The box sat there for a couple of weeks - a copy of Open Linux Base supplied by Caldera for review - crying out to be installed. "Easy installation!" the cover said.
Day 1
Browse through the installation manual and "getting started" booklet. More is always better when it comes to RAM, so open the case of the test machine (Gateway 2000 Pentium 100) and shove in some spare RAM chips. The memory is up from 16MB to 24MB. Progress, a good omen, nothing can go wrong.
Well it might, so back up the data on the 1GB hard disk.
Linux needs its own partitions on the hard drive, so there will be some rearranging of the drive. Delete non-essential items (about half of them). Defragment the hard disk, so all the Windows data is gathered in one section.
Then, with fingers crossed, run the FIPS15 program on the Linux CD. This neat utility shrinks the DOS/Windows partition while leaving the contents intact and frees up space for Linux. FIPS15 wouldn't do its stuff under the Windows DOS prompt, so it had to be copied onto a boot floppy. Also its restriction on the minimum number of clusters left in the DOS partition meant that 800MB was left for DOS, and only 212MB cleared for Linux. Bother! This would mean only a minimal Linux setup. Next, another disk utility Fdisk is used to create two new partitions in the free space on the drive. One is a "swap partition" where Linux will write information that it cannot hold in RAM memory. It is given 20MB, and the remaining space is given to the Linux native partition. After a couple of false starts and some MBL (muttered bad language) it is finally time to insert the Linux installation floppy, reboot, and start the installation proper. This part goes extraordinarily well. The printed documentation is not perfect (is it ever) but it provides a good clear guide through the steps.
The installation program allows you either to select from hundreds of individual pieces of software, or to choose a setup option that includes a set of packages likely to be useful together. Short on disk space, I opt for the "basic graphical system".
Once started, it takes the installation program about 30 minutes to heave the programs I want from the CD on to the hard drive. It asks questions all the way through and my failure to write down basic information like the make and model of Ethernet card beforehand is cause for some serious MBL and aborting the installation.
It finally runs all the way through. It creates the superuser "root" account and one ordinary user account. The Linux login prompt springs up - a new system is born. It has taken nearly four hours, much MBL (mostly directed against myself) and some fast learning. It is only a bare-bones system, but it's there and it's beautiful.
Day 2
Disaster! The last step in the installation was to configure LILO (Linux Loader), a boot manager that allows a choice between Windows and Linux each time the system starts. I'd forgotten to include Linux.
Now when the PC is restarted it cannot run anything but Windows. There is a working Linux setup on the hard drive, but no way of accessing it and no obvious way back in from Windows to modify the LILO files tucked away on the Linux partition.
Frustration, rage and much MBL followed, but there was nothing for it but another installation. Well, a chance to improve things too. Instead of the minimal installation, I would go for a custom one, including a few fun things.
All seemed to go well, with an installation that included XFree, games, some text-processing and the Lynx text-based HTML browser. But some files that Lynx relied on were missing and it wouldn't run. Several other applications did likewise. The problem may have been due to my inexperience, but this time the MBL was directed across the Atlantic at Caldera.
Day 3
Time to do it right. I would put in the basic graphical system, then use the LISA configuration tool to add the goodies that were missing. This worked well, although it turned out to be quite awkward to find the bits I wanted to add.
OK, so we're talking embarrassment of riches here. It's hard to find just what you want among 400 pieces of software. But LISA also seemed to be playing coy, showing me only some of the things on the CD-Rom. This was not helped by the fact that LISA listed things differently from the software list at the back of the manual. It's not rocket science to associate "Netscape" in the manual with "Communicator International edition" - but you do have to spot the clue while paging through hundreds of options in a small window.
Finally, it's there: a working system, with a Web server and a zillion programs with strange names like mcr, vi, and gawk. Configuring XFree, where I expected trouble, went like a dream. The startx command brings up the Windows-like desktop and I've finally got (or made) a working Linux system.
It's been three nights' work, and quite a lot of frustration (mostly my own fault). I wouldn't have missed a minute of it, but after the effort, what have we got? Is this a working computer, or an open-ended hobby? Next week: getting to know Linux.
Fiachra O Marcaigh: fomarcaigh@irish-times.ie