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Possible to get on laptop?

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The Professor

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Feb 15, 2004, 4:51:49ā€ÆPM2/15/04
to
Hi

I have tampered with both Redhat and Mandrake a year or two ago on my old
desktop PC, and had good times and wanted to take it further, cutting long
story short i had to lose the desktop and get a laptop for travelling.. So
stuck to XP sadly.

I now got the time again to sit and play about a bit and i am longing to get
again to grips with linux and really knuckle down and learn it and use it
fully (goodbye xp!!) Only gripes is i still only got the laptop.

I want to try out "slackware" as i heard its the best to really learn linux
and the closest to Unix like, and said to be fast and secure/stable. I have
heard its a bit tricky and not really for newbies, but i hope i can get it
sorted with my 10 odd years on msdos and perl/sql and recently php, i think
i should be able to grip it and enjoy sorting it out.

I wondered if anyone can firstly agree that "slackware" is a good way for me
to go distro wise, i not too fussed about bells and whistles, all i want is
a good and grass-roots stable/secure system i can use well. And also is it
going to be able to setup on my laptop ok? As i know Hewlet Packard always
design there laptops "for XP" and i was worried i may not get linux to work
with it and the devices (cd/sound/vga/winmodem etc) also i am in UK and soon
to get broadband installed (adsl) and wondered if slackware will setup and
work ok on that?

I really want to get into linux and surf through it as windows seems so damn
insecure these days, and just fed up with holes viruses are finding etc..
But if my laptop setup wont work with linux then i guess i am stuck on MS!

So if anyone can shed some light and experiences on distros and laptops,
espiecally HP i would be very grateful...

Lee


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Rich Grise

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Feb 15, 2004, 5:49:32ā€ÆPM2/15/04
to
Just a WAG, but have you looked for something like a "hardware compatibility
list?" I haven't bothered, because my H/W is all generic and all the drivers
I need came with the Slack CD set.

As another WAG, I'd say go for it - especially if you have room to make a
whole partition dedicated to Linux. Be sure, however, that you have make
and model of ALL your installed hardware. I got kinda bit with the
out-of-the-box install, but only because I have two NICs - well, one NIC
(which calls itself a "4-port router card") and the builtin. My startup
scripts were running /sbin/modprobe tulip and setting the card as eth0,
and of course, the builtin was not getting started at all. So I edited
/etc/rc.d/rc.netdevice to add the internal sis900 and _then_ run
modprobe tulip, and it's working like a champ.

(well, except for ip forwarding, or masquerading, or DHCP server, or
whatever I'm supposed to do now to make a router or bridge or server
or something.)

Good Luck, and Welcome!
Rich

"The Professor" <prof...@ic24.net> wrote in message
news:402fe9fc$1...@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com...

David Cole

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Feb 15, 2004, 5:52:25ā€ÆPM2/15/04
to
Hello,

I have fooled around with a few distos like Mandrake, Knoppix (which is a
Debian distro I believ)e, Suse, and Slackware. I personally like
Slackware. I have it installed on my own laptop.

What kind of laptop do you have? Is it a new model?

I have it running on a IBM Thinkpad 390E which is somewhat old. I have 96
MBs of RAM, a 4GB hardrive, and the processor runs near DC. (300 MHz) I
found everything installed properly. My sound works, all cd and floppy
drives as well as the PCMCIA card I have to connect to highspeed.

The only thing I see you had listed that concerned we was the Winmodem.
Winmodems arn't true working modems. What I mean is they cannot operate
as a means to connect to the internet unless you have windows on your box.
The reason is that the modem is half implemented through software rather
than hardware. This makes it tricky if not near damn imposible to get it
working on anything other than windows.

I hope this helps you decide on what to do.

David Cole
The farm boy from Saskatchewan.

Guy Macon

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Feb 15, 2004, 6:00:39ā€ÆPM2/15/04
to

The Professor <prof...@ic24.net> says...

>I want to try out "slackware" as i heard its the best to really learn linux
>and the closest to Unix like, and said to be fast and secure/stable. I have
>heard its a bit tricky and not really for newbies, but i hope i can get it
>sorted with my 10 odd years on msdos and perl/sql and recently php, i think
>i should be able to grip it and enjoy sorting it out.
>
>I wondered if anyone can firstly agree that "slackware" is a good way for me
>to go distro wise, i not too fussed about bells and whistles, all i want is
>a good and grass-roots stable/secure system i can use well.

Given your description of your needs, I would say that Slackware will
meet them very well indeed.

>And also is it going to be able to setup on my laptop ok?

