Failed Install (additional gripes)

[Chris Elston]

Up front I'd like to say that this message will come off rather negative.  
That's only because I've been using RedHat so long and I hold it to a 
slightly higher standard than other distros.  That being said...

I'm having problems installing Severn on a Dell Inspiron 8100.  Standard
setup: 800 MHz Intel, Cisco Wireless, 128 RAM, etc.  I saw in the archives
that someone named Rob had already gotten his working but he never ran
into the problems I did, so here I am.

Downloaded the CDs, popped them into the drive and booted into the 
installer.  I've been here before (many times), so no surprises.  Jump 
through the hoops and opt to install all packages, just to see what Severn 
has to offer and to insure that I would run into fewer problems as I tried 
to install more stuff later.  Reboot, go through the "first boot" deal and 
then...nothing.  Well, not quite nothing.  White on black terminal comes 
up with login prompt instead of graphical login.  Catch is, my keyboard 
doesn't respond.  So even if I wanted to login or change to other virtual 
terminals (Ctrl+Alt+F2, etc) I'm out of luck.  Tried rebooting again, just 
to see if it had something to do w/ the "first boot" going wrong, but no 
dice.  Tried reinstalling using the default "desktop" set of packages 
thinking that I may have installed "too much" and some unnecessary 
service was making my laptop hang.  Eventually I have the same problems, 
hangs after graphical boot and goes to a unusable text-based login.

Judging from other messages, one problem might be that my video card is an 
NVidia, which aparently looks to be giving more than just me problems.  
However, if I can't even get to a working login prompt (graphical or 
otherwise), how am I suppose to go about updating drivers?  Rescue boot?

Anyone have ideas on what's going wrong?  Anyone else experience this?  
Anyone else have a Dell Inspiron 8100 that they got working?  Even the 
slightest help would be greatly appreciated.

OK, now w/ that, let me go into a few complaints that I have w/ Severn and 
a few of the past releases in general:

1)  Severn's graphical boot - seems like I'm not the only that didn't like 
this.  Actually, I dig the idea.  Don't think it's much of a Windoze copy 
as it is a Mac copy.  How about this to satisfy everyone: offer a way to 
toggle silent/verbose mode.  I'm envisioning something similar to XCDRoast 
where you can go from Minimal, Normal and Extended views.  You could have 
"Press F1 for Minimal, F2 for Normal and F3 for Extended views".  Is it 
not possible to take keyboard input during that phase?

2)  Before and after my Severn troubles, I've been running Mandrake 9.1 on
this laptop (use RH 9.0 on my workstation/server, love it).  Only thing
keeping from 9.0 on the laptop was wireless problems.  Mandrake allows me
to fully configure my wireless setup (specifically my SSID for our private
network) during the install process.  When using 9.0, I had to wait until
after my first full boot before I could have it set up properly and even
then I had issues.  A neighboring, public wireless network kept "stealing"
my connection from my private network and it seemed there was no way to
stop it.  When using Mandrake, I was able to configure for my private
network during install and never had my connection "stolen" from that
pesky not-as-good public network.  What I'm getting at is...a) why can't I
do all my network configuration during install? b) what was causing my
troubles in 9.0? c)  did Severn address these issues? (I'd much rather use
RH over Mandrake)

3)  Maybe I missed a "meeting" or something, but when did support for 
other window managers than Gnome and KDE drop off?  I've personally never 
liked the Blue Curve Gnome and only used it log enough to get WindowMaker, 
BlackBox or Enlightenment running (which often had to involve some 
hacking around).  I'm not against having Gnome in by default (gives those 
newbies a familiar territory and keeps them using Linux long enough to 
enjoy it) but what does it hurt to at least offer them for the few of us 
who prefer the less bulky, stripped-down window managers.  Not enough room 
on disc 3?

Those are the issues off the top of my head I've been having.  Just trying 
to put my $0.02 in.  Again, any help on my install problems and 
opposing/supporting comments on these other thoughts is welcomed.

Thanks,
Chris Elston
celston at corky.sapien.net