Topic: Linux Distro of Choice? (Read 9332 times)

Demosthenes · « **Reply #25 on:** July 16, 2005, 09:24:41 AM »

I see Vector Linux still uses XFree86... that's kind of a dead end, given XFree86's incompatability with the GPL. Do they have plans to move to X.org then, like everyone else?

IceWM is nice.... out of those, I'd probably use Fluxbox, myself. I've been using KDE lately on my Slack machines, but Fluxbox is still my favourite wm.

doomtroll · « **Reply #26 on:** July 16, 2005, 09:34:03 PM »

Quote from: Demosthenes

I see Vector Linux still uses XFree86... that's kind of a dead end, given XFree86's incompatability with the GPL. Do they have plans to move to X.org then, like everyone else?

IceWM is nice.... out of those, I'd probably use Fluxbox, myself. I've been using KDE lately on my Slack machines, but Fluxbox is still my favourite wm.

I probably will upgrade to X.org eventually...I don't do a whole lot of graphics anyway, so the switch isn't that important to me..as far as if Vector will...I have no clue yet...would be nice..makes less work for me.

Crystalmonkey · « **Reply #27 on:** July 18, 2005, 05:46:28 PM »

Installing Slackware as I type this. Wish me luck with my first adventure in Linux!

Demosthenes · « **Reply #28 on:** July 18, 2005, 07:38:56 PM »

Woo!

Well if you run into any problems, do let us know. Though I suspect you'll probably have an easier time than you are anticipating. Slackware has always been the easiest distro for me to set up and use.

Crystalmonkey · « **Reply #29 on:** July 18, 2005, 08:18:46 PM »

I'm just worried about drivers.

Crystalmonkey · « **Reply #30 on:** July 18, 2005, 08:37:48 PM »

Alrighty, here's my first problem so far.

No Operating System.

Supposedly the install is done and everything, but I get a message that the machine can't find an OS.

Any idea what I can do to remedy this?

I chose to skip Lilo or something similar, if that helps anything.

Edit: I am going to reinstall, and do the Lilo thing. Let's see what happens.

hackess · « **Reply #31 on:** July 18, 2005, 08:48:54 PM »

Lilo can be a bitch. It took me a couple tries with Lilo setup before I got it to run properly.

Crystalmonkey · « **Reply #32 on:** July 18, 2005, 08:54:54 PM »

Any tips? It hasn't reached the point where I need to set it up yet, it's still installing.

hackess · « **Reply #33 on:** July 18, 2005, 08:57:45 PM »

Lilo is your boot loader. Let it set up automatically.

Do you have a floppy drive installed? For whatever reason, Lilo freaked out over the fact that I didn't have one hooked up.

Crystalmonkey · « **Reply #34 on:** July 18, 2005, 09:02:00 PM »

I don't, I say to hell with that-which-must-always-fail-when-there-is-an-important-assignment-and-then-I-as-the-resident-techie-must-explain-to-the-crying-junior-that-floppies-are-really-really-bad.

What a name.

Crystalmonkey · « **Reply #35 on:** July 19, 2005, 12:50:45 AM »

Ok it works...but I can't get the GUI up.

How would I go about this?

I think I have blackbox or something close to that, fusebox, I don't know.

inverticle · « **Reply #36 on:** July 19, 2005, 06:23:40 AM »

Once you get to where you can type commands, type: startkde or startx or startgnome. These will launch your gui's.

doomtroll · « **Reply #37 on:** July 19, 2005, 06:59:05 AM »

Quote from: Crystalmonkey

Ok it works...but I can't get the GUI up.

How would I go about this?

I think I have blackbox or something close to that, fusebox, I don't know.

have you configured X yet?

commands to get into the X Configuration tool differ from distro to distro & X.org to Xfree86.

what Distro are you installing?

Demosthenes · « **Reply #38 on:** July 19, 2005, 08:53:06 AM »

If he just chose the "full" install, he probably shouldn't have to do anything special to configure X unless he wants a goofy resolution or has a really oddball vid card.

Crystalmonkey, Slackware by default starts in runlevel 3, i.e., it's a command-line distro. Don't be scared of that, it's actually a good thing if you like to bounce back and forth between GUIs easily without having to play around with restarting X-windows.

Once you're done installing, log in as root and the first thing you should do is this:

Type adduser and hit enter.

Answer the questions that come up and make a userid for yourself to use that's not "root". You shouldn't be logged into a linux box as "root" unless you have to.

After that, as inverticle mentioned, to fire up X just type "startx" at the command line after you log in as the new user you created with the "adduser" command.

