From: thorongil@telenet.be.invalid   
      
   On Thursday 17 Mar 2016 16:40, Bobbie Sellers conveyed the following to   
   alt.os.linux.mandriva...   
      
   > On 03/17/2016 08:21 AM, Aragorn wrote:   
   >   
   >> On Thursday 17 Mar 2016 15:59, Bobbie Sellers conveyed the following   
   >> to alt.os.linux.mandriva...   
   >>   
   >>> But Aragorn I invite you to try it yourself. PCLOS does not take   
   >>> much space on your hard drive.   
   >>   
   >> This I know, because I've used PCLinuxOS for several years (on a   
   >> 32-bit machine) before eventually switching to Mageia (64-bit) on   
   >> this machine here.   
   >   
   > I used PCLOS on my old Compaq notebook in the 64 bit version.   
   > When I had to buy a new machine I ended up with a UEFI Windows 8.1   
   > Pavilion and had a lot of trouble with the UEFI and Windows 8.1.   
      
   Ah yes, UEFI: the solution nobody wanted to a problem that didn't exist.   
   )   
      
   > Right now Windows is just taking up space on the hard drive but of   
   > course will not boot even with Secure Boot turned on.  But that year   
   > PCLOS did not have a UEFI solution so I started using Mageia but   
   > remain attached to drak tools and the MCC idea.  Why those losers   
   > at Canonical haven't borrowed it I do not know.   
      
   Well, Canonical decided to strictly stick to Debian for its upstream,   
   and Debian doesn't have the drak* tools, of course.   
      
   Personally I must say that the drak* tools are among the best system   
   administration tools I've ever seen in any distribution.   
   RedHat/CentOS/Fedora is a joke in that regard.   
      
   >> However, unfortunately I cannot currently test this, because there's   
   >> something wrong with the hardware in this machine ─ I suspect a   
   >> faulty SATA connector ─ and it doesn't even recognize my optical   
   >> drive anymore, and has very long delays on boot-up, both during the   
   >> kernel boot and during the machine's POST.   
   >   
   > Sorry to hear of that.  I guess you have tried shutting down   
   > and pulling and replacing SATA and power connectors?   
      
   Actually, no the problem arose _after_ I had shut down the machine and   
   cleaned out the fans with a can of compressed air.  I'm a smoker, and   
   this machine sits in a corner, right next to a wall, with the   
   ventilation holes in the case ─ and if it were lying on its side, above   
   the CPU heat sink and fan ─ pointed to the wall.  There's about 8 cm   
   between the computer case and the wall.   
      
   The machine was beginning to shut down all by itself randomly ─ complete   
   power-off.  It's an AMD machine.  So I started monitoring the   
   temperature, and it appeared to go up to 98°C.  So I disconnected all   
   the cables and opened up the machine, and sure enough, the whole thing   
   was filled with dust.   
      
   I used a can of compressed air to clean out the dust from the   
   electronics, and I cleaned out the ventilation holes in the housing's   
   sidewall with a brush, and gave the outer casing a good wash while I was   
   at it.  I then put everything back together and reattached all the   
   cables, and that's when I started noticing the problem on boot-up.   
      
   The thing is that all of the above is not so easy for me to do.  First   
   of all, this "desk" is actually a two-plane CAD/CAM table, so I have to   
   reach very far over to be able to attach the cables.  Secondly and in   
   combination with the above, I am currently afflicted with a very painful   
   bilateral inguinal hernia again ─ I've already had surgery for that back   
   in 1998, and the doctors told me that I could never get it again.  Well,   
   duh, oopsie, I just did.   
      
   Furthermore, I think I may also be developing cataracts.  Well, it's   
   either that, or my blood pressure is simply messing with my eyes.  But   
   let's just say that my vision these days isn't anymore what it used to   
   be.   
      
   And as if all of that is not enough, this room was pitch dark at the   
   time, because the ceiling light's ballast has burned out ─ it's a dual   
   halogen light fixture with the ballast mounted inside the metal housing.   
   I already had it repaired before (for the same reason), but it burned   
   out again within two weeks or so.  Seems that this type of fixture   
   doesn't like the wall-mounted dimmer too much.  So connecting all the   
   cables et al was a matter of really stretching my muscles, with nothing   
   to lean on ─ I've also got three, possibly four hernias in my lower back   
   ─ while holding a flashlight in one hand and using my other hand to   
   manipulate the cables into their sockets and fasten the screws where   
   needed, e.g. for the DVI cable.   
      
   > Looked at your Power Supply lately?   
      
   No, but I suspect that the PSU is still in good working order.  It's a   
   fairly adequate one, and the problem only started occurring after I had   
   cleaned out the dust.  The POST takes a long time, during the phase   
   where the BIOS is trying to enumerate the attached storage devices, and   
   during boot-up, the kernel mentions something about "ata4 is slow to   
   respond, please be patient".  It does eventually boot okay, though, and   
   once booted, everything works smoothly.   
      
   I did however notice that the optical drive is no longer listed in the   
   BIOS boot options.   
      
   On account of PSUs, I still have a perfectly functional 800 Watt   
   CoolerMaster EPS-12V PSU sitting here, though.  That PSU alone probably   
   cost more than the machine I'm typing this from.   
      
   (This here is just a shop-built PC with off-the-shelf components, which   
   normally came pre-installed with an OEM Windows 7 release, but I told   
   the guys to skip that as I'm not using Windows, and that made the   
   machine about 100 € cheaper.  It's nothing fancy: ASrock motherboard, a   
   cheap and fanless ASUS nVidia video card, 750 GB SATA hard disk, a DVD   
   writer and a built-in multipurpose card reader with an extra USB   
   connector.  It's about five years old now, and has worked perfectly fine   
   so far, albeit that I did have to have the motherboard and the hard disk   
   replaced under shop warranty after about a month, because both were   
   faulty.  They didn't make a fuss about it, and I got my computer back   
   the next day.)   
      
   >>> Your wiser eyes may find and report the problem with far greater   
   >>> understanding.  I am just persistent, as a LUG member remarked   
   >>> recently (like a bad infection?).   
   >>   
   >> Don't worry about what others think of you.  I've stopped worrying   
   >> about that a few years ago already. ;)   
   >   
   > No but being a nurse(retired) when someones says I am persistent I   
   > think of difficult infections.   
      
   I've spent some time in nursing school myself, and gathering field   
   experience in the meantime.  However, lately my contacts with the   
   medical and paramedical sector have mainly been from the other side of   
   the fence, i.e. as a patient.   
   --   
   = Aragorn =   
      
            http://www.linuxcounter.net - registrant #223157   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)