> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Davies [mailto:Rob_Davies@NTLWorld.Com]
> Sent: 31 May 2001 20:26
> To: nottingham@lists.lug.org.uk
> Subject: Re: [nottingham] Looking for a local more-recent Redhat
> distro...
> > I've gone down the easiest route of ordering the full 5 CDs
> from the Linux
> > Emporium (£13 inc postage plus a free Debian CD to try on a spare
> machine!)
>
> Actually if anyone wants to try Debian (potato) 2.2r0, I have
> a full set of
> the CDs, that I'd be happy to long term loan out.
>
> Rob
Thanks Rob, I'll certainly get in touch when I get my main machine happy
with the new install which I was up all Sunday night playing with! I got my
Redhat 7.1 CDs from the Linux Emporium in the Saturday morning post but had
to wait until Sunday evening to try it out on my desktop machine. I'd like
to share my Redhat 7.1 install experience so far - I have a few questions
for which I'm sure people out there have good answers.
I currently run Redhat 6.1 on two machines - my home desktop and my work
server: The desktop is AMDK6 450MHz 64Mb RAM with 2 IDE HDDs: 5Gb (primary
IDE controller master) with Windows98, 2Gb(primary slave) with Redhat 6.1,
LILO is on the MBR of the primary IDE master HDD, there is a cheap Avansys
SCSI adapter hosting a Nomai .680 CDRW. The server is Intel Pentium 90MHz
32Mb RAM with a single 500Mb HDD and is usually headless (no monitor, kb or
mouse) and acts as a webserver for an office intranet.
For the desktop machine I booted from the CD (my BIOS allows this) and
initially went for the proffered upgrade path but had trouble squeezing the
packages I need onto the 2Gb HDD due to some annoying package dependencies
(such as 10mb of Kanji fonts required by a font rendering library (I forget
which) required by...) so I opted for a new install of one of the
pre-defined package sets available labelled "Workstation" in order to get
started and as a renewed lesson in configuring my hardware. The graphical
install did almost everything for me including choosing the correct
accelerated X-server. I kept my existing ext2 and swap partitions. There was
no mention of a SCSI adapter but I did see mention of it flash by in the
initial boot messages.
Within the "Workstation" class install there were a few high-level package
choices to make so I chose what I thought might give me a basic setup
without using too much space -- select Gnome (I've been looking forward to
using 1.2), deselect KDE (far too stable for my liking and a bit fat too!),
select Development (I have quite a lot of software to build and debug),
deselect Emacs (I never moved on from VI and, besides, I need the space!).
This fitted into the 2Gb OK with a little breathing space. My intention was
to sort out my packages when my hardware is happy.
1st Question: Redhat is getting larger -- I assume its aimed at the desktop
and modern machines with masses of HDD space. I found it hard to squeeze 6.1
onto my P90 server's 500Mb HDD and I guess that 7.1 will be even harder and
I'll have to break some package dependencies. Which distribution do people
recommend for a headless server (with httpd, squid, etc)?
2nd Question: Redhat 7.1 doesn't have Linuxconf! I'm a bit stumped without
it as I've relied on it as a one-stop-shop for config (I do like YAST on
SuSE too). Does anyone know why this has gone and what specialist tools it
is replaced by?
3rd Question: Redhat 7.1 attempts to do hardware detection each boot - is
common on all distros?. It has gotten confused about my SCSI card and my
soundcard (SoundBlaster 16) somewhere along the line but I guess it is just
responding to pnp info from somewhere. I'd like to fix this but my old
method of adding module options in modules.conf seems to be complicated by
this new feature. Sound is nadged right now - my usual technique of running
the console app "sndconfig" and supplying the IRQ/DMA/IO vals didn't do the
trick although it played the samples correctly.
Other notables: On first boot into X after initial setup X-Screensaver hung
and wouldn't respond to any key combinations. I had to cycle the power - I
remember this happening with 6.1 too -- most annoying and windowsy! I was up
and running with a modem connection in a matter of minutes - I don't even
know how this happened as I was half asleep and on autopilot at the time but
it was easy following a "shortcut" on the Gnome desktop. My next step is to
get the soundcard sussed, the CDRW working, the printer sorted, Netscape
removed - Mozilla installed, and the Redhat updates installed.
Another question: this Redhat updates subscription programme - any good
experiences out there.
I haven't touched the server yet - since its in constant use - I'm waiting
until I find a simpler distro. Any suggestions?
Michael Erskine (MSEmtd)
mailto:michael.erskine@blue8.uk.com
<JAPH>
--------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.lug.org.uk http://www.linuxportal.co.uk
http://www.linuxjob.co.uk http://www.linuxshop.co.uk
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Thu 22 Nov 2001 - 13:13:34 GMT