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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[grumpy-cook]

Well so far so good (I'm posting this in DL). Got my ATI drivers installed ok, had to edit xorg.conf to give me proper widescreen resolution, activated Compiz ok.

I'll no doubt be back as I try to customise and add things.

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[ej-solutions]

In its previous release, the Live version's flashy appearance vanished once installed to HDD. Fortunately this was fixed. 🙂
Had it installed on HDD for a few months but never 'used in anger'.

My own exploits:

Tablet Computing
Ubuntu Netbook Remix installed on Fujitsu tablet. It's very slow on the lowly 400MHz processor but is a known issue (as I discovered this morning). Sure looks pretty on this type of machine though. So now some experiments with Karmic Koala (not for public consumption 'till October).
The positive to all of this, is that I've now got a 'standard' xorg.conf file that works for all Ubuntu derivatives and a crib sheet to set up onscreen keyboard, pen driver etc.
Using the above, WattOS is now going to be a permanently installed Distro alongside Win2K, as a 'lightweight' alternative OS. I just need to decide on the 'full blown' Distro to install - I do wish the xfce version of Mint 7 would hurry up 😉

Safe Browsing
Webconverger is reaching maturity in version 5.5 and I'm looking to remaster it to automatically connect to ebayUK (easy enough), ideally with the Safer Browsing pack fully integrated. Todays rainy day project (for a while).

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[*scyllabub*]

I'm thinking I may solve my quest for a cheap, small, lightweight laptop if I can find a Linux distro that will work - a couple of years ago I tried to install many distros on a year 2000 Compaq but none of them would work the wifi, and I did try recommended fixes.

I'm currently looking at Portege M100 and R100 with not much RAM and small hard drives as fitting the size/weight requirements, does anyone know if Linux should install successfully on them? Or does anyone know of a 12" model that will be cheap and take Linux easily?

Sorry, I haven't ploughed thru the thread to see if this is already discussed, it would take me all day cos I'm s-l-o-w :(

[ej-solutions]

Cracking laptops 🙂
Try:
Mint 6 Fluxbox edition (Community Edition).
Gentoo
PCLinuxOS xfce edition
Slitaz

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[otherego]

Where laptops have proved a bit of a pain with drivers, I've also found Mandriva Linux One 2009 GNOME and SimplyMepis very capable, and not too demanding of resources - got them both running happily on old Thinkpads with 256mb ram and 900mhz and 1.13ghz processors. (I haven't tried the most up-to-date versions of these.)

They both worked fine on my very stubborn Fujitsu V5535, too. And the Mepis forum has to be one of the friendliest around.

(Incidentally, the KDE version of Mandriva was pretty, but heavy on resources - I found the GNOME version worked on all the old laptops, though.)

[otherego]

(I haven't tried the most up-to-date versions of these.)

Meaning most up-to-date versions of Mandriva and Mepis! I don't think there's such a thing as an up to date Thinkpad T22... Not since about 2002, anyway.

Brain like cotton wool today.

[ej-solutions]

Got to apologise, I really do those two distros a disservice - Mandrake/Mandriva being a past favourite too.

I'm a fan of Gnome over KDE (personal preference) but both are pretty resource hungry, hence my references to fluxbox/xfce. Worth considering a different window manager, if performance proves to be poor.

As examples:
1.6GHz Centrino with 1Gb RAM - I'm running Gnome
400MhZ P3 with 192Mb RAM - xfce/fluxbox/icewm/openbox window managers.

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[*scyllabub*]

I'm relieved that you approve of the Porteges I've been looking at, EJ 🙂 I have to be careful cos some elderly 12-inchers are surprisingly heavy. It's a minefield out there 😮

I've probably still got some DVDs with Mandriva, Puppy and others on them - I remember they all worked seamlessly on my desktop but none would do wifi on the Compaq (which I somehow broke in the end, and it was bro's treasured first laptop :()

Thank you all for the suggestions.

[grumpy-cook]

Be careful on using disks you already have if they are more than a few months old. Recent releases have much better driver capabilities, so you would be better to download the latest version.

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[ej-solutions]

Have to agree with Grumpy there. 🙂
Also, don't rule one out due to lack of a particular part not working. Sometimes there's a workaround by manually installing drivers (just as there is with Windoze, in some cases).

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[ej-solutions]

See my opening post, if you have a 'flash drive' available. This will save you burning loads of discs - though some distros won't boot by this method.

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[otherego]

I've only ever run Dreamlinux 3.5 from a flash drive, but recent comments here inspired me to try installing it.

(I find it most useful to keep a couple of old second-hand hard-drives off eBay for this sort of thing!)

It only took five attempts to get it installed, and I'm really not sure what finally made it work. The computer's a slightly cantankerous Compaq D310DT - one of those desktop affairs that looks as if it's lying on its side, and has no room for additional drives.

