Linux - Explain it to me

[mortensen]

I've heard SO much about Linux now that I want to find out more. From people that I have talked to and sites on the web it appears that Linux Mandrake is the best Linux package.

First I'd like to know, what to download [what files, what size, etc]... second, how to install [from DOS?] and third it's uses [program support, browsing the internet (I "guess" I can't use IE6, or can I with an emulator??)].

I have a spare 2.5gig HD lying around so I can totally screw it up and not worry. I have also seen screenshots and heard about the Windows Emulator, but I've heard that it needs a powerful machine to run it.

I quickly went onto the download page and was taken to an FTP with 8 ISO's on, 5 being 670mb, 1 being 500mb and 2 being 300mb. What do I need and which version - Beta 8.1, Final 8.0, and what's the differences between them?

We've all got to learn sometime :) HELP ME.

-mortensenj

[Redmak Administrators]

Pfff what a lot of questions ;).

-Ok get mandrake 8.0 final

-Get the 'inst' and the 'ext' cd's ('inst' is most important)

-Burn'm

-Insert the 'inst' cd in your cd (can be done in windows), it autoboots.

The menu will help you from here.

You can do an auto-client install although I never do, I like to select what to install

I don't know the difference between 8.0 and 8.1 except that 8.1 is beta (so choose for yourself)

[Redmak Administrators]

An addition:

You can also try this if you just want to try Linux

http://www.winlinux.net/2001/

and no it doesn't us IE but there are nice browsers available for Linux : Netscape :p, Opera and KDE (a gui) has a nice one

[mortensen]

Well - Thanks for the help... I think I'll download it tonight and try it out on one of my crappy old HD's. I will just try it and see what it can do for myself.

Then if it's any good I might consider dual booting but I don't want to try that first until I know if I like it...

I'll get both inst and ext CD's. Shame that it can't use IE but I can "live" with that... LOL!

-mortensenj

[Guest mtomd]

mm...Ok, don't use linux. Use FreeBSD. On linux, the best uptime I could get in around 30 days. On FreeBSD it's around 170days. FreeBSD runs faster and has an awesome ports collection. :>

[MulletRobZ]

Well I suggest that you have at least a 5 GB hard drive or a 5 GB partition set for Linux since believe me, Linux comes with a lot of must-have applications and you'd want to make sure you have the space for them! Also, as I have tested, it does perform a lot better than Windows 9x, NT, and 2000! :)

And I'm talking about Mandrake 8.0, of course! Never heard of Mandrake 8.1 beta! And also, when does Kernel 2.5 come out?

[willywonka69]

on linux mandrake it come with a windows emulator called wine

not realy a emulator but the windows api system for linux i know you can run half-life with it and ie5 recomend you go buy it from the store come with an extra cd

[Quboid]

I've found WinE to be virtually unusable. For web browsing I used Netscape 4, although there are better. Try Mozilla, Opera or Konqueror (only works with KDE window manager I think) amoung others.

[Redmak Administrators]

@mortensen:

Make sure the installer makes a boot floppy instead of installing LILO on your boot drive.

This way linux won't mess with your boot sector. Just insert the floppy and boot linux, remove the floppy and boot windows.

This is best when your just testing and new to Linux

[mortensen]

I used an old 3gig HD to do it... anyway I installed it and it had plenty of problems.

Monitor: All the monitors listed in the "Generic" list used the most obsure refresh rates I've EVER seen. 1024x768@76hz... OMG! I couldn't get it to run properly at all. The best I could do was at 70hz in 1024x768 and it's unusable! Is there anyway to specify a monitor and tell it the refresh rates? Also, can it understand a windows monitor.inf file?

Mouse: It would NOT accept my Wheel mouse. I couldn't change it to a USB wheel mouse! A PAIN IN THE ARSE.

It's nearly unusable for me so I'm back on Win98 [just swapped HD's].

UPPERS: Linux setup recognised my mouse no problem! I have a M$ USB mouse - Windows setup can't use my mouse until half way through when USB is enabled yet Linux works my mouse with no problems from the beginning... M$ is so flaming lame!

Overall Linux is crap at the moment. It took me AGES to find out how to change the resolution! And monitor support is lame. If I could get my monitor to work it would be brilliant.

ALSO, I installed UT and it didn't work. I clicked on the file and it wouldn't do anything... but when I clicked the uninstal file the whole UT install was gone in 1 second... quicker than ever Windows can manage. It didn't even give a confimation prompt... PFFFFFFF!

-mortensenj

[configure Veteran]

Mandrake is crap! ;) If you really want something rock solid, go for Slackware. If you would like to get something more easy, SuSE is what you need.. By the way, you might want to read out some docs incase you ran into any problem :p Oh! and for all your software needs, Freshmeat is for you. :)

--------------------------------------

Let me point out a few thing about Linux distro that I've tried in the past..

Slackware -- Plain, simple, and make you in control (which sometime gives linux newbie a hard time). Slackware has its own package handling, which don't check for dependencies for you, but it install, uninstall and keep all the record for you to monitor, unlike RPM which i don't where the hell they keep all the records of installed software ;))

Mandrake -- Tend to make things as simple as possible, base on Redhat, from my experience, I prefer SuSE. They use RPM (Redhat Package Management) as their package handling

SuSE -- Base on Redhat, came with some nice tools such as hardware detecter, and etc. etc. They use RPM as their package handling..

