The Linux Distro Thread (maybe)

[ej-solutions]

Thought I'd start this one off, rather than continue on another thread.

As a quick catch up for others:

Have a look at Unetbootin, as a means to try out different versions of Linux, without producing numerous coasters (unwanted CDs).
I haven't tried the method of installing to hard drive, only the USB flash drive method (so far).

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[otherego]

That all sounds encouraging.

I'll initially try an NTFS partition, then, and plonk a few shared directories (sorry! - still learning) in there as I go along. Anything vaguely sensitive can then live on the Linux partition, immune to Windoze's grasping tentacles in the event of unpleasant malware.

Vista intrigues me. The User Account Control and more effective use of RAM seem sensible moves in a Linux-like direction, yet I'm finding the user interface generally less intuitive than I'd anticipated. It hammers hard drive space. I'm really not sure what major advantages it offers over XP, other possibly than security. (Perhaps.)

It seems to go out of its way to discourage the user from meddling - just look at its defrag tool - at least XP gave you quite a nice visual representation of what was going on. As did 2000 and 98SE, in my limited experience. (Not sure I ever want to go through a W98 defrag again - did one a few months ago - what a performance.)

Just doing another defrag ("Optimisation") with MyDefrag, then time to dig out the GParted, I think - might try to use EASEUS for the NTFS partition, just for the novelty.

[otherego]

Goodness, but this is hard work! The only consolation seems to be that SiS is a problem where Linux is concerned - the contempt in which the company is held by some contributors to various forums is amazing.

Still, I've got Mint installed and sort-of working at 1024x768 with a 61Hz refresh rate - frankly quite enough for one night, after many unintended ventures into Low Graphics Mode.

A couple of interesting comparisons between Mint and Vista Home Basic, both of which I've installed (at least I found them interesting):

Installation - if we leave aside the graphics problem, Mint proved a significantly quicker installation, even with a fair bit of caution and let's-just-do-that-again during the partition allocation part of the installation. It would have been very quick and easy had I not initially prepared the root, home and swap partitions - would simply have been a matter of telling it to install on the largest chunk of continuous space and leaving it to it, I think.

The 66 updates required took about half an hour, with not one restart. Vista's updates - which in all fairness included two service packs, but still - proved a full evening's work, with I know not how many restarts.

I also spent a fair bit of time installing and configuring security software for Vista - including Online Armor firewall which I THINK caused a conflict during updates which necessitated a repair when Vista could no longer boot. I still need to get round to installing a third-party firewall.

I checked that Mint's firewall was active (its default setting) - and may get around to installing ClamAV in due course for the odd scan - total time spent on security efforts to make it internet-worthy, about twenty seconds so far.

Resource use - I have a feeling Vista might have an edge where CPU use is concerned, and will keep a bit of an eye on this. It IS only a single-core Celeron, so works pretty hard. RAM-wise, Mint's using less than 300mb at the moment; Vista typically shows between about 680 and 950mb - not a criticism, as I suspect it's actually cleverer than XP with loading stuff into available RAM, but Vista doesn't lag in retrieving data either - be interesting to see how that works out.

After clearing all restore points, Vista's using about 21gb of space (it climbs every time you look at it - but I'll leave system restore operational, as it might be useful. A bit fiddly to reduce the restore-system disc use in Vista - a command-line exercise. Oh, the irony.

The only apps I've installed so far are anti-virus and the usual malware scanners, and Open Office.

Mint has used 2.3gb of the root partition and 215.5mb of the home partition so far. And I've installed nothing yet - but unless something's gone horribly wrong, Open Office (and a great deal else, besides) is already there.

Graphics-wise, Vista is the hands-down winner at the moment. I like this laptop and hope to use it for some time - but the next one I buy will probably NOT have any SiS hardware. I was unaware of this problem prior to buying. For some reason, SiS will not release suitable drivers to the Linux community - something about contractual problems or something odd - but this is not really a Mint failing as such. Dunno why Mint/Ubuntu don't just snaffle the SiS drivers that other distros have got working, though.

So, a bit of a waffle-on - but it's been interesting to play with two competing systems. I don't know whether I'll ever resolve the graphics problem - but Mint has proved easier to install in every other respect so far.

[otherego]

but Vista doesn't lag in retrieving data either - be interesting to see how that works out.

I meant Mint! Tis late...

[ej-solutions]

Othergo.
When you get a spare 1/2hr or so, could you try this edition out - curious to see how it copes with your Sis card:
http://mirror.sov.uk.goscomb.net/linuxmint.com/stable/6/community/LinuxMint-6-Fluxbox.iso

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[otherego]

No joy with Mint-6-Fluxbox - exactly the same resolution. For some reason, I couldn't get the wireless working either, although I realise this CAN sometimes be resolved. Odd - a superficial glance suggests that it supports the dreaded Atheros wireless set-up.

Apart from lacking Open Office (presumably simple enough to add that?), it looks a very nice distro for low-spec machines.

I've posted another query over on the Mint forum, but don't expect much joy. The only response I've had so far was from somebody experiencing the same problem and needing the solution.

Still, I'll mess around a little more this evening. Odd that Mandriva should be able to handle this machine, but not Mint - I wonder if there's any way of "borrowing" Mandriva's driver!

I've never used Windows drivers in Linux (using ndis-wrapper or something?). I have the computer's drivers disc, but presumably these drivers are written specifically for Vista?

Still - must do a few things - hopefully have another bash this evening. Thanks for the suggestion - another distro for the collection.

