[AuckLUG] Installing Linux

[Richard Innes]

Folks: I am new to this list but not completely new to Linux.

I hope to get a new box soon and wondered if Linux it has matured enough 
for me to retain WindowsXP on my old box and put a Linux desktop in my 
new box. (Some years back when I had two boxes I experimented with Linux 
on my older box.)

To this end I partition my hard drive and started my great Linux 
adventure. This is my sad tale to date, perhaps some more experienced 
Linux user can offer me advice/suggestions how I might pursue.

1. First distro Ubuntu 6.10. First big mistake used the manual option in 
the installer. Result back to square one and a revamp of my hard drive. 
Second attempt got Ubuntu sort of on my hard drive, no install options, 
no option to create user and super-user passwords with a result that 
though a sudo password was asked for I had no way of knowing what it 
might be. Also, the device manager did nothing but waste CP cycles. It 
couldn't activate or deactivate anything and listed most of my devices 
and peripherals as 'unknown' and 'working' whether the latter was true 
or not. Worse still, though I could configure pppd I couldn't call up 
the dialer. Sadly, when I checked at the Ubunbtu website I learn Ubuntu 
do not support dial up connections. Perhaps when broadband gets 
cheaper/quicker I might go back to Ubuntu.

2. Second distro Sabayon which wouldn't mount any of my drives, serial 
ports. cdrom.Cd. etc. This I find on checking the rather funky Sabayon 
forum is not an uncommon happening and as yet no one has managed a work 
around.

3. So I move on to another distro; SUSE (free) 10.2, the 'ultra 
versatile distro'. Didn't get much further with that than I got with 
Sabayon. This time  it couldn't copy certain files during the 
installation (the temp file). This I feel may be related to my having my 
DVD drive on the same channel as my hard drive. I don't believe this 
this is responsible for the Sabayon fiasco.

4. Fourth try I get lucky, try a CD of Mepis 6.5 and actually get it 
installed, I mean fully install but then my luck ran out. Modem trouble 
again. First time around it said it couldn't open my modem which is a 
hardware Dynalink running through a serial port (connected and fired 
up). Second time around it simply froze. here I am talking about the 
graphical configuration for the connection and using the query modem option.

The annoying thing is my trusty old Mandrake 9 and 10 and Koppix (and 
even my old Red Hat 7.1) work perfectly except for the sound card 
(Creative SB Live 5.1). All detect and allow me the not just to 
configure my modem but use it to connect to the internet. The Koppix 
though is a live disc and doesn't seem to offer any install option.

The Ubuntu looked interesting and I would have loved to have had the 
opportunity to explore it further and will do so if circumstances 
change. I found Mephis rather fiddly to configure, being slightly 
visually impaired I need a font larger than the standard offering, but 
not unreasonably large. Also configuration seem to be scattered over 
various files and not centralized.I like the old Mandrake configuration 
center where you can adjust all your setting in one place, even more so 
the ability during the install to check all your peripherals like modem, 
printer, and sound.

So I am hoping some of you Linux gurus out there can give me a pointer 
or two. I've used Linux in the past and would like to try some of newer 
distros before I turn to dust.

Richard Innes