Linux in a nutshell.

[Gidan]

I would suggest SUSE, its a tad more user friendly. But really either one is very easy to get set up and running.

[Tikker]

I've got mandrake 10.1 running on an old 233, with 32 mb of ram, and it runs great

[Diekan]

For a new user I'd rec SuSE also. It's very easy to install and run.

[Stabfase]

System specs arent great, 1.5ghz processor, 1gig ram, GeForce4 Ti 4600, sound blaster live, but i read that the transition driver wise seems ok, i guess ill find out, ill post back here once everything is up and running~ wish me luck!

[Diekan]

The SB card is going to give you some trouble - that much I'll tell you now. BUT - if you've got an onboard sound card you can use that till you get the SB configured and working.

Also, if you're running through a cable modem you shouldn't have to do anything as far as getting your connectivity working. You should be able to log online as soon you're system is up and running.

[Stabfase]

ok ive got SUSE-9.1-personal-x86.iso burned to a cd ready to go, should i d-load the other drivers for everything else or will I be able to d-load them after suse is installed ala windows?

[Diekan]

I'd get SuSE 9.2 and install that. You should be able to get it from Novell.com. 9.1 is a little out of date.

[Stabfase]

SUSE LINUX Professional 9.2? and the only reason I got 9.1 is its linked by you on the first page =P

[Lyion]

Just get the free version stab. Don't ever pay for Linux...

I'd suggest Fedora Core 3, as thats what I run and yum owns yast. SUSE is probably a little bit easier to install though.

http://fedora.redhat.com/

[Diekan]

Ahh - yes - that was my mistake (concerned the version of SuSE I linked). Sorry... I had 9.2 on the brain...

Well, I got my version (9.2) from a DVD attached to a Linux mag...

I'll look around and find an install to download - it should take much but a quick Google.

I suppose you could run 9.1 - but the Kernel for 9.2 will be a little more up to date. I *think* 9.2 has the newer version of YaST as well.

Give it a shot though...

Keep in mind, also, that 9.3 is about to come out. Which I am going to ignore for the time being. I've pretty much gotten my machine to run just the way I want it - still working on the iPod issue atm... but until I get EVERYTHING just the way I want it - I'm going to pass on 9.3 for the time being.


Your system specs are fine... keep this in mind tho: I believe that 9.1 is 32bit... which means it wont recog more than a gig of RAM, so if you have plans on adding more RAM to your system you're going to be looking at making some changes to your kernel. I'm not sure if 9.3 is going to be any different...

[Chetzar]

So I Downloaded Fedora Project, all 4 CD's. and burned them so that when the CD is viewed on the root it looks like this:

Then i rebooted changed the boot sequence to boot to the CD Rom first, and it says booting CD Rom, then goes to the Windows XP screen.
Any suggestions or advice? I am probably missing some basic thing that i needed to do since i am a linux N00b

[Lyion]

You sure you're booting the first CD?

[Chetzar]

Aye boot sequence is CD then Floppy then HDD, it says
Booting CD Rom...
Booting CD Rom...
then checks for a floppy and goes right to the XP screen

[Lyion]

I've not seen that before. Sounds like its not able to complete the CD boot sequence for some reason.

Have you ever been able to boot from a CD? For Windows or anything?

[10sun]

Press space bar / enter / something while it says booting from CD...

You should load it up at that point.

If not, you fucked up the CD and didn't make it a bootable CD. I am thinking for some reason you should be looking at simply an ISO on the Nero screen, but I honestly can't remember.

-Adam

[Chetzar]

Thats it! Didn't make it a bootable data CD...just did a regular Data CD. When I talked to a friend about it at school they said just a regular Data CD would work, gonna go ahead and try that when I get home. Thanks, I appreciate it much!

[Lyion]

yeah, you need to burn the ISO directly to disk. You can't unpack the ISO and simply copy it to disk.

I rarely burn disks and don't use Nero for data. Sorry.

[Chetzar]

What would you suggest instead of Nero? Roxio? I've just always used nero because its what came with my burner, but then again i've never done anything like this before

[Diekan]

If you really wanna save some headache and time - just go to Barnes and Noble (or whatever GOOD book store you have in your area) and pick up a copy of a Linux magazine with a free install disk with it. Linux Format (this month's issue) comes with a complete 3gig DVD of SUSE 9.2... It's like 15 bucks or so.... If you don't have a DVD player in your system I am sure there are other magazines that also have installs... probably SUSE or Fedora in a CD version.

[Diekan]

Guarddog is a decent firewall to run (in case anyone is looking). Very easy to configure and use. I, personally, think it's more user friendly than Zone Alarm.

[dammuzis]

linux is fun, the instant plug and play is suported i would actually recomend it to anyone. windows is still easier to use since they are designing it for your grandma while linux is updated by a bunch of high end geeks with too much time on their hands


it curently is nothing more then something to play with and not a average user OS yet

(i give it 5 years before its actual competition for windows os)

[Diekan]

it curently is nothing more then something to play with and not a average user OS yet

I'd have to disagree with that. Things have changed greatly over the past several years.

