One satisfied customer with f14!

Bill Davidsen davidsen at tmr.com
Wed Nov 17 16:36:28 UTC 2010


Jerry Feldman wrote:
> On 11/15/2010 03:29 PM, mike cloaked wrote:
>> At the weekend I was invited to attend a local linux user group
>> "installfest" since all the other people there was Ubuntu-centric.  I
>> took along a Fedora f14 Gnome desktop install DVD, as well as a
>> bootable usbkey containing the DVD iso as an install medium in case of
>> need (written with livecd-iso-to-disk.
>>
>> The banter at the event was all about the latest Ubuntu, and a young
>> Italian lady had dropped in, who was not best pleased with the default
>> operating system on an EEEPC 901, and had brought it to the
>> installfest with a view to getting a "proper" version of linux on it
>> with the help of the experts at hand.
>>
>> The Ubuntu helpers worked out how to boot a usbkey and eagerly set
>> about starting an install of the latest Ubuntu, whilst I discussed
>> Fedora with them in terms of differences from what they were used to.
>> "So what drivers will you need to load to get the wireless going on
>> the EEEPC if you installed F14?"  I told them it was very likely it
>> would just work out of the box.  They were not convinced!  "What about
>> the webcam?" - it'll probably 'just work', I replied.  Anyway it was
>> by now becoming clear that the Ubuntu install was not going well, and
>> questions were being asked across the room about how to get around the
>> error that was popping into the screen before the install had got off
>> the starting blocks!
>>
>> I offered my help to try an f14 install as an alternative.  I popped
>> my key into the usb slot and initiated an install.  Anaconda did its
>> thing, and I configured the install - and set it going - of course
>> with a slow machine it would take a while, and an hour and a bit later
>> it went into first boot.
>>
>> Ubuntu people watching over my shoulder waiting for the inevitable
>> failure to connect to the local encrypted wireless signal
>> (authenticated via a radius server) were surprised when the wireless
>> network connection was running about 30 seconds later.  A little
>> desktop tweaking, and then adding in a couple of extra repo
>> definitions allowed the young lady access to her mp3 player via the
>> usb port,and play her mp3 files, and Skype fired up without issue.
>> Chrome was running a few minutes later, and then the Italian keyboard
>> was put through its paces. Not a single problem, and she went away
>> with a beaming smile delighted at the working system, and commenting
>> on how wonderful the desktop background graphics were. The others were
>> clearly impressed.
>>
>> One guy commented that the colour scheme was rather more pleasing to
>> his eye than his own Ubuntu scheme!
>>
>> I donated the install DVD to the event, and left for another
>> engagement. I later learned that they had used it to do several f14
>> installs on other machines!
>>
>> Fedora does seem to work!
>>
> Two satisfied customers. For the first time I was able to successfully
> perform a preupgrade. The previous two times I had to do a fresh install.

Just a "in my experience" note, running an upgrade from a DVD/USB has been far 
more successful than preupgrade for me. Older installs had a small /boot and 
often don't work well due to lack of room. YMMV.

> My group also runs installfests
> (http://blu.org/cgi-bin/calendar/2010-ifest38), but we are not as
> Ubuntu-centric. I try to be up to date on my Fedora, SuSE, and Ubuntu
> knowledge. What is always interesting to me is that some distros install
> on some hardware and not on others and vice-versa. Usually, when I run
> into trouble with one distro on some hardware, I try another. But I have
> a wierder problem at work. I have 5 nearly identical rack-mounted
> systems. (4 have 64GB memory, and 1 had 16). Installing RHEL 5.2 works
> fine on 4 of the systems including the 16GB, but 1 system always hangs
> on udev until I manually blacklist the edac modules. I've had similar
> issues during the installfest where 1 media failed to install on one
> system, but did install on a second system. We've been doing
> installfests for 16 years and a number of the core volunteers are distro
> neutral even in one meeting where SuSE bought the pizzas :-)
>


-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot



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