The issue of running Linux on a laptop is mostly a kernel issue,
which means that if one distribution works it is likely that the
others will, and if one doesn't, chances are the others won't.
Exception: distributions that use very old kernels or bleeding
edge experimental kernels.

>As i know Hewlet Packard always design there laptops "for XP"
>and i was worried i may not get linux to work with it

Try doing a web search on Linux and your model number. Also,
please post what your model number is when you reply to this.

>and the devices (cd/sound/vga/winmodem etc) also i am in UK
>and soon to get broadband installed (adsl) and wondered if
>slackware will setup and work ok on that?

Shouldn't be a problem. Lots of Slackware users have ADSL.

>I really want to get into linux and surf through it as windows seems so damn
>insecure these days, and just fed up with holes viruses are finding etc..

I agree.

>But if my laptop setup wont work with linux then i guess i am stuck on MS!

I, and others here will be glad to help you to find out.

>So if anyone can shed some light and experiences on distros and laptops,
>espiecally HP i would be very grateful...

I find it to be helpful to have different distributions to try.
I had one system where the debian install handled the oddball
video card just fine but the Slackware install didn't find it,
so I printed out a few configuration files in debian and used
that info to set up Slackware.

It would also be useful when asking questions here to be able
to say "my XYZ laptop does this under Mandrake, but it doesn't
work under Slackware."

If you decide to try different distributions, Here is what I would do;
go to http://www.cheapbytes.com and get the CheapBytes Linux MONDO
Pack (it's #49 under " Linux Operating System" or go to
[ http://cart.cheapbytes.com/cgi-bin/cart/0070011000.html ].
For $24.95 you get:

Slackware 9.1 4 CD-ROM Set
Slackware 9.1 Install CD #1
Slackware 9.1 Extras CD #2
Slackware 9.1 Source Part 1 CD #3
Slackware 9.1 Source Part 2 CD #4

Debian 3.0 r2 2 CD-ROM Install Set
Debian 3.0 r2 US Install CD
Debian 3.0 r2 Non-US Install CD

Mandrake 9.2 3 CD-ROM Install Set
Mandrake 9.2.1 Install CD #1
Mandrake 9.2.1 Install CD #2
Mandrake 9.2.1 Install CD #3

Fedora Linux 1.0 3 CD-ROM Install Set
Fedora 1.0 Install CD #1
Fedora Linux 1.0 Install CD #2
Fedora Linux 1.0 Install CD #3

Then order the CheapBytes *BSD Sampler (it's #4 under "BSD Related"
or go to [ http://cart.cheapbytes.com/cgi-bin/cart/0070010960.html ].

For $12.99 you get:

NetBSD 1.6.1 Install CD-ROM

OpenBSD 3.4 Install CD-ROM

FreeBSD 4.9 Install CD-ROM


Needless to say, once you are set up and using Slackware or some
other distribution, you should buy an official boxed set to support
the people who create the distributions.


--
Guy Macon, Electronics Engineer & Project Manager for hire.
Remember Doc Brown from the _Back to the Future_ movies? Do you
have an "impossible" engineering project that only someone like
Doc Brown can solve? My resume is at http://www.guymacon.com/

U guess

unread,
Feb 15, 2004, 6:02:34ā€ÆPM2/15/04
to
On Sun, 15 Feb 2004 21:51:49 +0000, The Professor wrote:

> Hi
>
> I have tampered with both Redhat and Mandrake a year or two ago on my old
> desktop PC, and had good times and wanted to take it further, cutting long
> story short i had to lose the desktop and get a laptop for travelling.. So
> stuck to XP sadly.
>
> I now got the time again to sit and play about a bit and i am longing to
> get again to grips with linux and really knuckle down and learn it and use
> it fully (goodbye xp!!) Only gripes is i still only got the laptop.

You could check
http;//www.linux-laptop.net
for some hardware advice. Usually problematic hardware is given by video
adapter, internal modem and some energy saving stuff of mb.

Knowing more of your laptop will certainly help.


Simon

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Feb 15, 2004, 6:03:21ā€ÆPM2/15/04
to
On Sun, 15 Feb 2004 21:51:49 -0000, The Professor <prof...@ic24.net> wrote:
> I want to try out "slackware" as i heard its the best to really learn linux
> and the closest to Unix like, and said to be fast and secure/stable. I have
> heard its a bit tricky and not really for newbies,

That's not entirely true. Even as a newbie, if you're prepared to put
some work into reading and learning, you will be fine with Slackware.
Slackware was also my first GNU/Linux distribution.

> I wondered if anyone can firstly agree that "slackware" is a good way for me
> to go distro wise, i not too fussed about bells and whistles, all i want is
> a good and grass-roots stable/secure system i can use well.

