Setting up a Linux system...

[it290]

I've been using Gentoo for a few years now, and although the package management is simply awesome, I can say that the speed claims are exaggerated. You're not going to want to use -O3 all the time because compiles will fail and it doesn't speed things up that much anyway. In my experience, 80% of tweaking Linux has to do with making sure the kernel is set up in the most efficient way for your use. Second in importance would be doing things like HD tuning and so forth.

As for the 'five days of compile time' thing, it shouldn't take nearly that long, even on a slower system. GNOME/KDE tend to take the longest to compile anyway, and as you won't be using those, there's no need to worry about that.

About the mplayer crash thing, maybe a soundcard issue (probably not, but it's possible)? Which card are you using, and are you using OSS or ALSA? Try switching from one to the other and see if it makes a difference. But before you do that, try changing the ao option in your mplayer config and change the output driver to something else. If you're using ALSA, you can use the alsa, oss, or sdl drivers, for example, whereas with OSS you could use oss or sdl. I think oss is the default, so try sdl for the hell of it.

 

[kahuna]

I gave up gentoo after a couple of years of using it. The wait to recompile KDE and X was not worth the performace gains (which were not very noticable). Another annoying thing about it was that I spent alot of time trying to resolve conflicts and fixing problems with the packaging system.

 

[mrkotfw]

i suggest you replace xmms and go for mpd

 

[ExCyber]

What's there to disagree? It probably means that they aren't as stable with certain hardware as with others. On three different computers, two of which are ECS systems, 1 which is a chaintech, the crashes were common. One of those, a K7S5A PRO, was bought after numerous reviews about how it was the "best" motherboard for linux. I'm not sure if I was running firefox, but I was using galleon, konquerer, and netscape, as well as x-chat, and all of those have crashed numerous times with me.

Then your hardware is probably unstable. ECS is not known for consistent rock-solid stability, and ISTR that certain runs of the K7S5A in particular are notorious for having crappy voltage regulation and decoupling. There are certain hardware combinations that cause problems under specific circumstances, but to just have programs randomly crashing on a recent stable release of a mainstream OS (whether it be a Linux distro, BSD variant, Windows 2K/XP, or whatever) typically indicates unreliable hardware. However, to have similar crashes on several systems, it could also be something like a corrupt installation medium. You didn't mention much about the software side of it, and different distributions can have wildly different configurations. In any case, what you're describing is not the normal state of affairs for a Linux-based OS at all.

 

[it290]

New release of Vector out -- this time with Enlightenment DR17 included! I'd love to try it out. I have DR17 installed on my system currently, but it's an older CVS version and it's a pain to get E running, since every time I go to recompile it, stuff has changed around a fair bit.

 

[slinga]

Enlightment DR17 is supposed to be nice speedup over prior releases. It looks cool, but I need my bloaded DEs thank you very much I'm pretty sure someone will release a live CD for it sooner or later.

 

[it290]

There's a liveCD called elive already, but it's a bit outdated right now. They're supposed to be releasing a new version soon.

 

[Malakai]

My experiences with linux hasn't been on just one machine or 1 version of linux. Linux versions tried: mandrake 8.1 RETAIL/Gaming Edition, Mandrake 8.2, Mandrake 9.0, Mandrake 9.2?, Redhat 5.2 RETAIL, redhat 7.3, Suse 9.2 RETAIL, and the newest Knoppmyth.

The main problemed OS versions are the newer ones, as they are the ones that I've used x-windows on most. For stuff like redhat 5.2, I used command line mode and had pretty much no problems with that.

Hardware I've tested linux on: AMD Duron 750, AMD Thunderbird 900, AMD Duron 950, AMD XP 1700+, Intel P200, AMD K6-2 350, and a couple older 386s/486s.

Video cards used: Voodoo 3 3000, ati radeon 9200, ati radeon 9700 pro, nvidia geforce mmx-440, jaton 2mb pci, and integrated. Sound cards used: Sound blaster live value, sound blaster live gamer, ac97, integrated/other. Motherboards: ECS, Intel, PC Chips, etc.

What things I do/did on linux: Word processing, surfing the web, chatting on irc or gaim, and occasionally some of the freeware games included on the distros.

Problems I had in linux: Web browsers crashing often (galeon, konquerer, netscape,) X-Chat crashing fairly often, even though I updated as soon as new versions came out. While these didn't crash x-windows or the linux system, BZFlag would crash the whole system often, even with different versions...

I've also had sound problems with a few of the distros. Even with a sound card that sounds great on windows, it'll sometimes overdrive the signal in linux, and even though you can adjust mixer settings and such, it still isn't up to any thing windows can do.

I could never get any dvds to play correctly in the sub-900mhz CPUs either. Very choppy, stop and go, even though they played fine on windows on the same PCs.

