Linux

Dails efforts…

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Finally a productive day… Because every one else but me slept through most of the afternoon ^_^

I finished adding a summary mode to my script, later I want to put in user agent exclusions among other things; so it can be tuned to more automated traffic hehe.

I also managed to install Ubuntu 8.04 on SAL1600 today, I’m very happy to say that the boot time is a heck of a lot better then 6.06 was when I inertially tested the distribution. The installer is more complex then PC-BSDs but still quite simple, last time I needed to use an ‘alternate’ install CD with a hacked debian installer in order to get GRUB in Ubuntu’s / rather then screwing with GAG. This time, I only had to scratch my head enough to choose the ‘advanced’ button before commiting to the format & install — and select the location to install GRUB to hehe 😉

Got done in about a half hour, counting setting up a few packages (nVidia drivers, g++, JDK, zsh, etc) and I can finish the rest later. I’m not very partial to Ubuntu although I do greatly like the human theme for Gnome they use. While both FreeBSD 6.x and Linux 2.6.x are fully able to support my desktops hardware: FreeBSD works perfectly out of the box other then sound, which is just a driver away. Most Linux distro on the other hand, need me to screw with things. Debian Sarge for example tried to convice me I had no hard drive controller or network interface, for which NetBSD agreed and Slackware concurred about the NIC ^_^.

I want to test CrossOver Games to see if I could get Rvs or SWAT4:TSS working in it… There is a trial for PC-BSD but the Linux version is supposed to work better and is officially supported. I’ve heard that WINE has improved greatly on FreeBSD (and PC-BSD 1.5.x includes patches to aid it afaik). Even with the gripes of WINE working much better on Linux then FreeBSD, I only tested it on FreeBSD two years ago and threw it out as useless for even light duty gaming.

I’d really prefer to be running Slackware or Gentoo if I had to run a GNU/Linux distro off my desktop… But I don’t have time to muck about just for testing this thing, hence the Ubuntu installation lol. I expect it will fail horribly and I’m not expecting much more then being able to get RvS installed but I’ll give it a go. And to be frank, with how poorly done Rvs and SWAT4 are from a software perspective… I’m really supprised people can run then on Vista, hell we have to side-step problems the games have with modern graphics cards (and SWAT4:TSS ain’t that fucking old!)

To be honest, I think I would have to create my own “Linux From Scratch” system to ever truly be happy with a Linux distro, that or just install OpenBSD instead and be perfectly happy hehe xD. But, in terms of having to run a specific OS, I’d be much more happy with GNU/Linux then I am with Windows XP. The only reason I’ve never removed WinXP from my desktop is I need one game box, you could say… If I wasn’t in [SAS] then I would be totally and 100% free of Windows for the rest of my days. But I love my team to damn much to leave, even if it means having to keep one working copy of Windows around.

The thing that really pisses me off, I can run FreeBSD and Linux on my desktop and it is rock solid for all I need it to do (y). Running Windows XP on the same machine, I only *wish* I could say the same hahaha. Between the nVidia drivers, Direct X 9, and Creative Labs + Raven Shield not playing nicely together it loves to get blue screens of death under XP.

At least when a machine has problems with running BSD or Linux, you generally get what you paid for but when Windows has problems, it blows because you got charged by every bastard along the way and his dog too!

Musings about the new GCC

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GCC 4.3.0 exposes a kernel bug

Interesting discussion,

I know FreeBSD 7 is moving to GCC4 for the system compiler, iirc 7.0-Release comes with 4.2.x. I have GCC 4.3 installed on this laptop but my primary reason for it is that I wanted to try GCJ, the GNU Compiler for Java :-).

I can’t say the same about Linux distros but I’d expect FreeBSD to always make sure the systems compiler won’t have problems with a build world/kernel cycle.

I’ve only used GCCs 3.x.x C and C++ compilers but I’m not partial, all I expect from a compiler is sufficient standards compliance to the current standards. GCC 3.4.6 might not be perfect but hey, it beats Microsoft’s C Compiler hands down last I tried it :-).

I used to collect some types of software, text editors, terminal emulators, shells, window managers, and sometimes even office suites but I never took to collecting C Compilers. Largely because I don’t want to sit and wait to compile one more often then needed haha.

Play time

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About 25:17 woth of downloading later I burnt the disk, install went great but Linux hangs during the boot 🙁

I installed KateOS on my laptop using a spare storage partition. It works great aside from not auto-detecting my Atheros based PCMCIA card with the rest of my hardware. The default Desktop Environment is Xfce4, never used any of the Xfce’s but it’s a dandy GTK+ based one. I found it some one suprising that I had to create my own ~/.xinitrc to be able to log in through the GUI but it was as simple as coping roots to my home directory.

Surprisingly with the exception of Live CD’s, I have never had a Linux Distro that just ‘worked’ with my hardware :. I’ve always had to screw with them to get them work, even in Ubuntu when I tested 6.06 to try Gnome. Although I must admit having to rewrite Ubuntu’s /etc/fstab was not as annoying as Debian and NetBSD telling me I have no hard drive xD

FreeBSD has always worked well for me, except on one laptop. Which I could swear should have been marketed as a ‘Wintop’ lol.

Maybe it’s just a strange twist of fate, I generally get along with FreeBSD/OpenBSD more readidly and vice versa in terms of getting things done.

