I went looking for the old Linux thread and to my surprise found:

Unable to handle request

This thread has been hidden for administrative purposes

Hmm..., I don't recall seeing anything objectionable or offensive in that thread.

The purpose of this thread is discussion of linux. Comparison of distros, experiences, tips and tricks ... anything linux related.

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Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.
Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)

I went looking for the old Linux thread and to my surprise found:

Unable to handle request

This thread has been hidden for administrative purposes

Hmm..., I don't recall seeing anything objectionable or offensive in that thread.

The purpose of this thread is discussion of linux. Comparison of distros, experiences, tips and tricks ... anything linux related.

It's all part of Berkeley's "quality moderators program".

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I've been using SuSE for over a year now due to it's ('till now) excellent hardware support. Unfortunately v10.1 veers from the expected hardware support, and I find that devices that worked fine with v10.0 no longer work. Most annoying is the failure of the recent version to detect or use drives attached to my LSI MegaRaid 493 SCSI RAID controller.

I am expecting eight 40GB ATA100 drives to arrive within the next few days, four of which I will be using with my 3ware 7500-4 IDE RAID controller, and I'd like to be able to use SCSI drives I have with the LSI controller for my /home. Unfortunately no one at the SuSE support fora have any helpful ideas. The only responses I received referred to fake/software raid cards, which does not apply to the LSI controller I have. I suspect the problem is due to the removal of non open source kernel modules that were used in previous SuSE versions.

Since I'm going to be installing a fresh operating system it looks like it's time to consider alternatives. I have Kubuntu and Sabayon burned to dvd and ready to go. Kubuntu is Ubuntu with KDE. Sabayon is a newly renamed distribution based on Gentoo, formerly known as RR4/RR64.

A review of Sabayon can be found Here.

Asy suggestions of other distributions to consider? Anyone out there using an LSI MegaRaid on one of the newer linux versions?

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Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.
Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)

After exploring the Sabayon Live DVD I find that I am very much looking forward to the switch.
As a matter of fact I'm writing this with the Live DVD running.
My SBC DSL connection was automatically set up with no user intervention.
A screen capture is at:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a205/tekwyzrd/snapshot1.png

The menus will require some reorganization but this Gentoo based distribution looks very promising.
I can't wait for the drives to arrive so I can find out if it'll operate my MegaRaid card properly.

For those interested in trying a new distribution, Sabayon is well worth a look.

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Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.
Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)

I use Gentoo myself and am very happy with it.

tekwyzrd can you give (copy/paste) me a quick rundown of the major differences between Gentoo and Sabayon? Cuz I'm really too lazy to check it out by myself :P.

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mambo

I use Gentoo myself and am very happy with it.

tekwyzrd can you give (copy/paste) me a quick rundown of the major differences between Gentoo and Sabayon? Cuz I'm really too lazy to check it out by myself :P.

Essentially Sabayon is an installable Live DVD Gentoo distribution. It was formerly known as RR4/RR64 (Recovery Reiser4 32 and 64 bit versions).

DistroWatch description:

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=sabayon

Sabayon Linux is a live DVD designed to transform a computer into a powerful Gentoo Linux system in less than 5 minutes. Gentoo Linux is a Linux distribution powered by a software install manager engine called "Portage". Besides functioning as a live DVD, Sabayon Linux can also be installed on a hard disk, acting effectively as an easy-to-use Gentoo installation disk. The live DVD includes a large range of desktop environments and open source software applications, such as KDE, GNOME, XFce, Fluxbox, KOffice, OpenOffice.org, FreeNX, amaroK, Kaffeine, etc.

According to TECHGAGE:

http://techgage.com/article/sabayon_linux_rc2/1

The distro formally known as RR4 is soon to be released, and we have taken a hard first look at what's being offered. Based on Gentoo, Sabayon already has a solid base. Add superb Live DVD functionality and a complete installer, this is one distro worth watching.

>snip

http://techgage.com/article/sabayon_linux_rc2/3

Similar to other distros, you can update all the packages on your system with a simple command: emerge -uD world. One benefit that some enjoy is the fact that if a program is open source, emerge will download the source code and compile it. This 'optimizes' that application for your system. I should mention though, that the quick installation of Sabayon is due to binary packages being used on the DVD. Further updating the applications, such as using the -uD world, will then compile them.

Another benefit Gentoo has is the genkernel tool. Essentially, this allows you to very easily upgrade your kernel with a simple command. Though power users will want to manually install and configure their kernel, this is a great secondary option.