Yes; Slackware is one of the best distributions for what you describe
(including learning how it all works).

> And also is it going to be able to setup on my laptop ok?

It's hard to say. Have a look at <URL:http://www.linux-laptop.net/>
and see how everyone else has got on with your model of laptop.

> also i am in UK and soon to get broadband installed (adsl) and
> wondered if slackware will setup and work ok on that?

I have a Slackware 8.0 (with updates) system using an Alcatel
SpeedTouch USB modem on a UK ADSL line. Slackware won't set it up for
you, but you can set it up.


--
Simon <si...@no-dns-yet.org.uk> **** GPG: F4A23C69
"We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty."
- Douglas Adams

The Professor

unread,
Feb 15, 2004, 10:19:44ā€ÆPM2/15/04
to
Thanks for the input so far guys, Always open to more of course.

Few things, the linux-laptop site i am looking into now to see if any
problems, sadly it doesnt list my HP model amongst them, but i think i have
found some of the chipsets i have. Also trying to delve into my own laptop
via windows now and as you suggest get as much chip and driver info i can.

I am planning a new area and partions for the linux yes, going to get my
windows "partion magiced" later and then sort out hopefully some space for
linux, this bit always seems the biggest headache, getting size of root
partition right so as lilo can run both linux and windows, Any easy tips?
Other than me getting the manuals out.....lol

Regards putting in the work and reading, i am all for that, and would
actually probably be bored if it fell out the box and installed all working
first time, i enjoy the challange and learning curve, so yeah i think with
some reading / forum visiting and posting if needed i can hopefully iron it
out.

>>>>>>>>..I have a Slackware 8.0 (with updates) system using an Alcatel


>>>>>>>>SpeedTouch USB modem on a UK ADSL line. Slackware won't set it up
for
>>>>>>>>you, but you can set it up.

Cool, as i getting Tiscali broadband soon, and i think thats the modem they
are sending to me. Might need to pick your brains later about setting that
up :)

>>>>>>>>>The only thing I see you had listed that concerned we was the
Winmodem.
>>>>>>>>>Winmodems arn't true working modems. What I mean is they cannot
operate
>>>>>>>>>as a means to connect to the internet unless you have windows on
your box.
>>>>>>>>>The reason is that the modem is half implemented through software
rather
>>>>>>>>>than hardware. This makes it tricky if not near damn imposible to
get it
>>>>>>>>>working on anything other than windows.

The winmodem problem hopefully will be irrelevant in
week or two as i in UK and getting new ADSL line installed soon, so will
have a new external adsl modem plugged in (is usb and usb devices likely to
be a problem?) unless the newest off-the-shelf adsl modem isnt likely to be
compatible?

As to my laptop its about 15mths old and specs: (HP Pavilion 4111s)

1.6 Celeron CPU
256mb Ram
20gb HD
56k Conexant Winmodem
DVD/CDR Drive
PCMCIA Slot (i dont use)
100mb Ethernet card (i dont use)
2 usb1 ports
s-vhs port
floppy drive
ali sound chip
ati radeon chipset graphics
Serial & Parallel & VGA Ports


>>>>>>>Good Luck, and Welcome!

Thanks, and look forward to bothering you all with puzzles soon ;-)

Guy Macon

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Feb 15, 2004, 10:48:34ā€ÆPM2/15/04
to

The Professor <prof...@ic24.net> says...

>I am planning a new area and partions for the linux yes, going to get my
>windows "partion magiced" later and then sort out hopefully some space for
>linux, this bit always seems the biggest headache, getting size of root
>partition right so as lilo can run both linux and windows, Any easy tips?
>Other than me getting the manuals out.....lol

This is just my opinion, but I really like the results when you set
up a small (32MB to 510MB) FAT16 primary partition 0 on your master,
put FreeDOS, PC-DOS or MS-DOS on it, then install System Commander.
*Very* trouble free, and it has countermeasures for Microsoft tricks
such as overwriting the MBR.

This is not to say that there is anything wrong with using LILO
or even the NT/2K boot loader to do your multibooting. They both
work well for a Linux/Windows dual boot. If, on the other hand,
you want to do a DOS/Win9X/Win2K/Linux quad boot, System Commander
is the way to go. LILO is great at making Linux work well with
any sort of Windows, but not so good at making different versions
of Windows play nice together (and why should it? It's Microsoft
that lets one version write over important parts of another
version!)

Another tip: Get Windows working with a big unpartitioned chunk, then
install Linux. The Linux installe doesn't get confused by windows
being there, but on occasion the Windows installer gets confused by
Windows being there.

