Server Help

Trash Talk - Windows Vista

Blocks - Sat Nov 04, 2006 11:51 pm
Post subject: Windows Vista

It will supposedly be available at the end of the month. Some of the features look pretty spiffy, and I would like to use it. However, I have heard you need a lot of computer for it. Since you folks are smarter at this stuff than me, would you install Windows Vista on this machine?

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (single core)
2.4 ghz
2 ghz HyperTransport (is this the same as FSB speed?)
L1 Cache 128 kb
L2 Cache 1 mb

1.25 gb DDR333 RAM

128MB ATI Radeon Xpress 200M

5400 rpm hard drive, ample space

This is a desktop replacement notebook, btw. I'm thinking about pulling out the 256 mb stick of memory and replacing it with another 1 gb stick (would I benefit from getting faster than DDR333 RAM). Would this be worth the $120+ dollars? I'd appreciate any advice on Windows Vista on this computer, and on Windows Vista in general. Thanks!

The Apache - Sun Nov 05, 2006 5:25 am
Post subject:

i thought they are only releasing a company version at the end of the month, not to home users at the moment...

Doc Flabby - Sun Nov 05, 2006 7:23 am
Post subject:

DONT INSTALL VISTA

you wont be able to play continuum

Assassin2684 - Sun Nov 05, 2006 8:19 am
Post subject:

As well as any other game for that matter.. it used DirectX 10 and needs a new graphics card for it which as of now, none has realesed one.

Dr Brain - Sun Nov 05, 2006 9:25 am
Post subject:

Would I install vista on that machine? No, but then again, I wouldn't install it on any machine.

Mine GO BOOM - Sun Nov 05, 2006 11:50 am
Post subject:

Doc Flabby wrote:

DONT INSTALL VISTA

you wont be able to play continuum :P

I've had Vista installed in virtual machines (ie: no graphics acceleration) and on a low-end notebook, and Continuum works in both (virtual machine was slow).

Personally? I think they did a great job for Vista. I setup my dad's new low-end notebook with it and it handles very nicely. I mostly did that because Vista works very well with notebooks, in that its battery features, sleep mode, and firewall options are designed very well for notebooks. Can have firewall be very strick for all wireless networks except the ones you choose, changing power options is a simple click in the system bar, and sleep mode actually restores very quickly, like in under two seconds. Now, going to sleep can take 10-60 seconds, but restoring is very quick.

The biggest problem with it right now is drivers. Everything on the laptop works fine, but his laser printer will refuse to acknowledge that is connected. That is because Samsung is not releasing drivers for it since it is still a beta OS. HP's inkjet printer worked by installing the XP drivers in XP compatibility mode.

Any computer made in the last two years will work with Vista pretty well, as long as you have at least a gig of RAM. Seriously, even the basic Aero stuff will eat up half a gig once booted. It will release it nicely if other applications need it (games, photoshop, etc) but it is very ram hungry. Not surprising, because everything they do to help speed up the OS is to precache lots of data into RAM. Oh, the bootup time is greatly reduced from XP.

Disabling Aero for compatibility with applications that don't place nice is very simple. Most applications are detected by Windows and the mode is switched instantly for you. Once the application is closed, it is switched back just as quick. If an application doesn't work well (Jnes's menu), just going into the properties of the application and disabling theming/acceleration on that application will tell Windows to switch to basic for that application. The switch is very rapid and Windows will tell you that it switched and why.

Give the Release Canidiate a try. For notebooks, I'm recommending Vista. For desktops, eh, it looks prettier. I'm still sticking with Windows 2000 for now.

Cyan~Fire - Sun Nov 05, 2006 12:24 pm
Post subject:

MGB wrote:

I'm still sticking with Windows 2000 for now.

Heck yeah! There is someone else in the world like me.

The Apache - Sun Nov 05, 2006 2:28 pm
Post subject:

Dr Brain wrote:

Would I install vista on that machine? No, but then again, I wouldn't install it on any machine.

ditto.

Mine GO BOOM - Sun Nov 05, 2006 4:01 pm
Post subject:

The Apache wrote:

ditto.

Want to explain why? Have you used it? Have you tried it on a local machine? What about it makes you not want to install it?

