tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46740608274252158232024-03-08T12:21:12.558+08:00100 Distros ProjectOnly installing...Yu-Jie Linhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08960660262515778141noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674060827425215823.post-82766140857652983362009-12-26T06:16:00.000+08:002009-12-26T06:16:04.091+08:00End of this projectSorry about stopping this project. I have given up this long time ago but haven't posted about it. The video driver always causes problem, therefore I decided to end. If you are interested in Linux topic, be sure you take a look at my <a href="http://fedoratux.blogspot.com/">Tux Wears Fedora</a> (Computer topics except programming).Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674060827425215823.post-9136154875754930702009-04-13T06:54:00.000+08:002009-04-13T06:54:23.730+08:00Distro#16 Slax 6.1.0<a href="http://img4.imageshack.us/my.php?image=slaxc.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us" border="0" src="http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/1731/slaxc.png" /></a><a href="http://www.slax.org/">Slax</a> is a LiveCD system, based on Slackware. When I booted it with default option, there is a driver issue because of wrong driver version. But, the VESA mode is ok to use, just the resolution is too small for these days.<br />
<br />
Boot-time for my hardware took about a minute. The desktop environment is KDE 3.5 and Kernel is 2.6.27.8. I checked the website, its build system is very convenient to compose your own of packages, but adding dependencies needs some clicks. I added NVIDIA 96xx driver, Firefox, pppoe-kemo, and removed KOffice. The final is about 198 MB and only took 4 minutes or less to download, the download speed is very fast. I used external USB harddrive this time, because I want it can be able to store data/session.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=builder.png"><img alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us" border="0" src="http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/8607/builder.png" width="500" /></a><br />
Screenshot of Slax' builder</div><br />
I unpacked tarball to disk and ran <span style="background-color: #666666; color: white; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">ROOT/boot/liloinst.sh</span> instead of <span style="background-color: #666666; color: white; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">bootinst.sh</span> (for FAT-only) because the partition is ext3. It provided a clear message about what would be done:<br />
<pre>-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Welcome to Slax boot installer
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
This installer will setup disk /dev/sdb to boot only Slax from /dev/sdb1.
Warning! Master boot record (MBR) of /dev/sdb will be overwritten.
If you use /dev/sdb to boot any existing operating system, it will not work
anymore. Only Slax will boot from this device. Be careful!
Press any key to continue, or Ctrl+C to abort...
Flushing filesystem buffers, this may take a while...
Updating MBR to setup boot record...
Warning: /dev/sdb is not on the first disk
Warning: The initial RAM disk is too big to fit between the kernel and
the 15M-16M memory hole. It will be loaded in the highest memory as
though the configuration file specified "large-memory" and it will
be assumed that the BIOS supports memory moves above 16M.
Added Slax ? *
Disk /dev/sdb should be bootable now. Installation finished.
Read the information above and then press any key to exit...</pre><br />
This time it's in text-mode. I ran <span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">xconf</span>, then <span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">startx</span>, the video driver didn't work, kernel module wasn't load, because that package is for kernel 2.6.24.5. So, I set up PPPoE and downloaded the driver from NVIDIA, and deactived the module and removed it from USB hd. After running the installer, <span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">startx</span> gave correct result. After rebooting, it also gave the correct one.<br />
<br />
I started to explore Slax, the following screenshot is the Module Manager:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img411.imageshack.us/my.php?image=modulemanager.png"><img alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us" border="0" src="http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/7900/modulemanager.png" width="500" /></a></div><br />
You can use it to add or to remove a module. On the <a href="http://www.slax.org/modules.php">website</a>, you can directly activate a module (not in Firefox).<br />
<br />
Accoding to this <a href="http://www.slax.org/documentation_key_features.php">feature list</a>, the persistent changes to whole root filesystem is achieved by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AuFS">AUFS filesystem</a>. In this current install, it took about 450 MB disk space, and around 200 MB memory in use. I think speed isn't an advantage of Slax, but portability is. By my estimation, there should be over 1100 modules (including multi-versions of a module) that you can activate on your system. The boot-time is not fast, but it's acceptable becuase it's not just a LiveCD.<br />
<br />
Lastly, the screenshot<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img139.imageshack.us/my.php?image=slax61.png"><img alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us" border="0" src="http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/5037/slax61.png" width="500" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674060827425215823.post-46400476017703627982009-04-12T07:39:00.000+08:002009-04-12T07:39:24.817+08:00Distro#15 Kwort Linux 2.4.1.1The CD image is less than 500MB. After booting from CD, choosing keyboard layout, and partitioning, then selecting swap and root file system locations. As of formatting, ext2/ext3/ext4 are the options, I chose ext4. After that, I made a sound “ah!!” because the GRUB in Fedora is still not supporting booting disk. In this partition table, I don't have /boot, therefore GRUB stays in root file system. I can only cross my fingers. Now the files is getting installed.<br />
<br />
The architecture of <a href="http://kwort.org/">Kwort Linux</a> is i486. Kernel is 2.6.28.7. Kwort is Slackware-based and uses Xfce. The version of Kwort is <a href="http://kwort.org/2009/04/10/kwort-linux-241-released/">2.4.1.1</a>.<br />
<br />
After 7 minutes, installer asked about boot loader, LILO. I chose simple installation of LILO and use of frame buffer console.<br />
<br />
After installation is done, it boots, and there are more settings, such Xorg settings. Here I chose to boot into graphical login. Then I logged in as root and created new user, and reboot.<br />
<br />
It booted into SLiM, took less than a minute. After logging in, I launched the Settings from Xfce menu, then the Kwort Network Manager. For eth0, there is a special tab PPPoE, I set my account and chose the connection type ADSL from Basic tab. But it didn't work. So, I went to the <a href="http://irc.oftc.net/">irc.oftc.net</a>#Kwort and asked. The package for PPPoE, rp-pppoe, was missed in CD image. The people on IRC room are very kind to help me.<br />
<br />
As of writing, you need to wait for next release, 2.4.2, if you need PPPoE. They have built the package for me. There is also a bug in Kwort Network Manager's script, it will be fixed in 2.4.2 as well.<br />
<br />
While chatting with the developers, they keep simplicity as the philosophy. Kwort is actually 7 years old, the developers were trying to learn from it, then it became a hobby. They want to bring developers and normal users closer. You can easily get in touch with dev-team via <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/kwort-linux">Google Group</a> or IRC.<br />
<br />
Lastly, the screenshot<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SeEqGWDVtHI/AAAAAAAAB5U/aBs9AhQgOnw/s1600-h/Kwort.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SeEqGWDVtHI/AAAAAAAAB5U/aBs9AhQgOnw/s400/Kwort.png" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674060827425215823.post-47949261400889712782009-04-09T09:38:00.000+08:002009-04-09T09:42:46.323+08:00Distro#14 Linux Mint 6 Felicia Fluxbox CEIt has been about three month, I haven't not been trying any distribution. Now, I am back on track. <a href="http://www.linuxmint.com/blog/?p=724">Linux Mint 6 Felicia Fluxbox CE</a> has just been released alongside <a href="http://www.linuxmint.com/blog/?p=731">KDE version</a>, I decided to try Fluxbox because Fluxbox is relatively less seen than KDE. Just a sidenote, I am using Fluxbox on Fedora 10 and I am quite like it.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.linuxmint.com/">Linux Mint</a> is Debian-based and compatible with Ubuntu packages. According DistroWatch.com, it's third popular distribution. This Fluxbox released is based on Xubuntu 8.10 Intrepid, Linux 2.6.27, Fluxbox 1.0.0 and Xorg 7.4<br />