[ej-solutions]

Shame. Still, don't give up, just yet. Clem (ye of Mint fame) can be quite responsive at times. 🙂

The Mandriva route may well prove to be the key... when running Mandriva, if you could identify the the sisimedia driver. Been ages since I used Mandriva; could you do a search in its package manager?

From a Spanish site this driver is reputed to work - change the driver to 'sisimedia' (instead of vesa/sis) in the xorg.conf:
http://nacho.larrateguy.com.ar/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/xorg-driver-sisimedia_0.9-1_i386.deb
[Was actually looking in the debian repository last night and came across this but without knowing the Mandriva driver, I could only guess...]

I've never required the use of NDIS wrapper for years, so I suspect there's another way round that issue.

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[grumpy-cook]

Some help please guys. I'm installing Dreamlinux-Gnome to dual boot with XP. I believe that I am doing it correctly, and have even done it a second time following the DL tutorial to make sure. However, when I reboot after installation, there's no sign of grub - it just boots straight in XP.

Here's what I've done. Created an extended partition on the hard drive, within that I have created 3 logical partitions for root, swap and home. Booted the DL live disk, used the DL installer, selecting the 3 partitions as appropriate (home & root as ext3, swap as linux-swap), selected Install Grub to MBR. It does it's business and completes the install happily, but on reboot, no grub menu.

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[ej-solutions]

Hmmm. I did say that D/L was kinda flaky when it came to doing the Grub bit.
There's a number of ways to tackle this... try this one.
Boot from the Live CD again.

Start a terminal.
(substitute hda for sda, if needed)
chroot fdisk /dev/hda
press p to see the partition table
look reasonable - take a note of partition names /dev/hda1 etc., if you feel the need to.
press q to quit

Leaving the terminal session as it is for a while...
(Note: you may need to manually mount the partitions, if so just shout for help, if needs be)
Using the file manager see if /boot/grub/menu.lst exists on the root partition. View its contents; does it look half sensible?. There should be entries to boot D/L, with a recovery option and memory test, along with a Windows option.

If all looks reasonable...back at the terminal...

sudo chroot /dev/hda4 (the root partition)
sudo update-grub
sudo grub-install

Reboot and cross yer fingers. ;-)

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[grumpy-cook]

Thanks EJ, I'll give that a try after dinner.

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[otherego]

Might it be worth giving SuperGrubDisk a try? It's booted me out of a couple of binary brown-and-swirlies without doing any harm. Trouble is, I'm never quite sure what I asked it to do that actually worked - but it's pretty helpful for all that!

This is from their site:

http://www.supergrubdisk.org/w/index.php5?title=SuperGrubDisk

- it doesn't seem to include any clear instructions, though - almost as if they encourage trial and error.

The "Boot problems and Solutions" page is a little more helpful - this one, in particular, might just prove relevant:

http://www.supergrubdisk.org/w/index.php5?title=WindowsErasesGrub

- even though the problem outlined is not one of Windows actually having erased anything.

Time to wander to the fish and chip shop, then back to battling with the dreaded Mint/Fujitsu display problem. I'm trying to summon up the courage to try installing the Sis imedia driver ej mentioned - will doubtless be back later. And I'm glad I read about g-c's problem, because my next step is to replace Mint with something - most probably Mandriva, although apparently DL can be made to work. Can you imagine the mess I could get into between DL's GRUB oddities and dear old Vista???

[ej-solutions]

Now, did I not have a holiday booked?...

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[otherego]

Did anybody see ej's application for leave?

[grumpy-cook]

I only got a short time to try out your instructions EJ, but I didn't get anywhere. The initial chroot wouldn't work - probably need to do some mounting I guess. The grub menu looked ok though. I'll have another look tomorrow if I get time.

Thanks for that info OE, I'll look into that.

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[ej-solutions]

😞
Was trying to avoid bringing another element into the mix (WinGrub/Grub4DOS could also be used).

assuming hda4 is root:

sudo mkdir /mnt/temp
sudo mount /dev/hda4 /mnt/temp
sudo chroot /mnt/temp
sudo update-grub
sudo grub-install

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[otherego]

O, joy!

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=958967&page=24

pointed to a 2D driver from one bgerlich. When he dies, I hope he goes straight to Heaven.

All that was involved was downloading the driver, double-clicking on the .deb package (and signing in as prompted). The original xorg.conf was needed, so I took a couple of minutes to edit out what I'd edited in - restarted, and I have a working 1280x800 screen with 60hz resolution.

Presumably the clever compiz effects won't work but, frankly, it's a huge relief to have a working Mint installtion. It does look as though people are working on 3D drivers.

I'd say the score at the moment is SiS 0/10, Linux community 10/10.

[ej-solutions]

B-)B-)B-)

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[grumpy-cook]

😄 Nice one OE.

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[grumpy-cook]

This is doing my head in now, I've got grub coming out of my ears. I tried your last suggestion EJ and it worked fine until grub-install. This needs a device operator (i.e. "sudo grub-install /dev/sda") but nothing I try will work. I've tried various things and even tried to read the grub manual. I shall be becoming like OE, all wide eyed and babbling ( 🙂 only joking OE). I may try his Supergrub next.

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[ej-solutions]

Strange. Not specifying a partition, should install grub to the MBR. [Check that your BIOS doesn't have virus protection turned on - not normally an issue].

Either:
sudo grub-install /dev/hda
sudo grub-install /dev/sda

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[grumpy-cook]

Tried them all EJ. My hard drive is a SATA, not sure if this makes any difference, but it's sda. Tried alternative commands (from the grub manual) using hd0. I've given up for now due to RL work. I'll have another bash later.

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