A small linux challenge

[Xavier]

I'm concluding that I'm too much of a Microsoft whore to consider putting Linux onto one of my desktops just yet, so I've decided to try and squeeze it onto my laptop instead... Which is going to be a small feat I think and thus need to consult the beardy types before I get up to my neck in an OS I can't really use.

I've got an inspiron 8500, which is a P4 2.4Ghz with GeForce4 Ti4200 Mobile, and Dell 100Mbit LAN / 802.11b Wifi. The screen runs at a slightly quirky 1680x1050.

I'm tinkering with the Sun Java Desktop and would really like to bung it onto the laptop but will the above hardware work y'think? And how much of a challenge will it be to get the TFT running at it's native resolution? Dell don't have any official linux support for their mobile units by the looks, so I'm going to need some real hand-holding if I'm going to make teh leap0r. Things such as Speedstep under non-windows OSes are a complete unknown to me.

Xav

 

[xane]

Depends on the graphics driver, I'm pretty certain that the XFree86 (X Windows) driver for nVidia cards ("nv") can handle those resolutions although you may need to edit the config file.

In fact I did a google for you can got this:
http://ltswww.epfl.ch/~dsanta/resources/dell-i8500-linux

 

[Xavier]

wahoo

Well, as you may have spotted in my other thread, I'm tinkering with the sun java desktop, I've tried to install firefox however and it doesn't like me, wanting glibc and everything...

 

[sibanac]

wahoo

Well, as you may have spotted in my other thread, I'm tinkering with the sun java desktop, I've tried to install firefox however and it doesn't like me, wanting glibc and everything...

Xavier sorry if it is posted samewhere else but what distribution are you using ?
And is there a special reason why you want to use the Sun Java Desktop thingy (just curious)

 

[Xavier]

Sun Java Desktop is the distribution from what I'm told....

It's using Gnome, and to be honest at the moment is being a pain in the arse
it didn't even install make as standard and has glibc 2.2 when I need 2.3 to install firefox.

Tried installing 2.3.1 but it's now moaning about a lack of linuxthreads, does someone have time to come guide me via IRC or something?

Xav

 

[sibanac]

Sun Java Desktop is the distribution from what I'm told....

It's using Gnome, and to be honest at the moment is being a pain in the arse
it didn't even install make as standard and has glibc 2.2 when I need 2.3 to install firefox.

Tried installing 2.3.1 but it's now moaning about a lack of linuxthreads, does someone have time to come guide me via IRC or something?

Xav

Xavier, I wish i had irc here (feel free to pm me for msn address tho) ,
upgrading glibc isnt for the fainthearted since your complete instalation is depandant on your current glibc version.
I'dd realy advice you to use a well established distro (SuSE, mandrake gento (if you have the time and cpu power)) for your first attempts.

 

[Xavier]

Xavier, I wish i had irc here (feel free to pm me for msn address tho) ,
upgrading glibc isnt for the fainthearted since your complete instalation is depandant on your current glibc version.
I'dd realy advice you to use a well established distro (SuSE, mandrake gento (if you have the time and cpu power)) for your first attempts.

Ok, I'm going to try and grab SuSe, is there a DVD ISO i can ftp from somewhere? The suse FTP isn't too easy to comprehend after 22 hours awake heh.

Xav

 

[sibanac]

Ok, I'm going to try and grab SuSe, is there a DVD ISO i can ftp from somewhere? The suse FTP isn't too easy to comprehend after 22 hours awake heh.

Xav

Sadly the only place I know they exist is on a few SuSE partners (siemens) their intranet, I could snail mail them to you, but I have no way of hosting that kind of size at any decent speed.

That beeing said, I find suse an excelent distro.
The easyest way of getting hold off it is buying it.
The upgrade versions do a full install aswel and are cheaper then the full version. Only real diffrence is the amount of books you get with it.
The books that come with the full version contain alot of info for firt timers and an intro to most applications.

 

[Xavier]

what about the FTP install option? I can make the bootable CD via a virtual drive...

Xav

 

[Xavier]

Right, I've managed to get the FTP install going on virtual PC via the cd bootable and the tulip driver...

How long will an FTP install take? I'm only on 2mbit

 

[sibanac]

burn the ftp://your.mirror/linux/SuSE/i386/9.0/boot/boot.iso to a cd and booting from that should fo the trick
If you realy want to boot the install system from a HD it might be posible to open the iso and copy it to a bootable partion then boot from that, but i havent tried it so i cant say for sure

Best bet for a mirror would be ftp://ftp.mirror.ac.uk/sites/ftp.suse.com/pub/ i guess

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/current/README.FTP for more info about ftp install.
once the system is booted it should be a straight install.