<br />
When you boot up the CD, the first choice is what type of LiveCD option you want to have:<br />
<ul><li>Full desktop: 300MB RAM</li>
<li>Light session: 256MB RAM or 128MB & Swap</li>
<li>Installer only: 192MB RAM or 128MB & Swap</li>
</ul>From the options, we can assume Felicia Fluxbox CE is suitable for old computers. After the desktop showing up, I got the restricted driver notification. It detected nVidia correctly and suggested the right driver version, 96 series driver. It needs to get online in order to download the driver. So I ran <span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">sudo /usr/sbin/pppoeconf</span> to set up the PPPoE. However the route table isn't correct (I may miss some settings), so I ran the following commands to set the default via PPPoE:<br />
<pre><code>sudo ip route show
sudo ip route delete default
sudo ip route add default via [correct_gateway_ip]</code></pre><br />
I activated the driver, but it needs to restart and I don't know if this LiveCD can resume the session. Therefore, I continue to install Mint into harddrive. The installation took less than 10 minutes.<br />
<br />
After reboot, it went into problem, can't get X worked. The video driver is <b>nvidia</b> in <span style="background-color: #666666; color: white; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">xorg.conf</span>, I changed it to <b>nv</b>. Using mintUpdate to do first system update. I then re-installed the driver and activated it. After rebooting (30 seconds boot time), I got the login screen and correct resolution and xcompmgr is loaded and working.<br />
<br />
This Fluxbox version is pretty lightweight. So far, except the PPPoE and video driver, everything is work-out-of-box and neat. Color scheme and style are consistent.<br />
<br />
Lastly the screenshot:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/Sd1RnJzIyBI/AAAAAAAAB4k/xNu-91T6E0M/s1600-h/linuxmint.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/Sd1RnJzIyBI/AAAAAAAAB4k/xNu-91T6E0M/s400/linuxmint.png" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674060827425215823.post-72670506650273050552009-01-18T05:41:00.001+08:002009-01-18T05:41:30.926+08:00Distro#13 Topologilinux 7.0.1<a href="http://www.topologilinux.com/" id="r.65" title="Topologilinux">Topologilinux</a> lets you install alone with existing Windows, but you can also install as normal Linux installation. It's Slackware-based and for i486 only. I downloaded 7.0.1 DVD, which is released on 2009-01-10.<br />
<br />
I booted it with <span style="font-family: Courier New;">install-real</span> option. The instructions say that I need to do disk partitioning and the installation setup was mostly copied from Slackware 12.1. I <span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier New;">fdisk /dev/hda</span>, and create two partitions, root and swap, then run <span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier New;">setup</span>. The boot loader is LILO. The installation process is just like <a href="http://100distros.blogspot.com/2008/12/distro8-slackware-linux-122.html" id="o7qc" title="Distro#8 Slackware Linux 12.2">Distro#8 Slackware Linux 12.2</a>, but I chose GNOME as default window manager this time.<br />
<br />
After rebooted and logged in as root, I typed <span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier New;">setup</span> to configure, which leads to add new user and setup X, sound system.<br />
<br />
After rebooted and logged in as normal user, I tried to set up PPPoE via Network, but I couldn't my setting didn't get saved. So, I used <span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier New;">pppoe-setup</span>. Now, I need to install official nVidia driver. I rebooted with runlevel 3 for installing the driver by typing <span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier New;">Linux 3</span> in lilo. Since the kernel is not 2.6.27, which needs a patch, therefore it went smoothly.<br />
<br />
The Mixer applet complains that it couldn't find the sound device, it's resolved by adding normal user to gropup audio. Adobe Flash wasn't installed by default, I downloaded and installed, then watched <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9La40WwO-lU" id="xk9p" title="No Pants Subway Ride 2009">No Pants Subway Ride 2009</a>.<br />
<br />
I think this is it for all. It actually runs like Slackware, it is. As tradition, a screenshot:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SXJQVAggm7I/AAAAAAAABwY/Y2mm232OvQ0/s1600-h/Topologilinux.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SXJQVAggm7I/AAAAAAAABwY/Y2mm232OvQ0/s320/Topologilinux.png" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<i>You can be this is written and published on Topologilinux.</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674060827425215823.post-1784445014976195002009-01-06T19:49:00.001+08:002009-04-09T09:43:02.515+08:00Distro#12 gOS 3.1 Gadgets (SP1)I downloaded the <a href="http://www.thinkgos.com/" id="nvxs" title="gOS">gOS</a>, it's an i686 architecture distribution based on <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/" id="mgno" title="Ubuntu">Ubuntu</a>. The “g” in gOS seems to stand for <i>G</i>ood rather than <i>G</i>oogle, even though supporting Google Gadgets is the major feature of it.<br />
<br />
The CD is a Live CD, and includes WINE 1.0. The application dock is <a href="http://code.google.com/p/wbar/" id="ll93" title="wbar">wbar</a>. Using Live environment is not the purpose of this project, so I clicked the Install icon on desktop. It took about 15 minutes to finish at this phase. Here is a unusual action after the installer finished its job. It logged out X, ejected the disc tray, and rebooted! Directly, automatically did. Usually, the instally would tell you the installation process is done, take the CD, and click on Reboot button. Well, this is not how gOS does.<br />
<br />
Anyway, after the first-time reboot, the resolution is wrong as usual. Once again, I need to <span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier New;">pkill NetworkManager</span> in order to get connected via PPPoE<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier New;"></span>. Somehow this NetworkManager has no PPPoE to set up, I can only rely on Network.<br />
<br />
Now, the first system update needed to download 280 MB for 218 updates. They are too many to read them all, so I just clicked to install. While updating, I tried the Gmail, it uses <a href="http://labs.mozilla.com/projects/prism/" id="g.n7" title="Mozilla Prism">Mozilla Prism</a>. So do Google Calendar/Documents and YouTube.The rest of Google services use Firefox.<br />
<br />
The boot time is around 42 seconds at the moment. After rebooted, NetworkManager didn't stop my way to the Internet and PPPoE has been connected in the boot-time, I suppose and it should. I installed <b><span style="font-family: Courier New;">nvidia-glx</span></b> 96 series package, enabled the driver, and rebooted. Now I have correct screen resolution. It's time to explore this distribution.<br />
<br />
Desktop Effects can't be enabled due to <b style="font-family: Courier New;">compliz</b> isn't installed by default. After installed, I still can't get it enabled. Flash works out-of-the-box and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfAsibkCmZw" id="xnob" title="this">this</a> I just watched.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SWNFDg8j3cI/AAAAAAAABvA/94pKSHbiOVc/s1600-h/gOS.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SWNFDg8j3cI/AAAAAAAABvA/94pKSHbiOVc/s400/gOS.png" /></a></div><br />
This distribution does work like a charm for me, though there are few problems need to get resolved. But it is good indeed. I don't know if that is Ubuntu does good or gOS does good. No matter which does, I recommended this distribution, especially to the Google addicted users.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674060827425215823.post-91739435466447078692008-12-25T09:21:00.003+08:002009-01-03T18:06:12.692+08:00Distro#11 ZevenOS 1.0<a href="http://www.zevenos.com/" id="vh47" title="ZevenOS">ZevenOS</a> is a distribution from Germany. It gives you a BeOS interface and it's based on Ubuntu. I booted up the CD and installed it. The installation took about 10~15 minutes. It boots up in about 35 seconds.<br />
