VVDQ : Alpine on Ubuntu??

[Beartooth]

On Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:33:53 -0400, Derek Broughton wrote:

> Beartooth wrote:
> 
> phht.  I have the same problem - she gets upgrades when I get around to
> it. There's no point to installing old software - it isn't more stable
> than Feisty, and barely more stable than Gutsy, it's just supported.

	OK, so be it. After all, I do that with Fedora...

>>> I showed you how to do that in Synaptic...
>> 
>> You did; I tried it; Synaptic crashed. Thought I posted that;
> 
> Ah, of course.  But synaptic didn't crash until _after_ you added all
> those mirrors.

	True; but I had added them before I ever began to post to this 
list.

>> Overall question: I expect my guru to confirm, any time now, that I've
>> already hosed my CentOS install altogether. If so, it sounds like I
>> might as well go ahead and re-install both -- and a third besides.
>> (Maybe a new (I think) specialty called LinguaFluxOS;
> 
> I believe that's Tony Baldwin's - he's around here a lot.

	Yes, definitely his. I found it by looking for a way to ask his 
permission to pass on his description of that joke script he wrote.

	I'm no translator -- tried it briefly, and quit as soon as I 
found a steady job. It's *very* hard work -- harder, not easier, if you 
know the languages really well, and mean to do it right -- and usually 
ill-paid. 

	But I am a linguist and historian of literature and of tongues, 
and there should be stuff in there of interest to me. I'll at least try 
out his live CD before I do another install.
 
> [...]Anybody can hose a partition when they're installing an
> OS :-)  However, I doubt that's really happened.  You've probably just
> not got a way to boot to it.

	That is the hope, of course; I haven't yet heard from my guru. 

	Fwiw, when I tried to mount the partition that CentOS apparently 
has to be on, I got a response from mount saying "special device /dev/
VolGroup00/LogVol00 does not exist." That's what has me thinking "hosed."

>> Any hints on getting the second one to recognize the first, and the
>> third to recognize both others?
> 
> Ubuntu's  installer usually recognizes other Debian-type systems and
> Windows, but I don't know about Fedora/CentOS.

	Hmmm .... 

	I do know -- from qtparted, gparted, and several commands my guru 
has had me give -- that that hard drive *is* partitioned now, and in 
proportions to take three OSs. 

	I could do the partitioning over, with Knoppix or a live CD of 
Gparted, or of Qtparted if one is available -- *before* I do any more 
installs of any sort. But I suspect I'm better off letting well enough 
alone.

	Incidentally, how is Ubuntu for up*grading* online? 

	Fedora *can* do "yum upgrade," and people do occasionally report 
success with it; but they're always people a lot more technically capable 
than I am, and it's officially *not* recommended. 

	I always burn a new CD or DVD, as *is* recommended. My guess is 
that the same will be true of Ubuntu -- right?

> If the various distros install their boot loaders to the superblock of
> their respective partitions, then the grub in the MBR can just chainload
> to all of them (ie - the /boot/menu/grub.lst file will use exactly the
> same format to get to Linux partitions as it does to get to Windows). 
> Odds are at least fair to middling that at least _one_ distro isn't
> going to get found automatically, no matter what order you install
> them...

	OK; I can get help locally with that part. But I don't fancy 
wiping an existing install (again, if I have wiped one).

	After the grief it gave me to try to slog through that alternate 
CD -- it assumes lots more than I know, and my guesses were so bad that I 
had to hit the reset button a couple times before I managed to stumble 
all the way to an install -- I can't say I'll be surprised if I turn out 
to have hosed what I had before.

	I want to thank you profusely for your patient efforts so far.

-- 
Beartooth Staffwright, PhD, Neo-Redneck Linux Convert
Fedora 8; Alpine 0.99999, Pan 0.132; Privoxy 3.0.6;
Dillo 0.8.6, Galeon 2.0.3, Epiphany 2.20, Opera 9.24, Firefox 2.0
Remember I know precious little of what I am talking about.