Make sure you install development tools and kernel development

 

[Xavier]

burn the ftp://your.mirror/linux/SuSE/i386/9.0/boot/boot.iso to a cd and booting from that should fo the trick
If you realy want to boot the install system from a HD it might be posible to open the iso and copy it to a bootable partion then boot from that, but i havent tried it so i cant say for sure

Best bet for a mirror would be ftp://ftp.mirror.ac.uk/sites/ftp.suse.com/pub/ i guess

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/current/README.FTP for more info about ftp install.
once the system is booted it should be a straight install.


Make sure you install development tools and kernel development

Way ahead of you mate, it's already busy installing! As to dev tools and kernel development, I haven't seen any options as yet. If I go back to the package manager to install later, will it be able to get them via FTP?

 

[TdC]

has it worked? poor Xav's prolly passed out at the keyboard heh

 

[sibanac]

Right, I've managed to get the FTP install going on virtual PC via the cd bootable and the tulip driver...

How long will an FTP install take? I'm only on 2mbit

Your guess would be as good as mine,
only thing that could give a clue is : (total size of the installation)/(gzip compresion ~ 1.90) that would give a rough estimate of the size of the download

 

[Xavier]

hour and a half left allegedly... only a little over a gig I could get used to this 200kb/sec malarkey.

Xav

 

[sibanac]

Way ahead of you mate, it's already busy installing! As to dev tools and kernel development, I haven't seen any options as yet. If I go back to the package manager to install later, will it be able to get them via FTP?

yes you will.

btw the smart thing to do is to download the complete tree to a local ftp server , that way if you botch your install you dont have to dl the whole thing agian over the internet.
That beeing said, all us smart it ppl also know you should regulary take a backup of your system, but how many of us realy do that

 

[Xavier]

well, lets see if this is even what I want distro wise, then I'll leech their entire ftp :> heh

 

[xane]

You could always try FreeBSD

 

[TdC]

lol

 

[xane]

Sorry TdC, but I consider statements such as

"don't bother with source code and rebuilding, just download the binaries"

To be on a par with

"no-one will need more than 640K anyway"

 

[TdC]

you and me both camaxena but what are you going to do if you don't have a compiler handy? this regarding the sunfreeware thing I mentioned I take it?

 

[sibanac]

c'mon xavier, give us an update now and then, I have to keep looking busy here you know

 

[Xavier]

Well, Suse is installed but compared to the Sun distro DAMN it's ugleh heh.

I'm still a UI whore too y'know.

So, the question, do I stick with SUSE, or try and fix the Sun distro?

 

[Will]

Try a different Window Manager? The UI is just the UI, you can chop and change as you like.

 

[sibanac]

Well, Suse is installed but compared to the Sun distro DAMN it's ugleh heh.

I'm still a UI whore too y'know.

So, the question, do I stick with SUSE, or try and fix the Sun distro?

lol, you have the choise of any gui and any theme, make it loop purdy yourself

try one of the aqua clones for kde or gnome (just make sure apple doesnt find out)

http://www.kde-look.org/content/pre...ua&PHPSESSID=4a8fed0bf1928f74b1ea44fd6a45558f
or take a look at http://ontarget-systems.com:8080/ (screenshot section)

 

[TdC]

Well, Suse is installed but compared to the Sun distro DAMN it's ugleh heh.

I'm still a UI whore too y'know.

So, the question, do I stick with SUSE, or try and fix the Sun distro?

stay with suse. naturally I won't tell you why

 

[Xavier]

stay with suse. naturally I won't tell you why

buh?

 

[TdC]

because upgrading libc is an utterly shite task and will probably entail reinstalling or recompiling every single binary in the system and doing all kinds of trickery (well, that's what happened to me anyway). libc is the main C library (think .dll) that is linked into everything that is an exe. changing that may/will result in major bitchery from any app you try to run.

 

[Xavier]

terrific!

SuSe it is then!

Ok, so, KDE or GNOME, I don't know the first thing about either yet, but I know right now that the tiny non-antialiased text of the SuSe KDE Skin is making me retch.

Bear in mind that I'm looking to put this on my dell and use daily to familiarise myself with linux in general - so any input *really* is appreciated guys.

 

[TdC]

heh, install both. you should be able to choose (and swap)between them.

also, though fonts in unix tend to hate me with a passion there is no reason they shouldn't love you AA should be automagically turned on iirc, but as so many things in unix it depends on certain programs, how they've been compiled at start, configuration files et al. the main widget thingy that KDE uses to make with the windows is called QT. this *needs* to be compiled with AA enabled iirc, and you need to have a font, or set of fonts selected to display that are made for AA or they just won't render properly (or was that true type? I forget heh :/)

I'd advise playing about in your gui configuration editor app to see what you can see.

Gnome on the other hand is based around a different set of libraries (gimp and imgmagick iirc) and I have no idea how it works other than that you can get *much* more eyecandy than with KDE.

tbh I've drifted too far away from linux in general and configuring desktops in particular to be much help. I hope some of the other *IX folk can render more assistance.