<br />
So far, a small problem is I need to re-plug my USB after booting and another bigger problem is that you <a href="http://www.zevenos.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=20" id="pjia" title="can't unlock Network">can't unlock Network</a> and <a href="http://www.zevenos.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=36">the solution</a> to change the settings. You must do manually in order to get updates and solve this issue.<br />
<br />
So I set my laptop as gateway and upgraded these two policy packages (didn't help), then I did system update and installed nVidia driver. Enabled the driver and rebooted. I have correct screen resolution.<br />
<br />
I think this is it, it's not worth continuing trying this distribution. The traditional ending,<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SVLgBIvpMvI/AAAAAAAABsQ/I7UflI4Np-Q/s1600-h/screenshot_01.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SVLgBIvpMvI/AAAAAAAABsQ/I7UflI4Np-Q/s400/screenshot_01.png" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<i>Even though this is a little bit disappointing, I still wrote this and post this on ZevenOS.</i><br />
<br />
<hr /><ul><li>2009-01-03 Added the solution of unlocking problem. (Thanks, Leszek!)</li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674060827425215823.post-62227788428878851092008-12-25T07:26:00.001+08:002008-12-25T07:26:33.416+08:00Distro#10 Simplis 2009<a href="http://www.simplis.org/" id="vwbm" title="Simplis' website">Simplis' website</a> doesn't have much useful information about the distro itself. According to <a href="http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=simplis" id="b-h_" title="Distrowatch">Distrowatch</a>, this distribution is <i>based on Fedora</i> and it does look so, and it was called “<b>Vixta</b>”. It seems to have special support to <i>eeePC</i> and <i>AcerOne</i>.<br />
<br />
After booted up, it's KDE 4.0 desktop environment. The screen resolution is 800x600. The desktop has few icons, I am interested in <b>simplis 3D</b> and <b>webcam</b>. The main menu has <b>aMSN</b>. But I think I should install first, therefore I clicked on <b>Install Simplis</b> icon on desktop. The installation took about 10 minutes.<br />
<br />
After booted the newly installed Simplis from harddisk, you will be prompted to create a normal user. In the login window, beside my normal account, there is already an user called <b>simplis</b>. After logged in with the normal user, I got prompted to input the password of simplis account. Since I don't have the password, I could only <i>ignore</i>.<br />
<br />
I set up DSL connection using NetworkManager and ran the first time system update. The repository source actually is <b>Fedora</b> and <b>RPMFusion</b> as well. I timed the boot time, it's about 45 seconds. I then remove <b>PackageKit</b> (troublesome) and tried to install nVidia 96xx driver, but I was being kept asking about <b>kernel 2.6.27.9-159</b>, which is not visible in yum. I downloaded it from Koji directly, then I installed <b>kmod-nvidia-96xx</b>. Now, I have correct resolution 1680x1050 and Compiz. Flash already works in Firefox 3.0.5.<br />
<br />
So far, I really don't see any visual customized stuff, which is different than Fedora. But I think the point of Simplis is that if you can install it, then you would have multimedia things worked out-of-the-box. I would say Simplis provides a different installation, but after all, it's same as Fedora. Of course, the default desktop environment is KDE.<br />
<br />
Lastly, a screenshot<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SVLE8zG6e8I/AAAAAAAABsA/9Ju5RIlgYyI/s1600-h/simplis.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SVLE8zG6e8I/AAAAAAAABsA/9Ju5RIlgYyI/s400/simplis.png" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<i>This post was written and posted on Simplis.</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674060827425215823.post-77529800373260248622008-12-20T06:12:00.001+08:002008-12-20T06:12:43.051+08:00Distro#9 Arch Linux 2008.12 NepalThis try has an additional goal, because I want <a href="http://www.archlinux.org/" id="y-lz" title="Arch Linux">Arch Linux</a> on my testing computer to be a working computer, I will use this install afterward. I had been using Arch Linux for few months. Since it will be kept, therefore I need to install it on another spare harddisk, then I can also continue this project. Actually this will be my second time to install Arch Linux on this computer, I think all things would run smoothly.<br />
<br />
The ISO I used is not a official release but a testing one. You can download the image in <a href="http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=60385" id="mwmt" title="this thread">this thread</a>, it's multi-architecture — i686 and x86_64 — installation image.<br />
<br />
The whole installation is quite simple and straightforward. It didn't run into any problems at first boot. I set up <a href="http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PPPoE_Setup_with_pppd" id="z2mh" title="PPPoE">PPPoE</a> and did system update. Currently, it took 1GB storage and booted up in 15 seconds.<br />
<br />
I added a normal user, then started to install packages for <a href="http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xorg" id="jxb1" title="X">X</a>. I installed <a href="http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NVIDIA" id="ksnb" title="nVidia driver">nVidia driver</a> from Arch's repo, <a href="http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gnome" id="sfhz" title="Awesome">GNOME</a>, and acpi. I also set up <a href="http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SSH" id="q_2c" title="sshd">sshd</a> in order to copy some configuration files from my laptop (I need to set up similar environment for this install).<br />
<br />
After I entered X, the text is sort of overlapping. That seems to be a <a href="http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=446304#p446304" id="h26t" title="render problem">render problem</a> and <a href="http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=122178" id="k..l" title="this thread">this thread</a> gives an not-the-best resolution by enabling the <a href="http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fonts#Fonts_with_LCD_filter_enabled" id="dkzd" title="anti-aliasing">anti-aliasing</a>. However, you may need to take more effort to deal with WINE apps if you intend to use WINE. Then, I found out I only need to install <b>ttf-bitstream-vera</b> and enable <b>Subpixel smoothing/Full Hinting</b> in System/Apperance/Font dialog. It's no need to install xyz-lcd packages but you need to ensure you have right <a href="http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fonts#Font_Packages_in_Arch_Linux" id="rvoo" title="fonts">fonts</a> installed.<br />
<br />
I then installed <a href="http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Flash_and_Adobe_Acrobat_browser_plugins" id="ojdk" title="Adobe Flash">Adobe Flash</a> and set up <a href="http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ALSA" id="ad0l" title="ALSA">ALSA</a> (permission and store/restore state). I need to disable <b>snd_pcsp</b> module in order to get sound in Flash worked.<br />
<br />
Arch Linux is simple to use if you could pay some time to read its wiki and forums. Its wiki is full of knowledge as Gentoo's is. Package management is easy to use, too. Forums is very actively.<br />
<br />
Lastly, a screenshot:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SUwcJPlV75I/AAAAAAAABqw/4f4nVHFDCHQ/s1600-h/archlinux.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SUwcJPlV75I/AAAAAAAABqw/4f4nVHFDCHQ/s400/archlinux.png" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<i>This post was written and posted on Arch Linux.</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674060827425215823.post-59072212784175919412008-12-12T19:59:00.001+08:002008-12-12T19:59:19.804+08:00Distro#8 Slackware Linux 12.2<a href="http://www.slackware.com/" id="x3v9" title="Slackware">Slackware</a> releases <a href="http://www.slackware.com/announce/12.2.php" id="k4.y" title="12.2">12.2</a> on 2008-12-11. I downloaded the DVD image via BitTorrent.<br />
<br />
It needs you to manually take care of partitioning. I didn't do partitioning but re-<b>mkfs</b> partitions from the existing partition table and mounted them under <span style="background-color: #666666; color: white; font-family: Courier New;">/mnt</span>.<br />
