Well, it's here, it arrived, and I'm writing this using it. I was going to wait a while longer to write this entry, but things have been going so good (for the most part) that I decided to pass on everything so far, before it gets any further.

I created the bootdisk ready to install, and I was away...

The install isn't that much different from Red Hat 5.2, except that now the install tests X-Windows when it installs. A short "Can you see this message" type message appears, and you get 10 seconds to click Yes. Aside from that, the install is remarkably similar. The venerable Disk Druid is there to cater to all your partitioning needs, and we all know how easy to use that is. (Despite some early teething problems when I did my original RH5.2 install.)

One thing I did notice when it was setting up the main partition (I have a 96 meg swap partition, and around 2980 megs dedicated to Linux), is that it seemed to take forever to format it. It took so long that I was starting to think the install had crashed, but I showed an uncharacteristic quantity of patience and eventually it did finish the format, then it went onto the install. I went and installed everything again, and while I can't remember how much space it took with 5.2, on RH6 it takes just over a gigabyte. I went and made lunch while the install was going on...

When I came back, I went through the rest of the configuration stuff and rebooted. And there you have it, RH6 was installed. Of course, things are never as simple as they appear...

First step, I thought, was to configure sound. Ran /usr/sbin/sndconfig... Crash and burn. Fatal resource conflict. Reboot... Booting fails miserably due to said resource conflict... Rescue disk time... Even the rescue disk cannot save me now... I resign myself to reinstall, having found out what the problem is.

"Satan's Hardware, the WinModem, is what was causing the problem."

Satan's Hardware, the WinModem, is what was causing the problem. In /etc there is a file called isapnp.conf that lists your Plug n' Pray devices. A word to the wise (and you can thank my buddy for this info) if you have a WinModem, make sure you go in and edit the file and comment out all pieces relating to the modem BEFORE you run sndconfig. It will save you a lot of headaches.

On reinstalling I decided to hell with it, and chose more wisely for the install. I didn't install the web server, FTP server etc... On installing this time it was a much more sensible 500 megs. Once the install was done, I went into X-Windows (to use the X LinuxConf program. Pretty interfaces are still appealing at the moment) and configured my Winblows drives so they could be read. Then it was time for the big test... It was KERNEL UPGRADE TIME!!!

Yep, I decided that rather than mess around, configure stuff, with a view to screwing it over at a later date by doing the kernel, I'd do the kernel now and sort it out.

I won't go into all the details, I'll just give you the edited highlights.

Attempt 1: Ran through the documentation I'd printed (if you have a printer, I HIGHLY recommend printing out the kernel configuration/making stuff) and went through everything. The hardest part has to the config of the kernel, where you get to choose what to put in, and what to leave out. I configured for my 586, configured in sound support, printer support etc... Basically I configured in what I knew I wanted, and if I didn't know what something was, I left it out or in, depending on what the config already had it set as. Then I ran through all the make files, making everything, and got to the final stage, where I run LiLo to configure the Lilo boot loader, and was told the kernel was too big... So...

Attempt 2: Ran through the documentation again, and this time did a make bzImage (effectively make a BIG zImage). Things seemed to work fine, so I rebooted, only to discover sound failed... Hmm... Back to the drawing board.

Attempt 3: Ran the config program again, and discovered that while I had configured it for sound support, I had neglected to specify a sound card for it to actually use... So...

Attempt 4: Recompiled again, this time selecting the nasty little CS... I can't remember what card I have now, but it's a crappy onboard chip on the motherboard, but that's beside the point. Figured that was it, smiled, recompiled, did all the sundry stuff, then rebooted... Another failure... *sigh* So...

Attempt 5: Ran the config again and discovered the problem. The problem was I had not configured the kernel to be able to load modules on its own. I set that option, recompiled again, rebooted, and SUCCESS! Booting went fine, and I was greeeted with "2.2.10 on i586" and smiled. Now the test. Quick jump into X-Windows and GNOME, double-click a .wav file in the file manager and glorious sound burst forth from the speakers...

