Distro#7 Foresight Linux 2.0.6

Foresight Linux is based on rPath Linux (according to DistroWatch). It supports installing x86 and x86_64 via medium DVD (1.3GB for 2.0.6). Here is the Getting Started documentation.

I booted up the DVD with graphical installer. The installer looks like as same as Anaconda installer. I also noticed the default boot loader is EXTLINUX 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 rp-pppoe), NetworkManager doesn't help again. I went to download official legacy nVidia 96 series driver and do first system update via conary. Currently the system used 3.7G and kernel is 2.6.27.5.

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:

sudo conary update binutils

Then I got gcc was not found. I try to install using

sudo conary update group-gnome-dist-devel

As instructed by "HOWTO setup a 2.x build environment", but I got

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)])

Luckily (yea... took me an hour at least), I found this thread. And the solution is:

sudo conary update group-gnome-dist-devel['is: x86(~sse2)']

Now I must say the package manager is a HELL. Who a newbie reads [is: x86(~sse2)] would know how to use that? Anyway, I only install group-devel['is: x86(~sse2)'], but this still installed a lot of package that I don't need.

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!

The screenshot:

This post was written and posted on Foresight Linux.

Distro#2 openSUSE 11.0

The second distro in this project is openSUSE 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 installation guide shows the good looking screen, I think that's the best I have seen in my experiences of five distro installs.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

By the way, memory usage is 230 MB. I checked the disc, and found /media/SU1100.001/suse/i586/smpppd-1.59_SVN16-10.1.i586.rpm. I use rpm to install three RPMs

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

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!

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.

Lastly, a screenshot,