My reasoning is that it eats up too much memory for little gain on a desktop. It looks pretty, but the practical features do not make up for it. I have 46 processes running right now on this machine, and I want each one to be running right now. They add up to around 600 Meg, a good chunk of it being that I have not upgraded to Firefox 2 yet so it is eating 200 Meg on its own. I open large files, be it programming projects, movie/audio editing, or the occasional 300Meg PDF files, so using a 1G RAM system on a three year old computer that runs great to this day is nice.

For a laptop that does not run tons of services and background processes, Vista is awesome. The new features work well for smaller, single display resolutions. The RAM hungry applications will move out of the way if you do some heavy processing, but they'll claim it back as soon as they can. Firewalls, battery usage, and sleep mode, like I said above, work great. Aero gives just enough eye candy that, by default, does not get in the way but makes the experience nicer. And ClearType/DPI settings in the OS actually work almost everywhere, thus reading on the laptop for older people (father) is much nicer when you are stuck at using the native resolution. He still runs his XP machine at a less-than-native resolution so he can read easier, even though he knows he loses a great deal of detail on his LCD screen.

Anonymous - Sun Nov 05, 2006 11:07 pm
Post subject:

At the time XP was released, I vowed never to switch from 2k.. Few months later all my Windows desktops were XP. Same will happen with Vista in time..

Doc Flabby - Mon Nov 06, 2006 5:04 am
Post subject:

which rc of vista are u talking about mgb.

the one i used in september had all these problems:

http://forums.sscentral.com/index.php?showtopic=11665&hl=vista

at least on my laptop it doesnt....it also runs slower compared to xp. and the constand popups saying "ARE YOU SURE U WANT TO RUN THAT PROGRAM" are really annoying you have to click though like 3 just to run continuum.

Ive just wiped vista from my computer it pissed the hell out of me. hopefully by the time they release vista SP2 they will have fixed all the issues and made it useable. Same thing happened with XP it sucked untill SP2 when they fixed most of the annoying problems, fixed wireless and added a firewall

if continuum works in vista and they have stopped it bugging u - i will recommend it too, i love the visual effects

Mine GO BOOM - Mon Nov 06, 2006 10:55 am
Post subject:

Doc Flabby wrote:

... constand popups saying "ARE YOU SURE U WANT TO RUN THAT PROGRAM"

... added a firewall

XP has had a firewall since it was originally released, it was called Internet Connection Firewall until SP2 when it was set on by default. Granted, they should have had it on by default before, but then people would have bitched at them then.

The only popups that say that is when you download an application for the first time. Even then, you can disable the popup windows in the future. If you are talking about the new User Account Control, I made a little how to complete with screenshots of every step on disabling that and enabling automatic logins (doesn't work in RC1, does in RC2).

On a machine with less than a gig of ram, it does run much slower than XP. But with a gig or more, it is faster. Just like I tell everyone that uses OS X, install at least a gig of ram. Otherwise, your OS will run like shit.

Just remember, XP pisses the hell out of me with its default installation. Thats why I setup an unattended disk which disables or uninstalls specific parts of it and preinstalls some applications for me. With Vista, I won't have to burn a new CD everytime, instead I can just keep it on a flash drive and use it with any normal Vista installation disk.

The Apache - Mon Nov 06, 2006 3:05 pm
Post subject:

Mine GO BOOM wrote:

Want to explain why? Have you used it? Have you tried it on a local machine? What about it makes you not want to install it?

i do not like the new features where it keeps on asking you "are you sure you want to run this program?!", and "are you sure you want to shut this process down?" very annoying indeed. i know it's all in the sake of helping users not shutting down the wrong things and adding extra protection for the average computer user, but really - i don't need that every hour or so.

vista also uses too much memory for me; very slow. i even disabled the fancy graphical shit (aero3d or whatever), and disabling all animations windows uses.

if anything, i'll get a new computer (or upgrade) before i even think about windows vista.

D1st0rt - Mon Nov 06, 2006 5:24 pm
Post subject:

From what I have read about Vista, I haven't heard anything that would make me want to use it over XP Pro. I'd probably set it to Windows Classic appearance anyways given the option.

Blocks - Tue Dec 12, 2006 4:42 am
Post subject: An update

Sorry for the bump, but I figured this topic deserved an update. I installed Windows Vista Business RTM x64 on my notebook today, and am quite impressed with it. The Windows Aero scheme is very nice. I might not be as impressed had I paid $200 for it or whatever it is, however.

