Linux Workstation

[Bigshadow]

OK. In a previous thread I was involved with, there was alot of discussion regarding linux, more specifically, linux workstations. Well, I have been tossing around the idea of making myself a linux workstation for casual use. I happened to have a HP Pavillion sitting around collecting dust. So I figured I would use that one.

I brought it to the office with me today and I am downloading a couple of installs. MEPIS and Ubuntu. The Ubuntu download timed out, so I guess for now it is MEPIS.

Back in the day when I was playing around with Linux, there was Redhat and my favorite, the one with the little penguin logo (I forget the name). Anyway, is MEPIS a good Version or should I get something else?

Or, simply... Which is the best Linux workstation flavor?

 

[Andrew Green]

I brought it to the office with me today and I am downloading a couple of installs. MEPIS and Ubuntu. The Ubuntu download timed out, so I guess for now it is MEPIS.

torrents are best for getting linux distributions, for future reference

Back in the day when I was playing around with Linux, there was Redhat and my favorite, the one with the little penguin logo (I forget the name).

Penguin is Tux, but he is the logo for Linux, the kernel, not any distribution. Red Hat does still exist, however their free version is called Fedora. The commercial version can only be got with expensive support contracts or as source code only. However other people recompile the Redhat source, but Fedora is probably the most commonly used one and best community supported.

Anyway, is MEPIS a good Version or should I get something else?

Or, simply... Which is the best Linux workstation flavor?

I tried Mepis a couple years ago, as well as Mandrake, Fedora and a few others. Ended up sticking with Ubuntu, as far as ease of use and stability goes I found it to be the best. Mepis was good, just not as good IMO, but it's really a matter of taste. I also found Ubuntu had better community support and documentation surrounding it, which helped that decision.

 

[Bigshadow]

Thanks Andrew, I will download the ubuntu distribution and install it first. When I was reading the site's info, it sounded as though it would be pretty awesome.

 

[Bigshadow]

torrents are best for getting linux distributions, for future reference

Nevermind, I got it worked out. I take the BitTorrent client will resume unfinished downloads. Says it is going to take over 24 hours to download Ubuntu. Maybe when I get home it will download faster. Home typically is faster than the office.

 

[Andrew Green]

Well in that case, here's some very useful links

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Gutsy
http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate/wiki

 

[Bigshadow]

BTW, it was the Mandrake distribution I used to use back in the late 90s. It was better than most at that time, but still was a techie's job to install and use.

 

[crushing]

Good luck with a Linux distro on a Pavillion! PC makers do some crazy things with mass-consumer grade hardware making it difficult to put Linux on them. My experience with a Compaq Presario (So-sorry-yo!) was years ago, so maybe both the Linux distros/drivers and the PCs have gotten better.

Let us know how it works out for you.

 

[Bigshadow]

Good luck with a Linux distro on a Pavillion! PC makers do some crazy things with mass-consumer grade hardware making it difficult to put Linux on them. My experience with a Compaq Presario (So-sorry-yo!) was years ago, so maybe both the Linux distros/drivers and the PCs have gotten better.

Let us know how it works out for you.

I know what you mean. I am anticipating hardware detection problems. However, the Pavillion is old enough and the distro is new enough and HOPEFULLY just HOPEFULLY the software has matured enough that it will handle it just fine. It is an experiment and to be honest, if it doesn't work, then IMO, it ain't quite ready for the masses yet, because this is precisely what very many will do.

 

[tellner]

I've got various distros on homebrew computers and a cheap e-machines box.

 

[Bigshadow]

Well, I finally got Ubuntu downloaded last night after getting home, using BitTorrent. My home cable modem connection is 4 times faster than our office connection.

Anyway, I booted Ubuntu from DVD this morning on my laptop. Pretty cool so far. Although, I couldn't get the wireless configured properly, but I am not too worried about that yet. We will see how it installs on the Pavillion today. I will be doing that as soon as I get to the office.

 

[Bigshadow]

Oh great! I have Ubuntu installed, but I went and changed the graphics card driver and it was not the right one. Now the thing is jacked up and I cannot see. LOL So, I tried the recover menu and it brought me to the command line. I need to switch the video back to the previous setting. Any ideas without a re-install?