If you picked fluxbox as your default GUI, there's a little bit of a learning curve, but if you've gotten this far, you're probably okay. Fluxbox is really simple, just a little tricky at first. I've used it a lot though, and catwritr is pretty familiar with Blackbox (which is almost exactly the same thing), so if you have any questions about how to do stuff in it, I'm sure one of us will be able to help.

inverticle · « **Reply #39 on:** July 19, 2005, 12:40:39 PM »

I am by no means a Linux super user so I tend to like the distro's that hold your hand a little more. Suse was definitly a favourite with my last version being 9.2 Pro. But I didn't like dropping the $90. So my new favourite is Mandrake 10.2. Right now I am running their 2005 special edition. It's almost identical to Suse in it's ease of use and features and is absolutely free, (as many distros are). And I tend to be a KDE fan. I love 3.3. When I get better aquainted with the Linux Kernel, file system and scripting capabilities I will venture off to other distros.

By the way, I like Slackware 10.1 as well. But still prefer Mandrake right now.

inverticle · « **Reply #40 on:** July 19, 2005, 05:48:05 PM »

I'm posting right now from DSL. I've got it on my thumb drive. It's quite usefull and just plain neat! I love being able to go any where and on practically anybody's computer and plug my little Sandisk in and boot right into my Linux.
By the way, while downloading the files for DSL, I noticed one of the servers was 'thegeekery'.

Crystalmonkey · « **Reply #41 on:** July 19, 2005, 08:00:12 PM »

Alright, going to work on getting it going.

I had heard that you shouldn't log onto root, but I didn't know how to create a new user. I thought it might be something like "adduser Username Password"

Woot, it's starting X. Yay!

And it was Fluxbox I think, because this is a very gimp computer and I heard KDE and Gnome weren't going to be nice on it.

Crystalmonkey · « **Reply #42 on:** July 19, 2005, 08:34:01 PM »

Ok...I got X to work, I've fidled around with different window options.

How the hell do I shut it down? (From the console I mean)

inverticle · « **Reply #43 on:** July 19, 2005, 09:16:02 PM »

Ctrl + Alt + Del is the simplest way.

Crystalmonkey · « **Reply #44 on:** July 19, 2005, 09:19:20 PM »

Won't work.

I used halt.

Demosthenes · « **Reply #45 on:** July 20, 2005, 08:04:49 AM »

I don't shutdown. Well, on my desktop machine, anyway. It's up all the time.

But when I do:

Code: [Select]

>  su

>  <enter root password>

>  shutdown -h now

And that does it.

BTW, if I want to reboot, I type "shutdown -r now" instead of "-h".

Also, be sure to check out Fluxbox.org. They have excellent documentation there and lots of great themes for Fluxbox that are pretty easy to tweak if you are into that kind of thing. The great thing about Blackbox and Fluxbox is that everything is done with simple, straightforward text files, so editing your menu and other options is as easy as firing up a text editor and editing away.

inverticle, isn't Damn Small cool? I keep that in my utility kit in case I need a fast Linux live CD. The hard drive install is pretty slick, too.

inverticle · « **Reply #46 on:** July 20, 2005, 10:24:40 AM »

Demosthenes, I love it! Just for fun, might sound corny, but I will completely unhook the hard drive on one of my desktops and then boot up DSL from my thumb drive. It's just really nice how it's completely independant from the hard drive. I want to build a small computer that's completly memory based. No hard drive, cd-rom or floppy. Set it up wireless and do network installs if necessary. Just a hobby type idea. It might not have any real practical point to it. I just think it would be neat.

Demosthenes · « **Reply #47 on:** July 20, 2005, 10:28:52 AM »

Actually, it occurred to me to leave a hard drive in a machine just for storage, but boot DSL or some other live distro from CD or a USB drive.

That way you could still store documents and files and such, but don't have to worry about an OS partition or anything.

inverticle · « **Reply #48 on:** July 20, 2005, 11:00:19 AM »

Of course your way makes much more since and still exhibits the simplicity that I'm going for. I just like the idea of pure memory. The whole no moving parts thing. And you could still store documents. The main prolbem is that the price of space goes from about $.75 a gig to about $75 a gig.

inverticle · « **Reply #49 on:** July 26, 2005, 11:34:53 AM »

I've been messing around with a bunch of distros over the lase week or so on my desktop and laptop. And I have found a new favourite. It's Ubuntu and Kubuntu, depending on you gui preference. I have KDE on my laptop and Gnome on my desktop. The main thing I was looking for, other than a clean and efficient distro, was one that would work with my integrated wireless without any modifications. And also one that is based on the 2.6 kernel. And other than SUSE 9.2/9.3 which cost money, K/Ubuntu was the only other one. And it was so quick and easy to install. I really like it!

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Author Topic: Linux Distro of Choice? (Read 9332 times)