Linux distros

  • Thread starter Thread starter lubinok
  • Start date Start date
L

lubinok

I would like a Linux distro which will run off a CD.
I would like to check Linux out.
I'm keeping 98SE until I find some reason to change to Linux
Tried Knoppix 3.2.
It goes into free fall!!!!!!
Full hang!
Obviously hardware probs.
How do I get a list of what hardware the various distros support.
Remember I'm running 98SE and want to run from a CD.
It seems I must purchase new hardware to evaluate Linux.
I'm rather cheesed (mild) off!
l
 
lubinok said:
I would like a Linux distro which will run off a CD.
I would like to check Linux out.
I'm keeping 98SE until I find some reason to change to Linux
Tried Knoppix 3.2.
It goes into free fall!!!!!!
Full hang!
Obviously hardware probs.
How do I get a list of what hardware the various distros support.
Remember I'm running 98SE and want to run from a CD.
It seems I must purchase new hardware to evaluate Linux.
I'm rather cheesed (mild) off!
l
Click to expand...

This one runs on my system when Knoppix would not. No support for my
winmodem, but everything else works fine.

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

on-the-fly
 
Obviously hardware probs.
How do I get a list of what hardware the various distros support.
Remember I'm running 98SE and want to run from a CD.
Click to expand...

Me too; so far the only distro that's worked is Fedora (got it off the
January Linux Format cover. It installed quite well.
It seems I must purchase new hardware to evaluate Linux.
I'm rather cheesed (mild) off!
Click to expand...

I got a new S/H modem from a charity shop (still charged 15 squid, the
b*****s, but it is a good one).

Not tried the printer yet, but I 'm pretty sure it will go - I'm taking it
slowly as Linux is till a bit of a PITA, and I am concerned about
specialist software.

Good luck

mike r
 
Try Linux Mandrake On The Move or PCLinux. They install the easiest for me.
I am using Win 98, 256 megs. If you are not using a newer monitor, you might
have to settle for 800x600 screen resolution. I also was trying Linux before
going to XP PRO. I am not of the computer generation so I require software
that installs + operates with little computer acumen. Learning a completely
new OS, I think, is not for me. I like to use voice + video chat. The
Windows operating systems perform this function with excellent quality. Also
the enormous amount of software, especially freeware, available for Windows
makes computing, for me, more exciting. Good luck!!
 
Tried Knoppix 3.2.
It goes into free fall!!!!!!
Full hang!
Obviously hardware probs.
Click to expand...

Could always try 3.3 or IIRC now they have 3.4. Maybe more hardware
is supported.
How do I get a list of what hardware the various distros support.
Click to expand...

Find out what distro the live CD is based on and go to their main
site. Most of them have some sort of hardware compatibility list.

Another thing you can do is pick your main hardware - mobo, mobo
chipset, hard drive, video card (usually the main stickler for Linux),
etc. - and key the name of it into Google (especially Google Groups -
along with the word "Linux" and see what comes up.
It seems I must purchase new hardware to evaluate Linux.
Click to expand...

Maybe - maybe not. Just because a live distro can't handle it doesn't
mean a full one might not.

And it depends on WHAT hardware is the problem. Until you get to the
cause, you can't tell what it will cost you to get Linux to run -
might be something inexpensive.
 
lubinok posted,
I would like a Linux distro which will run off a CD.
Click to expand...

here's a few to choose from <g>
http://www.distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=cd

if you like game/graphic heavy look seriously at dynebolic or morphix,
for security/forensics try F.I.R.E. or L.A.S. or knoppix std, lots of
firewall and server distros as well, etc...

nice place to search from-
http://www.distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=search

a *few* live CDs are up at sourceforge.net search there and google for
Linux Live CD, should get you more than you bargained for ;)

--
Most Sincerely,
Army RedLeg

Sometimes you're the bug, and sometimes you're the windshield...

