I Heart Linux

Post by **bicostp** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 6:01 pm

It's free and there's tons of programs for it that are as good, or better than, commercial Windows software. 'Nuff said.

I've been using a Slax Linux boot CD on every computer I use at school lately, and I like it. A LOT. So I pulled my spare comp out of the closet (the one that runs Ubuntu), put in a different hard drive, and copied Slax to it using the Slax Installer. However it goes into kernel panic.

I'm formatting the HD again and I'm going to try installing it again. (I had made the HD an MS-DOS boot disk before for some reason...)

<b>EDIT:</b>The website says Slax cannot boot from a FAT32 drive, which is exactly what I formetted it to!

If this doesn't work, I've got Knoppix downloading which should work properly. (I like the Kwindow system better than Gnoppix

)

Every computer I use the disc with, regardless of Windows verion or the shape it's in, runs great. (Loading programs takes a bit of time, because they're being read off the CD.) Sound works, full-color video works, the network cards work (so I get internet access) and for the most part the printers work. And when that's paired with my external USB harddrive, I've got a place to store all the stuff without even touching the internal hard drive.

Any other Linux success stories? Or advice to fix my problem? Anyone?

Post by **gannon** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 6:12 pm

Never used that distro before.
To think I could've saved my school a bundle though if the tech admin wasn't so stupid

(Did lots of LTSP work last year)

psychotic_mechanic · Post by **psychotic_mechanic** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 7:05 pm

I just got my 10 ubuntu disks in the mail a couple days ago, time to go dust off one of the desktops I have sitting in the closet.

I'm thinking of making an emulator "gamestation" running off of linux with about a 1 gig CPU, DVD-ROM, front mount USB's for controllers and a cheap TV out card to take up less space than the dozen or so systems I have in a wardrobe.

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 8:06 pm

i liek Linux Better, where can i pick up a Bootable Linux Disk? like any computer store?

Post by **bicostp** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 8:12 pm

www.linux.org and click on "distributions".

In the search selection menus, select "English" , "Live CD", and "Intel Compatible".

Go through the list and find one you like.

But be warned, there is quite a learning curve to some distros.

You download the .iso file and burn your own CD. Books and CDs cost money, Linux is free.

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 8:14 pm

damn cant burn on my laptop but i'll try on my other comp, so thx for the instructions Bicostp

Hmmm im debating between Morphix or Knoppix

Morphix Becuase no patitioning Harddrive

Knoppix becuase i always hear about people getting it.

madc0w · Post by **madc0w** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 9:02 pm

ive used morphix, its pretty easy. also, you got bomberman on it.

Post by **Sparkfist** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 7:39 am

Ok I'll just add what I know about the distros mentioned so far.

Slax, based on Slackware. That means its rock hard stable and lacks all the user friendlyness that more popular distros have. Also if you use it on the hard drive you need to learn how to compile from sourse as Slackware doesnt support RPM, DEV or any pre-compiled programs. Also its set up in BSD-style which differs from the UNIX SYSTEM V that most other distros use (too complex to tell you the difference).

Morphix, I've used it and looks nice but its to my knowlege no longer supported. Its concept was a nice one make it easy to make a custom live distro by alowing users to assemble the parts of the distro together through modules. That gives you great freedom in whats in there and the requirements for the distro.

Ubuntu, I havent used this one. But its free! and I mean free, support even! It was based on RedHat (I'm rather sure and the RPM system supports that at least), and is right out of Africa. The distro is looking to compete with the likes of RedHat and SuSE in both server/company and desktop arenas.

Knoppix, the oldest of the live distros. This the one and only here. Knoppix based on debian, meaning if you do a hard drive install its a default debian install for what you'll have. The new 4.0 distro is just hugh, a full 4GB of info and that compress so really you have closer to 8 or 9GB of software to play with.

Also if you guys want to download the distros. There are two places that are very fast. One is iso.linuxquestions.org and the other is bittorrent. Linuxquestions has over 150 distros to download listed and have over 1,000,000 downloads already. Bittorrent is a P2P client that you can dowload the iso in almost record time (depending on size) I got the Knoppix 4.0 after about 3-4 days (non stop).

Trv · Post by **Trv** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 7:43 am

I have Fedora, but i rarely use it because it doesnt support the wireless router i have....... But its still worth having

Ive also tried DSLinux, but i couldnt get it to work. Ill try another minimalist and see how it goes...