Here are my system specs again, the full Windows visual experience runs on it, but I think if I taxed it any more, things wouldn't be so smooth. My integrated graphics are bringing me down, but laptops with real graphics are expensive. (the ratings are out of 5.9)

Addressing the things that people said:

The only real problem is with drivers, since I installed the 64-bit edition. Vista came with more drivers than XP x64 did, but it still couldn't use the onboard audio and modem. Drivers are online, but I haven't gotten them to work. Luckily I have USB audio as well. My own fault for installing the 64-bit version, but I want to eek a little extra performance out of Mathematica.

Overall, if you are rich, or can get it for free as a student, I'd recommend at least trying out Vista. I'm sticking with it for sure, since it runs just as well (if not better) than XP, and looks a lot better, among other reasons. Also satisfies my inner geek to be on the bleeding edge. Anybody else using Vista regularly?

Doc Flabby - Tue Dec 12, 2006 6:16 am
Post subject: Re: An update

Blocks wrote:

Continuum runs just fine

yey i guess microsoft must have fixed it for the final vista release

vista here i come (once i have new computer, my laptop is rates 1.0

)

The Apache - Tue Dec 12, 2006 12:30 pm
Post subject: Re: An update

Blocks wrote:

Continuum runs just fine.

microsoft did it just for us. we should feel loved.

Cerium - Tue Dec 12, 2006 1:51 pm
Post subject:

How does it handle remote desktop? That's really my only issue with XP pro -- not only can only a single user be logged at the same time (stupid) but if a User is logged in and an Administrator tries to login remotely via Remote Desktop, the user is asked if the admin is allowed to take over. If the user clicks "No" the Administrator gets a nice message saying "sorry, you were denied access by a peon".

If Vista fixes that, I'll switch my roommates machine immediately. If not... meh.

Maverick - Wed Dec 13, 2006 5:34 am
Post subject:

Cerium, maybe this can help you:
http://sig9.com/articles/concurrent-remote-desktop

Doc Flabby - Wed Dec 13, 2006 12:03 pm
Post subject:

that doesnt work. a windows update broke it
Done ALOT of research into this so trust me on it.
you have to pay $$ to get more than one rd http://www.thinsoftinc.com/

Have you considered installing xen then virtualising 2 copies of windows xp then you could have one each

Cerium - Wed Dec 13, 2006 1:51 pm
Post subject:

That thinsoft thing may work, but virtual environments definately will not.

The point of this setup is so I can maintain the system without giving him anything more than User-level access -- he's not exactly computer savvy and would most likely do something that would fuck up the computer if I let him.

Maverick - Wed Dec 13, 2006 2:17 pm
Post subject:

get a copy of Windows 2000 or 2003

Cerium - Wed Dec 13, 2006 2:33 pm
Post subject:

I have a legal copies of every OS on my machines and would very much like to keep it that way. Besides, I really don't feel like disabling/removing a bunch of extra crap that he wouldn't use anyway.

Mine GO BOOM - Wed Dec 13, 2006 3:37 pm
Post subject:

The Linux world is very nice. If you want to be able to fix his computer easily from afar, SSH is a thing of beauty. Plus, you can remotely install applications for him easily and restrict his ability to do things very well. He plays lots of games? Wine supports a lot of games.

Animate Dreams - Wed Dec 13, 2006 6:20 pm
Post subject:

Another argument could be made that you should just let him screw up the computer as much as he wants. Just teach him how to reformat, and how to keep data backed up(you know, like all the important stuff on a second drive) in case he DOES screw it up. I mean, that's how I learned about computers, and how to fix them, by dealing with broken ones. Although, I never got any viruses, but I had friends that let me fix theirs, so I was able to learn that too.

I suppose it's like the "Teach a man to fish" think. I enjoy teaching people about computers, but I don't like the whole "just do it all for me" approach. If people don't want to learn from me, I'd rather them figure it out on their own. Generally, I'll only do things for people if I know they're trying to learn. Of course, this is different from doing a favor for a friend or something like that.

Also, I think suggesting Linux to someone who doesn't know how to even use Windows properly is a horrible idea. Even assuming Cerium wanted to help him with every single problem that came up, I know I wouldn't want to have to wait for someone else to do something to my computer every time I was doing something new in it(like new game, or whatever). Even then, it would take a lot of learning on how to use the Linux system. I had to wait for authorization every time I needed to use a new program when I was working at Verizon Wireless. >_> It got really annoying after a while, even my boss was getting fed up with it.