>Regards putting in the work and reading, i am all for that, and would
>actually probably be bored if it fell out the box and installed all working
>first time, i enjoy the challange and learning curve, so yeah i think with
>some reading / forum visiting and posting if needed i can hopefully iron it
>out.

Great attitude!

Simon

unread,
Feb 16, 2004, 12:04:45ā€ÆAM2/16/04
to
On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 03:19:44 -0000, The Professor <prof...@ic24.net> wrote:
> Thanks for the input so far guys, Always open to more of course.

No problem.

> Also trying to delve into my own laptop
> via windows now and as you suggest get as much chip and driver info i can.

That's one way of doing it. You can then search Google for the
chipset, including 'linux' in the search term, and you should find
which kernel module it uses or whether it's supported.

> I am planning a new area and partions for the linux yes, going to get my
> windows "partion magiced" later and then sort out hopefully some space for
> linux, this bit always seems the biggest headache, getting size of root
> partition right so as lilo can run both linux and windows, Any easy tips?

I dual-boot Windows 2000 and Slackware on my laptop, but I use NTLDR
instead of LILO (as Windows doesn't like not being on the first
partition).

> Regards putting in the work and reading, i am all for that, and would
> actually probably be bored if it fell out the box and installed all working
> first time, i enjoy the challange and learning curve, so yeah i think with
> some reading / forum visiting and posting if needed i can hopefully iron it
> out.

You'll do well with Slackware, then.

>>I have a Slackware 8.0 (with updates) system using an Alcatel
>>SpeedTouch USB modem on a UK ADSL line. Slackware won't set it up
>>for you, but you can set it up.
>
> Cool, as i getting Tiscali broadband soon, and i think thats the modem they
> are sending to me. Might need to pick your brains later about setting that
> up :)

No problem. I've posted in here before about it, so you can get
details from <URL:http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search?hl=en>
by searching by my email address 'use...@no-dns-yet.org.uk' and the
term 'speedtouch'. I'm using these drivers, which have very good
documentation: <URL:http://speedtouch.sourceforge.net/>. If you do get
stuck on anything, though, and can't find the answer, tell us what you
tried & what went wrong and someone should be able to set you straight.

> The winmodem problem hopefully will be irrelevant in
> week or two as i in UK and getting new ADSL line installed soon, so will
> have a new external adsl modem plugged in (is usb and usb devices likely to
> be a problem?) unless the newest off-the-shelf adsl modem isnt likely to be
> compatible?

If it's a SpeedTouch modem (either 'SpeedTouch USB' or 'SpeedTouch
330'), you'll be fine. If not, it might require some Googling.

> As to my laptop its about 15mths old and specs: (HP Pavilion 4111s)

Most of these are fairly generic, so should work quite easily using the
Linux kernel.

> s-vhs port

This one you'll have to try out. The XFree86 web site might be able to
help out with that one.

> ali sound chip

Some ALI sound cards are supported by the kernel. You can try finding
out which one you have and searching for that or, otherwise, try
loading each ALI sound kernel module in turn to see if that one works.

> ati radeon chipset graphics

This should be fine.

Rich Grise

unread,
Feb 16, 2004, 1:38:41ā€ÆAM2/16/04
to
If you want to try Redmon^H^H^Hhat, I have three different issues
of it w/books:
"Beginning Red Hat Linux 9"
"Red Hat Linux 9 Bible"
and
"Red Hat Linux for Dummies" which came with version 8.

For sale, real cheap. ;-)

Then again, they're bootable CDs, with no facility that I could
find for making boot floppies; I actually don't know if laptops
have a bootable CD drive.

The only reason I bought any of them was because I was impatient
to get _some_ incarnation of Linux going, and the store didn't
have Slackware. When Redmon^H^H^Hhat booted up and was almost
indistinguishable from windoze, I went ahead and started D/Ling
Slack. Not much success - I got the "A" only install screen,
so I D/L'd 8.1 iso, which worked so well that I went ahead and
ordered the "real" 9.1 in the boxed CD set.

Cheers!
Rich

"Guy Macon" <http://www.guymacon.com> wrote in message
news:JeGdnb1AI4-...@speakeasy.net...

Martin Hughes

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Feb 16, 2004, 6:53:50ā€ÆAM2/16/04
to
"The Professor" <prof...@ic24.net> wrote in message
news:402fe9fc$1...@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com...

Hi,

Slackware 9.0 and 9.1 run great on a Compaq Presario 1245 where Windows 2000
fails dismally (can't even handle its own winmodem).

I upgraded the disk to a 30GB disk from a 2GB disk and run a dual boot
system (to keep the family happy).