I must admit, I am tempted to either to use OpenBSD (for the first time with X11) or FreeBSD on the new system. Although I could probably roll my own Linux From Scratch but that’s a tad more time consuming !

distro ? unix : linux

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Since it’s time to plan for a probable addition to my LAN this December/January I want to start planning now.

I have my brothers old Dell 4500 PC on hand, well what is left of it hehe. The Pentium 4 is still there, which should be a Northwood core @ 2.0Ghz but it could possibly be a Willamette with a slower clock-speed, only a successful boot will tell.

Before I can boot her, I need some RAM. So the plan is to buy Ma a pair of 512MB (total 1GB) chips for her PC. And to take her old 2x256MB (total 512MB) for this salvage operation. The PC’s are very close models and as far as I can tell the Mother Boards are the same chipset and as much research as I’ve had time to do shows that I shouldn’t run into an problems here.

The box also needs a Networking card, because even if there was a way to get two 56K Winmodems chained together, I wouldn’t want to LOL. I’m figuring that I’ll try to buy a Wireless adopter or an Ethernet NIC depending on my final plan. One of these computers, my Desktop (SAL1600), File Server (Vectra), or this Dell 4500 I’m repairing will likely go in my bedroom with a Wifi card. While the other remain/swap into place with its/its swapped Ethernet card.

If I can, I’ll probably leave it on 24/7 as a workstation or use it to transition my File Servers OpenBSD install over to better hardware. If I do make use of it as a Work system, I’d like to run GNU/Linux on it, because most of my experience has been with FreeBSD and OpenBSD. The problem with that is there are very few Linux Distros I can stand using…. Ether way I need to start planning and testing for what I’m going to do, and this damn blasted parakeet is not helping with the insensent squaking… After ~8 years or so, you’d think he’d STHU!

The only GNU/Linux distributions that I respect are Debian and Slackware. Debian, can be a bit of a hard case about things but you’ve got to give them credit to sticking to their guns. The differences between Debian’s Iceweasel, Icedove, Iceowl, Iceape and Mozilla’s Firefox, Thunderbird, Sunbird, and the communities SeaMonkey come to mind… Slackware, well hehe enough said. The only problem is they are both more trouble then they are worth in this case, I want to get the system set up but without having to screw with it to much along the way.

Other then Debian and Slackware, the only distro to interest me is Gentoo, I think if I ever put the effort into setting it up, Gentoo and I would get along very well. The only problem is I don’t have time to fiddle with it. I would probably have to go with trying a Stage 1 install, and that is a little time consuming… Hehe.

Other Distros that I have considered are Ubuntu, I’ve tested Ubuntu when it was at 6.06 but I don’t care for it. It is a nice system but I don’t really ‘dig’ it. It’s just not my cup of tea, although it’s what I would recommend to users who just want an easy to use OS, without having to learn more then using Synaptic. One of my reasons for FreeBSD, is I wanted to learn about the underlaying system and it’s complexity, not just write an E-Mail without having to tell it my POP3 server (for which no MUA can do, until they invent mind-reading ones). I have no interest in using Ubuntu on this system unless I *have* to.

The install is likely to be a cross between a server and a desktop as far as software goes, it will include X and a proper development environment either way. My OpenBSD box basically only has what it needs to run the services I use it for by comparison.

Two suggestions that came up were PLD Linux and KateOS, both from Poland. PLD looks like a nice system but not my style. I’m not found of the RPM’s either… KateOS on the other hand is based on Slackware. So far it looks like a very nice system to my tastes, my plan is to test it on my desktop (SAL1600). Because I maintain my ‘gaming’ install of WinXP on it along with a dedicated Linux and BSD partition for testing purposes. I might even use KQEMU if it supports DVD ISO’s.

It looks like a good system for me but no one told me that the Polish and US mirrors download at about 20~26kb/sec !!! Since I’d want at least 2 or 3 of the 3 CD sets… I figured I would get the DVD since I don’t want to test the minimal install. There are also 2 ‘extension’ disks, one for GNOME and one for KDE so one can skip installing them over the Internet. It’s looking like an 11 hour download for my initial testing…. Joy.

I need to get to work on the planning for when I’ll need to get the system working, so while KateOS 3.6 downloads I may as well get cracking, current factors are:

location
use/purpose
software
hardware
management
cost
time

I’ve yet to think of any thing else I need to do yet, the biggest issue is going to be location, most importantly what systems physically go where. And which system will be doing what.

I knew it !!!

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I was toying with a Distro chooser, after all I’m thinking of setting up a Linux Distro on one box.

I’ve been thinking about a Linux From Scratch actually, the perk of defining my own file system hier (mostly) is hard to drop. I ran through it, and oddly enough it recomended two distros. The Second was Slackware which does not like the machine very well and the First recomendation which I knew it had to be !! HAHAHAAHAHHA

GENTOO !!!!

ROFLMBO I knew it had to do that to me!

Link to the Chooser

Linux or BSD?

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Some how it figures, I always have more issues setting up a Linux system then a BSD one… Go figure

Linux supports newer hardware faster

but BSD tends to just detect it.

Heck, if the box in question had a Floppy disk I think I’d install OpenBSD on the thing and go /w the X11 option. But if it won’t dual boot FreeBSD and PC-BSD without hicups I doubt OpenBSD and PC-BSD would be any better….

Bloody hardware !!!

And thinking about early Linux systems, the term ‘Linux/GNU’ probably is more accurate then Linux or GNU/Linux =/