Mine GO BOOM - Wed Dec 13, 2006 7:47 pm
Post subject:

Animate Dreams wrote:

Also, I think suggesting Linux to someone who doesn't know how to even use Windows properly is a horrible idea. Even assuming Cerium wanted to help him with every single problem that came up, I know I wouldn't want to have to wait for someone else to do something to my computer every time I was doing something new in it(like new game, or whatever). Even then, it would take a lot of learning on how to use the Linux system. I had to wait for authorization every time I needed to use a new program when I was working at Verizon Wireless. >_> It got really annoying after a while, even my boss was getting fed up with it.

Showing someone Linux when they don't know how to use Windows is one of the best arguments for using Linux. You set it up, and they'll have to actively try to break it to do any real harm. I'm not saying completely remove his sudo access, I'm for the argument that he can have full access to his machine. He just needs to enter his password whenever he does.

For a company, restricting access is acceptable. On his own computer, he'll still have full access, just that he won't be running as an admin the whole time. Give Linux a try and see what I mean, normal users can do a lot without even requiring superuser access.

Animate Dreams - Wed Dec 13, 2006 9:56 pm
Post subject:

Yeah. I've heard Linux is supposed to be hard to mess up, but within my first week of using Fedora Core 5 I had to reformat 3 times because I'd messed something up. I can say from personal experience that it's VERY easy to break a Linux installation. So I don't buy that at all.

Cerium - Thu Dec 14, 2006 12:54 am
Post subject:

I've unsuccessfully attempted to install linux on 3 seperate occasions. It will take a day when I have absolutely nothing to do before I attempt it again.

Mine GO BOOM - Thu Dec 14, 2006 12:54 am
Post subject:

What did you do or attempt that caused you to have to reformat? My first working Gentoo install is still running with lots of gcc and glibc overhauls. Anything broken in Linux can be fixed without reformatting. The only time you should is if your box is rooted. Even transfered the hard drive to its third motherboard and second CPU (different make even, Via->AMD). Hell, even transfered the hard drive over because the previous one was dying.

Doc Flabby - Thu Dec 14, 2006 12:06 pm
Post subject:

only time ive had to reinstall was because i was working on a remote server using ssh and messed up a kernel upgrade. It didnt reboot. luckly there was nothing else on the computer (was just at the beginning of setting it up) and it was cheaper/quicker/easier to use the auto reinstall operating system option rather than pay Â£50 /half hour to get it sorted by a datacenter tech...

Animate Dreams wrote:

Yeah. I've heard Linux is supposed to be hard to mess up without root access

it is. if you decide to do everything as root (superuser), its very easy to break.

type

Code: Show/Hide

rm -rf /

as root and say goodbye to linux
try the same thing as a normal user and your system will still work.

on windows xp type as any user

Code: Show/Hide

do not copy and paste this:P rmdir /s /q c:\

and say bye bye to everything on your computer

KrynetiX - Thu Dec 14, 2006 12:54 pm
Post subject:

Ubuntu is a good linux distro for newbs and I assume it's also good for the experienced. Although I NEVER figured out how to install wine / continuum blah.. Someone mind helping me with this? The getcontinuum tutorial didn't work well at all.

Windows Vista? Never tried it, although I installed an early version of SP3 (wich i really enjoy). If you are offered a legal copy for beta testing or corperate/educational purposes, go for it, it's pretty nice.

I'm using Ubuntu right now but installing XP again soon. I have two 40 gigs with ubuntu installed, I'll just boot those when in need of linux and keep the 80 gig equipped with all my huge windows apps like 3dsmax and such.

But lets face it. WIndows = super-ez-u-dont-need-2-think-at-all, ever. And an herbaloverindulger like myself likes to "never-think-at-all" as efficiently as possible. So XP is a good choice, Although it's slow, it crashes, tons of viruses built specifically for it, it costs alot, ..the list goes on and on.

Linux = Washing your dishes by hand and making them spotless
Windows = a dishwasher that leaves a bunch of stuck on ketchup behind

As for vista, I'll install it when it's ready.