Most of the newer linux versions (mandrake, suse, etc) just take up too many resources. Even with a SUSE 9.2 minimum install, it slows down my 950mhz cpu a lot. It does work at near full speed on the 1700+, but I didn't like SUSE enough to see how well it functioned.

I'm sure there are some linux gurus out there that customize their own versions to do just what they want it to do, with minimum resources taken up, and I also know there are some mini versions out there that do the same. The problems I listed may not be that great, but it affected pretty much every thing that I personally did in linux, which is internet stuff.

All in all, I'd say that I had enough variations in hardware and software to eliminate one motherboard or bad distro alltogether. In fact, I'm very surprised that no one else has reported the same problems I had/have with it.

I'm not trying to say any thing bad about linux. In fact, I use it off and on quite frequently, and usually always have a "2nd PC" around that has linux on it, for those when I feel like being a nerd again.

Originally posted by ExCyber@Tue, 2005-08-23 @ 02:42 PM

Then your hardware is probably unstable. ECS is not known for consistent rock-solid stability, and ISTR that certain runs of the K7S5A in particular are notorious for having crappy voltage regulation and decoupling. There are certain hardware combinations that cause problems under specific circumstances, but to just have programs randomly crashing on a recent stable release of a mainstream OS (whether it be a Linux distro, BSD variant, Windows 2K/XP, or whatever) typically indicates unreliable hardware. However, to have similar crashes on several systems, it could also be something like a corrupt installation medium. You didn't mention much about the software side of it, and different distributions can have wildly different configurations. In any case, what you're describing is not the normal state of affairs for a Linux-based OS at all.

[post=138634]Quoted post[/post]​

 

[mtxblau]

Oddball experiences with Linux... of course it all depends on the md5s of them, which I've had gone awry on a few of my installs (FC1, SuSE). But you can't discount these sorts of experiences, I suppose. As for myself I'm in the group of the former - I almost never have crashes under Linux, and reboots happen on a blue moon.

Depends on the kernel too. And the drivers. And the hardware. But that's neither here nor there.

By the way, SuSE 10.0 is now available for download:

http://www.novell.com/products/suselinux/d...tions_eval.html

Supposedly faster than previous versions (I think the word I saw tossed around the Bugzilla was 'snappier'). Looks outstanding, Xen has come along nicely.

Ubuntu is Debian based, and is actually *very* impressive for such new on the scene sort of distro. It's run by Mark Shuttleworth (paid to go into space) who has this 'everything should be free' thing going, except he means it. You can order professionally pressed CDs and have them delivered - free, to your door. It took only three days too... I've ordered 20 CDs to date.

...my 2p.

 

[lordofduct]

Well I'm running ubuntu on this machine now... been for awhile and I really like it. Just a few minor things I disliked. Like how it doesn't install the make compiler on install. WTF is with that?

Anyways, I have a problem on this computer though... and it's not Linux. See every version/distro I've placed on this PC ASLA has recognized my SoundBlaster Live! soundcard and used it just fine.

I put swapable drives on it now. I have one with Ubuntu and the other I installed Win98 SE. It has been ages since I used Win98 and I'm loving it as it FLY's on this comp. Everything moves so damn fast. SWEET.... wait... what's this... you don't recognize my sound card.

I DL the drivers from SB, the 98 version, and whats this... STILL NO WORK. I try driversguide.com... no drivers from there work either. Linux can support my damn soundcard, it still works there. So it can't be hardware on my end. What the FUCK.

Can anyone help?

[EDIT] Now I would stick with Ubuntu... but for some annoying reason I can't get the SDL devpaks to freaking work. I don't understand why, everything is set up correctly as far as I know. I have the libs all directed to properly, I have my IDE directed to the libs... but whats this I compile some code in my IDE and AGH... "Sdl blah blah error: syntzax error. blah diggy do... can not locate SDL libs"... Growel.

I'm tired of trying to fucking hunt through the system and locate the problem, spent enough time as is. I really don't want to change to another version of Linux cause I'm liking Ubuntu outside of that and well I easily set up the libs on Win98 fast and easy.

 

[slinga]

Originally posted by lordofduct@Sun, 2005-10-09 @ 08:57 AM

Well I'm running ubuntu on this machine now... been for awhile and I really like it. Just a few minor things I disliked. Like how it doesn't install the make compiler on install. WTF is with that?

Security. There's a prevailing thought that by default there should not be a compiler on a system that doesn't require it. I don't see what the big deal is, if I can access your system and compile stuff, what's stopping me from pulling files I need off the web? I guess it's more covert if I compile stuff on the local machine but who knows.

 

[mtxblau]

root is turned off by default too. For those who have a general idea of what they are doing, it's a mild annoyance (in KDE I usually have three tabbed terminals, one always logged into root - been doing it for too long to stop), but keep in mind viruses are transmitted by the inept... I think they're making sure that they reduce the number of possible security flaws that the average user can handle.

