I got a cheap computer from eBay for a Linux box, a Kayak XAs, monitor
cables finally arrived so I could see what I'm doing. I got Mandrake from
eBay, a 7 CD set for around $5 including shipping. Couldn't figure out
why it was so cheap.

Installation was fun and easy for the first disk. When it said to insert
the second disk it just hung there, and eventually said there was an error
installing some package, continue? Yes. Error installing another
package, continue? Yes. Eventually I gave up, started over clicking
"cancel" to skip CD 2. It said to insert International CD 3, so I stuck
in the International CD which was my CD 7, and it didn't like that. So I
tried my CD 3 and it didn't like that. Eventually the install finished
with just the first disk.

Maybe that's why it was so cheap. There's still stuff on the other disks,
but it's as if the Install disk were made for something else.

If I have a working setup, I can add stuff later. But my monitor is stuck
in crappy mode, the 640x480 strobe light. It's an AuroraVision that
doesn't appear in the hardware list, but I'd entered the settings and it
told me I'd have to restart GNOME before the setting take effect. Which
is kind of frustrating because on my Mac I enter a resolution and refresh
rate and it's set immediately, and if the screen goes wonky it resets in a
few seconds. I know immediately that something is happening and whether
it worked. But when I restarted Gnome the settings didn't take effect, I
still had a cramped strobe light. I've found a few places to enter
monitor settings, but it didn't seem to take in any of them.

My modem settings didn't seem to take, either. It's an ISA modem that
came with an Optiplex PII 233 MHz, however old that is. There are no
markings on the modem that I know how to relate to a brand or
manufacturer, but the computer said it detected a modem. But my ISP
information doesn't seem to take. I enter the phone number, user name,
password, DNS servers, etc., and test the connection and nothing happens.
Then I go back to the networking wizard and most or all of the fields are
blank, or all but the first few digits of the phone number were gone.
Weird.

What's going on there?

I'd like to think I could spend $50 on "real" CDs from the Mandrake store
and all the problems would be solved, but then I imagine spending $50 and
being exactly where I am now, except $50 poorer.
--
"Let us learn to dream, gentlemen, then perhaps we shall find the
truth... But let us beware of publishing our dreams before they have been
put to the proof by the waking understanding." -- Friedrich August Kekulé