This is a rant.  I'm not looking for help, just an outlet to vent.  Please
don't reply with fixes - I have a fix, in the form of
<rot13>SerrOFQ</rot13>  I think we can also skip the distro wars.  I'm
just ranting here...

I'm installing DeadRat 9 on a box for a customer.  The distro and hardware
were chosen by the customer, I have just been told to do it.

First, I've come to the conclusion that Compaq has designed their systems
to be as completely unfriendly with RH as possible.  We're talking SCO
execs at a Linux Conference unfriendly.  Again, a Compaq would not have
been my choice, but neither would RH...

In case anyone needs it, here is what is required to make the RH9
installation and anaconda start on a Proliant:

linux text apm=off lowres noapic noht nomce nousb nousbstorage skipddc

Mind you, in formulating the above novel/boot line, I crashed the
installation 20 some times.  Crashed to the point where 3-finger didn't
work.  And the fscking Compaq doesn't have a reset switch, so I have to
power off, wait 30 seconds, then power back on.  And since it's a Compaq,
the POST takes near forever.

This is after burning the 3 CD's needed for installation.  I remember
installing Slack off of about 20 floppies.  I've even installed MS-based
operating systems with only 1 CD, so this was kind of a shocker.

So I finally got it installed and booted up normally.  Great.  Now I need
some hot MySQL action.  I told the installation program to go ahead and
install MySQL straight away, so it was already there when I rebooted.

Well, more specifically, the actual FILES were there, but mysql_install_db
hadn't been run, and safe_mysqld isn't started at boot.  The RPM'd
installation appears to be worthless, since mysqld can't find the database
directory, despite it being specified in my.cnf.  So I decide it's
probably going to take far less time to just remove it and install from
source as I normally do.

rpm --erase Mysql-blah fails depends check because of Perl-DBD.  Okay, so
I rpm --erase Perl-DBD, which fails depends check because of Mysql-blah.
Great, I've seen this kind of circular logic before, but out of Redmond.
Okay, so I try rpm --erase --nodeps Perl-DBD and it hangs.  Process is
running, not gaining time.  It's been sitting there spinning for 30
minutes.

For anyone curious as to how to solve this mess, the solution I've devised
involves a 6-pack of your beverage of choice (alc or non-alc to taste,
although it's a *little* early to start drinking) and some heavy use of
kill -9 and rm -r (I'm assuming I'll have to remove the alias rm=rm -i RH
default that so irritates me).  Kids, don't try this at home - I much
prefer the heavy-handed approach, and since this won't be production, I
could honestly care less.

The moral of the story?  Ports...mmm.

/rant

Adam Maloney
Systems Administrator
Sihope Communications



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