Distrabution Question and Help

Azza

With the onset of yet another trojan/virsus/spyware/adware/disaster on windows xp I resloved to let it happen no more. So I'm going give Linux a whirle.Again!

First up I used Linux a few months back breifly on my laptop (red hat 9) and (slackware 9.0) but I never really did much with them.

When I got my AMD 64 cpu I resloved to get a 64 bit distrabution and make a real effort to get to know the OS but blast it anyway I ran into a snag. I downloaded Gentoo 64 2004.1 from collage to find I could not install on a Sata setup. I believe I needed the 2.6 kernel rather than 2.4. Since I had no I idea how to update the kernel I decided to wait for a newer version that had Sata support. Recently Gentoo 64 2004.2 was released which has Sata support yippie. Thing is I have no longer access to a fast internet connection to download the livecd (universal) from the site. I believe its about 400mb in size but the bittorrent link I found was over 600mb.

Would anyone on a fast connection be willing to download it and burn it onto a disc and post it to me. I would be forever greatful.

Secondly I have a laptop and a secondary desktop. I wish to put linux onto both of these. Since Gentoo 64 won't work with this 32bit machines I'm wondering which distrabution would you recommend.

I already have Red Hat 8 and 9 as well as Slackware 9.0. Debian 3.0 and Knoppix 3.2 all on cd. I had difficulty with red hat on my laptop. I could never get it to properly detect the onboard graphics card and thus was unable to change resolutions even (and I too really talented computer buffs try and slove it but no joy) but slackware ran on dual boot fine.

Which of the above would you recommend for a novice?

maxheadroom

Azza wrote:

Recently Gentoo 64 2004.2 was released which has Sata support yippie. Thing is I have no longer access to a fast internet connection to download the livecd (universal) from the site. I believe its about 400mb in size but the bittorrent link I found was over 600mb.

Would anyone on a fast connection be willing to download it and burn it onto a disc and post it to me. I would be forever greatful.

sure - I'll download it and then PM you for address details etc. Do you want the packages CD aswell?

Azza wrote:

Secondly I have a laptop and a secondary desktop. I wish to put linux onto both of these. Since Gentoo 64 won't work with this 32bit machines I'm wondering which distrabution would you recommend.

I already have Red Hat 8 and 9 as well as Slackware 9.0. Debian 3.0 and Knoppix 3.2 all on cd. I had difficulty with red hat on my laptop. I could never get it to properly detect the onboard graphics card and thus was unable to change resolutions even (and I too really talented computer buffs try and slove it but no joy) but slackware ran on dual boot fine.

Which of the above would you recommend for a novice?

Honestly, I'd say Gentoo x86 - you can even install it from your knoppix CD Especially if you're going to go through the trouble of learning Gentoo for your AMD64 install...

Azza

Thxs Maxheadroom I greatly appreciate your help. I already downloaded the Gentoo Package iso and burnt it to a cd when I download 2004.1 so I asume its the same package. But if you could perhaps if nots too much trouble download me the 32bit version of Gentoo as well I would greatly appreciate it.

maxheadroom

Azza wrote:

Thxs Maxheadroom I greatly appreciate your help. I already downloaded the Gentoo Package iso and burnt it to a cd when I download 2004.1 so I asume its the same package. But if you could perhaps if nots too much trouble download me the 32bit version of Gentoo as well I would greatly appreciate it.

You really don't need a gentoo liveCD for the install - I've done all my gentoo x86(32bit) installs from knoppix.

You only need the packages CD if you intend to install the binary packages. If you're going to compile things yourself (and I'd imagine you are on an AMD64 system ) then you don't need it. If you do want it, you'll need the 2004.2 package CD. You'll also need a package CD for each platform (x86 and AMD64).

Azza

I would not want to incovence you that much with download the lot for 32bit and 64bit. I just want a disc that I can install from boot up and have has many of the apps that you get for it. I have knoppix but I would have no idea where to begin with to try and install gentoo from it. Further complicating things is the fact I'm on a raid setup.

If you already have x86 gentoo download you can send it on to me. But if you haven't it doesn't matter.

maxheadroom

Azza wrote:

I would not want to incovence you that much with download the lot for 32bit and 64bit. I just want a disc that I can install from boot up and have has many of the apps that you get for it. I have knoppix but I would have no idea where to begin with to try and install gentoo from it. Further complicating things is the fact I'm on a raid setup.

If you already have x86 gentoo download you can send it on to me. But if you haven't it doesn't matter.

Its not a problem to download it, but its unnecessary. Have a read of the gentoo install guide to make sure you know what you're in for Then let me know what you want to do.

Azza

I actually read through the install guide before when I tried to install gentoo before and was pretty confident then that I could accomplish the install (only to be halted 1 minute into install ).:( Hopefully I'm not to rusty but as I say I get Red Hat and later Slackware installed on my own on a dual boot system.
So I reckon the liveCD of 2004.2 should do the job for me. I can give the package cd's a miss. And the x86 version would be great.


By the way how do you find Gentoo anyway. I been hearing great things about it.

maxheadroom

Its great once its installed

You only use the live CD for the very first part of the install, and you'd be as well using knoppix for that if you have it. You'd get a couple of days head start (you could install on your secondary desktop) because you won't be getting the CD until Wednesday thanks to the bank holiday. It'd be good practice for the more quirky AMD64 install.

Azza

Okay thxs for the heads up max you been most helpfull.
I will give Knoppix a Bash for a few days.

Stark

Have you tried Fedora (Redhat's successor in the desktop market) instead of Redhat 8 or 9? They're pretty old at this stage and won't support later hardware.

Version for AMD64 here: http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/2/x86_64/iso/

Azza

Can't say I have. Have you tried it Stark?

Stark

I've tried the 32-bit version. (I don't have an Athlon64). It is a very good operating system, a great improvement over its redhat incarnations (due to the new open development process). Very good for newbies. Almost as good as Mandrake, unfortunately the AMD64 version of Mandrake 10.0 isn't out yet and the 64-bit version of 9.2 is crap.

nadir

O_o

stick with gentoo, when you go to emerge the kernel sources during the install, emerge gentoo-dev-sources instead of the default sources
and contine on as normal, thats basically it, you will have a 2.6 kernel.

sata is a low level scsi driver afaik, ought to work fine, should show up drives as sda*

Azza

Maxheadroom. You sent out those cd's of gentoo to me yet. I can't say I have recieved them yet. Let us know.

Thxs Azza.

maxheadroom

Azza wrote:

Maxheadroom. You sent out those cd's of gentoo to me yet. I can't say I have recieved them yet. Let us know.

Thxs Azza.

That's odd - I sent them out early last week. If they're not there by tomorrow let me know, I'll send out a fresh set.

Azza

Still not recieved the discs. Blasted Post around here sucks.

maxheadroom

Azza wrote:

Still not recieved the discs. Blasted Post around here sucks.

I'll stick another set in the post tomorrow. Worst case, you'll end up with an extra set to convert a neighbour with

Azza

The more converted the better this world will be.

maxheadroom

Azza - did you get the second lot?

Azza

Yup did in deed. Thxs again.

maxheadroom

excellent - let me know how you get on with them

Azza

Hit a snag with my Raid 0 setup but I'm made of sterner stuff not going let it put me off. Going get a new hard drive purely for it.

nadir

I thought there was full support for all RAID setups. I dont use it myself, but there ive seen alot of threads about it. Do you really need to buy a new drive???

maxheadroom

this any use to you? http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-x86-tipsntricks.xml