<br />
<pre>hda1 /boot
hda2 /
hda3 swap</pre><br />
After mounted hda2, I created <span style="background-color: #666666; color: white; font-family: Courier New;">/mnt/boot</span> to mount hda1. I don't know if that is necessary since <span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier New;">pkgtool</span> doesn't list what are requirements.<br />
<br />
Before I run <span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier New;">setup</span>, I set <span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier New;">TERM=vt100</span> to make sure I have colors. In <span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier New;">setup</span>, I realized that I only need to make sure the partition table is what I want and you don't need to mount unless you want to change an existing Slackware's packages. You can format partitions with help from <span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier New;">setup</span>. For package selection, I used default options with full install.<br />
<br />
I got an error message about mozilla-firefox-3.0.4-i686-1.tgz may be corrupt. I hit enter to continue. Later, it offered to create a USB boot stick and I knew the boot partition is useless because Slackware will be booted from <span style="background-color: #666666; color: white; font-family: Courier New;">/dev/hda2</span>.<br />
<br />
After rebooted, there are two mails with useful information in root's account. I ran <span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier New;">adduser </span>to add a normal user and logged in with it, then <span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier New;">startx</span>. It's KDE 3.5. I set up PPPOE using <span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier New;">pppoe-setup</span>. I also tried to install official nVidia driver, but can't build kernel module successfully. Now I only have 800x600 resolution. After installed, it took about 4.2GB. Kernel is 2.6.27.7<br />
<br />
After some research, that seems nVidia can't build up against kernel 2.6.27. You will see an error:<br />
<pre>error: asm/semaphore.h: No such file or directory</pre><br />
I got a <a href="http://bugs.gentoo.org/attachment.cgi?id=168800" id="x.gu" title="patch">patch</a> from Gentoo and I got it compiled with steps as follows:<br />
<pre>wget http://bugs.gentoo.org/attachment.cgi?id=168800 -O nvidia.patch
./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-96.43.07-pkg1 --extract-only
mv NVIDIA-Linux-x86-96.43.07-pkg1 NVIDIA-Linux-x86-96.43.07-pkg0
patch -p0 < nvidia.patch
cd NVIDIA-Linux-x86-96.43.07-pkg0
./nvidia-installer</pre><br />
I have to remove current <span style="background-color: #666666; color: white; font-family: Courier New;">xorg.conf</span> and generated new one using <span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Courier New;">nvidia-xconfig</span> and manually add 1680x1050 resolution in order to get the correct setting. Now It's perfect.<br />
<br />
Honestly, Slackware is easy to install if you already have knowledge of normal tasks on Linux. It shouldn't be hard to install or to use it. While the whole process, I met only one problem, the Firefox package. I downloaded the Firefox package and installed, this time it went smoothly. The nVidia driver issue is nVidia's issue and that will happen on all distributions.<br />
<br />
As of package management. I didn't play much with that, so I can give any thoughts about it. But I think that shouldn't hard to use.<br />
<br />
Lastly, a screenshot<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SUJR_K2w3GI/AAAAAAAABp0/pJq2rbg8Om8/s1600-h/Slackware.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SUJR_K2w3GI/AAAAAAAABp0/pJq2rbg8Om8/s400/Slackware.png" /></a></div><br />
<i>This post is written on Slackware Linux</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674060827425215823.post-30079553788488210662008-11-29T07:21:00.000+08:002008-11-29T07:25:27.775+08:00Distro#7 Foresight Linux 2.0.6<a href="http://www.foresightlinux.org/" id="yz3o" title="Foresight Linux">Foresight Linux</a> is based on <a href="http://www.rpath.com/rbuilder/project/rpath/" id="pox3" title="rPath Linux">rPath Linux</a> (according to <a href="http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=foresight" id="wjqd" title="DistroWatch">DistroWatch</a>). It supports installing x86 and x86_64 via medium DVD (1.3GB for 2.0.6). Here is the <a href="https://wiki.foresightlinux.org/display/docs/Getting+Started+with+Foresight+Linux" id="sgms" title="Getting Started">Getting Started</a> documentation.<br />
<br />
I booted up the DVD with graphical installer. The installer looks like as same as <a href="http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda" id="fg4r" title="Anaconda">Anaconda</a> installer. I also noticed the default boot loader is <a href="http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/EXTLINUX" id="s2k6" title="EXTLINUX">EXTLINUX</a> not GRUB. The first phase of installation took less than 20 minutes. The first-boot gave me out-out-range. I set up the PPPoE manually (using <b>rp-pppoe</b>), NetworkManager doesn't help again. I went to download official legacy nVidia 96 series driver and do first system update via <b>conary</b>. Currently the system used 3.7G and kernel is 2.6.27.5.<br />
<br />
After system update was done, I rebooted and timed. It took about 40 seconds to login screen. Then I booted up with runlevel 3 to install the nVidia driver. But the installer told me no ld program. So I ran:<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-family: Courier New;">sudo conary update binutils</span><br />
</div><br />
Then I got gcc was not found. I try to install using<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-family: Courier New;">sudo conary update group-gnome-dist-devel</span><br />
</div><br />
As instructed by <i>"<a href="https://wiki.foresightlinux.org/display/DEV/HOWTO+setup+a+2.x+build+environment" id="w_0l" title="HOWTO setup a 2.x build environment">HOWTO setup a 2.x build environment</a>"</i>, but I got<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-family: Courier New;">group-gnome-dist-devel was not found on path foresight.rpath.org@fl:2-kernel, foresight.rpath.org@fl:2, conary.rpath.com@rpl:2-qa (Closest alternate flavors found: [is: x86(~sse2)])</span><br />
</div><br />
Luckily (yea... took me an hour at least), I found <a href="http://forum.foresightlinux.org/index.php?topic=288.0" id="smsp" title="this thread">this thread</a>. And the solution is:<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-family: Courier New;">sudo conary update group-gnome-dist-devel['is: x86(~sse2)']</span><br />
</div><br />
Now I must say the package manager is a HELL. Who a newbie reads <span style="font-family: Courier New;">[is: x86(~sse2)]</span> would know how to use that? Anyway, I only install <span style="font-family: Courier New;">group-devel['is: x86(~sse2)']</span>, but this still installed a lot of package that I don't need.<br />
<br />
However, the driver installer still can't build kernel module, there is something wrong in kernel source. I followed the instructions in log file, but I got another error. I gave up from here!<br />
<br />
The screenshot:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/STB9xnGo0tI/AAAAAAAABhE/uTWT3ou8Xf4/s1600-h/Foresight+Linux+2.0.6" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/STB9xnGo0tI/AAAAAAAABhE/uTWT3ou8Xf4/s400/Foresight+Linux+2.0.6" /></a></div><br />
<i>This post was written and posted on Foresight Linux.</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674060827425215823.post-33687717597476688462008-11-27T09:38:00.003+08:002008-11-28T01:05:21.246+08:00Distro#6 Caos Linux NSA 1.0I thought I wouldn't try any distro for server usage. But it's been for a while no new releases. So I decided to give this <a href="http://www.caoslinux.org/index.html" id="qmd9" title="Caos Linux">Caos Linux</a> a try. It provides i386 or x86_64 architectures in CD image. I entered <b>autoinstall</b> to boot. It started at 0700 and 0703 to reboot.<br />
<br />
Well, that is stage 1. Next is to customize the system. In System Profile (aka. package group) choosing dialog, I picked up GUI and GL. Just a few second, installer told me a <b>sidekick</b>, then the login screen. The resolution is 800x600.<br />
<br />
