I started writing some Linux tutorials, partly to solidify the stuff I've been teaching myself lately and partly to have some examples of technical writing for potential employers to view.  Actually, I have one particular employer in mind, but I don't want to say any more about it at this point, other than that working for something I believe in would be fantastic.

I finally got MySQL running on my server.  I'm proud to say I did it all myself.  It took way too long, although I learned a lot doing it.  It wasn't nearly as straight forward as it should have been or as it was on the Dev machine.

One of my problems was my own doing.  I was unable to get the MySQL daemon to stop.  It turns out I was pointing to 2 different scripts for startup and shutdown (kill), although they were both MySQL scripts.  Fortunately, since I already had MySQL working on my Dev machine, I looked back at the example there and fixed it.  This approach was so successful, I tried it for everything.

Of course, the two machines weren't formatted exactly the same although they both have RedHat8.0.  I tried to keep the Server cleaner by installing fewer programs and no XWindows, for security considerations.

I was apparently missing some files that would allow make to work on DBD, some libz.so, libz.a, libzvt.so, libzvt.a files.  I copied them from my Dev machine.  What I don't understand is how make, make test, and make install worked perfectly for DBI but not DBD.

I ran into another problem installing DBD::mysql.  I kept getting error messages about not using my password while running make test.  I installed DBI and DBD on my Dev machine before I set up passwords (if I remember correctly).  I couldn't find any way to pass username and password to make test, but I was able to rerun Makefile.PL and pass a user name and password to that.  And it also helped to start the mysql daemon using the --skip-grant-tables option.  I didn't know about any of this before and it is sure to come in handy again.  I wound up passing 95% of my make test, and then ran make install and everything seems to be working fine.

Of course, all that was after I ran into the usual errors of installing the wrong DBD for DBI or was it the other way around?  I had no idea that the versions had to be an exact match....

Yes, I am a step closer to moving my domain to my own Server, even a step closer to be ready to provide a link to my Server on my index page.  I'm hoping to do that by the first week in January.  It's a big step for me.

I still need to line up some speakers and install parties for Seattle Linux Chix and advertise them. 

I'm still looking for employment. 

I'm rethinking the courses I'm going to take at NSCC.  I allowed my registration to lapse by not paying (I was focused on getting MySQL running on my server).  I'm thinking that I'll take one low-level night course in Java, keep my Unemployment compensation, continue to pound the pavement looking for work and take the required OO-Programming course in Java next quarter when it is offered at night.