 

[crushing]

Wow, it's been a while since I messed around with that stuff. If you are using X Windows I think the file etc/X11/XF86Config holds the configuration information. You may have a utility call Xconfigurator that will walk you through the setup from the command line.

Back when I had my So-sorry-yo, I had to manually edit the XF86Config file several times before I could find a setting that worked with the graphics card I had. I thought my monitor was going to blow a few times. What a pain! That was back in the mid-90s though. I'm sure it's much better now.

EDIT:

After a little looking around, it looks like the config file for Ubuntu is etc/X11/xorg.conf. So you can probably disregard the stuff above this edit. I'll have to start using Linux again so I can be more helpful.

 

[Andrew Green]

Oh great! I have Ubuntu installed, but I went and changed the graphics card driver and it was not the right one. Now the thing is jacked up and I cannot see. LOL So, I tried the recover menu and it brought me to the command line. I need to switch the video back to the previous setting. Any ideas without a re-install?

If you did it graphically it probably backed it up for you.

from the command line:

cd /etc/X11
ls

"xorg.conf" is the file you are currently using, if there is a backup file restore that.

sudo rm xorg.conf
sudo cp xorg.conf.backup xorg.conf
startx

if you edited it by hand you can get back into it with vi

sudo vi xorg.conf

vi can be a pain if you are not used to it, basically edit the file, the "esc" -> ":wq" to save.

nano can also be used to edit:

sudo nano xorg.conf



Or, you should be able to reconfigure the file from scratch with:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

 

[Bigshadow]

Or, you should be able to reconfigure the file from scratch with:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

That is what I used. I am back in business. I was trying to get more out of the graphics. So far everything seems to work including the network card. I will be putting USB wireless adapter on it tonight, so we will see how that goes.

It looks good so far. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised at how far the installation process has gotten. Even more surprised to see it actually boot from a USB external DVD reader/writer I had to borrow from one of the desks in the office since mine is only a CD/RW and wouldn't read the DVD. Impressive!

 

[fireman00]

What version did you download? 6.06, 7.04 or 7.10? I've played with Mandriva 2007 and 2008, Fedora 7 and 8, Puppy 2.14 and 3.10 and Ubuntu 6 and three flavors of 7.x and gave up.

The biggest issue with Linux as been with video card and wireless drivers -- especially Nvidia video cards and Broadcom wireless cards. I gave up on the latest kernel until the '08 releases start around mid-April because none of them would work on an HP dv6633us (Intel 64 bit) system.

Most folks with AMD and earlier Intel systems could use the "restricted driver" process or load the Windows drivers via ndiswrapper. If you do have issues there are a number of "how to" threads on http://www.ubuntuforums.org - look for the Network/ Wireless link and loot at the stickies.

Let us know how you made out.

 

[Bigshadow]

What version did you download? 6.06, 7.04 or 7.10? I've played with Mandriva 2007 and 2008, Fedora 7 and 8, Puppy 2.14 and 3.10 and Ubuntu 6 and three flavors of 7.x and gave up.

The biggest issue with Linux as been with video card and wireless drivers -- especially Nvidia video cards and Broadcom wireless cards. I gave up on the latest kernel until the '08 releases start around mid-April because none of them would work on an HP dv6633us (Intel 64 bit) system.

Most folks with AMD and earlier Intel systems could use the "restricted driver" process or load the Windows drivers via ndiswrapper. If you do have issues there are a number of "how to" threads on http://www.ubuntuforums.org - look for the Network/ Wireless link and loot at the stickies.

Let us know how you made out.

I have Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy. The computer is an old HP pavillion. The video card is an integrated Intel 810E. I am anxious to try the wireless. I know it recognized it in live mode on my Dell Lattitude D810 this morning, but I was unable to get it to actually connect to my secure wireless network.


I have nearly forgotten the commands I used to know.

So far, I have the following memorized....