Gentoo specific benefits aside, this is a great distro on it's own even if you never touch the perks of Gentoo. For the casual user, it includes everything you will need from a base install... trust me on this. If you later want to upgrade/install new packages but don't want to deal with emerge, a Kuroo icon is waiting for you on your desktop. It allows you the power of emerge, but in a GUI frontend.

For power users, Sabayon is one of those distros that comes packed, but holds back no control. After installation, you can do whatever you please... upgrade your kernel or packages, hack your grub.conf, uninstall programs you don't need, change the theme to mimic a regular KDE and much more. The primary difference here is, that it makes the installation far quicker than a regular Gentoo distro.

If you are a fan of XGL and are a regular Gentoo user, you may understand the hassle of trying to get it to function. Sabayon is actually XGL capable from the start, but you need to activate it manually on boot: gentoo xgl res=1280x1024 refresh=75. I didn't touch up much on XGL in this article though, as it's not really the focus of this distro. It's there for the taking, if you are interested.

---

Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.
Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)

Hello!
Im planing on instaling ubuntu Linux on my PC i hear its good for noobs like me ;)
So is it easy to use and safe?

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Scorpions - Wind Of Change

Hello!
Im planing on instaling ubuntu Linux on my PC i hear its good for noobs like me ;)
So is it easy to use and safe?

As I understand it ubuntu is one of the more popular distros. I have kubuntu (the KDE version) of the installable live DVD here but I find it lacking a bit.

I started using Linux around the 18th of August last year and found SuSE best suited to my hardware.

If you have access to a fast internet connection and dvd burner my suggestion would be to download and burn several live versions and give them a try. Then pick the one best suited to your personal preferences.

You can read about the many Linux distributions available at DistroWatch.

---

Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.
Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)

Hello!
Im planing on instaling ubuntu Linux on my PC i hear its good for noobs like me ;)
So is it easy to use and safe?

As I understand it ubuntu is one of the more popular distros. I have kubuntu (the KDE version) of the installable live DVD here but I find it lacking a bit.

I started using Linux around the 18th of August last year and found SuSE best suited to my hardware.

If you have access to a fast internet connection and dvd burner my suggestion would be to download and burn several live versions and give them a try. Then pick the one best suited to your personal preferences.

You can read about the many Linux distributions available at DistroWatch.

Thank you!
Ill se how ubuntu works firs.

---

Scorpions - Wind Of Change

I use Gentoo myself and am very happy with it.

tekwyzrd can you give (copy/paste) me a quick rundown of the major differences between Gentoo and Sabayon? Cuz I'm really too lazy to check it out by myself :P.

Essentially Sabayon is an installable Live DVD Gentoo distribution. It was formerly known as RR4/RR64 (Recovery Reiser4 32 and 64 bit versions).

DistroWatch description:

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=sabayon

Sabayon Linux is a live DVD designed to transform a computer into a powerful Gentoo Linux system in less than 5 minutes. Gentoo Linux is a Linux distribution powered by a software install manager engine called "Portage". Besides functioning as a live DVD, Sabayon Linux can also be installed on a hard disk, acting effectively as an easy-to-use Gentoo installation disk. The live DVD includes a large range of desktop environments and open source software applications, such as KDE, GNOME, XFce, Fluxbox, KOffice, OpenOffice.org, FreeNX, amaroK, Kaffeine, etc.

According to TECHGAGE:

http://techgage.com/article/sabayon_linux_rc2/1

The distro formally known as RR4 is soon to be released, and we have taken a hard first look at what's being offered. Based on Gentoo, Sabayon already has a solid base. Add superb Live DVD functionality and a complete installer, this is one distro worth watching.

>snip

http://techgage.com/article/sabayon_linux_rc2/3

Similar to other distros, you can update all the packages on your system with a simple command: emerge -uD world. One benefit that some enjoy is the fact that if a program is open source, emerge will download the source code and compile it. This 'optimizes' that application for your system. I should mention though, that the quick installation of Sabayon is due to binary packages being used on the DVD. Further updating the applications, such as using the -uD world, will then compile them.

Another benefit Gentoo has is the genkernel tool. Essentially, this allows you to very easily upgrade your kernel with a simple command. Though power users will want to manually install and configure their kernel, this is a great secondary option.

Gentoo specific benefits aside, this is a great distro on it's own even if you never touch the perks of Gentoo. For the casual user, it includes everything you will need from a base install... trust me on this. If you later want to upgrade/install new packages but don't want to deal with emerge, a Kuroo icon is waiting for you on your desktop. It allows you the power of emerge, but in a GUI frontend.

