Re: gEDA-user: help with linux install please

[Karel Kulhavy <clock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, Mar 04, 2006 at 05:18:03PM -0800, ldoolitt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> gene -
> 
> On Sat, Mar 04, 2006 at 07:03:16PM -0500, Hal2000 wrote:
> > I'm having a hell of time getting out of the starting gate with Debian 
> > Linux on my Dell latitude CPxJ laptop.  The machine can boot from the 
> > CD, but bombs with the following message:
> > Loading isolinux Disk Error 3B, AX=428E Drive82
> > boot failed
> > After searching for a solution, I'm inclined to believe that my hardware 
> > is at fault.  Seems that redhat and mandrake will install out of the 
> > box, or so the article says, although people have been able to get 
> > Debian to install.  They offered no specific help, however.
> > 
> > Anyway, can anyone help out? Maybe I should just go with mandrake or fc4
> 
> isolinux is used _very_ early in the boot process.
> I wouldn't expect very different results from any
> other distribution.
> 
> Q1: does Knoppix boot?  It tends to boot on just about
> anything, and is very useful to find out what hardware
> on your machine is supported.
> 
> Q2: are you sure you burned the CD without errors?
> 
> Comment: it's still hard to get started on Linux without
> a local guru who can put hands on the machine, and spot
> simple problems quickly.  That was certainly true when
> I started (in 1992), and I don't think it will ever disappear
> completely.  If you buy from a local shop, which I highly

If you try Windows instead, it will usually work smoothly that even
an unexperienced user can do it.

> recommend, by now they should have enough expertise to get

It will disappear only when the developers stop interpreting criticism
as personal insults and start interpreting it as a criticism reflecting
reality.

If Windows developers could write a system that is in most cases
easy to install by a layperson, then Linux developers can do it as well.

Try OpenBSD, that claims that was written specially with this goal
in the mind. At least when I tried to install it, it had a consistent
step-by-step manual. And gEDA should work on it as well.

CL<

> people through initial problems like this.
> 
>          - Larry