The internal Winmodem works perfectly well with the latest Lucent Modem
driver which can be downloaded from http://ltmodem.heby.de .

--
Regards
Martin Hughes
Linux User #283064
Blessed are those who expect nothing; for they shall not be disappointed.


Douglas Mayne

unread,
Feb 16, 2004, 9:44:49ā€ÆAM2/16/04
to
On Sun, 15 Feb 2004 21:51:49 +0000, The Professor wrote:

> Hi
>
> I have tampered with both Redhat and Mandrake a year or two ago on my
> old desktop PC, and had good times and wanted to take it further,
> cutting long story short i had to lose the desktop and get a laptop for
> travelling.. So stuck to XP sadly.
>
> I now got the time again to sit and play about a bit and i am longing to
> get again to grips with linux and really knuckle down and learn it and
> use it fully (goodbye xp!!) Only gripes is i still only got the laptop.
>
> I want to try out "slackware" as i heard its the best to really learn
> linux and the closest to Unix like, and said to be fast and
> secure/stable. I have heard its a bit tricky and not really for newbies,
> but i hope i can get it sorted with my 10 odd years on msdos and
> perl/sql and recently php, i think i should be able to grip it and enjoy
> sorting it out.
>
> I wondered if anyone can firstly agree that "slackware" is a good way
> for me to go distro wise, i not too fussed about bells and whistles, all
> i want is a good and grass-roots stable/secure system i can use well.
> And also is it going to be able to setup on my laptop ok? As i know
> Hewlet Packard always design there laptops "for XP" and i was worried i
> may not get linux to work with it and the devices (cd/sound/vga/winmodem
> etc) also i am in UK and soon to get broadband installed (adsl) and
> wondered if slackware will setup and work ok on that?
>

> <snip>
>
Hardware:
I am running Slackware-current on a Dell Latitude. I got it from
Dell on ebay. Dell sells these off-lease in quantity. I think they
have some life left (for CPU >500MHz and memory >256MB.)

Software:
I switched to Slackware from RedHat. I rate Slackware about 10 times
better due the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) philosophy of Slackware.
Magically, all of RedHat's instabilies with gnome are gone with Slackware.
My conclusion is that part of RedHat's "branding" at RH8 was pretty, but
somewhat broken.

Other things which are simpler for me:
1. rsync and tgz packaging is better than product update and RPM in my
opinion.

2. BSD style runlevels are more comprehensible.

3. When the user changes the system, the user sees what is
changed. There is nothing hidden by a GUI-wizard.

I do like the grub loader more than lilo. Slackware uses lilo by
default, but grub works just great in slackware -- the loader is not
really distribution dependant. Some people are ardent supporters
of one loader or another, too.

--
And already she's twice as beautiful as before.
My god! It works.
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0088846/quotes

Richard Williams

unread,
Feb 16, 2004, 11:23:47ā€ÆAM2/16/04
to
In article <40303...@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com>,
The Professor <prof...@ic24.net> wrote:

>I am planning a new area and partions for the linux yes, going to get my
>windows "partion magiced" later and then sort out hopefully some space for
>linux, this bit always seems the biggest headache, getting size of root
>partition right so as lilo can run both linux and windows, Any easy tips?
>Other than me getting the manuals out.....lol

One easy way of dual booting is to install LILO in the boot block of your
Linux root partition (rather than in the MBR) and then use the bootpart
Windows utility:

http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm

which copies an image of the Linux boot block (as a file) to your
Windows partition, and installs a corresponding entry in the Windows boot
menu (all with a single command). When you reboot, the Windows boot loader
will offer you LILO as an option (from which you can boot Linux normally).
This seems to work well without the need for a FAT16 primary partition
that the bootpart author suggests (or at least it did for me).

Note also that modern versions of LILO do not have the 1024 cylinder limit
described in older documentation (which gives you more freedom in your
partitioning scheme).

Richard.

MikeyD

unread,
Feb 16, 2004, 2:10:16ā€ÆPM2/16/04
to
> I now got the time again to sit and play about a bit and i am longing to
> get again to grips with linux and really knuckle down and learn it and use
> it fully (goodbye xp!!) Only gripes is i still only got the laptop.

No problem. Check www.linux-laptops.org (I think that's the url)


>
> I want to try out "slackware" as i heard its the best to really learn
> linux and the closest to Unix like, and said to be fast and secure/stable.
> I have heard its a bit tricky and not really for newbies, but i hope i can
> get it sorted with my 10 odd years on msdos and perl/sql and recently php,
> i think i should be able to grip it and enjoy sorting it out.

