My apologies for the M$Outlook response...
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Davies [mailto:Rob_Davies@NTLWorld.Com]
> Sent: 05 June 2001 15:27
> To: nottingham@lists.lug.org.uk
> Subject: Re: Redhat 7.1 (log, dull, etc) -- was RE:
> [nottingham] Looking
> for a local more-recent Redhat distro...
>
>
> > 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)?
>
> Debian has a low footprint minimal install, some of the web controlled
> router distro's eg) smoothwall, or astaro might be another
> good choice. But
> if you know RH, then you might be better sticking to it, and
> doing a custom
> install. I ran servers that way without X, and /usr isn't
> that large then,
> without all the GUI crap.
I've just installed SmoothWall on a firewall box, and thats exactly what it
is. You dont really want to go poking around its web server either - it
uses apache to provide its main configuration interface. Its very good as a
firewall, but not much use beyond that. I dont think it even supports RPM!
It does go on in about 50Mb tho'.
> > 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?
>
> This is why I dropped RH, they have an offer of managing your
> machine for
> you via a subscripton service, or you have to watch the
> lists/web pages,
> and download and install rpm's by hand, or if you're willing
> to trust it use
> something like autorpm.
>
> I didn't know they dropped linuxconf, but you can install it
> yourself from
> the web site. I found I had to anyway as the RH 6.1/2
> linuxconf was shipped
> with lots of bugs, and wasn't very trustworthy. Maybe the
> steam has run out
> of linuxconf, in favour of vendor specific tools, a bad thing IMNSHO.
RH7.1 does have Linuxconf. I use it all the time. It doesn't seem to be
installed automatically, though. You have to select it from the list of
packages (I always select individual packages when doing a RH install). The
Linuxconf version on RH7.1 seems quite stable.
>
> > 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
>
> chkconfig kudzu --off
>
>
> chkconfig(8) copied from SGI's irix is something I miss, it manages
> /etc/{rc.d,init.d,}/rc?.d very nicely.
>
> > Another question: this Redhat updates subscription
> programme - any good
> > experiences out there.
> > simpler distro
>
> Well I'd consider Debian, Rocklinux (www.rocklinux.org),
> smoothwall, Astaro,
> Progeny and SuSE 7.2, plus FreeBSD and OpenBSD before letting
> RH personnel
> loose on my machine, but call me paranoid, experience taught
> me to take
> 'vendors' with a pinch of salt a long time ago.
I dont use the subscription programme, and I'm extremely wary of this kind
of service too. No one known my systems like I do. I've got into the habit
of grabbing the latest RPM updates directory from FTP by hand, either from
Red Hat direct or one of the mirrors, then churning the installers on each
machine I run this stuff on - this keeps me in control.
> To be quite honest, I think you should have asked about this
> before you
> asked about getting RH7.1, I thought you'ld already made your
> mind up. It's
> probably best to use one distro, but know it well, unless you
> like making
> life difficult for yourself.
>
> As you're happy configuring things yourself, you might well
> like Debian
> rather a lot, I loved the install because it gave full 100%
> control, you can
> even build the fs's by hand. You could spend the money on a
> RH subscription
> on a broadband net connection instead ;)
>
> The reason why I moved to SuSE 7.1 is that Potato is way out
> of date, and
> you miss out on trying commercial programs, and update disks
> from mags. I
> prefer KDE to Gnome, which was the final clincher and wanted KDE2.
> You ought to do a minimal Debian install, and then
> immediately switch to
> testing (woody) as it's probably fairly stable by now, though they're
> gearing up for a new release, which includes KDE, mozilla,
> Gnome etc etc.
>
> Rob
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> http://www.lug.org.uk http://www.linuxportal.co.uk
> http://www.linuxjob.co.uk http://www.linuxshop.co.uk
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
If using updates from Magazines is your thing, then you'll need to stick to
one of the bigger distributions anyway. Often these magazines give
distributions away on their cover disks; the demos and packages that follow
are usually checked against the distro they've supplied.
Cheers.
------------------------
Neil.Stevenson@citel.com
------------------------
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