Some Questions regarding Linux from Newbie.

[DCT]

1. I got a spare computer that I can install Linux. If I install Linux and don't like it, can I format my HD and reinstall Windows again ?

2. Can I network Linux with Win2000 ?

3. Do the drivers for my hardwares, work with Linux as they do with Win2000 ?

4. Any Windows softwares that is able to run under Linux as well, or do I have to purchase a new version of the software for Linux ?

5. Where can is a good site to read up more about Linux ?

Thanks

 

[Guest]

1) Yes. You may need to use a disk install utility (seagate et al have them for download) - or fdisk /mbr - to remove LILO (the Linux boot loader).
2) Yes. <A HREF="http://www.samba.org" target="_new">Samba</A> is the software that does this. If you mean Internet sharing, this is just TCP/IP and no problem at all.
3) No... You need to use Linux drivers, but the concept is similar. Check the <A HREF="http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/genpage2.cgi" target="_new">RedHat Hardware Compatibility List</A> to see if your hardware is likely to work. Most common things will.
4) Most existing Windows software doesn't have a direct Linux port, so you'll need to find an alternative for most of it. Eg Star-Office KOffice etc. You can use a Windows emulator like <A HREF="http://www.netraverse.com" target="_new">Win4Lin</A> or <A HREF="http://www.winehq.org" target="_new">Wine</A> if you really need to run a Windows application. You probably won't need to purchase much of it though; It's usually free software.
5) <A HREF="http://www.linux.org" target="_new">www.linux.org</A>, <A HREF="http://www.linux-mandrake.com" target="_new">www.linux-mandrake.com</A>, <A HREF="http://www.redhat.com" target="_new">www.redhat.com</A>,<A HREF="http://www.linux.com" target="_new">www.linux.com</A>, <A HREF="http://www.gnu.org" target="_new">www.gnu.org</A>,<A HREF="http://www.gnome.org" target="_new">www.gnome.org</A>, <A HREF="http://www.kde.org" target="_new">www.kde.org</A>. Just search the net...

 

[Kelledin]

To add to the above post:

4) Some games are directly ported to Windows--I imagine this is what you'll be interested in the most. Check out <A HREF="http://www.lokigames.com/" target="_new">http://www.lokigames.com/</A>--but be prepared to pay for Loki's porting efforts. :frown: UT and the Quake series games have been ported from Windows to Linux at no charge; if you own the Windows version, you can d/l a thing or two and hack it up to a Linux version for no cost ('cept a little time). <A HREF="http://www.linuxgames.com/" target="_new">http://www.linuxgames.com/</A> has HOWTOs for a lot of this, as well as HOWTOs for setting up certain games to run under WINE.

5) Check out <A HREF="http://www.linuxdoc.org/" target="_new">http://www.linuxdoc.org/</A> as well. You'll find a lot of HOWTOs there; the HOWTOs are nice when you're wondering for the first time, "How would I make Linux do...."

Kelledin

"/join #hackerz. See the Web. DoS interesting people."

 

[DCT]

Thanks guys

The softwares I am using is not games, though I don't mind games, but stuff like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, and some Macromedia product. Do I need to get Linux version ? I wonder if I have to pay full price again ??? I am going to purchase Maya as well, and wondering which one would give better performance, Maya for Linux or Window XP. I know IRIX is probably the best for it but the price is a bit much.

Also I do alot of Java Programming. I am planning to change to Linux a year or two ago, that's why I only have Red Hat 6.2 They got 7.1 now. When I tried to install it Red Hat 6.2 doesn't have the video driver for My Geforce 2 GTS so I tried Geforce DDR, and it stuff up the screens

I haven't tried again since. Also do I have to partition my Hard Disk ? I want my Hard Disk to be all Linux, Do I have to format it under Linux first ? caused I format it using Win 98, and I think it recognises it as that, and ask to create partition in it. How can I remove it totally ?

 

[Red_Zealot]

I would download (for free) Linux Mandrake 8.0, and follow its easy, graphical install procedure. It will allow you to completely format your Hard Disk for LInux. I would also recommend that you get "Running Linux", an excellent book that will serve you well.

Photoshop on Linux is taken care of by The GIMP. The GIMP probably came in your distro, and is roughly equivalent to Photoshop.

"If you teach a child to read, then he or her will be able to pass a literacy test" - George W.

 

[Guest]

Yeah, The Gimp is pretty good, and there are a couple of vector drawing packages like <A HREF="http://koffice.kde.org" target="_new">KIllust.. er Kontour</A> or <A HREF="http://linux.corel.com/products/draw/index.htm" target="_new">Corel Draw</A> for example, too. If you're doing professional work with this stuff, check out the <A HREF="http://manual.gimp.org" target="_new">Gimp Manual</A>.