Redhat -- Buggy..

Debian -- Famous for its 'apt-get' tools which have a perfect package handling, took care of all its dependencies and download, install everything for you. (If you've a fast connection, you'll love this tools)

-------------------------------------------------------

GUI

There are several GUI available on Linux. The two main GUI in available in GNU/Linux are, KDE, and GNOME. These two came with program that assist you in your task. But there are also other Window Manager out there, such as Window Maker, Blackbox, Sawfish, etc. etc. These windows manager are small, and they do not come with those software, but you are able to combine those KDE or GNOME's program with these small WM. :D

check out

---------------------------------------------------------

Un-official Linux site or LNO for more info.

[mortensen]

I don't mind learning so I'm downloading Slackware 8.0 ISO. Took my AGES to find the file... at first it looked like you HAD to buy it until I FINALLY saw the link "Get Slack"... hardly the best site in the world.

Please can someone point me towards some screenshots [PLEASE] of it because I couldn't seem to find any on the website. :(

That's ANOTHER 639mb download... and seeing as how I'm only on 64k cable it HARDLY fast, but I want to try out Linux and Mandrake didn't seem to like my hardware. As long as I can shove it into 1024x768@75hz [Mandrake DIDN'T HAVE any driver that would allow me to do that] then I can play about with it... but in 800x600 on a 17" screen it looks STUPID. Also, not having my mouse wheel working is a MAJOR handicap... :(

-mortensenj

[MulletRobZ]

OK! Mandrake is not crap! I find it kicks ass way better than Windows as I have tested! Also, I'm writing a review on what programs are buggy and which ones can be improved! Red Hat and Mandrake's Linux systems are both equal, but Debian is only for those who have really good knowledge in Linux and I was just getting the hang of Mandrake! Also, here's 2 pieces of information for ya :

1) Don't use Corel Linux! That has to be the worst Linux Distribution I have ever heard of!

2) About the LILO, it does work perfectly with no problems at all! And Redmak, I think you didn't test LILO properly! :china: :o

[mortensen]

If Mandrake is so good then please help me... how do you add a custom monitor? I have a Windows INF but if that's no good then please tell me how to write my own monitor driver as I know all the resolutions and refresh rates. I don't see an option to add a custom monitor... only choose some from a list!

All the generic monitors have STUPID refresh rates [like 74hz and 76hz] and miss out STANDARD refresh rates like 75hz [which is the ony rate my monitor can do in 1024x768]. PLEASE HELP ME... ANYBODY!!!!!!!

Once I have that sorted THEN I can get to sorting out my mouse and trying to get programs to work!

- - - I'm not just trying to use it for the sake of it! If it works then I can set up one of my computers as a server which my parents can use [cos Linux has programs linke KWord, etc]. THEN my priority is to get games working on it... but I mainly want Linux for use as a server / office. If not I'll have to get WinXP server [when it's released] and install OfficeXP on it - But I want to use Linux seeing as how it's free and all. - - -

-mortensenj

[SpeaR]

I would recommend Suse if you want Hardware Support and stuff. Its the best imo. Owise ive heard Debian is good.

[configure Veteran]

All your software's configuaration are mostly stored at /etc I can't remember the exact file name for the conf that you need to edit, but I think it's something like XF86Config, i'm not sure, check it out.. try ls /etc/X*86*Config --remember-- capital letter counts..

Mandrake came with X config utilities, but I can't recall the its command.. sorry :( Try posting at http://www.linuxnewbie.org

Oh and by the way, I don't like LILO, I use loadlin instead ;)

[MulletRobZ]

mortensen, for the monitor, it might just be the XFree86 version that might interfere with the settings! I had to disable XFree86 4.0.3 and go back to version 3.3.6 in order to get my monitor to display properly! So just choose a generic monitor and choose version 3.3.6 of XFree86 and you should be OK! :)

[configure Veteran]

I also have some problem with XFree86 4.0.1 with my old Monitor, after I went back to XFree 3.3.6 everything's fine again ;)

[mortensen]

I am currently playing about with XP...

But YES, I did have 4.0.1 selected. It said that I should use 3.3.6 with beta hardware support but I didn't want to mess with it... if I ever go back to try Linux then I will be sure to mess about with that...

-mortensenj

[willywonka69]

what kind of monitor do you have

[mortensen]

I have a:

17" Elonex Autoscan monitor

Model: MN045 - Non interlaced

Plug and Play

Max 1024x768@75hz

Here is part of my .INF file:

;MN045

[Monitor20.AddReg]

HKR,"MODES1280,1024",Mode1,,"30-65,50-100,+,+"

HKR,,MaxResolution,,"1280,1024"

HKR,,DPMS,,1

HKR,,ICMProfile,1,6

Is this what you wanted?

-mortensenj

[MulletRobZ]

I think whoever developped the XFree86 goofed up with the latest version! :D

[configure Veteran]

XFree86 3.3.6 is being put as BETA?! WTF?! I like 3.3.6 more, since I've never experience any problem with it, unlike 4.0.x :p

[MulletRobZ]

Ah! Jotted that down in my Linux-Mandrake Bug Document, which I used KWord to write it up! And once I'm done, then I'll forward it to MandrakeSoft and to the other distributors!

[configure Veteran]

I like pico..