For power users, Sabayon is one of those distros that comes packed, but holds back no control. After installation, you can do whatever you please... upgrade your kernel or packages, hack your grub.conf, uninstall programs you don't need, change the theme to mimic a regular KDE and much more. The primary difference here is, that it makes the installation far quicker than a regular Gentoo distro.

If you are a fan of XGL and are a regular Gentoo user, you may understand the hassle of trying to get it to function. Sabayon is actually XGL capable from the start, but you need to activate it manually on boot: gentoo xgl res=1280x1024 refresh=75. I didn't touch up much on XGL in this article though, as it's not really the focus of this distro. It's there for the taking, if you are interested.

Thanks for the details.
I'll consider Sabayon next time I build a workstation Linux.

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mambo

I spent the last two days fighting with a couple linux distributions. Sabayon refused to mount drives due to "e2fsck: Bad magic number in super-block". No matter what I did, or what filesystem I tried, I couldn't get it to mount the drives attached to my 3ware controller. Ext3, reiser, reiser4... all the same. Oh well, it's an RC. I'm back up and running with my second install of SuSE 10.1 after encountering problems with the first try. After letting the computer run overnight I shut it down and at restart I got grub error 15. I tried to install a new bootloader but got error messages. The current install is running fine, and starts with no problem after shutting down. Best of all, / and /home are on separate mirror sets, each of which also has a 1GB swap.

Time to visit the Sabayon website and explain the problem.

---

Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.
Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)

Any suggestions for a total noob of even where to start.

How hard is it to create the live CD?

I'd like to play around some before I actually refortmat and repartion my lappy to dual boot.

The computer is a 2.8 ghz P4 with a gig of RAM. I think the harddrive is 50 gigs.

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Kathryn :o)
The BOINC FAQ Service
The Unofficial BOINC Wiki
The Trac System
More BOINC information than you can shake a stick of RAM at.

Any suggestions for a total noob of even where to start.

How hard is it to create the live CD?

I'd like to play around some before I actually refortmat and repartion my lappy to dual boot.

The computer is a 2.8 ghz P4 with a gig of RAM. I think the harddrive is 50 gigs.

For a new linux user kubuntu or ubuntu are good choices and both offer installable live versions.
I recently installed kubuntu to give it a try and though I found it lacking it is very easy to install.

DistroWatch is a good source of information for comparing different linux distributions.

---

Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.
Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)

Any suggestions for a total noob of even where to start.

How hard is it to create the live CD?

I'd like to play around some before I actually refortmat and repartion my lappy to dual boot.

The computer is a 2.8 ghz P4 with a gig of RAM. I think the harddrive is 50 gigs.

For a new linux user kubuntu or ubuntu are good choices and both offer installable live versions.
I recently installed kubuntu to give it a try and though I found it lacking it is very easy to install.

DistroWatch is a good source of information for comparing different linux distributions.

Thanks.

I'll check out distrowatch.

---

Kathryn :o)
The BOINC FAQ Service
The Unofficial BOINC Wiki
The Trac System
More BOINC information than you can shake a stick of RAM at.

I spent the last two days fighting with a couple linux distributions. Sabayon refused to mount drives due to "e2fsck: Bad magic number in super-block". No matter what I did, or what filesystem I tried, I couldn't get it to mount the drives attached to my 3ware controller. Ext3, reiser, reiser4... all the same. Oh well, it's an RC. I'm back up and running with my second install of SuSE 10.1 after encountering problems with the first try. After letting the computer run overnight I shut it down and at restart I got grub error 15. I tried to install a new bootloader but got error messages. The current install is running fine, and starts with no problem after shutting down. Best of all, / and /home are on separate mirror sets, each of which also has a 1GB swap.

Time to visit the Sabayon website and explain the problem.

The "short read" error causes me to suspect that the partition table is wrong or that you're pointing fsck to the wrong device/slice. That's the error I get if I run debugfs on a directory or file rather than the proper /dev/ node. It's also possible to get this if you've got a partition that's listed as Linux native that has no filesystem yet made on it or when you try the e2fsck -b on an MS-DOS filesystem. You can try a number of other superblocks (they should be scattered every 8K clusters). In a particularly bad case you can try mke2fs -S (make superblocks and group descriptors only). This is described in the man page --- and is for "last ditch" efforts only.




EDIT: by the way, Norton Utilities for DOS can scan a raw device, find superblocks and report the information from them.

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