I've done some Java programming on Linux, and it's all good. Sun supports Linux quite well. SDK and Forte are all freely available.

Mandrake 8.1 is available now, and may be a little improved over 8.0. NVIDIA based cards are well supported under Linux. It'll work "out of the box" just fine, but NVIDIA has downloadable drivers that should be a bit faster (especially with OpenGL).

 

[Red_Zealot]

Oh yeah, you can run java programs like they were compiled (w/o interpreter!) in Linux, something you can't do w/ Windows. (Running Linux details how to do this)

"If you teach a child to read, then he or her will be able to pass a literacy test" - George W.

 

[DCT]

Thanks alot guys.

Edit: Nevermind that, They don't have one zip file where I can download everything at once ?

I might get the Distribution CD instead.

Also what's the difference between Gnome and KDE ?? Which one is more stable Graphical environment ?

I'll defenitely check the book. Yeah I am doing professional work from next year. That's why I am seriously considering Linux, since I used alot of Unix/IRIX before, so I should be alright with Linux I guess.

Another thing that motivates me to move to Linux is that I don't like Windows XP activation thing, as it is the last straw that MS pull, for me to abandon Windows completely.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by DCT on 09/30/01 03:01 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Kelledin]

They don't have one zip file where I can download everything at once ?

Check out <A HREF="http://www.linuxiso.org/" target="_new">http://www.linuxiso.org/</A>. Even so, if you don't have broadband or you don't have a CD burner, you'll still want to buy a $2 burned distribution CD from somewhere like <A HREF="http://www.cheapbytes.com/" target="_new">CheapBytes</A>.

Also what's the difference between Gnome and KDE ?? Which one is more stable Graphical environment ?

Ummm...this is the center of a whole lot of flame wars! Best you try both and just use whatever you like best.

Kelledin

"/join #hackerz. See the Web. DoS interesting people."

 

[Red_Zealot]

GNOME!!!!
GNOME to the death!!!

"If you teach a child to read, then he or her will be able to pass a literacy test" - George W.

 

[Kelledin]

<i>/me discreetly removes his hand from a lever in the back of Red_Zealot's neck.</i>

Say hello to Red_Zealot, my demonstration dummy. Give me a sec, and I'll have him rally Kultists while I drink a glass of water!

(Sorry Red, I couldn't resist.)

Kelledin

"/join #hackerz. See the Web. DoS interesting people."

 

[Red_Zealot]

lol

"If you teach a child to read, then he or her will be able to pass a literacy test" - George W.

 

[DCT]

Hehehe I am installing Red Hat 6.2 into it. If I like it I might get Red Hat 7.1 or Mandrake 8.x

I'll update when everything is working, I might have more questions though.

Edit: No Luck, after I finish installing it, it doesn't even want to boot. Even using the boot floppy disk.

It said something like Kernel Panic or something and it try to terminate, and it just freeze in that spot.

I am not even trying to dual boot.

BTW how big should the \Root and the <SWAP> be ?? My HD is 20G with 256 MB of RAM.

Thanks

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by DCT on 10/04/01 08:00 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

I think there's a check-box that lets you choose "check for bad blocks"... but an hour seems a long time even for that, unless it's a 386

I think you'll be a little disappointed with 6.2, especially when compared to a newer distro. I'm putting Linux-Mandrake 8.1 on my box tomorrow, upgrading from 8.0, and I don't think I'd want to go back even to RedHat 7.1 now. Things have improved so much over the past few months in terms of usabilty..

Hope it goes smooth for you.

 

[DCT]

No luck man no luck

Read my edited post above

 

[Guest]

I'm running 192MB RAM, and I set my swap to 256MB. I don't use more than a couple of MB of it though. Still with 20GB, I can spare the space... ..

One thing with the older kernels is their ram handling. You may need to tell linux you have 256MB. ie at the lilo boot prompt: linux mem=256M.

/ is the top level of your filesystem, so in this case, I'd go with everything less the /boot and <swap> partitions

see <A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-6.2-Manual/install-guide/s1-cd-rom-gui-partitioning.html" target="_new">this</A> page at RedHat for some more info.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by rjb263 on 10/04/01 09:08 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[DCT]

Yeah Everytime I boot I got this

Kernel Panic: Attempting to kill the idle task
In swapper task - not syncing

What does that mean ? It freeze at that point
BTW I got 1.4 GHz Athlon with 256 DDR RAM, and 32 MB Geforce 2 is Red Hat 6.2 compatible with that ?

