[vox-tech] Online with BasicLinux!

[Margo Schulter]

Hello, there, everyone, and thanks to everyone who has helped me to get to
this point: nice and comfortably online with a very pleasant installation
of BasicLinux. This beautifully addresses my needs: a nice, small, Linux
that can run on a DOS partition and solve my Internet problems. It's so
exciting to be online with _open source_ software; the kernel is a
variation on Slackware 7.1.

Of course, this isn't a substitute for installing Gentoo <grin>, but a
nice place to practice some **IX commands in an actual **IX environment
where I'm root (of course, I'd like to give myself a regular user account
from which I can su when needed, and Google reveals some solutions for
me to choose from).

The pppsetup was _very_ friendly: just edit a simple configuration file
with an editor called e3pi which emulates good old Pico (there's also a vi
emulation, neat for practicing with a book I have on vi). Or actually two
such files: one for modem and dialup options, plus /etc/resolv.conf for my
ISP's DNS information. As the documentation accurately explains, you don't
need to look into what a chap-secrets file does to get on the 'Net, and
fast! Of course, with the benefit of my less optimal experiences, I could
browse such files for fun with less and note that both the chap-secrets
and pap-secrets files are in "bidirectional" format, a topic I had read
about in the PPP-HOWTO.

Getting on line was very easy -- basically just type ppp-on and go from
there. The provided browser is Links, really nice; I like both Links and
Lynx, which both have their attractions, and want to spend a lot of time
using both.

More generally, this was a remarkably painless transition: for years I've
been using **IX commands on UNIX shell accounts and in DJGPP as a 32-bit
GNU implementation for MS-DOS. It was curious, and easy, to move from
using ls, less, and cp in a UNIX-like environment running over DOS (DJGPP)
to using these same commands in an actual Linux running within a DOS
filesystem.

If I had known about and installed BasicLinux earlier, I would have been
spared a lot of stress, not to speak of Bill and David who so generously
helped me get to the point where I found this great distro. It's the
repartitioning that has concerned me: I want to do it for a Gentoo install
when I'm relaxed, confident, and maybe a bit "overprepared" to do things
right. Installation is definitely a root task par excellence, and I want
to be able to approach it prudently and cautiously, which doesn't rule out
having lots of fun. (Yes, I'm the kind of person who likes a system with a
UPS _and_ ext3.)

Anyway, installing BasicLinux from a zip file on hard disk with unzip386
to a C:\BASLIN was a breeze, as was the ppp configuration -- and I was
delighted to be online or exploring directory structures rather than
trying to debug ppp scripts.

For someone like me who comes from a "DOS-without-Windows" background with
a liking for UNIX shell accounts and DJGPP, BasicLinux is a _perfect_
choice. The delight of this package is that indeed it's "basic" and easy
to install, and yet gives enough Linux to get comfortably on the Internet
with a typical pap login scenario, and to learn a bit about directories
and so forth. This should help in practicing some points in the Gentoo
Handbook and in some handbooks I've downloaded from The Linux
Documentation Project.

Thank you all for your patience in putting up with me, and for you help in
my getting this far.

Most appreciatively,

Margo
mschulter at calweb.com