From: u1086aa@unx.ucc.okstate.edu (11086) Subject: Re: Coherent vs. Linux - a comparo Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 00:51:49 GMT
OK, this is my final post on this. Promise.
As a result of this little flame war that you all enjoyed so much ;-),
I finally got the final problem with my Linux installation solved. I
can summarize my experiences as follows:
Problem: Couldn't get the filesystems set up right
Reason for problem: Carefully reading the documentation, following it,
and heeding the error messages
Obviously, when the documentation says run fsck on an extended
filesystem, you should automatically know to run e2fsck. And when
the kernel says it is mounting a bad filesystem, obviously
that can mean it really is mounting a good filesystem. (And despite
what a previous poster said, it really did say bad filesystem. Our
resident Unix (but not Linux) guru who helped sort out the TCP/IP
mess saw it and said I had to re-install.)
Problem: Could not get TCP/IP going
Reason for problem: Carefully reading the documentation and following it
If we read the following excerpt from the Linux NET-FAQ,
"NOTE: If you have SLS then the "install.net" file isn't used. Instead
you need to edit hosts, resolv.conf, rc.net, and so on by hand to
set up the various addresses. It's very straightforward; just make
sure that the various configuration files (discussed below) in
/etc/inet have the correct information.",
it is quite apparent that what you really need to do is edit just one
file and run an autoconfiguration script. It clearly states that at
the bottom of another file (but not in the documentation).
Problem: Could not get X going
Reason for problem: Carefully reading the documentation, following it,
and heeding the messages
Although the kernel says it detects and installs a Logitech bus
mouse, /dev/mouse is linked to the Logitech bus mouse device, and
and the FAQ says you can use a Logitech bus mouse with X by saying
"BusMouse /dev/mouse" in Xconfig, it doesn't mean you can really
get X going this way. You should just go out and buy a serial mouse.
More seriously....
My point is the same as it was at first, if you want a system that you
set up in an hour, **be sure everything is done correctly**, and get to
work on immediately, IMHO COHERENT is the one. The documentation is
unparalled, and the support (in my experience) excellent. But it is a
small OS, and therefore limited. If you want to use Linux for its greater
power (or because it is free), be prepared to spend a great deal of time
searching for documentation, studying it, and reading the net to sort out
its ambiguities. Because it is a free package, the documentation is not
continuously updated (nor apparently are the error messages) and can get
out of date, or even contradictory. Unless you already know quite a bit
about the system ahead of time (or have someone knowledgable to help you),
it can take a great deal of time. And there is no formal support when you
have a problem. Again IMHO, the net comes nowhere near replacing this.
BTW I have no doubt that many of you got Linux running in an hour. Had I
chosen to ignore the error messages (silly me) and had a serial mouse
(even sillier), I would have too.
Jim