Author: john lewis Date: To: hampshire Subject: Re: [Hampshire] Is a faulty download to blame for my problems?
On Sun, 18 Nov 2007 10:36:33 +0000
hantslug@??? wrote:
> Ever since I installed Etch, because I was beginning to be
> constrained by Libranet 3 and was starting to have problems, I have
> been having one problem after another. The latest appears to be
> completely intractable, and to prevent me from solving any of the
> others.
>
> So the question inevitably arrises: software or hardware? I have
> run smartctl (thanks, Vic and Chris :-) ) on the HDD holding the
> installation and it reported that there were no errors. I have run
> Memtest for a while, which also reported no errors, and I have
> swapped my IDE channels over. All passed the test. But something,
> somewhere, is obviously actually faulty.
>
> Is it - however remotely - possible that my install of Etch (I used
> the net install facility) is itself faulty? Is the most sensible
> thing to do to reinstall Etch on the present HDD? Or to install
> Etch on a brand new HDD? (I have a brand new HDD because the HDD I
> was originally trying to install on _was_ faulty, and Western
> Digital replaced it under guarantee.) Or should I have recourse to
> a fresh install of Libranet 3? It is a bit long in the tooth now,
> but then so are both I and my machine. Or should I install
> something completely different? Perhaps even leave my comfort zone
> and come to grips with rpm?
I don't think you can blame etch for your problems unless there is a
serious mismatch with your hardware.
I have recently installed etch several times on the hardware I am
currently running on (I only swapped the hard drive from my other
machine when that failed) and on the Compaq N160 laptop that replaced
the Thinkpad 600E (which also had etch on it).
I installed etch using the network install iso dated 30 Mar 2007 so
it is quite old.
I have just fired up the laptop and done an aptitude update followed
by aptitude upgrade (from an xterm as root per my usual practice) and
this upgraded 24 packages without any errors. (it is possibly a week
since I last used the laptop hence 'lots' of upgraded packages))
I did amend my apt sources to track lenny rather than etch and I
don't run any of the heavy weight desktop systems preferring to stick
with the tried and tested windowmaker.
I agree with Sean that going back to a version of Libranet which
isn't supported is not a good idea. But then I am not much of a
champion of derivative distros, I prefer the 'real' thing :-)
--
John Lewis
Debian (Sid) with the GeneWeb genealogy package