Eric Howes' *comprehensive* PC Privacy&Security Site:
http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~ehowes/
Good chance you'll find *all* the goodies here:
http://lists.gpick.com/
looking for a nice place away from usenet? join us:
nntp://news.securecomp.org
 
| I would like a Linux distro which will run off a CD.
| I would like to check Linux out.
| I'm keeping 98SE until I find some reason to change to Linux
| Tried Knoppix 3.2.
| It goes into free fall!!!!!!
| Full hang!
| Obviously hardware probs.
| How do I get a list of what hardware the various distros support.
| Remember I'm running 98SE and want to run from a CD.
| It seems I must purchase new hardware to evaluate Linux.
| I'm rather cheesed (mild) off!
| l

Thanks and all that!
I shall wait for the ripe Linux tomato to appear in the supermarket of life, and not use
the many unripe ones.
Cheers
l
 
RedLeg said:
lubinok posted,




here's a few to choose from <g>
http://www.distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=cd

if you like game/graphic heavy look seriously at dynebolic or morphix,
for security/forensics try F.I.R.E. or L.A.S. or knoppix std, lots of
firewall and server distros as well, etc...

nice place to search from-
http://www.distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=search

a *few* live CDs are up at sourceforge.net search there and google for
Linux Live CD, should get you more than you bargained for ;)
Click to expand...
try http://www.pclinuxonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=8150
Introducing PCLinuxOS 2K4 looks lk a good one
 
I would suggest trying PCLinuxOS. It is excelent at detecting and
running correctly on various hardware.

There is a full review here:
http://on-disk.com/product_info.php?products_id=37

Here is the part that you may find most interesting:
" The LiveCD: (Outstanding)
I put in the CD from On-Disk.com, set the BIOS to boot from the CD and
it booted cleanly. After several minutes of loading I logged in and
had a fully functional modified KDE desktop in front of me. As it
booted I hit the "F2" key to see the details of and PCLinuxOS detected
and installed ALL my hardware correctly! I've never had a Microsoft
Windows install do that. "

and:
"When I logged in there was an icon on the desktop for my hard drive
which was available at the click of the mouse. Very nice. Just to see
what would happen, I threw on an old FAT formatted hard drive with
windows 95 on it and PCLinuxOS was also able to access it in the same
manor."


Good luck!
Ed
 
I would suggest trying PCLinuxOS. It is excelent at detecting and
running correctly on various hardware.
Click to expand...

It's interesting to me that of the live distros I've tested here on my
fairly standard hardware, only PCLinuxOS was unable to detect my
hardware badly enough to actually black screen my monitor. ALL the
other live distros (Knoppix V3.3, Mandrake Move, SUSE Live Eval, and
Mepis - even SlimLinux the floppy distro! - worked fine.
PCLinuxOS detected and installed ALL my hardware correctly! I've never had a Microsoft
Windows install do that. "
Click to expand...

Speaking of Windows hardware detection vrs Linux, I installed Windows
2000 Professional the other night. First it decided one of my drives
needed a "consistency check" so it spent nearly an HOUR doing that.
Then it took a solid fifteen to twenty minutes to "detect and
configure" my hardware - and then proceeded to be unable to detect and
configure my Epson C60 printer, my Broadcom and D-Link NIC cards, my
Avance onboard audio, and my NVidia GeForce video card. About the
only hardware it could detect was the keyboard, the mouse and the hard
drives. Granted, some of this stuff is newer than Windows 2000, but
still. And of course I had Windows drivers for all of it available on
the CDs that came with the hardware. Knoppix on the other hand
detected and configured all of this in the three minutes it took to
come up - no driver installs necessary (although I did have to run a
config utility - GUI driver - for the NICs to setup my DSL.

When I get the new hard drive and install WinXP, we'll see how well
that does since it's a newer Windows and should know newer hardware.
But I just about guarantee it won't do as well as Knoppix.
 
Richard Steven Hack wrote in
It's interesting to me that of the live distros I've tested here
on my fairly standard hardware, only PCLinuxOS was unable to
detect my hardware badly enough to actually black screen my
monitor. ALL the other live distros (Knoppix V3.3, Mandrake Move,
SUSE Live Eval, and Mepis - even SlimLinux the floppy distro! -
worked fine.
Click to expand...

Hmmm. I've had just the opposite occur. This is for a whitebox with a
Duron 950 CPU, a SiS chipset, two Hdds. PCLinuxOs found both printers
and USB scanner and mouse, plus NIC and broadband conexxion using the
default settings. Knoppix, Mepis, DamnSmallLinux all have had to resort
to using cheatcodes to complete booting. I've also had pretty good
results with Morphix and DyneBolic liveCDs distros detecting hardware
(both Mandrake derived). YMMV apparently.
 