Yeah, slack is a good fun distro, as long as you're prepared to use cli
configuration utilities or edit conf files manually.


>
> I wondered if anyone can firstly agree that "slackware" is a good way for
> me to go distro wise, i not too fussed about bells and whistles, all i
> want is a good and grass-roots stable/secure system i can use well. And
> also is it going to be able to setup on my laptop ok? As i know Hewlet
> Packard always design there laptops "for XP" and i was worried i may not
> get linux to work with it and the devices (cd/sound/vga/winmodem etc) also
> i am in UK and soon to get broadband installed (adsl) and wondered if
> slackware will setup and work ok on that?
>

Slack has worked fine for me for every device I've thrown at it. It
sometimes takes longer to set them up than in windows, but once they're set
up, they just work, which is fantastic. I can only compare to SUSE, and I'd
say slack is a lot simpler but that makes it much faster.

MikeyD

unread,
Feb 16, 2004, 2:14:12ā€ÆPM2/16/04
to
The Professor wrote:

> Thanks for the input so far guys, Always open to more of course.
>
> Few things, the linux-laptop site i am looking into now to see if any
> problems, sadly it doesnt list my HP model amongst them, but i think i
> have found some of the chipsets i have. Also trying to delve into my own
> laptop via windows now and as you suggest get as much chip and driver info
> i can.
>
> I am planning a new area and partions for the linux yes, going to get my
> windows "partion magiced" later and then sort out hopefully some space for
> linux, this bit always seems the biggest headache, getting size of root
> partition right so as lilo can run both linux and windows, Any easy tips?
> Other than me getting the manuals out.....lol
>

Make sure / or /usr is big enough, remember that the slack docs are
sometimes out of date, 2gb isn't enough for a full install anymore.


>
> The winmodem problem hopefully will be irrelevant in
> week or two as i in UK and getting new ADSL line installed soon, so will
> have a new external adsl modem plugged in (is usb and usb devices likely
> to be a problem?) unless the newest off-the-shelf adsl modem isnt likely
> to be compatible?
>

My winmodem was fine as soon as drivers for it got released.

Mike Denhoff

unread,
Feb 16, 2004, 2:16:28ā€ÆPM2/16/04
to
On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 03:19:44 -0000
"The Professor" <prof...@ic24.net> wrote:

> Thanks for the input so far guys, Always open to more of course.
>

> I am planning a new area and partions for the linux yes, going to get
> my windows "partion magiced" later and then sort out hopefully some
> space for linux, this bit always seems the biggest headache, getting
> size of root partition right so as lilo can run both linux and
> windows, Any easy tips? Other than me getting the manuals out.....lol
>

I just finished shrinking a W2K NTFS partition on a 20 GB hard disk down
to 11 GB. I used ntfsresize to do that. I carefully followed the
instructions at

http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html

It worked like a bomb. (That's a good thing.)

Mike

The Professor

unread,
Feb 16, 2004, 6:15:29ā€ÆPM2/16/04
to
Right i am at the stage of sorting out partitions etc using "partition
magic" hopefully, Is there any good websites or guides to best methods of
partitoning the drive, i would really like to get it done without having to
format and reinstall windows xp.

My hard drive is only 20gb but i only need about 10gb-12gb for windows,

Lee

PS: very grateful for help so far guys, think i will like it here when i get
slackware running

MikeyD

unread,
Feb 17, 2004, 4:41:42ā€ÆAM2/17/04
to
> Right i am at the stage of sorting out partitions etc using "partition
> magic" hopefully, Is there any good websites or guides to best methods of
> partitoning the drive, i would really like to get it done without having
> to format and reinstall windows xp.
>
> My hard drive is only 20gb but i only need about 10gb-12gb for windows,
>
There is no best method, you'll just get arguments for different ways of
doing it. You can use Zelep's partition resizer or GNU Parted (included as
part of the live filesystem on the second slackware cd) to shrink a windows
partition too. I'd suggest for simplicity, a 512mb-1Gb swap partition, a
5Gb / partition and the other 2-3Gb for /home. If you prefer to separate
usr, make sure you have at least 3Gb for it, but you won't need a very
big / partition, 512mb should probably be plenty.

Stephan Hurler

unread,
Feb 17, 2004, 6:44:20ā€ÆAM2/17/04
to
MikeyD wrote:

Also, don't forget that on slackware, KDE is installed in /opt/kde/, so whatever
filesystem /opt is on should have enough space for that (i learned that after
installing, i thought i'd warn you before ;). The proposal above with 5GB for /
sound good to me, in that regard, and it's fairly simple as well...

st

bw

unread,
Feb 18, 2004, 3:26:32ā€ÆPM2/18/04
to
It's a myth that Slackware is more secure and stable than other distros. If
you have the same standard kernel as another distro and running e.g. KDE on
top of that security,stability and speed should be about the same.