Bak - Thu Dec 14, 2006 2:56 pm
Post subject:

what part of the tutorial did you get stuck on?

http://wiki.minegoboom.com/index.php/Running_Continuum_under_Wine

Blocks - Thu Dec 14, 2006 4:31 pm
Post subject: Continuum on Wine

I also ran into problems running Continuum with Wine on Ubuntu. I think the problem is http://wine.getcontinuum.com/ doesn't have this little bit that the MGB wiki has:

Quote:

Ubuntu users will need to first install some other packages to be able to build Wine. To do so, in a terminal window type

sudo apt-get install build-essential bison flex fontforge libgl1-mesa-dev libgtk1.2 xorg-dev

to install all the needed packages.

I don't have my Linux machine here with me so I can't try it out.

And to put this back on-topic, another new feature of Vista is faster searches by indexing everything when you're not searching ... I understand other operating systems have had this for some time (?). It works, searches are faster, but the indexing process eats up all the CPU resources when it runs (while you're not doing anything else), which would be fine on a desktop, but it drove me crazy on my laptop (the fan would run on high) until I figured out what was going on.

Mine GO BOOM - Thu Dec 14, 2006 5:20 pm
Post subject:

As I got another new Ubuntu machine up and running again, I figured I'd go through the Continuum install steps to see if there is some weird problem that could have popped up in Edgy.

It seems as if the winetools page is down. Here is a copy of it: winetools-0.9jo-III.tar.gz

KrynetiX - Thu Dec 14, 2006 6:13 pm
Post subject:

i installed ubuntu dapper and tried to setup wine with continuum but really failed, also trying to play mp3's and broke my Synapsis Add/Remove thing.

This is a major failure of your software management system. Check the file permissions and correctness of the file '/etc/apt/sources.list' and reload the software information: 'sudo apt-get update'.

(something told me to delete "##"'s from a text file and i think htat's why)
So now my synapsis is broken i can't do much (ill fix it i sooner or later) and i still can't play mp3's sigh..

and i got stuck when when it reported errors

(i think i was doing it all right)This is a major failure of your software management system. Check the file permissions and correctness of the file '/etc/apt/sources.list' and reload the software information: 'sudo apt-get update'.

KrynetiX - Thu Dec 14, 2006 7:00 pm
Post subject:

Quote:

It seems as if the winetools page is down. Here is a copy of it: winetools-0.9jo-III.tar.gz

that doesn't contain a .deb and the install intructions are for a different type of terminal (mayne gnome)

Mine GO BOOM - Thu Dec 14, 2006 8:36 pm
Post subject:

KrynetiX wrote:

that doesn't contain a .deb and the install intructions are for a different type of terminal (mayne gnome)

Umm, what? From the INSTALL file:

Quote:

1. for the tar.gz

To install WineTools extract the archive in a temporary directory and call
"./install" as user "root"

From the wiki that tells you how to install it:

Code: Show/Hide

$ tar zxvf winetools-0.9jo-III.tar.gz
$ cd winetools-0.9jo-III
$ sudo ./install

KrynetiX - Thu Dec 14, 2006 8:39 pm
Post subject:

I'll be all set and ready to go once i resolve this error i get when i run synapsis/add/remove utility:

"This is a major failure of your software management system. Check the file permissions and correctness of the file '/etc/apt/sources.list' and reload the software information: 'sudo apt-get update'."

Equally, pretty much any command in Terminal gives me this:

"E: Type 'Major' is not known on line 4 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list
E: The list of sources could not be read."

So I'm stuck on this before i can do -anything- else.

Mine GO BOOM - Thu Dec 14, 2006 8:46 pm
Post subject:

Well, posting your specific /etc/apt/sources.list would let us fix it, but instead I'd recommend checking out Ubuntu Guide.org. They recommend you replacing everything in sources.list with the following:

Code: Show/Hide

## Add comments (##) in front of any line to remove it from being checked.
## Use the following sources.list at your own risk.

