First Date with Linux

Though I had used somewhat Linux previously, but I had never tried to start a combat with it. Yesterday I installed Red Hat Enterprise Linux on my system - I still remember that 1.5 hours long installation, but finally I made it. I had linux installed on my system and that too without errors :)

Though as long as I was checking out its GUI it was fine, but as soon as I tried to find some of my files on my system, I realized that my Windows Vista partitions are not mounted. So I tried to mount them from the shell, but alas i realized red hat don't support ntfs partitions. So I started my Vista (coz so far I was not able to establish internet connection on Linux) and googled the problem. Finally I found out that there a patch available (rpm) to be installed on linux. So i installed that patch in linux and followed the post installation instructions. So that problem is sorted, I can atleast access my ntfs files from linux.

Next biggest challenge was to connect internet over linux. Though connecting internet is very straightforward method in Linux, but as is the case, nothing is simple when I am there. My internet connection uses some bridging method over PPPoE (Point to Point Protocol) . Anyways, so I scanned all types of network connections provided by my linux for it and found one that sounded the same. So I used the wizard to create a new connection and then tried to connect it using the username n pass given to me by isp. Well as in my Windows Vista n XP, it shows a status of "Registering Your Computer" and connects properly. So I expected something of that sort on linux also. So I connected it , it showed the message of registering your computer and the system crashed!!

I never expected Linux to do that, but anyways then I rebooted my system to resume my wrk and bang!! "the file system is corrupt". So again google to the rescue, I found a command to repair the file system, thankfully linux provided me a shell support at that instant. So after a few attempts, i was able to repair my file system though I still am amazed the error that I got was not posted by anyone (i mean I couldn't find a search result with a 'to the point' solution).

So finally I was able to run internet on my system (using the same connection) and have not encountered such a problem again. Today I was trying to port linux file system (ext2) on windows. Though I found 2 drivers for it, but none seem to work on Vista. Lets see, what can be done of it. I am still trying to get over it, and hopefully will do soon. I think that's it for this time, hope to have better dates with Linux in the coming days.