Well I just had a tough day and I'd like to share this with you.

Ok. So I am quite comfortable with Linux. I have installed different distros on my own machine without any problems so I thought that it wouldn't be a problem to install anywhere else.

I chose Debian, because I've recently converted to Debian from Fedora and I like what I've seen of it so far. It's great! So I took a Debian DVD to my cousin's office and decided to do an installation there. He's been having problems with viruses in Windows recently and I thought this would be a great time to make him switch (at least one of his machines) to Linux.

I have to install two OSes on that machine. So I first install Win 2k professional. No problems! The OS installs in 30 minutes and I feel great. If Win 2k was good, I'll prove that Linux is better. So I pop in the Debian DVD into the drive and start the installation. Note: Since I had no other choices other than Debian and Fedora, I chose Debian because I felt it was better. Now the install begins well. Everything is on the right track. I am feeling great! Then suddenly what happens? I get a disk read error. Installation is aborted halfway. Ok, no problems. I get the disk replaced. Half an hour wasted, but not more. I begin with the new disk.

Again the installation proceeds smoothly. No problems with the disk this time. Installation takes place quite smoothly. Nothing appears to be wrong. Finally I try and boot into the freshly installed OS. Booting takes an abnormally long time. I am beginning to get worried. What could be the problem? I reboot twice. The system freezes again. Then the third time the system boots correctly. Phew! Now for the fun part, I thought. How wrong I was.

Suddenly, X server crashes on startup. I wonder if there's anything wrong. I run xf86config and carefully set all the options right. It's an NVidia GeForce MX card and I've selected the standard VESA driver. I set the display mode to a safe 800x600 with a refresh rate of 60 Hz. Shouldn't be a problem, right? Wrong. X crashes again on the next bootup. This time, I'm worried. I check the error logs. The mouse seems to be the problem. But it's a serial mouse! And it's detected in Windows. I change the option from /dev/tty00 to /dev/tty01 and try again. But the mouse is on COM 1? How could the setting be wrong? Finally in desperation I change the mouse to a PS/2 mouse and try again after a reboot. This time X server starts, but within two seconds the monitor goes blank and loses signal!!!!!!

Finally I'm tired of the whole thing. I decide to do a Fedora Installation which I'm much more familiar with. I start from square one. I partition the disks, I choose the necessary options and everything looks great. Since I've already wasted a lot of time, I skip the CD checking part. Installation begins. This is the third time. Everything goes well. Disk 1 is over. I pop in Disk 2. Nearly 70% done. No problems. Suddenly the CDROM read light goes steady. There seems to be no activity. I wait in a sweat for five minutes. Nothing. Still at 70%. Tense sweating. Finally I get dumped with a disk read error!!!!!!! After all that trouble another corrupted disk! I'm sick of this now and I go home promising to bring new CDs next time.

The real thing is, after that perfectly smooth installation of Win 2k, people begin to think Linux is a dud. I hate to say it, but that is the exact impression that Linux has given today. True, the last problem is a corrupted disk, but that doesn't look too good coming on top of other weird problems like the X server crash (which is still a mystery to me!).

Oh, well. I'll try again, but it's one hell of a job trying to install Linux on somebody else's machine.

Nasty. I always find that my systems (whether on my pcs or others) work absolutely flawlessly until I try to use it to prove a point. Maybe the kernel developers are messing with our heads

Precisely. It always happens in life, doesn't it? You put a lot of preparation into something and it somehow doesn't go the way you want it to. I'll have another chance later...

That's a bit of real bad luck you had there hari,,

A tip for the future, if and when I have to work on a machine I usually take it away with me or have them drop it off either at my house or office (depending whether its staff or a freind)

that way you can avoid any embarrasment and its a hell of a lot less stressfull working in your own enviroment