[lug] Frustrated

[Mark Horning]

Matt James wrote:
> 
> installed Solaris 2.5.1 on it and have learned some
> basic commands and such for browsing files and some
> VERY basic network type commands such as netstat.  I
> have tried  to get a number of things to work on it
> with no luck.  Been to TAR.GZ hell trying to figure
> out how to get the thing to do anything.  Have yet to
> figure out how to make TCP/IP work on the thing.  I
> was told I don't have a compiler on the machine yet
> when I download the compiler it says I need a compiler
> to "Make" it. (which came first the chicken or the

You can find make in /usr/ccs/bin/ and if you have the
diskspace I would really try Solaris 7 or 8. As far
as gz files, Solaris doesn't come with gzip until 
Solaris 8 unless your install some of the freeware stuff.
http://www.sunfreeware.com

> egg?)  I have attemprted to do the same with both RH
> and Slackware linux on my Intel PIII 1000 machine and
> had slim to no luck.  Everyone I seem to talk to blows
> it off like it is some sort of walk in the park to get
> linux up and running.  I however have had nothing but

Linux/Unix has a fairly steep learning curve at first
but if you keep with it I think you'll find out how
much power it really does have and you'll see it from
the view 'everyone' else does :-)

> problem after problem.  When I start the install I get
> all kinds of crap about how my hard drive won't format
> and that it can't write here or can't read there and
> the install just quits.  However I know the drive is
> good because ole winblows will go right on with no
> problem at all.  I tried this on both the Intel
> machine with RH 7.2 and on the SPARC with RH 6.1 and
> nothing seamed to want to work.  Slackware went on the
> intel and crashed in the first day of running it - no
> fancy stuff mind you - installed it - left it running
> - went to setup Apache and the machine froze and never
> worked again.  So I finaly gave up and went back to
> Win 2000 (Been running for over a year straight
> without one hickup at all - believe it or not) Long
> story to make a point I guess - I'm not very impressed
> with this so called wonderious operating system
> "Linux" as of yet.  I realize I probably offended some
> people in this message so I apologize in advance but
> I'm looking for advice on how to make things go a
> little easier becasue I would like to learn how to
> make this work.  Any help or comments (nice or not)
> would be appreciated.  Thanks in advace.
> Matt

Kinda funny, I've had the exact opposite experience with
Windows and Linux/Unix. I found it rather hilarious that
when I installed WME on my kids computer that the install
never saw the usb mouse, I had to tab around the screen.
My Mandrake 8.0 install had no problem with the mouse.
After installing WME, office 2k and all the patches to
everything I lost count after the 12th reboot not mention
it took HOURS to install. I guess I was spoiled by the Linux
install that was < 2 hours......

I would have to second everyone else's suggestion to bring
the box to an installfest. People are real knowledgeable
and you really get to know exactly what's happening with
your system and why things are happening during your install.

-- 

Mark Horning
rip6 at rip6.net

"..being a [UNIX administrator] is not an entry level skill, 
but it can easily be an exit level skill." - unknown
Stay awake, stay employed