Last week I had some undiagnosable problem at bootup and I decided to just backup my home directory, /etc and some other key files and reinstall Gentoo from scratch (stage 1). It turned out to take longer than I remembered, but it has proven to be well worth it.

Having run Gentoo before (for a few months now) I knew to set up the /etc/make.conf file with optimized USE tags. Basically, I put in everything I knew I would need and disallowed the rest. Being a fan of KDE my tags looked something like this: USE="kde kdeenablefinal qt -gtk -gnome".

Eleventy-billion hours later I had compiled my system (with only two commands, thanks to Portage). I noticed immediately when I started X that things were different from before. Window response was much faster, applications loaded much faster, and I had more free RAM. Sweet.

I’ve been looking into every distro that’s featured on DistroWatch for a while now and I just can’t imagine giving up my Gentoo. Now, if the Portage tree contained Yast2 for system configuration this would be a flawless OS.

Debian 3.1 has finally been released. It took over two years to get from Debian’s last release (Woody) to the current one. My experiences with Woody could be summed up as “stable, but really old”, so hopefully this new release will breathe some life back into the Debian user community.

Get it:
via ftp

Debian main site:
http://www.debian.org/

Knoppix is an excellent distribution but it should be pointed out that the newer versions of it are optimized specifically to run on newer hardware. It doesn’t require anything extraordinary, but older computers that you’re thinking of fixing up with Linux should be given Fedora, Slackware, or even better DSL.

I tried Knoppix 3.8.2 this morning on a system with a 500MHZ CPU and 128MB mem. The video card was not ancient but it wasn’t anything fancy either. It took Knoppix over an hour to finally tell me that it couldn’t find an X-server that would work. It was comical to watch it click and whir for twenty minutes at a time attempting to get some configuration to function. I’ve used several other LiveCDs on the same machine (I’ve even watched anime on it thanks to Dynebolic), so I know the hardware can support Linux.

Knoppix is an amazing OS, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not your first choice for old hardware.

It’s a slow day on Slashdot and there’s a post up about LinuxISOtorrent.com where several Linux and *BSD distros are available for download via a torrent tracker.

Many of the comments echoed what I’ve thought before - that this is a great service but it would be much nicer if it provided an exhaustive and current list of all distros. Something like this can be done in XML-RPC or RSS because all the information is readily available. I use the Distro Watch RSS feed to keep track of new stuff that comes out, I’m wondering why this can’t be automatically integrated into a tracker where new distros are available for download as soon as Distro Watch says they’re released.

If you have any desire to get involved in this project I’d be happy to hear from you. I’m thinking about doing it myself but I’ve been sorta swamped so it might be a while before I get to it.

My housemate is a jerk. Dumb jerk. He has a powerbook running Mac OS X and I told him tonight about Gentoo for Macs. I told him that there was a special version of the super-popular (and super hard to install) Linux distro that ran on Macs.

He had the thing running in a couple of minutes. That’s why he’s a jerk. I spent a whole evening and the next day installing, compiling, and configuring my Gentoo system. He only had to download a dmg file and double click it. Then he had Gentoo running.

Gentoo can run on Mac OS X
If you go to Gentoo-Wiki.com you’ll find detailed instuctions on a not-so-difficult process of installing Gentoo. What takes a significant amount of time when starting from scratch only takes a few minutes when you’re embedding it into a running OS. Here are the steps required:

• Download the .dmg file available here
• Double click the installer (it’s called “Gentoo For Mac OS X Installer.pkg”) inside the image.
• type # emerge --sync
• Now you have Gentoo running. Perfectly.

It’s a frustrating thing that one of the most difficult to install Linux distros can be so simple if you’ve already got a host system. It just takes the glory out of it. However, this is a keen illustration of how Gentoo is less like a proper distribution and more like a meta-distribution. Gentoo is mostly just Portage (Gentoo’s package manager) and it can be run on any POSIX-compliant OS (FreeBSD, Mach, Linux). If it can run on a Mac, I really want to see what else it can run on.

For over a month now I’ve been using Gentoo as my primary operating system. It’s been a real treat to get to install it (twice, actually) and learn the ropes by getting my hands dirty. Overall I think it’s my favorite OS because of the transparent way it does packages and the super-ease of upgrading everything. Despite that, I plan to switch to Suse 9.3 soon. Let me explain why.