.....
Hmmm. I've had just the opposite occur. This is for a whitebox with a
Duron 950 CPU, a SiS chipset, two Hdds. PCLinuxOs found both printers
and USB scanner and mouse, plus NIC and broadband conexxion using the
default settings. Knoppix, Mepis, DamnSmallLinux all have had to resort
to using cheatcodes to complete booting. I've also had pretty good
results with Morphix and DyneBolic liveCDs distros detecting hardware
(both Mandrake derived). YMMV apparently.
Click to expand...
Do any of the above provide boot.img and pcmcia.img files for use on a
pcmcia-connected SCSI CDROM player on a laptop? Knoppix offers a
boot.img, but no pcmcia, PCLinuxOS offers neither.


Achim



axethetax
 
I've had great luck with PCLinuxOS myself. It even has the Ati
controler that works with the TV out on my Rage Pro card.

Also MEPIS is real good. There is a new review at
http://on-disk.com/product_info.php?products_id=39 that shows some
small issues with MEPIS that other reviewers have seemed to miss. But
over all he thinks it's a great choice.
 
den posted,
www.pclinuxonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=8150
Introducing PCLinuxOS 2K4 looks lk a good one
Click to expand...

heh, all those good links- I had to clean it up a bit and leave them
for posterity sake... but in SecureComp one of the regulars posted an
excellent link- truly a nice list of Linux bootable/LiveCDs all the
above and more included (btw, I am d/l PCLinuxOS now, thanks!:)

http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php

take a gander, well worth a bookmark <G>
 
but in SecureComp one of the regulars posted an
excellent link- truly a nice list of Linux bootable/LiveCDs all the
above and more included (btw, I am d/l PCLinuxOS now, thanks!:)

http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php

take a gander, well worth a bookmark <G>
Click to expand...

Definitely. I think somebody mentioned it on Slashdot or somewhere
and I not only bookmarked it, I saved the page. Around a hundred live
CD distros. This live CD thing is getting out of hand!

I just played with SlimLinux - a distro that runs entirely off a
floppy using BusyBox to handle the utilities - and found it
interesting. Better than DOS once you get used to it probably, since
the UNIX utilities are more powerful than DOS utilities.

http://slimlinux.freezope.org/
 
Achim Nolcken Lohse wrote in
Do any of the above provide boot.img and pcmcia.img files for use
on a pcmcia-connected SCSI CDROM player on a laptop? Knoppix
offers a boot.img, but no pcmcia, PCLinuxOS offers neither.
Click to expand...

It's been a while since I looked at the other two Mandrake derivatives.
However, you might take a look at DamnSmallLinux as a possible OS for a
notebook. http://damnsmalllinux.org I have run it on RAM alone on a
harddriveless box with good success. IIRC it does not have a pcmcia.img
file though.
 
Richard Steven Hack posted,
Definitely. I think somebody mentioned it on Slashdot or
somewhere and I not only bookmarked it, I saved the page. Around
a hundred live CD distros. This live CD thing is getting out of
hand!
Click to expand...

yes it is... and this is *very* good! ;)
I just played with SlimLinux - a distro that runs entirely off a
floppy using BusyBox to handle the utilities - and found it
interesting. Better than DOS once you get used to it probably,
since the UNIX utilities are more powerful than DOS utilities.
Click to expand...

besides Unix utilities are still being openly and actively developed-
the death of DOS may have been slowed by FreeDOS and similar projects-
but they just can't keep up with the larger nix/bsd following.
anyways..
http://slimlinux.freezope.org/
Click to expand...

good one, d/l it now:)

also good- coyote linux, for ICS. and one I really like, tinfoilhat
linux if into PGP/GPG <g>

although, damnsmall linux is a bit too big for a floppy- it is one of
the better business card CDsized distro's and it now can boot from a
USBmemory Drive- very nice especially since these USBkeys are getting
so cheap...

--
Most Sincerely,
Army RedLeg

Eric Howes' *comprehensive* PC Privacy&Security Site:
http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~ehowes/
Good chance you'll find *all* the goodies here:
http://lists.gpick.com/
looking for a nice place off the beaten usenet path? join us:
nntp://news.securecomp.org
 
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