From: adam@address.invalid
Moe Trin wrote:
> On Thu, 27 Sep 2012, in the Usenet newsgroup alt.os.linux.mandriva, in
article
> , Adam wrote:
>>> I'm probably up for the bronze coat-hanger in the next 6 months.
[...]
> Legally, it's my decision, because the company can't _easily_ toss an
> older worker aside without running the risk of lawsuits. But the
> hints are there.
Are they offering any good incentives? What are your plans for
post-retirement activities? Independent consultant? Author?
[shipping HP computer back for in-warranty repair]
>> I wouldn't have known about it if I hadn't tried 64-bit
>> OSs in VirtualBox (same problem whether 32- or 64-bit VBox).
>
> So it's not as obvious as the Pentium fdiv problem ;-)
No, and it's politer too. It says "can't do that" and aborts gracefully
instead of successfully giving incorrect results.
Thursday I got two phone calls from the HP tech assigned to my system.
The first was "Was there anything else that you forgot to write down on
the form you sent with your computer?" (No, but I appreciated the
call.) A few hours later, he called to say it was fixed, and they'd
tested it with (I assume virtual) WinXP-64. He said he replaced
something and then did some BIOS configuration. (I couldn't get more
details on that.) He said that if I had any more problems or questions
with that, just call them again. (These are actual American techs at a
toll-free number in Indiana, although the one I spoke to sounded more
like Tennessee.) My conclusions: they did find a problem (or remembered
it from other examples of this model), swapped some hardware
(motherboard, maybe), and also decided I had enough idea of what was
going on to tell me to call them back, instead of going through customer
service in some foreign land for this problem. I'm guessing I'll get
the same model back -- it's already in transit (FedEx ground) and
estimated arrival is this Friday 10/5.
>> If I could have gotten Mageia or Mandriva online on eris, I would
>> have gone with one of those because getting it configured would be
>> relatively familiar.
>
> This shouldn't have been that traumatic - a problem, yes, but not
> this bad.
No, not that bad really. Just a little different. Also a few fairly
common apps don't seem to be in the CentOS repository. I got Mageia
online, and now it's wireless. Today I tried installing Arch and
Slackware on eris, but ran into an interesting and unexpected problem.
The motherboard has an SATA port for its HD, and a PATA port for
whatever, in my case one PATA HD. It also temporarily has a PCI eSATA
card for my external HD. The problem is, the BIOS, GRUB, and each
distro have different ideas about which letters to assign each. The
PATA drive could be sda, sdb, sdc, or hda, depending on the distro.
This screws up GRUB, as the drive letter/number while it's booting might
not be the same once a distro is running, but the distro writes GRUB
based on the current (while running) designations. Is there any sort of
standard for designating drives? I've already had to fix several
/boot/grub/menu.lst files, and even some entries in GAG boot manager,
while a few seem unfixable. I'll try those two distros again once
stolid (or whatever) is back and the external HD is connected to it
instead of to eris.
>>> What's missing?
>
>> aide, apcupsd for the UPS, working audio and video playback, the
>> scanner and inkjet drivers, and a few other things I'll think of
>> right after I post this. Nothing I can't live without for a few
>> weeks.
>
> Well, if that's all... ;-) Still. it would be useful to have the
> HPCLJ working (troubleshooting aide for network problem).
That's working under CentOS, as a network printer. This way I'll still
be able to print from eris once it's back in the other room.
[OEM mouse]
>> With eris, IIRC its mouse also failed under warranty.
>
> Same general way?
Not IIRC, as that was a mechanical mouse and this one's optical. It's
intermittent, not totally dead.
[drugs]
>> At the 2011 giant library book sale, I found two copies of the 2010
>> edition [of the PDR].
>
> I looked in two neighborhood pharmacies, and neither had one for sale.
> Looks like I'll have to try the book store.
Usually pharmacies don't stock it. It should be in your local B&N, or
probably for less at Amazon.
>> I remember earlier in the day, I knocked at his window, and his cat
>> came over and tried her hardest to show me there was something very
>> very important in the living room (which I couldn't see from that
>> window). I had no idea what could be in the living room that was so
>> important, but later I had to admit she was right.
>
> Did you have access?
Not normally -- but from spending so much time there I knew one screen
was loose, so once I was pretty sure something was wrong, I was able to
climb in through there. I did swipe his spare set of keys so I could
get in to take care of his cat until she could go to a good home, which
I found and drove her to.
Adam
--
Registered Linux User #536473
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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