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy-proposed main restricted universe multiverse

## MAJOR BUG FIX UPDATES produced after the final release
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy-updates main restricted universe multiverse

## UBUNTU SECURITY UPDATES
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy-security main restricted universe multiverse

## BACKPORTS REPOSITORY (Unsupported. May contain illegal packages. Use at own risk.)
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy-backports main restricted universe multiverse

## PLF REPOSITORY (Unsupported. May contain illegal packages. Use at own risk.)
deb http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/ edgy free
deb http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/ edgy non-free
deb-src http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/ edgy free
deb-src http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/ edgy non-free

## CANONICAL COMMERCIAL REPOSITORY (Hosted on Canonical servers, not Ubuntu
## servers. RealPlayer10, Opera, DesktopSecure and more to come.)
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu edgy-commercial main

To solve some of your other problems, I'd recommend looking into setting up Automatix, which is a fancy user made tool to setup lots of non-free things that Ubuntu may have legal problems with offering. Since you need to custom build Wine, don't install Wine through Automatix, but go ahead and get everything else you want.

KrynetiX - Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:54 pm
Post subject:

thanks dude and i was told in some installation to open that file and delete all the ##'s... huh...

thanks i'm looking into automatix now

KrynetiX - Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:57 pm
Post subject:

too bad i can't copy and past that becausause its for edgy and i have dapper. I think i want to install 6.10 but do i go for desktop or edgy?

Mine GO BOOM - Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:58 pm
Post subject:

KrynetiX wrote:

thanks dude and i was told in some installation to open that file and delete all the ##'s... huh...

It probably mentioned, or assumed you would know, that the ## are comment lines (which the first line in the file tells you also), and you should only remove them from the lines starting with deb or deb-src. Based upon your error, you removed everything, so lines started with things like major, like that one like about major bug fixes.

EDIT:

KrynetiX wrote:

too bad i can't copy and past that becausause its for edgy and i have dapper. I think i want to install 6.10 but do i go for desktop or edgy?

Oh god, upgrade already. In the first week of the upgrade going live, there was a couple of problems, but everything is stable right now. Hell, I'm still installing with the 6.06 CD and just upgrading once I've installed.

How to upgrade? Paste all that in there, and then sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get dist-upgrade. Will move you up to Edgy without a problem. Or just use System -> Administration -> Update Manager.

KrynetiX - Thu Dec 14, 2006 10:17 pm
Post subject:

yea i knew they were command lines, i was absent minded at the time and deleted them all, immediately realizing my mistake

well the update manager opens in it's greyed out loading phase then exits, probably due to the same file that is corrupting synapsis

KrynetiX - Thu Dec 14, 2006 10:28 pm
Post subject:

fixed synapsis, update manager works also, updating to 6.10

Animate Dreams - Fri Dec 15, 2006 5:51 pm
Post subject:

In answer to MGB's question:
I don't remember all the problems I had now, but the first one I had to reformat because there was no way to boot. I was tired of always having to go to terminal every time I had to do something(I had gui installed on this computer), so I switched to root once in terminal, and I think the exact command I used was chmod -R -777 /. Something like that. Anyway, you get the picture. Fedora didn't like it, and refused to boot at all. My recent problem with Debian involved me breaking something in the GUI, and it wouldn't start up any new windows, whether it was just a file explorer or a terminal. It could probably be fixed, but Debian is boring. One of my friends suggested I use it because he liked the package manager, and since he used it, he could help me out a lot more. But the package manager really didn't seem any better than Fedora's Yum, or what I know about Gentoo's package manager either.

And now I'm having problems installing Gentoo. Not that I can't do it, since I'm just copying from http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml , but I don't understand any of what's going on, really. I'm sure it would be a great learning experience if I understood it. But since right now I really only need something that works, once I get it running I'll probably go back to Fedora. I have a little bit of an idea of how to set things up the way I want them in Fedora. So far, of all the Linux distros I've tried, the only one I'd recommend to someone who hasn't used Linux before is Fedora. I've heard Ubuntu is a good beginning Linux too, though.

Cyan~Fire - Sat Dec 16, 2006 12:04 pm
Post subject:

Well chmod 777 shouldn't break anything (though I'm not going to do it on my computer to test). You sure you didn't try, say, chmod 000?

Anyway, try ubuntu. It's based on Debian, easy to use, and as MGB is always saying, there's tons of support so you can use it without knowing anything about Linux. And, uhh, the package manager isn't really a good reason for picking a distro.

Animate Dreams - Sat Dec 16, 2006 6:38 pm
Post subject:

Cyan~Fire wrote:

And, uhh, the package manager isn't really a good reason for picking a distro.