The DE is XFCE. There is a dock. Now I need to find out how to set up PPPoE, but I couldn't find anything. There is a link to the <a href="http://wiki.caoslinux.org/Main_Page" id="htmc" title="Caos Linux Wiki">Caos Linux Wiki</a>, honestly, that's really hard to see. However, I still can't find any information about PPPoE on that wiki. Now I set up my laptop as router.<br />
<br />
Since PPPoE configuration hidden from me, I decided to install official nVidia driver. I booted into runlevel 3 and installed quite well. After rebooted, I got "out of range" but still can see the desktop. I added "1680x1050" mode to the configuration file and that made it worked.<br />
<br />
I think the PPPoE thing is probably the only disadvantage. Every thing else is running smoothly or being sorted out easily. Super-fast installation, I think that takes less than 10-15 minutes. Although this distro is primarily for server usage, but desktop should be fine, too. Lastly, a screenshot:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SS355hhz7DI/AAAAAAAABfg/EJbhUuoeG3s/s1600-h/caoslinux.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SS355hhz7DI/AAAAAAAABfg/EJbhUuoeG3s/s400/caoslinux.png" /></a></div><br />
<i>This post was written and posted on Caos Linux NSA.</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674060827425215823.post-72979963367066868172008-11-13T04:39:00.000+08:002008-11-13T04:39:50.376+08:00Distro#5 Sabayon Linux 3.5.1<blockquote style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">sa</span>‧ba</span><span style="font-size: large;">‧</span></i><span style="font-size: large;"><i>yon</i> defined as</span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">dreams we can believe in</span></b></blockquote>After one and a half months, I finally picked up another Linux distro to continue. I have a good feeling with <a href="http://www.sabayonlinux.org/">Sabayon</a> because booting options look quite nice from the installation DVD. You can have <b>Live environment</b>/<b>EeePC Boot</b>/Anonymous Internet Browsing/<b>Graphical or Text Installation</b>/XsistenCe or Play Sauerbraten Game. I have no idea some of them are. Anyway, Graphical Installation is what I am going to do.<br />
<br />
The installation media have <b>DVD</b> or a Mini edition (fits in a <b>CD</b>), and there are two common architectures, <b>x86</b> or <b>x86-64</b>.<br />
<br />
After a while the waiting screen, I saw the nVidia logo, which means Sabayon loads the official nVidia driver. Although the resolution is not the best one, but that is really a good start. I also like the graphical design and the blue tone throughout the installation so far.<br />
<br />
The first thing to decide is the desktop environment. <b>KDE</b>/<b>GNOME</b>/<b>XFCE</b>/<b>Fluxbox</b>, special for EeePC, or only core stuff. I chose GNOME. In the partitioning, I see it using <b>LVM</b>. And now it's installing files, the only thing I think that's missing is the DVD integrity check or I did miss?<br />
<br />
While waiting file installing, I am reading <a href="http://wiki.sabayonlinux.org/index.php?title=En:Sabayon_Linux">Sabayon Linux Overview</a> on its <a href="http://www.sabayonlinux.org/wiki/">wiki</a>. It is based on and compatible with Gentoo Linux, follows <b>Out-of-the-box</b> functionality and <b>KISS</b> as their philosophy. This wiki page also explains those booting options which I didn't know before. The package management system is <a href="http://wiki.sabayonlinux.org/index.php?title=En:Entropy">Entropy</a>. The installation system is a Fluxbox DE, you can do things just like in a Live environment.<br />
<br />
The booting takes about 53 seconds to login screen. I saw Picasa, Google Earth, Battle for Wesnoth, and few others on desktop. First thing is to set up PPPoE. Once again, I need to set up with <b>pppoe-setup</b> manually. After connected, I launched <b>Spritz Package Manager</b> to do the first time system update. Currently the installation has taken 11GB space, that is quite huge, but you really get a long long list of applications. There is one thing to note, I saw an ad space in Spritz.<br />
<br />
Just a note, if you force to quite Spritz for some reasons, you need to remove <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">/var/lib/entropy/entropy.pid</span> and <b>reboot</b> to let Entropy system to get working again.<br />
<br />
I ran the NVIDIA X Server Settings on desktop to change the resolution and that did change on the fly.<br />
<br />
Then, I realized that PPPoE still not working even I did get an IP, but I don't want to fix that. Generally the OOTB philosophy is not the case in my install, and that's all for this distro.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SRs-8cbQoVI/AAAAAAAABa4/CFv01GMQgKw/s1600-h/Sabayon+3.5.1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SRs-8cbQoVI/AAAAAAAABa4/CFv01GMQgKw/s320/Sabayon+3.5.1.png" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674060827425215823.post-3975722196754157192008-09-29T08:02:00.000+08:002008-09-29T08:02:14.220+08:00Distro#4 Absolute 12.1.07<blockquote><i>A <a href="http://www.slackware.com/">Slackware</a>-based distro for i486+ architecture focuses on lightweight, easy installation, desktop purpose, stability and security.</i></blockquote>The words above is what I see from <a href="http://www.pcbypaul.com/absolute/">Absolute Linux's website</a>. I haven't tried Slackware, therefore I can't tell if it is better after I install Absolute. There are two install CDs, only first one is necessary, second one has kernel source and some usual applications, e.g. OpenOffice. You can read a list of packages at <a href="http://www.pcbypaul.com/absolute/packages/index.html">download page</a>. There is also a <a href="http://www.pcbypaul.com/absolute/installing/index.html">Step-by-Step</a> page has many screenshots about installation process if you want a peek at the process.<br />
<br />
At 0458, I booted up from cd, chose <b>AUTOSETUP</b> to install, which used <b>reiserfs</b> as default file system. Started installing packages at 0501. At 0510, configured for modem/mouse/network/startup services/timezone/etc. 0513, pressed CTRL+ALT+DEL to reboot. The whole installing process took only 15 minutes, that is the fastest I have installed. Quite amazing.<br />
<br />
After logged in as root (we will create one normal user later) and <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">startx</span>, the resolution is incorrect, 1792x1344. Window manager is <b>Icewm</b>. The startup sound is kind of weird.., then you will read a <b>First Run info for Absolute</b> document in Firefox. <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">xrandr</span> doesn't report the correct one. I decided to download the official nVidia driver. PPPoE is able to be set up (<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">pppoe-setup</span>) right away and lynx is available to download the driver. I don't have kernel source, I guess the only way (I don't know if kernel is patched, therefore I wouldn't download from kernel.org) is to download the CD2 entirely. <strike>So far not so good, I wouldn't recommend anyone this distro, LFS is more easier than this.</strike> After downloaded the CD2, there is a .txt, which denotes <b>"This is the complete and <i>unmodified</i> source code for the Linux kernel."</b><br />
<br />
I unpacked it, a <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">slack-desc</span> is right there. Obviously, a package manager is in this system, but I don't know what it is <strike>and nothing is mentioned on the website</strike> (Later, after installed nVidia, I found out that info is written in the <b>First Run info</b> or this <a href="http://www.pcbypaul.com/absolute/getting_started/index.html">Getting Started</a>, sorry Absolute. But what if the user never can get into X?). I got the <a href="http://www.slackware.com/config/packages.php">information</a> from Slackware's website. I ran <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">installpkg kernel-source-2.6.24.7_abs-noarch-1AL.tgz</span>, the nVidia driver installer built the driver. Oh yeah! nVidia green logo!<br />
<br />
Now, I am following the first time info. First thing is to install optional multimedia packages from main menu. The dialog says that may take a half hour to install. Mean while, I created a normal user and check what I have in main menu. The file manager is ROX. The Documentation submenu collects documents of Slackware, Absolute, Icewm, ROX, other apps, etc. Firefox is 3.0.1, Flash works out-of-box, also has Asian fonts. There are many <a href="http://www.pcbypaul.com/absolute/installing/index.html">utilities</a> I haven't seen before. The optional multimedia packages finally installed after more than an hour, downloading took too much time. I then reboot to count the booting time, that takes 40 seconds, that is longer than I expected.<br />
