e.g. on my system here at home, I have:

that provides dhcp and nat and pxe-boot for VMs (the pxe & tftp stuff is so that i can use my tftp infrastructure to bootstrap new vms when i want without stuffing around with USB sticks or CD-ROMS. i use the same tftp infrastructure for physical machines as well as vms)

i chose 2 and typed netmask = 255.255.255.0. It assigned the value and gave me the same value, so i think the menu means pick each item separately and assign each value separately. that would be a very simple answer to a question

ah, okay. so you choose option 1, enter an ip, choose option 2, enter the netmask, choose option 3, enter the gateway, and so on. obvious, really.

yeah. i just figures i should ask a potentially stupid question instead of making a series of stupid mistakes.

@terdon @StrongBad abiword does actually work, and it's the only thing that works at all. So I'll probably go with it.

Though the conversion is crappy.

it's one of those things that's obvious after the fact :(

for nameservers, do i put DNS1=8.8.4.4, DNS2=8.8.8.8 ? Or do they want names like fred and nancy?

always specify nameservers by IP address.

otherwise it would be unable to resolve the name of the nameserver.

@cas you are right, but it closed the guest os installation when i typed DNS1=8.8.4.4,DNS2=8.8.8.8. The error indicated that it just wanted the numbers. now i need to figure out how to get back into the installation process. i am scrolling through your notes.

virsh console public-centos7

looks like i need to add something like -extra-args console=ttyS0

--extra-args is only relevant when booting the VM. the extra args are added to the kernel command line. in this case, it tells the kernel to use ttyS0 as the console (and ttyS0 is a virtual serial port). virsh console vmname connects to the console.

if the console is on ttyS0 you probably need virsh console vmname /dev/ttyS0

make that: virsh console vmname --devname /dev/ttyS0

Thank you so very much. I cut and pasted that with the rest of your comments into a text file to use when writing up repeatable instructions about how to do this. For now, the console is held up with a "Probing storage..." message after I started the "Install destination" process. Since it will probably be hung up on that for a while, I am going to go do something else for a while and then return after it has had a chance to finish running. thank you again very much.

@terdon not much, I've worked mostly in places using VMWare... But I think you might want to look at vagrantup.com

Hi @JennyD.

@FaheemMitha Hi

How's life?

@JennyD How's it going? I occasionally see you around here.

@JennyD Ok. Kinda stressful. How about you?

@FaheemMitha Also kinda stressful, but mostly in a good way. My company got a contract to start setting up a new PKI solution from scratch at a biggish company here... so I'm starting work on collecting requirements etc now, while still working for my current client as well

@JennyD I see. Sounds busy. How's the horsey?

Horsey is fine, he's gotten over this summer's attack of being a complete jerk and has started behaving himself - so much so that I've started working on going out riding alone, which is something I've been longing for

@JennyD He was being a complete jerk? For shame. What were the symptoms of aforesaid jerkiness?

@FaheemMitha He didn't want to do what I told him to, and showed this by trying to either take the bit and run off, or bucking (not enough to actually throw me, just enough to show his displeasure), or once actually trying to kick me - while I was riding him. Didn't go so well.

And you don't customarily ride alone?

@JennyD That's terrible. Any idea why?

He is very young?

@FaheemMitha He's young, and we got to the stage in his training where he needs to actually put some effort into doing the work properly instead of just ambling around. He objected to this idea... Part of it was also that most horses will from time to time check to see if they can climb the hierarchy and start bossing the rider around.

@JennyD I see. So this is not surprising behavior?

I've ridden out alone a lot, but you don't do it with a young unreliable horse. They will usually be less nervous with company plus you'll have help if something happens.

@FaheemMitha Not really, no

@JennyD I see. How old is your horse?

@FaheemMitha He's six now. We didn't get started training him properly until he was four.

@JennyD Oh. And how long approximately would the breed in question live for, normally?

And when he's not being a jerk, he's really wonderful to work with

@JennyD That's good.

@FaheemMitha Usually, 25-30 years. His grandmother lived until 29. His mother had to be put down when she was only 14, due to intestinal problems.

@JennyD Oh. How do you know that? Did you know those animals?

Yes, I'm friends with their owner... who also owns 50 % of my horse, and owns the livery stable where he lives. I used to ride his mother before my horse got old enough for me tor ide.

@JennyD I see. And how much would such a horse be worth? Approximately? If you don't mind me asking.

@FaheemMitha I'm not really sure - at a guess maybe around €2500 or so... if you want more than that, you'll need to show the horse and get some prizes, which he's not really ready for yet. Maybe by next spring we'll be able to go do some low-level local dressage shows. He's well built for dressage, he's got lovely moves, but he needs a lot more training first.

The last few year's bad economy has affected horse prices a lot - people who lose their jobs can't afford to keep a horse, so there's been a glut of trained horses on the market. So an untrained grown horse really doesn't get a good price.

The agreement with my co-owner is that when we've got him to the level that he can be shown a few times, we'll get a estimate on his value and I'll buy out her share

@JennyD Is that Swedish pounds? And that doesn't sound like a whole lot.

@JennyD Has the economy been bad locally? In Sweden? Or just where you are?

@FaheemMitha It's Euros

@JennyD Oh. sorry. Yes, I see the symbol now.

Yes, I suppose feeding a horse must be expensive.

Sweden isn't that bad off as such, but the global economy has affected us too - we're part of the EU though we're not in the Euro, and much of our export business is with the US, so their recession has hit us too.

@FaheemMitha It is... he costs about €700 per month, of which I pay half. Plus riding lessons, and equipment. I need a new saddle, for instance; I'm expecting to spend at least €2000 to get a good one that will last

@JennyD That does sound expensive.

@JennyD Yes. I see. I don't really keep track of global economic conditions. Or even local ones, really.

@FaheemMitha There's a lot of work with a horse; I pay others to do some of it for me. I could reduce the cost but then I wouldn't have as much time to spend riding. I can afford to buy myself that time, so I do. The perks of being a highly paid IT consultant...

@JennyD It's a shame the horses can't take care of themselves. But then I suppose they wouldn't let you ride them either.

@FaheemMitha Around here they'd starve in the winter... there's enough food for them to live on grass during june, july and agust, but outside of that, they need to be fed. And their stall needs to be cleaned, and you want to brush them before putting a saddle on or they will get sores, and so on...

@JennyD Sounds quite labor intensive.

@FaheemMitha It really is. That is of course the reason it's so expensive.

@JennyD Sure.

interesting. linux seems to default to perm 0500, OSX to 0660. anyone know why?