I run Linux full time now and the ONLY issues I have had are with the iPod (which can be corrected by working on your kernel - or just getting SuSE 9.3 *which has iPod support native*) and with games (Quake III / Unreal / so on), which can also be resolved with a little work.

Other than those two issues - there's no reason you should have to do much to get up and going.

One of the MAJOR differences between Windows and Linux is that Linux is open source. With Windows, major issues / bug /security problems and so forth only get resolved AFTER a problem arises. With Linux (because it's open source) issues usually get resolved BEFORE a problem arises.

Currently, there are only about 11 known virii for Linux (and most of those attack Apache). None of which are destructive to the system. Actually GETTING a virus in Linux is all but impossible. Because of the levels of security for one (you can't do anything major unless you have root permissions and that requires a password). How many virii does Windows have?

I am doing EVERYTHING I did in Windows with Linux... it took a little work (for the iPod), but other than that - everything is fine.

Regardless of what Ginz says - I use Gimp for everything I used Photoshop for. I'm not into hard core graphics design... Gimp is just fine.

I run XMMS - *same thing* as winamp.
I run Mplayer - and can play WMV files with no problem.
I run Open Office - and can do everything I could with MS Office.
I run Limewire - and can do everything with it that I could in Windows.
I run Gaim - and can talk to everyone I could with AOL IM / Yahoo / whatever in Windows.
I run GTKpod - and add / remove music files to my iPod.
I run Firefox - same as in Windows.
I run Guarddog - firewall (even though SuSE already has a firewall built in).

and... it's all point and click.

Yes, Linux does take some *getting used to* - after it is NOT Windoze. There is a small learning curve (depending on the distro you decide to use), but if you can read there are plenty of guides to help you out.

To say that Linux is just something to play with is completely wrong. It IS a fully functional OS that is in many many ways BETTER than Windoze.

What's more is that more and more companies are now going with Linux on their servers - I hardly think they're just playnig around.

[Diekan]

For those of you wise enough to have installed, or thinking about installing 9.2 and happen to have an iPod - or perhaps you know someone with an iPod and 9.2 who is having trouble... below is a guide to completely configure and use your iPod.

Before you do anything open YaST and install:

Kernel Sources
gcc package
glibc-devel

After installation open your terminal.

The commands will be in bold...

uname -r

rpm -q kernel-source

Ensure that they are both identical. More than likely you're going to have 2.6.8-24.14

Once you've ensured that both are the same... type:

su

chown -R (user name) /usr/src/linux-2.6.8-24.14

(user name) is the log in name you use when you are in regular user mode - DO NOT INCLUDE THE ()

What does "chown" do? It give you (in your typical user account form ownership of a protected "folder." This way you don't have to work under root to accomplish the objective.

Now exit back to regular user mode.

exit

You're now going to have to change to the directory where the files you'll be working on are.

cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.8-24.14

Now remove the current config file.

rm .config

and type...

zcat /proc/config.gz > .config

Now you're going to make a change in your kernel.

make menuconfig

A box will appear in the terminal. Scroll down untill you see "FILE TYPES" and press your space bar. Next, scroll down till you see "PARTITION TYPES" and again press the space bar. Finally, scroll down until you see "EFI_SUPPORT" (or something along those lines) and deselect it by pressing the space bar, you should have an empty <> field. Once you've done this - exit all the way out and select YES when asked if you want to save the configuration changes.

Now you'll compile the kernel.

make bzImage

This will take some time, so be ready to wait for a few moments.

Once it has finished you'll need to return to "super user" mode (root). So, again type...

su

Now you're ready to copy your newly compiled kernel to the root directory.

cp ./arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-24.14

cp ./System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.8-24.14

NOTE -- that some of you may end up running a kernel that supports multi-processors IF this is the case you'll need to add "-smp" to the end of your desitinations..

cp ./arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.8-24.14-smp

cp ./System.map /boot/System.map-2.6.8-24.14-smp

The quickest way to determine if you are running a multi-processor kernel is to switch users and log in as root - then simply go to /root and look. Then, of course, end the session and return to your work.

Once you have copied the files - you need to reboot the computer.

After the computer has booted back up can connect the iPod and you should see the icon for a mass storage USB device (which is how linux sees it).

Now - you'll be tempted to mount the device yourself, but it's better to let GTKpod do that for you.

To get GTKpod installed (GTKpod is the application you'll use to add and remove files to and from your iPod) and looks like:

<center></center>

To get GTKpod open YaST. Then select Software and then Change Source Installation. Select HTTP and type packman.iu-bremen.de in the server field. Type suse/9.2 in the directory field.

Then go to Install and Remove programs and type GTKpod in the search field. Install GTKpod and exit YaST.

Now open GTKpod by opening up your command line and typing GTKpod and hitting enter.

Open it and go to town.

This is an example of the freedom you get with Linux. If this we're a Windoze system you could NOTmake changes to your kernel to meet your needs. You'd be stuck waiting for a patch, or update before you could use what ever it was you wanted / needed.

[Tikker]

Diekan


you fall into the Geek category tho, and not average user


linux isn't quite ready as a mainstream OS


you have to remember, like 40% of all internet users don't know how to configure their outlook express

do you think they'll be able to install an OS?

[Gidan]

Grats on getting that working