<br />
Generally, Absolute is quick and easy to install, that's all the features I can name for it. Lastly, a screenshot<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SOAaonFwvqI/AAAAAAAABRo/sDpCb71OzZU/s1600-h/screenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SOAaonFwvqI/AAAAAAAABRo/2RVfsieVf_8/s320-R/screenshot.png" /></a></div>and a weird penguin (a result of waiting installing multimedia packages)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SOAa1Ihau6I/AAAAAAAABRw/yHBgYhFhI7E/s1600-h/weird-penguin.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SOAa1Ihau6I/AAAAAAAABRw/uQvw3FkdEIk/s320-R/weird-penguin.png" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674060827425215823.post-13676991805872260062008-09-22T19:40:00.000+08:002008-09-22T19:44:34.007+08:00Distro#3 Pardus 2008.1 Hyaena hyaena<a href="http://www.pardus.org.tr/eng/index.html">Pardus</a> is from Turkey. The version I installed is 2008.1 Hyaena hyaena. It only requires average hardwares: <br />
<ul><li>256 MB memory (512 MB recommended)</li>
<li>800 MHz Intel or AMD processor (1200 MHz recommended)</li>
<li>At least 4 GB of free hard disk space (10 GB recommended)</li>
</ul>I guess that is why I didn't see "64" in the download options. You can download a normal installation CD or a live CD from FTP/Torrent. Here are some <a href="http://www.pardus.org.tr/eng/screenshots/installation/screen-01.html">screenshots</a> from 2007 release.<br />
<br />
At 1600, booted from CD, I pressed F2 to switch to English interface. In a few moments, it brought up the Pardus installer. The installer use the correct resolution of my LCD monitor, which is 1680x1050, it's a well-designed soft orange theme. The first thing to do is accepting GPL, then I can check the CD integrity, that took about 3 minutes. After checking, setting timezone and creating a new users. In the creating user screen, it allows you to give the administrator privileges to new user, I didn't check it. Once you satisfied to proceed next, you can set the root's password and hostname. Next step is partitioning disk, then GRUB. The automatic partitioning doesn't create a swap for me. Anyway, I clicked on Begin Install button to start installing. While installing and configuring, you will see some well-known icons of the packages, that is interesting. After exactly 20 minutes, this phase is done. Time for first boot!<br />
<br />
It took 48 seconds to logging screen. It is a <b>KDE</b>. The first window is one called <b>Kaptan Welcome Wizard</b>, it let you do some configurations for this new system. However, the <b>Network</b> doesn't give me the PPPoE option. After finished all steps in this window, it told me about <b>Tasma</b>, a configuration application for Pardus. I still can't have PPPoE in this new Tasma tool, therefore I am seeking help from <b>Package Manager</b>, <b>PiSi</b>. I searched for PPPoE and tried to install it. Obviously, that can't be done since I don't have Internet connection for now and CD isn't in. However, there is not <b>rp-pppoe</b> package on the CD, but I saw <b>ppp</b> package and installed it. For unknown reason, I can't su. Later, I realized that I need a administrator privilege to su or sudo. After manually set up a DSL link, I did a first updating with only three packages only.<br />
<br />
The current X display driver is <b>nv</b>, so I installed <b>nvidia</b> packages and ran <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">nvidia-xconfig</span>, then rebooted. But that didn't work, so I removed and tried the package directly from nVidia. Still couldn't get it to work, it reported that it can't open <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">/dev/nvidiactl</span>. I am not gonna solve this.<br />
<br />
The sound system works, so does Flash. The default fonts seem to only have western fonts. One strange thing is it use runlevel 3 to bring up X, not usual runlevel 5.<br />
<br />
I think this distro is nice and cute, e.g. PiSi. However, I still met few problems, like PPPoE and nVidia driver. So far, I haven't installed a distro which can completely work out of box for all my needs. It doesn't take too much storage, about 3.X GB after installation. Memory usage is ok, about 3XX MB after logging in. Didn't take too long to install, just about 30 minutes. This is an regular distro, you won't get into much troubles, but still need to fix!<br />
<br />
Lastly, a screenshot:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SNd-QpR67cI/AAAAAAAABPo/HBd90eaHmK0/s1600-h/snapshot1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SNd-QpR67cI/AAAAAAAABPo/liN0niRva0g/s320-R/snapshot1.png" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674060827425215823.post-80401940232307777812008-09-18T04:20:00.003+08:002008-09-22T19:43:49.341+08:00Distro#2 openSUSE 11.0The second distro in this project is <a href="http://www.opensuse.org/">openSUSE</a> 11.0. I burned the DVD for 32Bit PC, it also provides 64Bit PC and PowerPC as well. You can use DVD, LiveCD, or netinstall to install openSUSE. Beside FTP/HTTP downloading, Torrent is also available. The <a href="http://en.opensuse.org/Installation/11.0_DVD_Install">installation guide</a> shows the good looking screen, I think that's the best I have seen in my experiences of five distro installs.<br />
<br />
After booted up from DVD, I asked checking media at 1:46, I always do this if there is a option when I firstly install from a new burned disc. You don't want to wrongly blame a distro not working because there is a problem on the disc. It finished checking at 2:03, took almost 20 minutes.<br />
<br />
After checked the disc, it directly loaded the installation system (YaST2). So, here we go! After accepted the terms, it started probing the hardwares. I used the Automatic Configuration and then chose GNOME 2.22. It also provides KDE 3.5/4.0, XFCE, Minimal X Window, and Minimal Server Selection (Text Mode) at this stage. As for partitioning, you can use LVM if you want. Next step is creating a normal user. In this screen, there is an checkbox says Use this password for system administrator, therefore I assumed that is like we have on Ubuntu and OSX. I didn't uncheck Automatic Login<b></b>.<br />
<br />
Now it gave an overview of installation before performing the installation. It gave the last warning about the harddisk is going to be formatted. It started installation around 2:20, and finished at 2:34. In the process, it shows a nice time meter about packages/size/time.<br />
<br />
At 2:35, it brought up Automatic Configuration window. At this stage, you have to choose detecting or skipping a type of hardwares, one type by one type. After that, I saw a green background and lasted a while. Then an error message about GNOME Settings Daemon, but I sure that the installation is completed at 2:42.<br />
<br />
Now, it's the time to do first-time updating, but I need to set up DSL, I suppose. I opened up the Control Center, and DSL is right there, the first icon. After I created a new provider, it asked installing a new package smpppd, and it can't access package database. So I clicked on Install Software, and hope I can installed that package from DVD. Again, I got same error. I also tried the options in YaST.<br />
<br />
By the way, memory usage is 230 MB. I checked the disc, and found <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">/media/SU1100.001/suse/i586/smpppd-1.59_SVN16-10.1.i586.rpm</span>. I use rpm to install three RPMs<br />
<blockquote><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">sudo rpm -i wvdial-1.60-31.1.i586.rpm smpppd-1.59_SVN16-10.1.i586.rpm wvstreams-4.4.1-32.1.i586.rpm</span></blockquote>DSL configuration window seems to work now, the packages are getting installed from DVD. After rebooted (takes about 53 seconds to desktop completely), I have Internet connection. At 3:19, I finally can do the first-time update, it only took a minute for some packages. Then, update notifier said there are another packages need to be updated, so I did update. The weird thing just happened, for the administrative tasks, after I typed the root password, I got nothing. No error window, just nothing. After rebooted, still nothing, I broke openSUSE, nooo!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Since I have broken it, I am not going to do anything more, although I can still su in terminal. Time to conclude. The whole process till now, I saw few small errors. It's kind of buggy. They may be avoidable if I know more about openSUSE, or maybe not. It's easy to install, and easy to break something perhaps?. I didn't feel it's easy to use. This could be biased by my other experiences. The memory usage is low, which I like. Overall, I wouldn't use it.<br />
