Sunday, May 7, 2000

Linux Installation How-To -- 1:47 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

PlanetQuake has a four page article in their Tech Tips column on installing and setting up Linux, primarily to run Quake 2. He gives a run down on a number of Linux distributions, one of which I take exception to:

1) RedHat - Used to be great, now it's slow, bloated, and breaks way too easily. Using this one is a Bad Idea.

Of course, he doesn't back up that statement with anything. What makes it intrinsically "slow" or "break too easily" is beyond me.

While the article is moderately helpful and would give a beginning introduction into Linux, it will not replace a good beginner's book by any means (I like Learning Red Hat Linux myself). I also would suggest that you not follow his limited instructions for partitioning your drive. He doesn't explain very well why he does what he does. Even though I do use Linux, I'm not sure I understand what he's doing.

Of course, if you have an NVIDIA card and you want to use the new XFree 4.0 drivers, you might want to check out my little article on my adventures installing them.

J.t.Qbe offers words of wisdom (or whatever): I'm not sure that the article is even moderately helpful as far as installing Linux goes. Yikes! If you're new to Linux, you have to go out and buy a book. You just have to. "Running Linux" is the classic, though light on installation instructions. Most distributions have decent install manuals in their boxed sets. Some distributions really are easier to install than Window$, but in general you really need some guidance if you're new.

Speaking of distributions, the choice is something of a religious issue. A.T., you started with Red Hat and you're a fan. I started with Slackware and still like it best (I use Slack7 on my workstation at work). I've used many of the popular distributions, so FWIW here's what I think:

I don't know that Red Hat can really be considered "bloated", but it does seem to break easily lately. My RH6 install broke last fall and it was just easier to get rid of it. I do like Mandrake better than Red Hat--it does seem more current and more stable. If you're going to use the term "bloated", try a full install of SuSE--7.5 GB is the minimum required for SuSE 6.3! It has a LOT of software, though. Caldera and Storm are nice systems, though the "free" version of Storm is more a limited capability demo. And I think Slackware is the best: a lean, mean Linux machine!

The hard drive technique he describes is used for drives over 8GB and with an older version of LILO. All but the most current LILO can't boot partitions over 1024 cylinders, which works out to 8GB on many large drives today. If your Linux partition is past that 8GB limit, you have to have a small boot partition under that limit which LILO can use to boot your system. It's kind of a pain, and the latest LILO does fix that problem.

I hope that this guy's gaming info is more useful than his installation info. It's serviceable, but just barely.

News for 05/07/2000

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