In my opinion the latest kernels (2.6.x) are very fine to run on a laptop.
My Compaq Armada runs very well with Slackware 9.1 and kernel 2.6.2 due to
much better support for ACPI than older kernels. If I only could get a
desent driver for my Ati Rage Mobility graphics card with support for OpenGL
I would be happy. Sadly that machine is slower now than Windows (any flavor;
W98, WNT or W2k).


Alan Hicks

unread,
Feb 18, 2004, 4:47:28ā€ÆPM2/18/04
to
In alt.os.linux.slackware, bw dared to utter,

> It's a myth that Slackware is more secure and stable than other distros. If
> you have the same standard kernel as another distro and running e.g. KDE on
> top of that security,stability and speed should be about the same.

That is most certainly NOT a myth. Take a look at the number of
exploits found over the years in RedHat, SuSE, or Mandrake. Compare
that to Slackware over the same period of time. BIG difference. Reasons
for that vary, but predominantly involve a few bad choices those
distributions make. In no particular order are some of my favorite bad
decisions:

1) PAM. Pluggable Authentication Modules. PAM is perhaps the single
biggest security problem for the major distributions, and surprisingly
few people bother to use it. Slackware does not include PAM, and since
I don't need PAM, I'm terribly glad it isn't. Take a look at the
OpenSSH fiasco RedHat, SuSE, Mandrake, and Debian all had because of
the inclusion of PAM. Slackware did not have these vulnerabilities,
though Pat wisely upgraded anyhow at the time to benefit from the
newer version.

2) Distro-specific patches. RedHat is the world's worst about this.
They make their own patches to "enhance functionality" on what was an
already acceptable tool. They break the "do one thing; do it well"
attitude of Unix. That's a serious mistake. I've yet to find anything
on these distros that couldn't do as easily in Slackware, excepting
automatic X configuration (a lot of this is taken care of by XFree86
4.X, but not all). Why they insist on fiddling with the source code and
making a bastard binary is beyond me. This practice very often
introduces numerous security holes. I don't think we need to even
discuss stability.

3) Lack of attention to detail. This becomes a huge kicker for those
"everything by the kitchen sink" distros. SuSE in particular ships with
so many packages they have to put their release on 7 cds. This is an
exorbitant amount of packages. Consequently, they are not as closely
watched for security and stability improvements. While using SuSE and
RedHat I've had numerous random crashes of what should be stable
software. I've never had this problem with Slackware on these same
machines.

The kernel isn't the only thing that makes a distribution more secure
and stable. You're at best kidding yourself if you believe that. At
worst, you're trolling.

--
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5

Thomas Overgaard

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Feb 18, 2004, 4:51:55ā€ÆPM2/18/04
to

The Professor wrote :

> So if anyone can shed some light and experiences on distros and laptops,

I just bought a Acer TravelMate 243XC and yesterday evening I installed
Slackware 9.1 on this little baby. I've heart some rumors about how
difficult it could be to install Linux on a laptop so i was expecting a
long struggle, especially because it couldn't run Knoppix.

But to my surprise everything seems to work out of the box. After
installation i didn't setup anything, I just created a user and after
login I typed startx to see what happen and up came KDE, and after
running alsamixer i got sound too.

Of cause there's still a lot ill have to dig deeper into but I'm a
little short of time these days.
--
Thomas O.

This area is designed to become quite warm during normal operation.

Handover Phist

unread,
Feb 18, 2004, 7:12:11ā€ÆPM2/18/04
to
The Professor blithely blithered
> Hi

Hullo!

> I have tampered with both Redhat and Mandrake a year or two ago on my old
> desktop PC, and had good times and wanted to take it further, cutting long
> story short i had to lose the desktop and get a laptop for travelling.. So
> stuck to XP sadly.

You can get rid of XP easily enough I would think. I have slack 8.1
running on an old 486 Thinkpad I use for network troubleshooting. Slack
on a laptop is a Good Thing. Just check your hardware against the info
at http://www.linux-laptop.net/ first, for good measure. There's a good
amount of info there.