<br />
Lastly, a screenshot,<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SNFkUuDuP6I/AAAAAAAABOI/dw0zawO42HE/s1600-h/Screenshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SNFkUuDuP6I/AAAAAAAABOI/52hwP7TsFJc/s320-R/Screenshot.png" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674060827425215823.post-22399941203154197132008-09-16T08:41:00.002+08:002008-09-22T19:44:03.784+08:00Distro#1 Frugalware Linux 0.9I chose <a href="http://frugalware.org/">Frugalware Linux</a> as the first distro of this project because it is the latest stable release among distros (as of 2008-09-16). First thing is reading the webpage, and downloading the CD/DVD images. It supports <span style="font-style: italic;">CD</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">DVD</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">netinstall</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">USB</span> and others installing methods. It has more than one CD or DVD, you can download via FTP/HTTP/rsync or Torrent. I have Internet connection, so I think I only need to first DVD. If I was wrong, I just download second disc and burn. Two archs are available, i686 and x86_64.<br />
<br />
While downloading, I was reading its <a href="http://frugalware.org/docs/stable/index">documentation</a>. I felt it's like <span style="font-weight: bold;">Arch Linux</span>, or any distro relating to <span style="font-weight: bold;">KISS philosophy</span>. But it should be a simpler installation.<br />
<br />
The installation has only text mode, but we can have <span style="font-weight: bold;">Framebuffer</span> support while installing. My computer booted from DVD at 4:43 with USB keyboard and I chose 800x600x32 VESA mode, which is the largest one in screen resolution. It support to install with <span style="font-style: italic;">Software RAID</span>. Doesn't have auto partition. I use cfdisk (there are other two utilities for use) to part one swap 2.1G, rest are root fs ext3. It will let you to format by choosing from text menu, you don't have to use mkfs manually. Then you can choose if you want to use expert menus, I chose not to. If you say yes, you can finely choose C libs/compiler/include files/... packages. I only add one more group, network-extra, because I need PPPoE and I don't know if network group already has it. Now, the Frugalware is installing 1141 packages for me, it's about 4GB unpacked size, took around 23 minutes to complete the package installation.<br />
<br />
The following steps is installing GRUB bootloader, setting root password, creating a normal user, hostname, network connection. It shows dhcp, static, dsl, and lo. I set up static, then dsl. Next items are hardware clock, console mouse, X screen resolution. I use 1680x1050.<br />
<br />
Done, took less than an hour.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/livibetter/2860486563/" title="#1 Frugalware Linux 0.9 by livibetter, on Flickr"><img alt="#1 Frugalware Linux 0.9" height="160" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3175/2860486563_1e2942d7c0_m.jpg" width="240" /></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/livibetter/2860486567/" title="#1 Frugalware Linux 0.9 by livibetter, on Flickr"><img alt="#1 Frugalware Linux 0.9" height="160" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3284/2860486567_44d222e14e_m.jpg" width="240" /></a><br />
<br />
It took about <span style="font-weight: bold;">50 seconds</span> to login screen. The resolution is 800x600, would try to solve later. Default session is KDE 3.5. The first task is updating packages, but there is no PPP link. pppoe complains missing of <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">/etc/ppp/pppoe.conf</span>. After manually set one in <span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">/etc/ppp/peers</span>, I have the Internet connection. So I ran pacman -Syu, amazingly no package need to update.<br />
<br />
Now back to video problem. I don't have <span style="font-weight: bold;">DRI</span>. I installed nvidia package and removed libgl and libglx because of conflicts. Downloading speed is around 1 MB/s. But it seems to have problem to insert kernel module, I got an error "No such device". I <span style="font-weight: bold;">updatedb</span>, and check for nvidia.ko, it's there. So, I rebooted, it asked for a password to do that. I broke X. Reinstalling libgl and libglx with pacman -Sd libgl libglx, trying to reboot *figures crossed*.<br />
<br />
I tried to see if this nvidia driver (173 series) support my card or not, it seems that I need to use <span style="font-weight: bold;">legacy 96 series driver</span>. I switch to console to run installer. The installer needs to compile kernel module, after few enters and rebooting, I saw nVidia logo! But the resolution is still wrong. however I have DRI (glxgears: 1,791 FPS) now. After manually edited xorg.conf and restarted X, I have 1680x1050 now.<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SM77Yz44ctI/AAAAAAAABMo/vtqMJmYCgdU/s1600-h/snapshot1.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5246407019597427410" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CLdf4ORfzWk/SM77Yz44ctI/AAAAAAAABMo/vtqMJmYCgdU/s320/snapshot1.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" /></a>I plugged my camera and imported those photos, but I can't see them and there is no ufraw package. I have to use my laptop to do the job, don't want to use more time on it.<br />
<br />
The Adobe Flash has installed by default for Firefox 3, and audio works.<br />
<br />
Well, I think that's all for this install. Honest speaking, I didn't encounter any real problems so far. However, I think it's definitely not for a newbie of Linux, especially those don't know how to solve a problem. Installation process is less an hour, it's not fast nor slow. You don't have to run any Linux commands if everything works fine. It takes about 4.8 GB storage for default options. The only drawback is booting takes too long, especially before <span style="font-weight: bold;">init</span>.<br />
<br />
(This post was written within Firefox on Frgualware Linux 0.9)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674060827425215823.post-46151604961284091052008-09-16T08:32:00.018+08:002009-04-13T06:56:17.099+08:00TimelineWhat I have installed are listed here:<br />
<ol><li><a href="http://100distros.blogspot.com/2008/09/distro1-frugalware-linux-09.html">2008-09-16 Frugalware Linux 0.9</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://100distros.blogspot.com/2008/09/distro2-opensuse-110.html">2008-09-18 openSUSE 11.0</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://100distros.blogspot.com/2008/09/distro3-pardus-20081-hyaena-hyaena.html">2008-09-22 Pardus 2008.1 Hyaena hyaena</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://100distros.blogspot.com/2008/09/distro4-absolute-12107.html">2008-09-29 Absolute 12.1.07</a></li>
<li><a href="http://100distros.blogspot.com/2008/11/distro5-sabayon-linux-351.html">2008-11-13 Sabayon Linux 3.5.1</a></li>
<li><a href="http://100distros.blogspot.com/2008/11/distro6-caos-linux-nsa-10.html">2008-11-27 Caos Linux NSA 1.0</a></li>
<li><a href="http://100distros.blogspot.com/2008/11/distro7-foresight-linux-206.html">2008-11-29 Foresight Linux 2.0.6</a></li>
<li><a href="http://100distros.blogspot.com/2008/12/distro8-slackware-linux-122.html">2008-12-12 Slackware Linux 12.2</a></li>
<li><a href="http://100distros.blogspot.com/2008/12/distro9-arch-linux-200812-nepal.html">2008-12-20 Arch Linux 2008.12 Nepal</a></li>
<li><a href="http://100distros.blogspot.com/2008/12/distro10-simplis-2009.html">2008-12-25 Simplis 2009</a></li>
<li><a href="http://100distros.blogspot.com/2008/12/distro11-zevenos-10.html">2008-12-25 ZevenOS 1.0</a></li>
<li><a href="http://100distros.blogspot.com/2009/01/distro12-gos-31-gadgets-sp1.html">2009-01-06 gOS 3.1 Gadgets (SP1)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://100distros.blogspot.com/2009/01/distro13-topologilinux-701.html">2009-01-18 Topologilinux 7.0.1</a></li>
<li><a href="http://100distros.blogspot.com/2009/04/distro14-linux-mint-6-felicia-fluxbox.html">2009-04-09 Linux Mint 6 Felicia Fluxbox CE</a></li>
