Re: extremely off-topic: help
On Fri, 30 Jan 1998, George R wrote:
> On 01/30/98 at 05:16 PM, Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au> said:
>
> > i (foolishly) agreed to re-build a win95 system from scratch for a
> > friend. this process is annoying the hell out of me because you have
> > to hunt all over the damn net to find the damn CDROM drivers which
> > Microsoft don't bother to include on the OEM install disk (yes, i am
> > building this with legit disks - they came with the system when it
> > was bought).
>
> But Win95 is supposed to be Plug-N-Play. Easy to set up. Just
> install the CD and get a cup of coffee.
>
> BWWAAAHAAHAAAHAAAAHAAAAHAAAAA
exactly.
debian's easy. put the rescue floppy in the drive and follow the menu
prompts. it works.
lose95 isnt anywhere near as simple.
after a couple of hours trying various different drivers i still can't even
get the friggin' install disk to recognise the cd-rom drive. I've got a
Creative 8x cdrom. it's IDE. i've plugged it into the 2nd IDE controller
and used the CDATAPI.SYS driver. No go, not only does the driver not find
the CD, it locks up the machine.
OK, so i try plugging it into a real soundblaster card. it locks up again
if i use CDATAPI.SYS. if i try SBIDE.SYS it just fails to find the CD.
so i try plugging it into another sound card (it's nice to have bits and
pieces of stuff just lying around :-). a MAD-16 clone which came with a
drivers disk. CDSETUP.SYS to setup the card and another version of
CDATAPI.SYS. it also fails to recognise the cdrom, and again locks up.
just on the off chance that i've done something stupid (like not plugged
in the drive or something :-) i put in my debian rescue floppy.
the floppy boots in about half the time that "Starting Windows 95"
takes, and immediately recognises my CD-ROM. It's a "CS-R38 0, ATAPI
CDROM drive". I'm really tempted to ring my friend and ask her if she's
absolutely sure she wants win95...offer her Debian + StarOffice instead.
it's bullshit like this which made me give up on windows several years
ago. I also quit my job (network admin at a uni) last year because
i couldn't stand having to deal with stupid problems like this every
day. With Linux , and especially with debian, i've got used to machines
that simply work...and don't have much tolerance or patience any more
for brain-dead "operating" systems that simply DON'T work.
btw, it's not like i'm hopeless with dos/windows, either. back when i
used to use it i was something of an expert in how to make 'em work
properly. like most techs, i actually had a fairly stable and smoothly
running box. then i switched to OS/2 and thought that was very nice.
after that, i discovered linux (in the days of SLS and kernel 0.99)
and my eyes were opened: it *wasn't* normal for computers to crash...i
didn't have to just put up with it. wow, what a revelation! before that,
i thought that crashing randomly once in a while (hours, days or weeks
depending on how well you tweaked it and how many cute doodads and
frills you installed) was just normal. now i know better.
> Oh, I needed a laugh. I've fought with Outlook97 all day. Nothing
> seems to be named the right name.
you have to laugh, but it isn't funny at all. i can't believe that
people actually pay money for this garbage. i wouldn't run it if i was
paid big money to do so.
i'm so used to unix/linux/debian now that i sometimes take it for
granted...but every so often i have to do something like this and it
reminds me of just how bad windows is. that makes me truly thankful for
unix.
> >anyway, for this and for other reasons i want to replace the startup
> >screen with something a little more interesting. i remember seeing one
> >about a year or so ago on some anti-MS web site which was the same clouds
> >and w95 logo but with flames and smoke trailing it plus the words "crash
> >and burn". this seems to be a very appropriate startup screen to me.
>
> >anyway, what i want to know is where can i get this graphic as a startup
> >file. i've found a jpeg of it, but i don't know what tools to use to
> >convert it to whatever bitmap format the startup screen is. clues would
> >be appreciated.
>
> Well, I used WINLOGO. I have the ziped file still on my hd. If you want
> it email me and I'll send it. Many 3.1 boxes left my home with an OS/2
> start screen ;)
yeah, i'd like a copy. if i ever get this machine running i'll have
a use for it - i'm sure that there must be a picture of some turds
somewhere on the net which i can convert.
someone mailed me a reference to www.enemy.org. the picture i was after
was on there, but only a small jpeg of it. the link to the LOGO3.SYS
bitmap version was dead.
craig
--
craig sanders
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