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

reboot

The whole video mode thing is another area where it really isn't user friendly. Nobody should have to go to the command prompt to type in commands. The OS should allow a recovery mode with a basic generic video setup and allow a person to update the settings from the GUI. Fortunately, I am pretty comfortable at the command line. But most users (unless they are technical) are going to be very frustrated. This is certainly a sign it isn't ready for everyone to use, yet.... Give it another 5 years or so and it will be very hard for businesses to ignore it.

 

[Andrew Green]

I don't think it will take 5-years, progress on those things has been pretty quickly catching up. Most users wouldn't need to do anything from the command line or edit any config files for there graphics setup. Ubuntu 7.10 introduced a new GUI config tool that made it even easier.

Now it autodetects my Nvidia card, installs the restricted drivers for my by checking a box. A year ago getting Nvidia setup was a pain in the ***, now I do nothing and get a fancy 3D desktop

Of course if things go bad it will still dump you to a terminal. Not good, but not any worse then some of the things Windows will do when something goes bad. It should however offer to reconfigure X if it is suddenly unable to start it though.

 

[Bigshadow]

I don't think it will take 5-years, progress on those things has been pretty quickly catching up.

I was exaggerating.... LOL

Most users wouldn't need to do anything from the command line or edit any config files for there graphics setup. Ubuntu 7.10 introduced a new GUI config tool that made it even easier.

The install and configuration is quite nice. Not much unlike Windows Desktop. It is pretty intuitive, until something goes wrong.

Of course if things go bad it will still dump you to a terminal. Not good, but not any worse then some of the things Windows will do when something goes bad. It should however offer to reconfigure X if it is suddenly unable to start it though.

True, for me being technical, I would prefer the terminal rather than the Blue screen of death, any day of the week!

Overall, I like it. I will let the kids go on the web with it and see how it holds up! HAHA

 

[newGuy12]

Ha!

I see a GNU/Linux thread here! That's great!

Yes, you let those kids have at it, just do not give them the root password. Let them try to hose the machine! See if they can do it, if they can mess it up! This will be good!

Also, you know, Ubuntu is *fine*! Right now, I have the Vector Linux installed on my Toshiba Satellite laptop. It is like Slackware, except that it has newer packages and kernel and so forth. It is great! I am pimping this rig out right!

Ha!

I have it so that you log in on startup. Okay, you can startx if you wish and have at it, no problem xfce desktop, the default for this distribution. But, you see, I must be fancy. That is my nature with this computering, I wish to be able to show off fancy ways of configuration.

So, I have where you can stick in the usb thumbdrive. There is a key on it, 1024 bits of ascii. The thumbdrive, it is detected automagically, and then I invoke a script to call 'truecrypt' to mount an encrypted partition to my /home dir, and then...

w000! Another whole computer! Ha!

I have been messing with this. I am trying everything out, running the vncviewer to connect to the other machines, and forwarding X (all through SSH, of course).

I almost have this laptop ready to show off to public in coffee houses.

Yes! This is great fun, this FREE Operating System!

I am configuring the fluxbox now, it is taking a lot of time.

Now, if one does everything with the command line, then who cares what distro you use? Everything will transfer nicely, the knowledge across distributions! Only, the filesystem may differ, or startup scripts, but, no problem, it is all easy to figure out.

Now, if one relies on front end tools, no, that is not good, because if you go to another computer which does not have those tools, then it gives a pause to figure it out.

Regarding enterprise deployments -- the IT staff can cook up a configuration, and then have everyone in the company with the same config, no problem, its easier to troubleshoot and admin then.

The home user, though, they have to get r0wdy with their box, and let the kidz try to hose it!!!

Oh, ahahahahaha! yes!

Oh, this is great!

Don't worry, the Ubuntu people are *really* into their distro. The community surrounding that distribution seeks to take over the world, and their forums are very good! I think that Ubuntu is a very good choice for a user who has not messed with GNU/Linux for a while, because many people now use this distro.




I hope you all the best. If you have any cool adventures with this special box, post up about them, and share the joy!







Regards,

Robert Witten

 

[Bigshadow]

I am still trying to get the Belkin USB wireless G adapter running. Looks like this one is the glitch. Just to save time, I might would buy a different USB wireless adapter if comes with Linux drivers.