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Linux

Whatever floats your boat. :p

I remember seeing it and it looked good, but I'd like to be able to customise it to show anything.
 
I tried to set up a delayed shutdown with sudo halt -h 60 as it was updating and I wanted to go to bed.

Apparently that isn't how to do that as it declared it was shutting down NOW and so now it's not working.

I'll be reinstalling tomorrow.
 
Alan said:
I tried to set up a delayed shutdown with sudo halt -h 60 as it was updating and I wanted to go to bed.

Apparently that isn't how to do that as it declared it was shutting down NOW and so now it's not working.

I'll be reinstalling tomorrow.
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On the KDE Desktop at least you could use KShutdown, although you might need to install it. Not sure if it would work on Gnome, though.


On the cli, I am not sure halt can be used in that way; the option -h means "Put all harddrives on the system in standby mode just before halt or poweroff".

I think you were looking for shutdown instead, i.e. shutdown -h 60
 
Alan said:
I tried to set up a delayed shutdown with sudo halt -h 60 as it was updating and I wanted to go to bed.

Apparently that isn't how to do that as it declared it was shutting down NOW and so now it's not working.

I'll be reinstalling tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Debian based os? You mentioned so many I lost count.

Why reinstall, just boot up into a shell, login and type

sudo dpkg --configure -a

that will hopefully fix whatever got broke. I updated my netbook to natty and stupidly it was on battery power, judicious use of the above command and 'sudo apt-get dist-upgrade' managed to get it all fixed.

Not a fan of Unity, reminds me of the stupidity and pig headedness of the KDE lot when 4 was introduced. Maybe by the time Priapic Penguin comes out it will work well enough.
 
I am now at a point where I am not satisfied with Ubuntu, but also not satisfied with many other distributions.

I want to be able to add my own repositories, start from scratch, but have a good manual to help me get to that point.

I am interested in LFS (Linux From Scratch), but I don't know whether it will help me create an ever updateable distribution (I hesitate to say "rolling release", because that's usually only the case when there is an organisation maintaining the entire distro).

Basically, I really like the apt system in Debian, and I like the up-to dateness of Ubuntu, but I dislike the inclusion of Pulseaudio and Mono-based programs.

So if someone can point me to a good guide/manual, I'd be very happy.

Cheers
 
Alan said:
How about Arch?
Click to expand...

Well it doesn't use the apt system.

But I realise that it sounds very petty of me not to want to broaden my horizon, so maybe I should just give it a try.

I just read the Wikipedia page, which mentions the "lack of signed packages". How can that be a problem?

Also, how easy is it to find a repository which is directly from a development team (for example, a repository from the official Emesene team, or more obscure programs)? This because I want to be able to choose my own repositories, rather than being limited to what Arch approves for their distro (the way it is handled in many distros).

Cheers
 
Bram Kaandorp said:
Well it doesn't use the apt system.

But I realise that it sounds very petty of me not to want to broaden my horizon, so maybe I should just give it a try.

I just read the Wikipedia page, which mentions the "lack of signed packages". How can that be a problem?

Also, how easy is it to find a repository which is directly from a development team (for example, a repository from the official Emesene team, or more obscure programs)? This because I want to be able to choose my own repositories, rather than being limited to what Arch approves for their distro (the way it is handled in many distros).

Cheers
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I don't know much about the specifics of Arch. I've never successfully installed it, sorry...

Gnome 3 is out...and I can't get on its website.

EDIT: Hmm. I'm not sure if they've updated the live version links.
 
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tuoni said:
I run back|track 4 R2 - have a look at PlayOnLinux - it's basically a wrapper for WINE which allows you to install Windows software into "bottles" (basically atomic "windows installations", for want of a better description) which allow you to customise each bottle to suit the software installed - it allows you to, for instance, seamlessly install and choose a WINE version (including the beta builds and no longer supported builds) for each without disrupting the main system WINE version. I've currently got Steam with a few games including Portal and Killing Floor running A-OK with full DirectX9 (ironically, Killing Floor actually runs far better under WINE than it did under Windows 7!)

The other beauty is that PlayOnLinux gives you several automated installers for games and Windows software which will set up all the dependencies and "tweaks" in the background, allowing you to run many things "out of the box", as it were... and if you mess it up, you can delete the bottle and start again, knowing that you haven't messed up your WINE installation, causing other things to break. If it doesn't have the installer, you can install stuff anyway and just cross your fingers it will work. Most things do, now - WINE has come on a looooong way since I last used it.
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Excellent! Think weekend I'm going to give it a shot. Which flavor of Linux do you recommend using PlayOnLinux on? I've got a pretty high-end Alienware laptop it's going to be going on. I'm worried about drivers and such, but I'm pretty sure while it might be bumpy, it won't be impossible.

Oh, and thank you!
 
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I installed whatever pre-release version Fedora 15 is up to. I thought it was Beta 1 but apparently that isn't out yet. It might be a daily. I did this for Gnome 3.

If I could customise the icons in the top right (to get rid of the accessibility and input method icons) and get a good theme, it will be good. Thinking about it, it has the problems elementaryOS has. Minus the good looks. But it is different enough for me to think of it differently instead of just a GNOME 2.XX distro with features removed.
 
Gonna try installing it this weekend. What advice do you all have for someone putting linux on a machine for the first time? What traps should I be on the lookout for? Will I have trouble with drivers?
 
You should have everything backed up, first.

You should download a Live CD (or DVD etc). What those do is let you use it without installing it to see how much you like it. You can then install it if you like it and it works well.

I recommend Ubuntu 10.10 or Linux Mint as a first distro. They aren't intimidating. Ubuntu 10.10 is recommended if you use instant messaging, twitter or emails more since it has a little icon in the top right for easy access to these things that lets you know if you get something new. Linux Mint is recommended if you don't care about that.
 
Mister Earl said:
Gonna try installing it this weekend. What advice do you all have for someone putting linux on a machine for the first time? What traps should I be on the lookout for? Will I have trouble with drivers?
Click to expand...


There are half a dozen or so Linux distros called Live CD's that you can download, burn to a disc and then boot up into which run from the CD (or DVD) in the RAM and makes no changes to your hard drive.

If you were really hard core, I'd download two or three and give them all a try before installing to HDD.

Ubuntu is okay; since I tried MintLinux a short while ago, I've made it my default desktop box and laptop (the desktop is running the Debian version of Mint, while I decided on the Gnome version of Mint).

I thought that Sabayon was a good product, but it didn't do wireless for the laptop very well, so I switched to Mint.

I ran a vanilla Debian distro for several years before going to Mint.
 
With a live CD, could I use something like PlayOnLinux as well? How would I have to handle drivers, if I'm unable to connect to the 'net right away? I really don't mind just doing a straight install, given that I was planning on reloading windows anyway. (I have two external hard drives for data storage, and two internal solid-state drives for OS and programs).

#EDIT: Gotcha, Norseman. I was looking over Backtrack's page, and was considering it. But given my infamiliarity with Linux, I'd better try a watered down variant first.
 
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You're able to use PlayOnLinux through the live CD. It's just that you'll have to reinstall PlayOnLinux once you've installed the distro because things you do while on the live CD don't get saved to the hard drive. Apart from the installation of the distro.

I've never had trouble with getting connected with Ubuntu wired or wirelessly but I assume it would let drivers could be installed from a removable disc.
 
Let's say I go with ubuntu, cook up a live CD, and let it rip. Would I begin at a command prompt, or a GUI?
 
You will see a graphical user interface.
 
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