For the heck of it, I installed (temporarily - from a doubtless un-activateable CD found in a second-hand CD ROM!) Windows XP on a 10gb partition (it's a 40gb drive), then created root, home and swap partitions on the rest. I allowed Dreamlinux to reformat these on every installation attempt.

Interestingly, GRUB was never a problem - worked beautifully every time. The principal problem was that it just wouldn't accept my user name and/or password - and I still don't know enough about the command line to try to repair anything in a failsafe terminal session. ("Your home directory is listed /home/User but it does not appear to exist..." happened a couple of times. A black screen stopping at "Unrecognised mount option "0" or missing value" was another annoyance.)

I tried a couple of different CDs, and even changed the CD-ROM. What finally made it work, I do not know.

Compiz doesn't look workable on this machine (integrated graphics), but selecting it at least eliminates all the icons along the bottom of the screen - very pretty, but I find it distracting having open windows perched on top of them.

I'm having fun, but find it harder to find my way around than I do with Mint/Ubuntu. The screen resolution's not quite right, either, but I've had enough of that in the last week so will leave it for now!

So all in all, what with the very temperamental installation (even if this is at least partly a hardware problem, as I suspect) and the slightly more demanding navigation of the distro's functions, I'd be disinclined to suggest it to anybody I'm encouraging to try Linux. It's very pretty (but needs a decent graphics card to really exploit this?), and seems comfortable with modest hardware (apart from the graphics card), but proved a b**** to install - configuring stuff just doesn't seem as straightforward as it does in other modern distros, either. Fun, but goodness, it could be an off-putting introduction to Linux.

[ej-solutions]

Indeed, not for the uninitiated.
Just downloaded the latest SimplyMepis and even though I'm not keen on KDE (version 3.5 on this one), it does appear to run quickly on a 188Mb Virtual Machine.
[This will be your (collective) next mission, if you choose to accept it- VirtualBox].
Now to try it on a lowly tablet PC ;-)

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[otherego]

I've been wondering about that - I know absolutely nothing about virtual machines.

Perhaps I'll see how the others get on first...!

The nice thing about low powered computers is that they do seem to give a pretty good indication, and quickly at that, of how efficient a distro is.

(Wonders what a high powered computer would be like. Other than expensive.)

[ej-solutions]

Briefly.
With my low-ish powered Centrino 1.6GHz, 1Gb RAM (the important bit) and a fair chunk of disc space, I can run almost any distro or WinXP, within Linux.
As long as I only allocate up to about 450Mb for the virtual machine, things run just fine. By choosing less RAM, then it gives a good indication of how it might run on a lesser machine.
Usually, I run distros straight from the ISO file but it's also possible to install on a virtual hard disc (as I have with WinXP).

Strange one recently: using Mint to run XP, that was then running a remote control session to Vista. An OS within an OS, within an OS - like one of those silly multiple mirror pics.
Why you might ask? I was running scans of the remote machine that was suspected of having malware/virus. If it infected the virtual XP, so what, I'd just create another one. Meanwhile my 'proper' XP, in its own partition was totally oblivious to all of this. :-)

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[otherego]

Which sounds extremely useful.

I like the idea of a virtual machine to try out distros. Specifically, the idea of being able to adjust the amount of memory available would give me a clearer idea of what I could run on my ancient collection.

Definitely a project for the near future - in fact, I'll do a bit of googling when I get back later, I think.

To show the extent of my ignorance - I assume Virtual Box can be run on an all-linux machine? Will definitely look later.

[grumpy-cook]

I like that EJ, very elegant. I must have a play with VM if I ever get time.

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[ej-solutions]

Yep, VirtualBox is actually available for a number of OSes. You can run it from a purely Linux machine if you like. [I've also got it on my WinXP partition]. Qemu is a lightweight/less versatile alternative and there are one or two more (commercial/large)

I use VirtualBox OSE (to give it its full name) only in my main distro (Mint).
Have allocated 6Gb as a virtual disc to install WinXP with all the various browsers. Haven't bothered with a firewall (yet?) but run antivirus (good place to experiment with different ones).

There are numerous ways to configure/run VirtualBox, which would stand a forum on its own, nearly. 🙂 It's a bit of a steep learning curve at first ("Where do I start?") but worth it for both 'security' and experimental tasks.

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[grumpy-cook]

Any ideas what's happened here chaps? I got my DL installation to the point where I can start using it properly on a daily basis. I had been on it all day until I had to reboot to XP to try something on IE for a poster. When I went back to DL, I get the loading progress bar which then disappears and I'm left with a blank screen. After a couple of reboots, I tried logging in blind and it obviously works because the intro music then plays.

Can't understand it, I've changed nothing to do with the display or video. I'm off to give recovery mode a try.

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[ej-solutions]

So it's you that's jinxing things! Had a similar thing last night in a newly built Mint - I was messing about with removing gdm though 😉
Recovery, should at least do the xorg bit. If not, choose console with networking (wired) and try:
sudo apt-get check
sudo apt-get install gdm desktop-base gnome-desktop-data

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