For some reason it only recognise 16 MB of the Video RAM.

I think I need the newer version, is that my only solution ?

 

[Guest]

it probly is the only solution.

i found <A HREF="http://www.beowulf.org/pipermail/beowulf/2000-October/010195.html" target="_new">this</A> article on the net:

"we've seen this under several circumstances:
> 1. telling linux there's more than actually present
> 2. trying to run 22.14-5 (RH6.2 stock kernel on 750MHz & higher
>AMD Athlons)
> 3. bad ram"

as i read it, it's saying rh6.2 + fast athlons don't mix

...or it could be bad ram.

you can get memtest from <A HREF="http://www.teresaudio.com/memtest86" target="_new">here</A> to check.

my money's on the version just being too old for your hardwawre..

 

[DCT]

Thanks man, Yeah I guess Red Hat 6.2 is a bit old. I got it ages ago, but never use it till now.

Well I'll be putting Win 98 back in it, till I get the newer version of Linux, Thanks again.

Edit: Actually, could it be a bad RAM ? Caused when I got my Computer, I had to take it back caused I couldn't install Win 98 cause of bad RAM, but they change the RAM already, and it work fine. Could it be because its DDR ? That's why this old kernel is having problem ?

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by DCT on 10/04/01 12:03 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Kelledin]

You should always make your swap space at least twice the size of your available RAM. That's always been a condition for optimal performance--and with recent kernels, it's a condition for stability as well. A lot of the kernel's algorithms just assume that this condition is always the case; if it's not, the algorithms will not handle OOM (out-of-memory) conditions well at all. Most likely your system would have a kernel panic under heavy load.

Speaking of which, some of my favorite kernel panic messages:

"Aieeeee, <something or other>"
"Attempt to kill the idle task!"
"I have no root and I want to scream."


Kelledin

"/join #hackerz. See the Web. DoS interesting people."

 

[Guest]

Hello Kelledin,
I had always heard 2.5 times your amount of ram, for Windows systems. However I had not heard/read that in any "tips" areas in relationship to Linux boxes. Could you give me a link where I could read more on this?

I have a couple of boxes runing MDK (from vs 7.2 to current 8.1) and I have never used (at max) more than a few K of vertual ram. One box has 256mb and the other has 512mb (both are AMD-450's <one K6-2 and one K6-3>) I have even run as many as 4 instances of vmware and netscape as well as other programs at the same time ... just trying to get the swap to grow.

I was under the impression that Linux used memory so much more efficently than win OS's and thus the lack of hits on the swap file. Also I had heard a swap of 128mb-256mb was more than sufficient for any Linux install.

I'm not arguing with your statement, as I know you are much more knowledgable than I, but I sure would appreciate a bit more info to help me understand this.

TIA,
Linuxuser

 

[Kelledin]

Can't provide a link to the exact swap=2*RAM requirement--I picked that up off the LKML--but <A HREF="http://www.linux-mm.org/" target="_new">http://www.linux-mm.org/</A> has a lot of nice in-depth info on the Linux VM layer. Enough to make your head explode. <A HREF="http://kt.zork.net/" target="_new">http://kt.zork.net/</A> archives condensed reports of the more interesting threads of LKML, in case you don't want to receive a few hundred e-mails a day just to keep abreast of kernel development.

Just for kicks, I think I'm going to test the limits of the kernel's VM resilience now and test what I've been hearing. I determined a couple of days ago that 2.4.10 handles OOM conditions quite well, up to loads in excess of 330 over 15 minutes or more. Now it's time for me to really abuse it!

Kelledin

"/join #hackerz. See the Web. DoS interesting people."

 

[Guest]

speaking of the kernel... do you know anything about the kernel preemption patches, Kelledin?

 

[Kelledin]

A little bit. I know the basics of the concept and some things about its limitations. It could be nice for desktops and real-time processes, but I'm not sure how it would affect your standard server that just sits in a corner and does its thing with little intervention. I'm considering running some Apache benchmarks on a preemptible kernel, just to see how it performs.

Kelledin

"/join #hackerz. See the Web. DoS interesting people."

 

[Guest]

cool. i use my box primarily as a workstation, so i might try it out.

Edit: well ah heck me if it doesn't feel a lot snappier. nice. kernel 2.4.10 + preempt-kernel-rml-2.4.10-7 patch + xfs patch... will probably go with reiserfs though. have to think about that one...

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by rjb263 on 10/09/01 07:49 AM.</EM></FONT></P>