First off, yeah, it was definitely 777. Fedora just didn't like that everything had access to certain files and so it didn't boot. I don't quite understand why I couldn't just bypass it, and I'm sure there's some way to take that check out before you chmod everything, but I don't even really want to learn how if it's true, no point. See, I didn't know you could sign in as root. I understood about root access, but I didn't realize I could use it just like a normal user account. After all, the only experience with user accounts I'd had so far was XP. So logging in as root solved SO many problems for me.

Anyway, package manager is one of the few things I notice as a difference in Linuxes. There's that, the way it organizes itself(which, is actually probably dependent on the package manager, correct?), and the amount of documentation available. Someone want to lecture me on other differences in Linux distros, and why someone like me would care(assuming I didn't want to learn just for the sake of learning, what would I care about)?

phong - Sat Dec 23, 2006 8:50 am
Post subject:

I decided to install vista and just about everything went smooth. When you attempt to install it performs a compatibility check looking for things that would fuck up. The only thing I had it didn't like was Nero, which it made me uninstall before I could install vista. After that and about an hour-hour 1/2 later the install was complete which is a very long time considering my system specs (xp usually intsalled in under 15min). This was an upgrade installation and it turned out better then I had expected, with only a few bugs here and there.

As far as drivers, the only ones I needed were for my nForce chipset, and video which I downloaded the nvidia drivers from the driver beta site. After I install those I tried to play counter-strike:source and the graphics were all fucked up. Reinstalled them again, same thing. Also I was getting 10fps in subspace...

Well subspace was fixed by removing page flipping.. I dont get 1200fps like I used to (around 100 now), but you really cant tell the difference. As for source, I removed the nvidia driver and just used the one provided by windows update, and css ran fine.

Other notes, vista does use a ton of resources, which if you have them is offers nice features. Like multiple user logins, aero, etc. The most annoying thing was security warnings every time you installed/ran/pretty much anything you did. I took this out by editing the local security policy and disabled all the admin prompts. Bunch other other stuff but don't want to make this excessive.

Vista enterprise was 1.9GB, on dvd. I do believe they will have a cd version out but probably hard to come by.

phong - Sat Dec 23, 2006 8:59 am
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Animate Dreams wrote:

Someone want to lecture me on other differences in Linux distros, and why someone like me would care(assuming I didn't want to learn just for the sake of learning, what would I care about)?

If you are learning it really doesn't matter. Also breaking things will help you learn faster so don't worry about it. If you use fedora just run rpms from console, don't use the package manager.

rpm -ivh package.rpm (install with verbose)
rpm -qa something (search for package and see if its installed, like kernel for example)
rpm -ev (delete package)
rpm -ivh --nodeps package.rpm (will install with no dependencies but not recommended)

man rpm (rpm manual pages)

If you use fedora search for packages on rpmfind.net and try to stick with the fc5 packages. If you are missing a module, like gd.so.1, search in rpmfind and see if it comes up with any packages.

My default fedora partitioning:
Assign 2GB swap file system
Assign 1GB fs3 to /boot
Assign whatever is left to /

Setting the entire system permissions to 777 is a BAD idea btw. If you are having troubles getting wine/continuum to work post your problems here.

Cyan~Fire - Sat Dec 23, 2006 11:27 am
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phong wrote:

I dont get 1200fps like I used to (around 100 now), but you really cant tell the difference.

Yeah, I usually can't tell the difference when getting higher FPS than my refresh rate.

Animate Dreams - Sat Dec 23, 2006 5:03 pm
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Phong, isn't yum(the package manager) in Fedora just a collection of searchable RPMs? I don't see any reason to go find the RPMs myself instead of using yum. Also, I'm using Fedora Core 6, not 5. Not that it really makes a huge difference.

phong - Sat Dec 23, 2006 10:35 pm
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You can use yum but it will also locate/install dependencies sometimes for you as well. I like to see what packages an application is dependent upon incase I don't want them installed or upgraded. Also, yum has a select list of rpms, mainly based on the distro/version (like fc6). There are non distro specific rpms that you will want to install sometimes and wont be able to find the package using yum.

I still use yum for kernel updates and a few other packages that I don't want to mess with.

And the fedora "package manager" is not the same as yum.

phong - Sun Dec 24, 2006 4:01 am
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I also thought this was an interesting comparison to what you posted blocks:

Cyan~Fire - Sun Dec 24, 2006 12:21 pm
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It looks like it's judging by other properties than just size, which is good. Does it display any details about the RAM further down the window?