Howdy list,
Thanks to all & sundry for organising, attending & contributing variously to this month's CLUG manifestation, including posts. It is indeed a highly rewarding group to be involved with, socially, PC learning-wise, & in the study of good humour. January's square-off with the issue / dynamic of bureaucracy and OSS (both CLUG & NZOSS) revealed a central theme for Linux (& other Unii): to transcend the usage barrier, our capacity to support it requires quite a lot more organisation and work. I have no immediate suggestions for how, what or who.. just the dawning realisation from experience that the sheer difficulty of real O/S freedom means we must start to make it easier. I see the OSTC as a bold move in the right direction, with top-notch online facilities, where collectivity and costs are problematic. That's my .02c worth anyway. Unresolved from CLUG workshop: Is anyone interested in a moderate configuration challenge, on a typical newbie platform, sufficient to perform a voluntary callout + ga$? Starting point: 'a working Linux installation is always the best place to iron out configuration problems - one need never reinstall' (with some O/S that might have been the most sure solution). Machine: Cyrix II / IBM PR300 MMX (235MHz) w/Octek Rhino 12+ VIA mobo, with an unsupported BIOS-PCI range forcing ISA PnP card use. 64MB, 1.6GB, 8MB PCI video ok. 28K Rockwell modem at COM2 IRQ3 ok. O/S: Mandrake 9.0 workstation install with limited multimedia: a 1GB / # partition + 100MB Swap (a little small? :^\) Prior testing: Win98 installs, detects & runs the following also, without fault: 2 ISA PnP Cards: 3Com Etherlink III (3C509b-Combo) set to IRQ10 I/O 0210-021F. Mdk finds & runs this when told to (& not): eth0 192.168.1.5 static Creative AWE64 16-bit Audio (SB16 compatible), IRQ5 DMA1 DMA5, I/O ranges 0220-022F (16 addresses), 0330-0331 (2) & 0388-038B (4) Wavetable 0620-0623, 0A20-0A23, 0E20-0E23 Gameport 0200-0207 Problem: Neither card shows up in HardDrake2 listings, tho Control Center - Network & Internet - Connection picks up & activates the 3C509 NIC fine. (The earlier HardDrake version offered many more menu options & seems much better? - Mdk 8.2) RUTE & the "Sound Blaster AWE 32/64 HOWTO" have got me started on a manual configuration, but module & package complications are getting messy & difficult to relate to the documentation. I am out of my depth. The AWE64 was detected by entering "# pnpdump > /etc/isapnp.conf" as per HOWTO, & we have been editing the isapnp.conf file without good result yet. Now we have insmod errors & desktop glitches (package dependencies?) resulting from the Workshop changes made. I am about to go back & try a reinstall, unless there is someone willing to come over & check this system out with me. Free food & drink! Questions: Is such a reinstall actually necessary in this situation? Could this be a Mandrake 9.0 problem? Should I be trying RedHat, or something else perhaps? Cheers folks Rik Tindall www.infohelp.co.nz
