Probably stupid question, but

[Gene Heskett]

On Tuesday 27 August 2013 21:11:49 Liam Proven did opine:

> On 27 August 2013 20:05, Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com> wrote:
> > This girl of about 55 is intelligent but computer illiterate, and I am
> > trying to put enough stuff on it that she can actually DO something
> > once she gets whatever level of networking running that is available
> > at her
That latter will likely be up to me taking an evening drive to reconfigure 
what I setup to work here on my local network.
 
> All the more reason to keep it *absolutely* plain, standard and vanilla.
> 
> DO NOT put in place any clever hacks, wrinkles, patches, tweaks or
> anything else. This *especially* goes for your insane
> read-only-network-config files.

I have not yet resorted to using that ultimate hammer on this particularv 
install, but if Network-Smasher gets in my way at her place, I will NOT 
hesitate to do it if it means I can drive away leaving a dependable 
connection.  

Insanity is in the eye of the beer holder, and to me, its Network-Smangler 
that is the insane software here.  Why should it tear down a working 
connection and replace it with trash that can't work because 
/etc/resolv.conf doesn't even exist when its done playing in its personal 
sandbox & scribbled all over the configs that 4 minutes before were working 
perfectly?

I think the idea is a good one, and that it can be made to work, but whats 
shipping today is NOT ready for prime time at your Aunt Bee's or your Uncle 
Delbert's.  Its buggier than a 10 day old carcass in the hot sun, and has 
amply demonstrated that in 4 12.04 LTS installs I have done so far just in 
the last 2 months.  All of then using the default install, I didn't 
'adjust' a thing, until it wouldn't work, and couldn't be made to work more 
than about a minute, pinging yahoo at 10 second intervals 4-6 times before 
my work was nuked by Network Mangler.  I saw that happen 4 times on the 
next to the last install before I got out my mig welder in the form of 
chattr i and welded /etc/resolv.conf, and network/interfaces into place.

Only then did someone mention that I should have installed, not from the 
first screen, but from the working livedvd boot after I had networking 
working.  Only then did it come out of the woodwork that I was doing it 
wrong, what, 10 days, 2 weeks later & after I'm ready to shoot the 
neighbors cat(s).  Until it was mentioned, it was a flat denial that the 
installer was busted and it absolutely HAD to be my fault.  Hopefully, both 
the installer AND Network-Breaker might be ready for Aunt Tilly, by the 
time the next LTS is out.  But, I'm not going to wager they will be.

Cheers, Gene
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