“The RoseBouquet”

How did you spend the long weekend?

I feel like I’m just back from a very intense four day weekend. I don’t want to be overly dramatic, but Saturday through yesterday were quite an experience for me.

Some relatives who were to come this Labour Day weekend had a change of plans,so I decided to install the new system over my SUSE 9.3 of a year ago. I had no idea it was going to be such a rough weekend! I did have to re-install my Suse 9.3 several times last fall, until I’d learned to do the partitioning right, and make sure I set all the mount points. I thought I’d covered everything in that very steep learning curve. Turns out - there are other things that can go wrong.

Saturday morning I made a complete backup of all my own files on a new DVD. I read some chapters in the e-books I’d downloaded from you, and prepared to write a journal of my steps for my niece’s sake. Ready, set, go.

But my computer did not find the Suse 10.1 DVD bootable!

While I waited for it to come in the mail, I had downloaded and burned the 6 iso CDs from OpenSuse, and that seemed to go quite well, so I was going to send that to my niece. When the DVD wouldn’t work I tried the CDs. The first one went fine, but when I had to switch to CD2 it kept asking for it, even though it was in the drive. (and all the mdsums had checked for those CDs).

I tried the DVD again. No go.

I had also downloaded and burned a mini-iso CD and tried that but was stumped when it asked for the IP address of the ftp site I wanted to use. Eventually I gave up and re-installed my Suse 9.3 I spent Sat. night online looking for helps, and found some helpful stuff.

So Sunday morning I decided to try again with the online ftp install. When I got back from church I was able to continue, so I was in high spirits. But later in the afternoon I discovered that it had been stalled for 3 and half hours, and wasn’t going anywhere.

I tried my Suse 9.3 again, feeling quite discouraged, only to discover that I had no KDE Desktop! Just a very basic x-terminal - and with my limited abilities at commandline work, it was a deadend. After trying this and that, I ended up doing it all over again - another 3 hour job.

Monday morning I woke with new ideas. I’d start with the mini-iso and instead of giving an ftp IP address, I’d indicate I had another source CD, and I’d put in the DVD I bought. I’d also be bold enough to wipe both hard drives clean, before I did the partitioning. That worked quite well, and I cheered up. It wouldn’t connect to my high speed internet connection so I couldn’t do the update, but I thought I’d figure it out later.

Well, no. It would not. I spent the afternoon fine-tuning my settings in my new SUSE 10.1, but by the evening every click slowed down so that it took 2-3, even 5 minutes for a program or window to open. Exasperating!

Finally I figured I’d reboot, and then all would be well. My settings for networking would take hold. Nope. I couldn’t get back in!

So, for the 12th time, I did an install - this time my Suse 9.3 again. Yast(the installer program which is quite intuitive) suggested an install on the 12 GB unused from the 10.1 install. I decided to go with that for now. About 12:20 am. I was done, and rejoiced to see a familiar KDE desktop, but knew I had a lot of fine tuning to do on Tuesday.

In the morning I discovered that my great DVD backup disc had all my files saved as binary files. None of them would open up without a warning, and then displaying only long lines of dots. That means I’ve lost all of last week’s files and emails because I had to go to loading my backups on CDs from 8/26/06.

Do you wonder at the fact that I got upset? I am normally a woman of positive outlook, and a dogged perserverance, but yesterday - I’ve had to cry, with tears, out to God for grace!

I would still like to install 10.1 but I’m going to put it off a few weeks, so I can be fully prepared for all the issues I’ve encountered, and I’ve written the man from whom I bought the DVD to send me another that actually boots. If not, I’d like a refund please, so I can order one from another site.

When I realize how much of 2005 had days like this, I am extra grateful for the good year from last fall until now, that I’ve had in Suse 9.3. It is a good operating system. I don’t have to fret about viruses, and I’ve learned to be productive and busy in all my favourite programs or applications. But sometimes we do have to step out on the edge and be willing to dare something new.

Proverbs chapter 3 talks about seeking after wisdom and even pursuing knowledge, and it will reward you in the end. My mind and spirit knows that to be true, but yesterday my soul brimmed over with emotion. It’s time to step back into a comfortable routine again for a while.

Last night I got my emails set up again, but have lost some. If you are one of the few friends whose email I had not answered by Friday, you should really write again and remind me of what you asked or wanted to discuss. (I think there were only two like that). Anything that was sent after my last check on Friday night has come through now, so those are okay.