First, the stuff about Gentoo that excells:

• Gentoo lets you compile everything.
  From the kernel to every single program you run you get to compile it on your own machine. While this doesn’t necessarily offer extra speed, it can dramatically increase system performance if you understand how to use your USE=”" variable in /etc/make.conf. You can set flags that offer your program Gnome supportbut not KDE (USE=”gtk2 -kde -qt”), or the otherway around (USE=”-gtk2 kde qt”). This’ll keep your programs optimized.
  And because compiling everything can be a hassle if you don’t want to wait forever, Portage (the Gentoo package system) also lets you use pre-compiled packages when available through the –usepkg flag. Some things probably aren’t worth the wait to compile them yourself.
• Gentoo lets you upgrade in place
  I remember reading a few years ago that a certain user hated that RedHat didn’t let you upgrade without losing everything. Even Windows gives you the option to not reformat if you want. Lucky for us Gentoo has improved the Linux experience so much that it takes only a second and a single file copy to fully upgrade your system.
  Gentoo uses profiles as release numbers. They are very simply named: 2004.2, 2004.3, and the most current one is 2005.0. To update all the programs on your machine you simply type # emerge --update world and when there is a new profile that you can switch to Portage will tell you to edit your profile to reflect the newly downloaded version of Gentoo that’s available as a folder in /usr/portage/profiles/. To upgrade to the new profile just point the symlink /etc/make.profile to the new folder.
• Huge package warehouse
  The Gentoo package system is full of goodies. There’s everything from the basics of apacha, kde, gnome, php, etc., to obscure stuff like the games ‘Wakkabox’ (?) and even commercial software like VMWare and Heroes of Might and Magic 3 for Linux. For commercial stuff your original CD or serial key are required, but Portage will install the program for you. I’ve only twice found a program that I wanted to install which was not already in the Portage tree. For these situations, rpm and make work as well as they do on any other system.

That’s the really good stuff about Gentoo. It has some problems though. Not big ones, but problems that are real enough for me to be switching to Suse 9.3.

• You have to configure everything
  This is usually a plus, but at times it’s really a horrible idea. I’ve been struggling with my Intel ProWireless 2200BG for the entire time I’ve used Gentoo. I’ve followed every tutorial and manual online and I can’t get the thing working. It’s supposed to be hard but possible, this is just frustrating. There are other things I’d like to try that may not be possible for me until I get a distro that supports it a little better (Like the Xen Hypervisor). The ipw2200 (my wireless card) package worked with some bugs on Suse 9.2 - I figure by 9.3 they’ll have an updated version that runs smoothly.
• Speed
  Sometimes it’s just nice to have a system that you know you can install in an afternoon. If something goes wrong you can just make sure you have a backup of key files, wipe the drive clean, and start over in time for dinner. With Gentoo, there’s been at least two nights where I gave it a long list of files to install and I went to sleep - only to find it still at work by breakfast time.

It should be noted that this is not a real criticism of Gentoo. If your hardware (especially networking) is supported natively by the Linux kernel you may never find any need to switch out of Gentoo. In fact, as soon as ipw2200 support becomes reliable enough that I can compile it as a module in my kernel I’ll be switching back to write more. Until then, y’all might be hearing lots about Suse.

I’ve been reading Yet Another Linux Blog for some time now as the writer (’Devnet’) has been submitting various distributions of Linux to a test. He’s used his wife (who has no Linux experience) as a judge to find out which distribution is the best distribution for a brand-new user to work with.

Devnet had his wife try out the following distributions (from having to install them to having to remove them - the whole experience):

• Mandrake 10.1 Community
• SimplyMEPIS 3.3
• PCLinuxOS .81a
• Fedora Core 4
• Ubuntu 5.04 “Hoary”

I won’t mention how each of them performed individually except to say that there were two very big surprises. When Devnet tested Ubuntu it was found to be rather difficult for a newcomer to start off with. This generated a lot of (undeserved) negative feedback toward the project and the people involved from a rather excited Ubuntu community.

And the huge surprise was the success of the little-known PCLinuxOS. I’d never used it until it appeared in this project and was found to be the most new-user- friendly Linux distro. Granted, PCLinuxOS will not meet the needs of every Linux user - but that wasn’t the point of the experiment. According to Mrs. Devnet: “I need to do simple AND it’s easy on the eyes. It serves my purpose, bottom line.”

A big thanks from Distro Jockey to Yet Another Linux Blog for running this test. Linux is steadily approaching desktop-readiness for the real world - this will help the Linux community to know exactly what needs to be worked on to get us all the way.

Nick Myra writes on OS.NewsForge.com about how his main desktop runs Damn Small Linux. DSL started as a pocket-sized CD distro but has evolved into something entirely cooler. As Gary (featured columnist here at Distro Jockey) would probably agree with, Damn Small Linux is as damn powerful as it is damn small.

It can be used to run on a tiny partition on an older computer and can compete with almost any other system for productivity. It can’t actually make the processor go any faster, but it can run programs that together require far less computing to do the same task as other, larger programs. At its base DSL has Fluxbox as a window manager which provides very low overhead for very nearly as much functionality as KDE or Gnome. DSL also comes with a control panel that lets you really mess with your system.

DSL’s control panel is one of its coolest features. It lets you easily start your Web, FTP, or SSH server, back up and restore your LiveCD settings and files, set up and configure your Ethernet, modem, and printer hardware, and more. Of course, you could do all this configuration from the command line, but the GUI makes it so easy. DSL has great support for wireless LAN cards too, including wlanconfig, ndiswrapper, and Prism2 support.

