RE: [Cooker] ^G*****************************

[Bill & Lea Greenwood / Vision Computer / Fringe on the Top, Ltd]

> > have converted all my Linux machines to Mandrake Linux but I can't get
> > install to work from the hard drive after downloading
> everything from the
> > Web Site. It says it cannot find the list of packages. Is there
> a step I'm
> > missing?
>
> Check the case on Mandrake/RPMS, but if your fully linux already i don't
> see how that could have gotten screwed up.
>
> MandrakeSoft          http://www.mandrakesoft.com/
>                                         --Axalon

Sam, when I originally started to install Linux about 8 months ago, I ran
into the same problem.

I assume you are using boot.img, and you have all the directories
downloaded.  I found out at that time, that because UNIX (Linux) is case
sensitive, that the directory names must be named properly.  I also found
out that Linux needs to have the directory names in a Long-File-Name format.
This is the biggest problem I found that wasn't listed in any documentation.

So since I made my own directories under Win98, and typed in the name like
RPMS, Windows made it a Short-File-Name since it is all upper case.

The way around this is to make all your directory names more that eight
characters, and upper and lower case characters like: RPMSsssssssss or
something like that, then rename them to the proper directory name after it
is made.  In this case, it would be renamed to RPMS.  Even though you are
renaming to all upper case, Windows keeps it in Long-File-Name format in the
FAT.

This should be documented in the Mandrake documentation, but it isn't.  It
originally took me a week to find this out, asking tons of questions at many
different places.  Many of us are coming from Windows, and are downloading
from an FTP site to a FAT32 partition, and we make our own directories
first.  Or the FTP program makes them for us, but a directory name like
RPMS, being all upper case, makes the directory as a Short-File-Name in the
Windows FAT.  Which means that boot.img won't find the directory names.

I hope this clears this up for you Sam.

Let us know----- but always remember that getting a little short in your
requests for help is not the Linux way.  Most of us help on our own free
time, and because we want to, not because we have to.

This is very different than the way we used to get help from software
vendors that we paid for the software. I know, I had to learn this also.

Take Care,

-Bill

P.S.  If this doesn't work, please let us know. :)