I have been using various forms of Red Hat Linux since 1998. I was primarily using Linux for web development, and did some amazing things with it. In the past I have let it run for more than three months, and only shut it down when I noticed I hadn't used it for weeks. Another time to support development on my computer and hosting on a distant system, I disconnected it from the network (10base2 and dial-up back then) and set up the DNS server to return itself as the response to any request for an address. Worked like a champ.
Over the years I have had trouble keeping up to date with the current version. Back in 2002 or 2003, I burned out the IDE controller trying to install Red Hat 9. Went without Linux for a couple years. My latest system running Linux, an old Micron with a 9GB SCSI drive and 384MB of memory and a CD drive, started at Fedora Core 6 using CDs. I had managed to use the Internet to nurse it through updates to Fedora 7, 8, and 9. Each one presented challenges, but was surmountable. Then came Fedora 10.
Back on January 2, 2009, I decided it was time to update to Fedora 10. I started the process just like the previous updates. I happened to notice that Fedora 10 was not available on CD, but only DVD [sic - see comment 1 below]. As was true with the previous updates (notice I don't call them upgrades) it took many hours. After it tried to reboot, it came up eventually during the boot with the meaningless gibberish message:
Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while ...
Volume group "VolGroup00" not found
Unable to access resume devie (/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01)
mount: error mounting /dev/root on /sysroot as ext3: No such file or directory
scsi target2:0:0: FAST-20 WIDE SCSI 40.0 MB/s ST (50 ns, offset 8)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] 17783204 512-byte hardware sectors (9105 MB)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cashe: enabled, read cache: enabled, supports DPO and FUA
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] 17783204 512-byte hardware sectors (9105 MB)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cashe: enabled, read cache: enabled, supports DPO and FUA
sdb: sdb1 sdb2
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
Since the computer only had a CD and Fedora 10 was only available on DVD, I quickly tired of this update game and shut it down intending to throw the computer away.
Finally, last weekend on Saturday, 3/22/2009, I decided to checkout CheapBytes.com where I have bought Linux media for a long time. I was surprised to find they now had Fedora 10 on CD as well as DVD. I ordered both versions and they arrived yesterday. I decided I would take a old IBM E series 580, with a DVD reader and CD burner, but only a 9GB hard drive. I had a couple 40GBs laying around and put one of them in the IBM. I started the install process on the Micron using the install CDs and on the IBM using the DVD. On both, I must admit that the media from CheapBytes.com worked great and was faultless.
On the Micron using the CDs, again after hours installing the system rebooted and guess what. The reboot resulted in the same error message above. Darn all that time and electricity wasted on this attempt to update!
On the IBM using the DVD the system booted to the DVD and started the install by asking the standard questions. Eventually it came up to configuring the hard drive. Each time, and there were many attemps even with a different drive, the install would fail on the IBM with the meaningless gibberish message:
anaconda 11.4.1.62 exception report
Traceback (most recent call first):
File "/usr/lib/anaconda/lvm.py", line 248, in vgcreate
raise VGCreateError(vgname, PESize, nodes)
File "/usr/lib/anaconda/fsset.py", line 2506, in setupDevice
entry.device.setupDevice(chroot)
File "/usr/lib/anaconda/packages.py", line 169, in turnOnFilesystems
anaconda.id.fsset.createLogicaVolumes(anaconda.rootPath
File "/usr/lib/anaconda/dispatch.py", line 204, moveStep
rc = stepFunc(self.anaconda)
File "/usr/lib/anaconda/dispatch.py", line 127, in gotoNext
self.moveStep()
File "/usr/lib/anaconda/text.py", line 741, in run
anaconda.dispatch.gotoNext()
File "/usr/lib/anaconda", line955, in
anaconda.intf.run(anaconda)
VGCreateError: vgcreate failed creating vg "VolGroup00" (PESize=32768kB) on
PVs: /dev/sda3
Log:
Running... ['lvm', 'vgcreate', '-v', '-An', '-s', '32768k', 'VolGroup00', '/dev/sda3']
I even put the disk in a external enclosure and deleted the partitions on the drive which I believe came out of a Dell Desktop. All to no avail.
Finally, on a whim I thought I would stick an old Windows 98 install disk in and see if it would install. Sure enough, after answering more questions than a typical 3-year old has, it formatted the hard drive and installed. Since I blew past the driver searches by telling it to skip each file it was looking for, it's not really functional, but it didn't seem to have any problems with the hard drive like Fedora 10 did. It should be embarrassing to the Linux community, and Red Hat in particular that a ten (10) year old OS is robust enough to deal with installing on this hardware.