I wrote about my first experience with a BSD when I tested the NetBSD 2.0 LiveCD last week. I recall that, for all its functionality, it was a really ugly and two-years-ago operating system. From what I can tell that is not uncommon with distributions of BSDs.

It looks like that’s about to change with PC-BSD. PC-BSD is still in a pre-release version (you can get the 0.5a beta version here) but it seems promising. According to the release specs and the screenshots PC-BSD is capable of running a moden KDE and other software packages.

This is great news for the Linux user who wants greater security or the BSD user who wants to finally get their hands on some decent software.

The new hit thing for a Linux distro is to release a LiveCD so users can try out their release without any risk to their system. It’s useful not only for testing a new distro but also for a myriad of hardware testing, computer repair, portability, gaming, and security purposes.

NewsForge has an article on how PCLinuxOS will let you make your own LiveCD. This is an excellent way to get your Linux configuration - just how you need it - on a CD to share with others, use as a backup, or just play around with.

The Linux Live Gaming Project is an excellent example of a super-useful LiveCD. You simply boot the computer and you’re ready for a LAN party. With PCLinuxOS you can make your own and maybe even share your creation with the rest of us. (note: please share with the rest of us).

Xanadb.com has a short post about trying out Ubuntu’s LiveCD on a 7-year-old Compaq laptop. Even three-year-old Compaqs are good for little more than paperweights so I was surprised to read that Ubuntu worked perfectly with all the hardware and even ran the PCMCIA wireless card (NetGear MA401) without a problem.

Score one more for Ubuntu being the distribution of choice for beginners. I feel so out of the loop that I don’t have it installed on anything yet.

Finally, we’ve got ourselves a free Suse 9.3 download. Novell has released a LiveDVD (like a LiveCD but… well, y’know) of their Suse 9.3 Professional. This Suse download is released for the purpose of allowing users to become acquainted with Suse 9.3 without installing to their hard disk or purchasing a license.

You can try out this Suse 9.3 LiveDVD by downloading it from a Novell mirror near you:
Suse Professional Download Mirrors
If you can’t find the LiveDVD available on the first couple mirrors you try, here’s one that’s sure to work:
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/live-dvd-9.3/

I’ll have a review posted as soon as I can finish downloading the thing. If anyone sees a torrent available, let me know so I can post it.

Related Previous Posts:
Suse 9.3 torrent is fake
Suse 9.3 release details
Suse 9.3 expected

I recently attempted a world update on my Gentoo system. This involves checking every program you’ve installed for a potential new release and installing it if available. There’s a way to do this quickly and painlessly with Gentoo (praise the Lord for Portage):
# emerge -pu world

Portage (Gentoo’s package manager) tells you whether a package is already installed, missing, needs to be upgraded, or is blocked by another package. The natural understanding of dependencies is wonderful and has helped me a number of times.

When I last attempted a world update I was told that SysVinit was blocking a program I was trying to install. Not knowing quite what it was I figured I’d trade it for the new program. As soon as I completed the update I had lost the following commands:
# reboot
# shutdown
# restart
and I realized that I’d never learned an alternative way to shutdown my computer.

Moral of the story: Portage is great, SysVinit is necessary, you should install Gentoo.

I’m not sure what it is exactly that’s making me write in praise of Suse in the middle of running Gentoo, but I think it’s worth doing. Suse 9.2 was the OS that I ran most recently and despite horrible support for the IPW2200BG it was a pretty good system.

Suse is an excellent entry-level distribution for linux beginners. It holds your hand through installation and configuration and, because Novel owns Suse, it has top of the line software. It integrates some things into Linux before anyone else does. For Suse 9.3 I’ll be excited to try out the Xen Hypervisor (a computer emulator) which they are packaging with the 9.3 release.

If you don’t have Suse 9.2 yet, you can find it here (it’s free):
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.2/iso/SUSE-Linux-9.2-FTP-DVD.iso

For those of us who fancy ourselves distro-jockeys (and basically for everybody who’s looking to try out a new release/distribution) LinuxISO.org is a great place to start. Not everybody has broadband, not everybody wants to slow down their broadband connection for a CD (or DVD) image. LinuxISO is a pretty worthwhile place to spend some time and see what all is offered.

LinuxISO has the following distributions:

• College Linux
• Debian
• Fedora Core
• FreeBSD
• Gentoo
• Knoppix
• Lycoris
• Mandriva
• Red Hat
• Slackware
• Suse
• TSL
• TurboLinux
• YellowDog Linux

Whether you’ve used Damn Small Linux or not, you gotta appreciate Damn Small Linux: Xbox Edition.

What better thing to do with your Xbox than use it as a Linux machine? And what better distribution to use for that than Damn Small Linux? Profanity excused, this is an excellent distribution. The Xbox edition is even smaller than the original (~40MB) and a beautiful OS for the size.

Get it: XDSL Torrent