Edit I got DSL working (I am writing this post with the DSl version of firefox).... Its pretty sweet.

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:25 am

to prevent any confusion, he's talking about Damn Small linux, not Linux for the Nintendo DS

Foxx373 · Post by **Foxx373** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:48 am

I have a lot of crap that uses a PC has a host device (Gameboy Color/Mono Dev hardware, IR Loggers, Serial-Controled slaves with crappy custom protocols, homebrew electronics that need a PC to read the data from them, ect...) I wish i could use Linux for all of em, but i cant. I have a custom win98 box just for that, as for linux though...

Redhat SUCKS, dont bother with it. Easy to insall, and more bloated than windows XP.

Mandrake, anything below 9 is ok, i like 8.2 the most. They are mandrivia now, and they suck

Damn Small Linux is the crap for live distros! I have some problems with it from HDD though.

Slackware, i dont have time to learn slackware. I want to, but i dont know anyone that can answer the questions i have

Debian is just as bad as slack. Its for the more hardcore people

Xebian, Debian for Xbox, its nice, but i use a TV as my display, and its hard to read. And if you dont know how to use FBSet, dont expect to get your HD Pak working. Even IF you do knwo FBSet, dont expect to get it working right away

DC Linux (Dreamcast Linux) is nice, but mostly a novelty. You really cant do much with it.

Knoppix, dont wate my time...

BSD is nice, if you can get it installed.

im in the process of trying out Suse and Xandros.

DSL and Mandrake 8.2 have to be my favorite 2 distros as of yet. Easy to install, and packed full of features

Go check out GL TRON!!! One of the best open source games ever!!! ... that and im a big tron fan.

EDIT: OH! I hate all linux until my laptops Broadcom WLAN card is supported...

Trv · Post by **Trv** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 11:56 am

SpongeBuell wrote:to prevent any confusion, he's talking about Damn Small linux, not Linux for the Nintendo DS

Yeah, thanks for catching that

link · Post by **link** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 3:13 pm

has anyone tried puppylinux? i really want to learn about linux and how to use it and this seemed pretty good. help would be appreciated

Post by **bicostp** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 3:32 pm

Well I formatted the hard drive with parted on the current Knoppix live CD, then installed said live CD to the harddrive. IT WORKS GREAT! Major software it comes with:

-OpenOffice (MS Office)

-GiMP (Photoshop)

-Wine (Runs Windows apps. I've already run Solitaire and Notepad)

- And a bunch of smaller indespensable tools and apps

And of course it's possible to downlaod and install programs from source code too.

It's running pretty good fro a PC I pieced together this morning.

Here's the specs I'm running:

P2 300mhz
196 MB RAM
32x CD Rom drive (looks like excrement because it's missing the front cover)
floppy drive (same)
13 GB HD (2 partitions: hda1-file system 12gb hda2-swap 700mb)
No-name PCI Soundblaster 16 compatible
Netgear gigabit ethernet adapter

Of course right now, since I still haven't declared it "complete" by my standards, the harddrive and CD-ROM drive are sitting on top of the drive chassis.

I haven't tried PuppyLinux. But you could try D.S.Linux (note the "."s, to differentiate it from DSlinux for the DS

). DSLinux is only a 50MB download, so you can install it on a USB drive. However it relies a bit on the shell to configure some things. But it works on my PC in full color with sound and broadband Internet access right out off the CD without any further tweaking.

You may want to try a more user-friendly version of Linux to start of with, unless you want to try and figure things out for yourself. I started off with Ubuntu Linux, which was pretty good, it's got decent software and a couple cute games with it, but it was a little too user-friendly for my tastes, if you know what I mean.

I recommend Slax, a Live CD distribution of Slackware. It comes ready to go with word processing, internet access, and other goodies. Plus it's really easy to install FireFox on it.

Look for a distribution that uses the K Window Environment, you can change settings to make it look and behave almost exactly like Windows, with its Redmond theme. Plus it's quick to start up on most machines, and the interface is clean. FluxBox is another option, but it's watered down a bit for low-memory systems. Slax includes both and lets you choose which one you want to use after login.

<a href="http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/linux ... .html">The humble Linux cheat sheet</a> helps me quite a bit when I have to use the shell, and I'm currently working on a table which lists common commands and their DOS equivelants.

<a href="http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/softi ... html">This page has a tutorial on how to install programs from source code</a>.

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 3:32 pm

SuSE is nice and user-friendly, I like it a lot