Ubuntu 1, Fedora 0

[Michael Wiktowy]

On 3/20/07, Timothy Murphy <tim at birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie> wrote:
> Michael Wiktowy wrote:
> > In my experience, Sony has notoriously suck-tastic support for
> > recordable media in their drives due to their love for DRM.
> I really don't think DRM has anything to do with the problems I had
> with the Sony PictureBook - problems I might say that everybody had
> with these machines.
> The essential point was that the PictureBook
> was very picky about boot devices - for example,
> you could only boot (Windows or Linux) from their own PCMCIA-CD reader.

So you are saying the everyone with this hardware is having problems
but it couldn't be the hardware's fault ... hmmm ... odd sort of
logic.

> But Fedora was particularly difficult to boot,
> and in fact I never succeeded in booting Fedora 2 to 5 from a CD
> on these machines; I always installed Fedora in a different way.

Have you had similar problems on other distinctly different hardware?
You are saying that Ubuntu boots fine on these machines?
Have you submitted a bug report on this and kept it from expiring if
the problem wasn't solved by verifying that it still exists in new
versions?

> > Since
> > Ubuntu disks from ShipIt are pressed and not burned on recordable
> > media, could it be that you are having issues with a particular
> > brand/type of recordable media that you are using to burn Fedora
> > images on?
>
> I'm not sure what you mean by "Ubuntu disks from ShipIt".
> The particular Ubuntu Live CD I used was downloaded and burnt
> in exactly the same way as my Fedora CDs.

I mention ShipIt (being a Ubuntu fan, I am surprised you have not
heard of it) because they send you free "pressed" disks ... like store
bought software and music CDs ... that have a much higher signal
reflection than the recordable media that relies on chemical means to
encode the data rather than physical pits. So that might account for
any difference. But since you burn the Ubuntu ones yourself, that is
likely not the issue in your case.

> So, you are very lucky.
> If you read this newsgroup/mailing list you must have seen
> many people complaining of exactly the same issues as me.

I have been reading this mailing list for a long time. And while I
can't take in everything all the time, I can safely say that your
claims of "many people" and "exactly" are overstated.
There have been a few people having issues booting from time to time
but after some bug reports and some detailed problem description, it
normally turns out to be some hardware interpreting the CD-ROM
standards in some strange and wonderful ways. The Fedora devs usually
find a way around if they can ... once they know the source of the
problem.
You know how many bugs I found in any state reporting boot issues for
the Picturebook?
Zarro

> > The proper course of action would be for you to first troubleshoot
> > your own kit to see if the issue is local to faulty (broken or by
> > design) hardware.
>
> Sorry, that is a silly remark.
> As far as I am concerned, if Windows runs OK on a computer,
> and Knoppix and Slax boot OK,
> but Fedora does not boot,
> then the fault lies with Fedora not with the machine.

You think doing some troubleshooting yourself before blaming someone
else for your problems is silly ... how odd since you seem to have
done some of this troubleshooting already. Do Knoppix and Slax use a
different bootloader for their CDs?

> I'm afraid I have come to the conclusion that the Anaconda developers
> are not at present open to suggestion;
> they share your view that if their program does not run on your machine
> then there is something wrong with your machine.

You keep on making vague accusations about Anaconda ... how do you
figure that anaconda factors into a CD not booting? I would think that
would be more of a syslinux/grub/lilo sort of issue ... long before
anaconda has a chance to do anything.

Also, if you assume that is my view (to always blame hardware), then
you had best read what I wrote rather than your assumption about what
I wrote.

> Do any machines have floppy drives nowadays?

The important question is, do *you* have one? They are cheaper than
dirt these days and might save you some grief.

If you expect a team of Fedora devs to come over to your house and
read your mind in order to find out what the specifics of your problem
is, don't hold your breath.