I figured this was enough for one day, but I wanted to test out X11Amp. I loaded it, "Oh look, it's just like Winamp!" Which is no bad thing, since I like Winamp... Opened the playlist, went to add a file, went hunting for my lone Robbie Williams MP3 (Millenium, I LOVE that song!) Clicked it, clicked okay... And X11Amp closed. Hmm... Loaded it again, same deal... I've tried and tried and tried since and everytime it quits for some reason. Still, if I double-click on the file in File Manager it plays, but of course there's no way to stop it then...

There was one final issue I wanted to settle. The "user-write" problem. As regular readers know, this is a problem that has bugged me since practically day 1, and now... FANFARE! It's solved! Again thanks to my buddy and some anonymous Usenet user. I have NO idea who you are, but thanks. Here, in case anyone else is having the same problem, is the solution. Rather than go into all the details, I'll just do command lines as applicable, and explain the rest. Please note, I knew what this involved, so I did this in the order below BEFORE setting up any users, for reasons that will become apparent.

First, login as root and in Linuxconf create a usergroup, in my case I created a group called userwritable, Group ID (GID) 503. Then I mounted the Windows drives as I would normally, so that there would be an existing entry in /etc/fstab.

Then out to a terminal, into /etc and:

(For those who don't know, the -w is important as it stops Pico - my editor of choice - wordwrapping.)

Then in fstab, find the entry for the drive you want write access too, then modify it to the following. (Obviously the actual drive path will be different for you probably, so change the obvious.):

After adding that I did the following to create my normal user account:

What this does is creates my account and puts me into group 503. As a test I logged out, logged back in under the user account (I set a password for myself of course :) ), went into /mnt/windows and entered:

And it didn't complain, did an:

And for sure there it was, then:

Typed in a load of nonsense, saved it, and no complaints, so the idea worked. Was it a fluke you may ask? Let me put it this way, this entry was written in gEdit in GNOME and saved to my Windows drive ready to be sent off... So my BIGGEST complaint about Linux has been solved, and I am VERY grateful.

Some curiosities though. I know sound can be a problem, so I logged in as root this morning and changed the permissions on /dev/audio etc... so I had sound as a user, worked great, except for one thing... Sound now works fine for users, but not root? I think it's something to do with setting the account up or something, not sure... Not that big of a deal since I only ever use root for installing/configuring.

In case any of you are still using RH5.2 and thinking of upgrading, here are my impressions.

"Red Hat 6 is a quantum leap forward from RH5.2."

Red Hat 6 is a quantum leap forward from RH5.2. RH5.2 seemed very cobbled together, and I just plain didn't like it. Well it's not that I didn't like it, it just never made me go "WOW!" It was more sort of "That's neat." With RH6 and GNOME, the bar has been raised a little higher, and Linux moves closer to rightfully kicking Microsoft's sorry ass. Before it was always a case of "Well I could do this in Linux, but I may as well do this in Windows" whereas now it's "Screw Windows, I'm doing this in Linux!" GNOME is a fantastic piece of software IMO. It makes X MUCH more user-friendly, and I will gladly continuing using it. The only quirk is when you quit and get back to the terminal, there's a load of errors listed, not sure what the deal is there, but it's not just me it happens to, so it's obviously a peculiarity of GNOME.

To sum up, would I recommend upgrading to RH6? Most DEFINITELY a resounding YES.

Still have a few things to sort out, most important of which is my 3DFx card. I want to play Quake in Linux since... Well, Quake is one of the coolest games ever written (the fact my favourite band did the sounds and music helps) and I love it, so I'd like to get the 3D card working for that, though I was astounded to see that you can get Quake that runs in text mode?! Not sure what the deal is there, but I've downloaded it anyway. I look forward to checking it out. Also I want to check out Golgotha. Not exactly pressing issues really, I mean there's a lot I want to do, but at the moment it's a case of having fun (something Microsoft have sucked out of computers) and then doing some serious stuff when I feel like it. A word of warning, beware of the game SameGnome... It's FIENDISH! it's plain and simple (I think the HTML instructions run to about 5 lines) and it's incredibly compelling.

That's it for this time. Alas I have to now go into Windows to post this. Quitting RH5.2 for Windows wasn't a chore, quitting RH6 IS. Maybe just one more game of SameGnome...

Love the Pengiun, just don't LOVE penguin...