--
Working here is like a pregnancy.
After nine months you wish you hadn't come.

bw

unread,
Feb 19, 2004, 6:07:59ā€ÆAM2/19/04
to
Alan Hicks wrote:

Thanks for clearing this up! ;-)

bw

unread,
Feb 19, 2004, 6:16:17ā€ÆAM2/19/04
to
Alan Hicks wrote:

Thanks for clearing this up! ;-)

No disrespect to Pat. He's doing a wunderful job with this distro.
bw

bw

unread,
Feb 19, 2004, 10:30:00ā€ÆAM2/19/04
to
A critical security vulnerability has been found in the Linux kernel
memory management code inside the mremap(2) system call due to missing
function return value check. This bug is completely unrelated to the
mremap bug disclosed on 05-01-2004 except concerning the same internal
kernel function code.

I'm running kernel 2.6.2 now. I will update to 2.6.3.
Just to prove my point in recent postings. In this case security is as bad
(good) as in any other distro with the same kernel.


Eduardo Sanchez

unread,
Feb 23, 2004, 10:28:17ā€ÆAM2/23/04
to
The Professor wrote:

[snip]

> I want to try out "slackware" as i heard its the best to really learn
> linux and the closest to Unix like, and said to be fast and secure/stable.
> I have heard its a bit tricky and not really for newbies, but i hope i can
> get it sorted with my 10 odd years on msdos and perl/sql and recently php,
> i think i should be able to grip it and enjoy sorting it out.

Mostly right. Only that a careful newbie can use slackware with profit. You
seem to be more than qualified as a potential slackware user.


>
> I wondered if anyone can firstly agree that "slackware" is a good way for
> me to go distro wise, i not too fussed about bells and whistles, all i
> want is a good and grass-roots stable/secure system i can use well.

I most wholeheartedly agree. Your description of Slack is accurate :)

> And
> also is it going to be able to setup on my laptop ok? As i know Hewlet
> Packard always design there laptops "for XP" and i was worried i may not
> get linux to work with it and the devices (cd/sound/vga/winmodem etc) also
> i am in UK and soon to get broadband installed (adsl) and wondered if
> slackware will setup and work ok on that?
>

[slack]


>
> So if anyone can shed some light and experiences on distros and laptops,

> espiecally HP i would be very grateful...
>

I use slack on a daily basis as my only OS in a Compaq (now HP) 1200XL-118
laptop with no problems at all. The only caveat is that you would have to
install a winmodem. IMHO, Slackware is an excellent choice for laptops
since version 9 (with the addition of the hotplug system), although earlier
versions were good too. Happy slacking.

--
Eduardo Sanchez - AsunciĆ³n, Paraguay, South America
-------------------------------------------------------------

Eduardo Sanchez

unread,
Feb 23, 2004, 10:40:14ā€ÆAM2/23/04
to
The Professor wrote:

> Hi


>
> I have tampered with both Redhat and Mandrake a year or two ago on my old
> desktop PC, and had good times and wanted to take it further, cutting long
> story short i had to lose the desktop and get a laptop for travelling.. So
> stuck to XP sadly.
>

[big snip]

I forgot. Check this: http://www.linux-laptops.net

Ciro The Spider-Man

unread,
Feb 24, 2004, 1:38:37ā€ÆAM2/24/04
to
begin quote: Eduardo Sanchez wrote:
>
>
> The Professor wrote:

>> So if anyone can shed some light and experiences on distros and laptops,
>> espiecally HP i would be very grateful...
>>
>
> I use slack on a daily basis as my only OS in a Compaq (now HP) 1200XL-118
> laptop with no problems at all. The only caveat is that you would have to
> install a winmodem. IMHO, Slackware is an excellent choice for laptops
> since version 9 (with the addition of the hotplug system), although earlier
> versions were good too. Happy slacking.
>

[apologies for the piggyback]

I have had great results with Slack 9.1 on a Sony Vaio FXA47. I
installed the conexant driver for the modem, but I admit to never
using it, so I can't speak for it's effectiveness, but the rest of it
works great.

HTH
-C

--
"Moods are for cattle and loveplay, not for fighting!"
--Gurney Halleck

jealous xmp

unread,
Feb 25, 2004, 11:54:39ā€ÆPM2/25/04
to
>> I want to try out "slackware" as i heard its the best to really learn
>> linux and the closest to Unix like,

Yep, it is closer to unix than some. I also use freebsd a lot, and
occasionally solaris. Perhaps why i like slack and vector.

>> I have heard its a bit tricky and not really for newbies, but i hope i can

They say it's for intermediate to advanced users, but that's mainly an issue of
fewer GUI config tools, etc. I don't find the installer to be tough, and
actually it got some things right that SuSE messed up with its autodetection.
Slack also has several hundred meg of packages on the iso, in addition you can
add swaret or browse linuxpackages site.

As far as laptops, I had good luck with Slack 9.0 on Compaq 2100 us.

Michael

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