 

[kahuna]

Originally posted by lordofduct@Sun, 2005-10-09 @ 07:57 AM

Well I'm running ubuntu on this machine now... been for awhile and I really like it. Just a few minor things I disliked. Like how it doesn't install the make compiler on install. WTF is with that?

Anyways, I have a problem on this computer though... and it's not Linux. See every version/distro I've placed on this PC ASLA has recognized my SoundBlaster Live! soundcard and used it just fine.

I put swapable drives on it now. I have one with Ubuntu and the other I installed Win98 SE. It has been ages since I used Win98 and I'm loving it as it FLY's on this comp. Everything moves so damn fast. SWEET.... wait... what's this... you don't recognize my sound card.

I DL the drivers from SB, the 98 version, and whats this... STILL NO WORK. I try driversguide.com... no drivers from there work either. Linux can support my damn soundcard, it still works there. So it can't be hardware on my end. What the FUCK.

Can anyone help?

[EDIT] Now I would stick with Ubuntu... but for some annoying reason I can't get the SDL devpaks to freaking work. I don't understand why, everything is set up correctly as far as I know. I have the libs all directed to properly, I have my IDE directed to the libs... but whats this I compile some code in my IDE and AGH... "Sdl blah blah error: syntzax error. blah diggy do... can not locate SDL libs"... Growel.

I'm tired of trying to fucking hunt through the system and locate the problem, spent enough time as is. I really don't want to change to another version of Linux cause I'm liking Ubuntu outside of that and well I easily set up the libs on Win98 fast and easy.

[post=140502]Quoted post[/post]​

As far as the compiler thing goes, you might have already discovered that apt-get install build-essential will put you on the right track as far as compiler and tools goes.

As far as the SDL problem - do you have all of the libsdl-*-dev packages installed? You really need the libraries themselves as well as the the dev packages to develop software. The only way your software won't find libsdl is if it cannot find sdl-config which is provided by libsdl12-dev (or something like that if I recall).

 

[kahuna]

Originally posted by MTXBlau@Mon, 2005-10-10 @ 12:47 PM

root is turned off by default too. For those who have a general idea of what they are doing, it's a mild annoyance (in KDE I usually have three tabbed terminals, one always logged into root - been doing it for too long to stop), but keep in mind viruses are transmitted by the inept... I think they're making sure that they reduce the number of possible security flaws that the average user can handle.

[post=140561]Quoted post[/post]​

sudo su

passwd

will enable root with the password of your choosing.

 

[lordofduct]

Originally posted by kahuna@Mon, 2005-10-10 @ 06:02 PM

As far as the compiler thing goes, you might have already discovered that apt-get install build-essential will put you on the right track as far as compiler and tools goes.

As far as the SDL problem - do you have all of the libsdl-*-dev packages installed? You really need the libraries themselves as well as the the dev packages to develop software. The only way your software won't find libsdl is if it cannot find sdl-config which is provided by libsdl12-dev (or something like that if I recall).

[post=140567]Quoted post[/post]​

Yeah I got the compiler off the disk, it's just an annoyance it didn't come up front and I didn't know.

As for SDL, I got the source for 1.2.9 from libsdl.org

I compiled it just like they said and directed my IDE to it like I know how and it just didn't seem to like it at all.

That doesn't matter, I am liking it on Win98 more as Win98 seems to move VERY fast on this computer... and some ups is I'm getting a 1.2ghz 133 FSB socket 370 on wednesday! SO, Win98 is just gonna truck it so much stronger then Ubuntu will. I'll keep Ubuntu on as a music box and web surfing thing... also just to fool around on.

That reminds me.... not really Linux related but still something I want to do so that I am not sure if it works.

Check this:

I have 3 HDDs. One has Ubuntu installed on it, one has Win98 installed on it, and the third is a ext3 fs storage drive. I don't have the stuff to make a swappable hard drive bay so I want to know if this will hurt my comp, so far it seems to work.

So yeah, just ignore the CDrom and ext3 storage drive. Now on the two OS drives I have the pin set so that they think they are Master Drives with no other drive present on the cable, I will then build a switch that excepts the morex from the PSU and send out two new Morex connectors to both HDDs, when the switch is one direction it turns one of the two HDDs on and vice versa.

You think this is healthy for my comp?

[attachmentid=1538]

 

[mal]

As long as you only switch between drives when the computer is powered down I think it should be OK.

BTW I think you mean Molex.

 

[lordofduct]

yeah i do mean molex

[EDIT]I noticed recently I've been looking at mini-itx mobo's again and Morex is a company who makes cases and small PSU's for mini-itx boards. That is probably how I made the mix up.