraded SUSE 9.2 professional that can't speak to the internet.
I used YaST, a tool that does always leaves me wondering what is really going on under the hood. A lot of people have commented on the efffectiveness of this tool. I miss some of the tools that RedHat has in comparison. I am going to have to take things apart now.
So where does this leave us? This points to the underlying probelm with why there aren't more Linux desktops - the complexity. I don't mind getting under the hood, but then my dad handed me a lawn mower engine when I was a kid so that I could understand how motors work. Most people want things to work, straight up. I didn't have that experience, in fact I mumbled under my breath at one point that I was either going back to Fedora or FreeBSD over the weekend. Why? They work, I have had little to no problems with upgrading them, and when I patch them things keep working. I also know that the whole problem could be somewhere between the brain and the keyboard. ;)
Where things went wrong - I decided to patch the box - patching is similar having your teeth pulled.
I began the patching process, everything appeared to go correctly, and then I did the reboot as I had also told YaST to upgrade my kernel. Well everything appeared to be working, so I decided to browse the web. It didn't work. It took me a couple of tries before the onboard ethernet grabbed an ip address. I still can't browse the web. I grab an ip address but DNS doesn't appear to work. I hard code DNS entries, still nothing, disable firewall, still nothing. Threaten to toss the laptop out the window, still ntohing. So I am left with an upgraded SUSE 9.2 professional that can't speak to the internet.
I used YaST, a tool that does always leaves me wondering what is really going on under the hood. A lot of people have commented on the efffectiveness of this tool. I miss some of the tools that RedHat has in comparison. I am going to have to take things apart now.
So where does this leave us? This points to the underlying probelm with why there aren't more Linux desktops - the complexity. I don't mind getting under the hood, but then my dad handed me a lawn mower engine when I was a kid so that I could understand how motors work. Most people want things to work, straight up. I didn't have that experience, in fact I mumbled under my breath at one point that I was either going back to Fedora or FreeBSD over the weekend. Why? They work, I have had little to no problems with upgrading them, and when I patch them things keep working. I also know that the whole problem could be somewhere between the brain and the keyboard. ;)
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