Linux ODBC (MS SQL Server driver)

Yeah I know but I'm getting ready to head home and feeling safe from
flames.

I'm stuck dealing with some MS SQL Server databases and would like to do
the dealing from a Linux server. Currently I run a script on the MS
Windows machine extracting the data and placing it in a SQLite database
that I can get to using a SMB/CIF mount. (Talk about twisted.) This is
relatively static data -- mostly daily updates.

The better way would be to get to the MS SQL Server directly from the
Linux box. I've made several attempts to get the ODBC stuff set up on a
Linux box but ran into strange errors each time (over the last year or
so) and never succeeded.
What I am wondering is if anyone has a nearly fool-proof set of
instructions for setting up and doing MS SQL Server connections from a
Linux (or other UNIX-like OS) box?

Rod
--
"Open Source Software - You usually get more than you pay for..."
"Build A Brighter Lamp :: Linux Apache {middleware} PostgreSQL"