<li><a href="http://100distros.blogspot.com/2009/04/distro15-kwort-linux-2411.html">2009-04-12 Kwort Linux 2.4.1.1</a></li>
<li><a href="http://100distros.blogspot.com/2009/04/distro16-slax-610.html">2009-04-13 Slax 6.1.0</a><br />
</li>
</ol>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674060827425215823.post-53021895040764540942008-09-16T07:59:00.007+08:002008-11-28T01:05:39.758+08:00The HardwareHere is a brief list of hardwares which would be used in this project:<br />
<ul><li>Shuttle SN41V30 nForce2 IGP + MCP-T</li>
<li>AMD Barton 3000+<br />
</li>
<li>GeForce4 MX<br />
</li>
<li>2GB memory</li>
<li>40GB IDE harddisk</li>
<li>DVD drive</li>
<li>Bluetooth Keyboard & Mouse via Bluetooth dongle as USB input devices<br />
</li>
<li>Bluetooth adapter<br />
</li>
</ul>lspci:<br />
<pre>00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (different version?) (rev a2)
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
Capabilities: [40] AGP version 2.0
Capabilities: [60] HyperTransport: Host or Secondary Interface
Kernel driver in use: agpgart-nvidia
Kernel modules: nvidia-agp
00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 1 (rev a2)
Subsystem: Holco Enterprise Co, Ltd/Shuttle Computer Device f541
Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel
00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 4 (rev a2)
Subsystem: Holco Enterprise Co, Ltd/Shuttle Computer Device f541
Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel
00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 3 (rev a2)
Subsystem: Holco Enterprise Co, Ltd/Shuttle Computer Device f541
Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel
00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 2 (rev a2)
Subsystem: Holco Enterprise Co, Ltd/Shuttle Computer Device f541
Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel
00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 5 (rev a2)
Subsystem: Holco Enterprise Co, Ltd/Shuttle Computer Device f541
Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 ISA Bridge (rev a4)
Subsystem: Holco Enterprise Co, Ltd/Shuttle Computer Device f541
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
Capabilities: [48] HyperTransport: Slave or Primary Interface
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation nForce2 SMBus (MCP) (rev a2)
Subsystem: Holco Enterprise Co, Ltd/Shuttle Computer Device f541
Flags: 66MHz, fast devsel, IRQ 5
I/O ports at e400 [size=32]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Kernel driver in use: nForce2_smbus
Kernel modules: i2c-nforce2
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Holco Enterprise Co, Ltd/Shuttle Computer Device f541
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 22
Memory at e0080000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd
Kernel modules: ohci-hcd
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Holco Enterprise Co, Ltd/Shuttle Computer Device f541
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 21
Memory at e0083000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd
Kernel modules: ohci-hcd
00:02.2 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Holco Enterprise Co, Ltd/Shuttle Computer Device f541
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 20
Memory at e0086000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: [44] Debug port: BAR=1 offset=0080
Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2
Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
Kernel modules: ehci-hcd
00:04.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Ethernet Controller (rev a1)
Subsystem: Holco Enterprise Co, Ltd/Shuttle Computer Device f541
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 22
Memory at e0087000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
I/O ports at d000 [size=8]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Kernel driver in use: forcedeth
Kernel modules: forcedeth
00:05.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce Audio Processing Unit (rev a2)
Subsystem: Holco Enterprise Co, Ltd/Shuttle Computer Device f541
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 5
Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AC97 Audio Controler (MCP) (rev a1)
Subsystem: Holco Enterprise Co, Ltd/Shuttle Computer Device f541
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 20
I/O ports at d400 [size=256]
I/O ports at d800 [size=128]
Memory at e0081000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Kernel driver in use: Intel ICH
Kernel modules: snd-intel8x0
00:08.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 External PCI Bridge (rev a3) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=32
Kernel modules: shpchp
00:09.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation nForce2 IDE (rev a2) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
Subsystem: Holco Enterprise Co, Ltd/Shuttle Computer Device f541
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
[virtual] Memory at 000001f0 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=8]
[virtual] Memory at 000003f0 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=1]
[virtual] Memory at 00000170 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=8]
[virtual] Memory at 00000370 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=1]
I/O ports at f000 [size=16]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Kernel driver in use: AMD_IDE
Kernel modules: pata_amd
00:0d.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): nVidia Corporation nForce2 FireWire (IEEE 1394) Controller (rev a3) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Holco Enterprise Co, Ltd/Shuttle Computer Device f541
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 21
Memory at e0084000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
Memory at e0085000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64]
Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
Kernel driver in use: firewire_ohci
Kernel modules: ohci1394, firewire-ohci
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32
Bus: primary=00, secondary=03, subordinate=03, sec-latency=32
Memory behind bridge: dc000000-ddffffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: d4000000-dbffffff
Kernel modules: shpchp
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX - nForce GPU] (rev a3) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Holco Enterprise Co, Ltd/Shuttle Computer Device f540
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 10
Memory at dc000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at d4000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
Memory at d8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=512K]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at d8080000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [44] AGP version 2.0
</pre>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674060827425215823.post-40796277338051104802008-09-14T08:28:00.004+08:002008-11-28T01:05:39.760+08:00100 Distros Mean?I am going to install 100 GNU/Linux distributions. Only installing, not really using. This is a <span style="font-style: italic;">one-time long-term</span> project and could be extremely meaningless. I probably can't gain anything from it. It's not hard, but really takes time.<br /><br />No matter <span style="font-weight: bold;">Dead</span> or <span style="font-weight: bold;">Live</span>, I meant successful or failed of a install, both count one. I haven't decide which distro be my first try in this project, but it wouldn't be <a href="http://fedoraproject.org/">Fedora</a>, <a href="http://archlinux.org/">Arch Linux</a>, or <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a> since I recently have used them. That won't be fresh for me. Moreover I might not try any doesn't modify the Linux installation process alot like <a href="http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/">LFS</a> (It actually isn't a distro in my view).<br /><br />How far is a completion? I think (under my environment)<br /><ul><li>X with default WM of the distro</li><li>Connect to Internet (PPPoE, via wired)</li><li>Try to write a post using the distro<br /></li></ul>I will write down what I see through all process, maybe take few pictures. Is that easy to finish installation. Everything will only use default options, I will not try to modify any configuration in shell if the distro intends to run under graphical environment.<br /><br />One thing I will never do is rating. It'd not be fair if I don't use it. Once I get 100 installs, this project will not be active anymore.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0