Success!!! Mandriva wins!

Looked through my stash of Linux DVD-ROMs again, to see if I'd missed any options for installing Linux on the ''dead keyboard'' PC. Couldn't remember if I'd tried the Mandriva 2006 DVD, so gave it a shot. And -- it worked!!!

Granted, four bits of software didn't install: two having to do with Perl (IIRC), and two other misc. thingies. But at least the installation software was constructed well enough that it allowed me the option to continue on with the install, and to skip the dodgy parts -- which I did.

I went through all five of the accounts I created -- mine, The Lady's, Tall Guy’s, the Guest account, and The Kid's (yeah, she doesn't even talk yet; I'm being optimistic) -- and tweaked the Firefox (web browser) settings to be more secure (e.g. Do NOT remember my passwords for me, thank you very much!).

I still need to get the printer to work -- and either download the modem drivers, or else swap out the el cheapo, obscure modem for the better-known, Linux friendly one I bought for just such a purpose. And I'm mildly dissapointed that Mutt -- a text-based e-mail reader (I have a soft spot for them, given that my first exposure to e-mail was through PINE) -- didn't seem to get installed, despite my selecting it. Maybe it was one of the bits that had trouble getting installed.

But: I have a working OS on the machine!!!


In fact, I'm typing this entry right now on it, as a word-processing file, using OpenOffice.org.


Of course, I also spent about twenty minutes, looking through every single screen-saver option. Dang! Huge, long list... ;)

But, because this machine, with its busted PS/2 ports that will take neither mouse nor keyboard, now recognizes the USB keyboard -- as such, it is OFFICIALLY ''salvaged''. ;)

Sorry, Tom Th. I guess I was premature in offering the machine to you. :)


--GG