Let's all step back a moment: Leonardo is neither the first nor will he be the last person to be bitten by something in OpenBSD. I say we tell him we are sorry for his troubles, giggle a little bit, give him a hearty pat on the back, and shout,
"Welcome to the elite community of OpenBSD users! We're not all geniuses, we don't have all the answers but we all sure as fsck like a quality product and the opportunity for deep learning, especially in a community of like-minded people." I think it's safe to say that _everyone_ who uses OpenBSD is necessarily curious by nature and understands the rigors of learning. We often fiddle with things and frequently make really foolish mistakes--that's how we learn. Leonardo will either "never, ever touch[ing] OpenBSD with a ten-foot pole again", or he'll become a satisfied and dedicated user. That is really up to him and his penchant for mastery and self-reliance. The opportunities for these things are huge in OpenBSD because the project sticks to its overriding mission, quality, in every aspect; including documentation. By side-effect or perhaps by design, the OpenBSD community weeds out those people who are not seriously dedicated. It may not welcome the naive and it may not hand-hold the inexperienced, but it certainly does not prevent the naive and inexperienced from learning. Lurk a lot. Grow a thicker skin. You can be sneered at and called all sorts of names. Do you want to work at mastering fascinating skills by some of the best in the industry or do you want a nice touchy-feely experience? Rarely, you can have both, but mostly, in real life, we have to make choices. When I first started using, and yes, "using"--like a drug (2.5 or 2.6), I was lucky enough to have a steady supply of old machines (i386, sparc, vax, ppc) and became install-happy. I'd love to show off how quickly I could do an install over the net. I figure that I did at least 100 installs in my first 6 months; trying to get partitions/labels just right; messing things up and starting over; making a lot of mistakes. I've not found another OS, ever, that was so quick and easy to install. OpenBSD gave me the ability to learn a lot about installation that I wouldn't have otherwise had the patience to do. I learned a new way of thinking: where to "try" things and where to "do" things. So, if you've read this far, Leonardo, sorry you had problems. We _all_ have been there and most of us go there more often than we'd like to admit :) Stick with it and you'll likely learn more than you can even fathom right now. If not, then good luck to you. On Mar 7, 2012, at 7:26 AM, Leonardo Sabino dos Santos wrote: > Hi, > > I want to tell you about my experience with OpenBSD. > > I'm a Linux user, but have always wanted to try OpenBSD. The last time > I'd tried installing it was version 4.6 and I didn't get very far. > That version wouldn't install on my notebook at all. The kernel > couldn't recognise my hard drive because of some AHCI incompatibility > on this notebook that I didn't have the expertise to solve, so I went > back to Linux for the time. Two years later, we're on version 5.0, I > decided to give it another try. > > So I downloaded all the package files, wrote them to a USB stick, > created a bootable image with GRUB, booted into the OpenBSD installer > and off we go. Now, this computer already had Windows 7 and Linux, > plus about 16 GB of unpartitioned space where OpenBSD is going. It's > actually the same notebook from two years ago. > > I start answering the installer's questions. Keyboard layout. Root > password. Configuration of network interfaces. I'm not actually paying > a whole lot of attention to the questions as this is just a test > installation and I figure I can always explore and configure the > system later. > > Next, the disk stuff comes up. A lot of partition information appears > on the screen, followed by the question: > > Use (W)hole disk or (E)dit the MBR? [whole] > > At this point I'm actually trying to remember if there's a way to > scroll back the console, because some information has scrolled of the > screen. I try PageUp, PageDown, Ctrl-UpArrow, Ctrl-DownArrow, but > nothing works, so I press Enter. > > And my partition table is gone. Poof! Instantly, with no confirmation. > I immediately realized what had happened and rebooted. Too late. I got > a "No OS" message. It seems that the OpenBSD installer actually > overwrites the partition table the instant you press Enter. > > What saved me was an Ubuntu installation CD and the wonderful tool > gpart (http://www.brzitwa.de/mb/gpart/). With a bit of tinkering in > gpart and some very careful work with the Linux version of fdisk, I > managed to reconstruct the partition table and saved my system. > > Distributing an installation program that can wipe out the user's hard > disk instantly on a single wrong keystroke, without so much as a > confirmation prompt is so shortsighted and irresponsible that I can > barely believe it. This is not about being an expert user or knowing > what you want to do, because I knew exactly what I wanted to do. This > is about incredibly stupid user interface design. Sorry, it's just too > unbelievable that someone would think that this is actually a good > idea. > > I joined this mailing list just to tell you this: Right now, I feel > like never, ever touching OpenBSD with a ten-foot pole again. > > Regards, > > - Leonardo