This experience along with the history of Linux might explain the Slashdot story back on March 25, 2009 entitled "Red Hat CEO Questions Relevance of Desktop Linux". The slashdot story was:
I've not been a big fan of Microsoft over the years, primarily for their attitude that they know what you want more than you do and force things on you. However, I now find myself with:"Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst questioned the relevance of Linux on the desktop, citing several financial and interoperability hurdles to business adoption at a panel on end-users and Linux last night at the OSBC. 'First of all, I don't know how to make money on it,'Whitehurst said, adding that he was uncertain how relevant the desktop itself will be in five years given advances in cloud-based and smartphone computing, as well as VDI. 'The concept of a desktop is kind of ridiculous in this day and age. I'd rather think about skating to where the puck is going to be than where it is now.' Despite increasing awareness that desktop Linux is ready for widespread mainstream adoption, fellow panelists questioned the practicality of switching to Linux, noting that even some Linux developers prefer Macs to Linux. 'There's a desire [to use desktop Linux],' one panelist said, 'but practicality sets in. There are significant barriers to switching.'"Anyone have any comments, other than Windows 98 is from the same era as the hardware and thus should support it. I might go back to CheapBytes.com and get the CD version of Fedora 9 and try to install it on both systems.
Discuss this story.
* Gateway desktop w/ Vista with 8GB of memory 750 GB hard drive
* Homebuilt desktop w/ XP Pro 2 GB of memory 320 GB hard drive (see Seagate Story below)
* HP desktop w/ XP Home 1 GB of memory 80 GB hard drive
* Dell Dimension desktop w/ XP Home 1 GB of memory 250 GB hard drive
* Dell Inspiron laptop w/ XP Home 1.256 GB of memory 160 GB hard drive
* Compaq laptop w/ Win 98SE
* Homebuilt desktop w/ Win 98 64 MB of memory 6 GB hard drive
8 comments:
Where did you get the idea that Fedora 10 is not available on CD's? The default choice is a installable live cd and there are other variants including CD sets at
http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora-all
Windows also fails on multiple hardware. It is not unusual. Did you try a text mode installation?
When Fedora 10 first came out, soon after I had updated to Fedora 9 I read the press releases about Fedora 10 making the commitment to DVD distribution. Obviously, since then it's also become available on CD. I never had good luck downloading ISO images. I would always get to the last disk and it would say there was a problem with the media.
As for trying the text mode install, on the IBM it never got past the curses (text) version of the installer. In fact a message blew by on the bottom of one screen that said something about "not enough memory". That's all I had time to read.
I don't know what you read but Fedora has been available on both DVD and CD on the day of the release.
It would be useful to get a good bug report filed in http://bugzilla.redhat.com. No software is perfect and it helps to provide feedback
Ordered CentOS 5.2 and Fedora 9. Since Fedora 9 already ran on the Micron hardware, it should install fine. I chose to buy the CD x386 versions of both. If these work, I'll post the result after they arrive.
Well, CentOS 5.2 and Fedora 9 CDs arrived. Didn't even try the F9 install. Tried CentOS on both Micron and IBM. The install on Micron went very smooth lasting less than an hour and it's up and running. The IBM still has problems. The notice comes up and says, "you don't have enough memory to run the GUI installer", which was the message that flashed by on the F10 attempt. Went through the install and it had to fiddle with the cache because of the small memory. At least it recognized the hard drive and formatted it. After about 5 or 6 hours I saw it was at 99% complete. Then about 5 minutes later I turned around and the screen was blank. Powering off doesn't cause it to boot, but to just sits there. I ordered two sticks of 128MB memory to max this ancient beast out on memory. Looks like Linux now needs more memory than the IBM has. The machine I'm writing this on has 8GB of memory, 750GB drive and is running Vista-64b. It's amazing how far the hardware has come in the last 10 years.
Yep, the new memory arrived tonight. Installed and then went for the Linux Centos 52 install. Worked like a champ. Now have a XP pro, XP Home, Vista 64-bit, and two Linux Centos 5.2 up and running in my den. God is kind.
Enjoying the second hour of my Fedora 10 install. The "live cd" thing didn't cut it and failed to install basic stuff like standard csh shell (not everyone likes bash). Apt-get isn't even installed. Of course, my wireless network card is not being properly detected and configured. I haven't registered my laptop hard-wire with our campus network, so forget about a helpful internet connection. Oh well. I agree, this should be embarrassing to the linux community. Apple has socked it to them. I really don't see linux being able to say they have anything unique anymore since apple came out with an imbedded unix implementation. Too bad some old geissers are still insisting on putting out programs that are only supported under linux and not macs (since they are so similar in many respects). This experience reestablishes my previous thought a few years ago that Redhat lost its way after Redhat 6.2.
Anonymous,
The live cd doesn't have a infinite amount of space and alternative shells are very much a niche thing.
Also Fedora uses yum and PackageKit and apt-get is not used by default.
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