Note to everyone: the box currently hosting attrition.org appears to be struggling. Numerous crashes, most likely from hardware failure, have forced us to dip into our booze fund to purchase a new server.
Our latest attempts to get a new box running have been frustrating to say the least. SuSE has decided to act more quirky and flaky than a Windows installation. Fresh install, things are fine, everyone happy. Rebuild the kernel and blam, kernel panics, drive conflicts (why does suse install the first drive as /dev/hde instead of /dev/hda?!) and more. Seeing the same crappy error message for a kernel panic that I saw ten years ago is annoying. A decade later and linux kernel developers haven't learned that informative messages actually help users? No wonder linux is still suffering and Microsoft dominates the world. Blame yourselves, quit whining about Windows, and add some helpful debugging to the kernel.
So, we decide to reinstall and deal with the kernel later, only to find that a fresh format and install isn't the same two times in a row. The network card will not work correctly. Every ifconfig option, mii-diag, ifstatus, tcpdump, and yast2 option doesn't help. Wipe the drive, install again, nothing. Fuck you SuSE. We can blame this on the curse of Novell. They destroy all that they touch, clearly.
Extra special thanks to forno, raven and sandrak for helping us out with networking and server issues. If we can't be reached for a while, we're still working on the new server. In between lines of coke, vodka shots and hammering our testicles with spare computer parts.
[2005-12-18] Update! Slackware 10.2 saves the day (for now). Bash it all you want, but Slackware still continues to have a simple install, their shorter package descriptions are more informative than SuSE in many cases, and reminds me of past successful installs. The only hiccup was SuSE left 'grub' in my MBR forcing me to download an old Windows 98 boot disk so I could execute the classic fdisk /mbr. After that, Slack booted up, allowed me to do one kernel recompile, and everything is working for now. Next step, the install/upgrade game.
[2005-12-19] Update again! New box is in transit to NOC. With any luck, we will have it up and running in time for the *cough* wonderful holiday weekend. Emails pledging undying support, hookers, or a few spare bucks might be appreciated once we regain feeling in our genitals.
[2005-12-22] THE BOX IS AT THE NOC. REPEAT. THE BOX IS AT THE NOC. It's just not plugged in yet.
[2005-12-24] New box is UP. You're on it. Still working on mail configs, a few scripts, and other assorted fun things. Attrition v 2.0 is alive. Mail lists are now working.