A Linux Christmas Miracle (In Progress) - Page 2


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Thread: A Linux Christmas Miracle (In Progress)

  1. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by blackbelt_jones
    Well I was down to my junkiest, crappiest, oldest computer, a 500 mhz celeron processor, with 255 mb RAM. Yeah, I said 255; apparently it lost a megabyte somewhere.
    The missing 1 megabyte is for shared video RAM

    He said there was something wrong with the PCU...
    What's a PCU?

    A Pentium 4 processor with 2.80 GHX,
    Ghz? Maybe?

    It seems to have a problem reading from IDE devices, but it'll read and even boot from a USB hard drive.
    Newegg carries Promise PCI-IDE controller cards for really cheap. Also, if the CD-ROM works, try running the hard drive off that port. If the hard drive is still bad, then it's just a bad drive, NOT the IDE port.

    Now I'm upgrading again from Hardy to intrepid, and next I'm going to install kubuntu-desktop.
    Slackware...'nuff said

    Oh, and the two procs is in fact hyperthreading, it's not a dual core or anything like that.

    Overall, a fine machine. My Dell desktop has the exact same proc, 2 gigs of memory and 1.3 terabytes of storage. It does everything well except virtualbox.
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  2. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by MkIII_Supra
    I really hate KDE4...
    KI'm Knot Ka Kbig Kfan Kof KDE Keither.




    [Edit] Well, I guess I should also mention that I have 4 mongrel computers that I pieced together from spare parts I picked up here and there, along with a few minor purchases. It is a good feeling to throw some parts together and discover you have a working system.
    Last edited by bs_texas; 12-21-2008 at 07:48 PM.
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  3. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by MkIII_Supra
    I really hate KDE4... so much so that I will keep my old OpenSuSE 11.0 system around for a very long time. I don't like the look, I don't like the feel, dolphin is a kludge compared to konqueror as a file manager. I just can't seem to get KDE4 to adapt to MY way of working the way I am now.

    Otherwise, as was noted before, get a PCI IDE or SATA adapter card. Better yet, does the board have SATA on it already? If so, see if you can get a SATA drive and test from there. They are getting pretty cheap now. Just an idea.
    I can relate. Like Linux itself, KDE4 requires a lot of effort to get used to, and I can't presume that you will find it as rewarding as I have (actually, the jury is out, but it looks good.) There are some distros that will be sticking with KDE3, and I think that's a good thing. As long as KDE3 has users, it will be maintained.


    You know what really got me hooked? That news ticker. It's snazzy, yet practical. I don't have to go looking for the news any more. Thanks to a local news feed, this was how I learned that my tenth grade history teacher had died.


    My short-term solution for this computer has been to order a 500 GB external USB hard drive. I just discovered a site called propertyroom.com, which is sort of like ebay for police auctions. They sell computers with wiped hard drives, i.e., + no OS, which makes them less valuble to the general population, and a steal for Linuxheads.. Machines with similar stats to this one are going for (I'm guessing) pretty close for what I'd pay for a controller, so I'm reluctant to invest on any hardware for this machine that I won't need on any other machine.

  4. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by psych-major
    The missing 1 megabyte is for shared video RAM

    What's a PCU?

    Ghz? Maybe?

    Newegg carries Promise PCI-IDE controller cards for really cheap. Also, if the CD-ROM works, try running the hard drive off that port. If the hard drive is still bad, then it's just a bad drive, NOT the IDE port.

    Slackware...'nuff said

    Oh, and the two procs is in fact hyperthreading, it's not a dual core or anything like that.

    Overall, a fine machine. My Dell desktop has the exact same proc, 2 gigs of memory and 1.3 terabytes of storage. It does everything well except virtualbox.
    With all this old dying hardware, it's hard to tell what's going on. The hard drive that came with the computer works okay when I plug it into the external casing, and it worked okay when I installed it in the older machine. CD ROMs are a big mystery. I bought a cheap DVD burner that performs totally crappy, and I have the CD and DVD drives from nearly every computer that has come here to the elephant graveyard to die. If nothing works, I can't be sure what's at fault.

    As I have said elsewhere, I'm very interested in using Slackware, but until I get better at managing software for Slackware, it's always going to be running on the second string machine, if I have one, and I try to always have one, since my first-string computer is usually on its way out. Once I get my new hard drive, I'll be using this hard drive to run Slackware (probably Vector, actually) on my older box.


    I'm now running opensuse 11.1 off a 4 GB flash drive. This is probably what I'm going to install when my new hard drive arrives. Currently, Opensuse has a more advanced version of KDE4.1.3, with essential improvements backported from KDE 4.2.

    Incidentally, anyone who has ever had an ASUS motherboard is probably familiar with these weird audio messages I get occasionally. A woman's voice saying "System failed; CPU test!" over and over and over. At first, I get this constantly. Now it happens only briefly and occasionally, as if the system has somehow been fixing itself.
    Last edited by blackbelt_jones; 12-23-2008 at 12:20 PM.

  5. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by blackbelt_jones
    I just discovered a site called propertyroom.com, which is sort of like ebay for police auctions.
    I find it funny that they have a good sized stock of slot machines... This particular police force must raid and seize casinos regularly.
    "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect."

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  6. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by blackbelt_jones
    Incidentally, anyone who has ever had an ASUS motherboard is probably familiar with these weird audio messages I get occasionally. A woman's voice saying "System failed; CPU test!" over and over and over.
    Which model is it? I have a P4BGL-MX, and never faced this issue...

  7. #22
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    I've been using nothing but ASUS motherboards for so long now I can't remember the last non-ASUS board I used.

    The voice was a surprise the first time. The "audio POST" messages can be controlled in the BIOS.

    I have an older machine that I use to try new releases of different distros. The 160GB hard disk has 8 or nine partitiions. I did this only recently for kicks. It really opened my eyes as to how well or not-so-well the different distro installs performed in setting up the basic functions during install.

    Lenny RC1
    Ubuntu 8.10
    SUSE 11
    LinuxMint 5
    Arch
    Gentoo
    Mandriva
    and a Swap

    Managing Grub is the biggest challenge.

  8. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by blackbelt_jones
    As I have said elsewhere, I'm very interested in using Slackware, but until I get better at managing software for Slackware, it's always going to be running on the second string machine, if I have one, and I try to always have one, since my first-string computer is usually on its way out. Once I get my new hard drive, I'll be using this hard drive to run Slackware (probably Vector, actually) on my older box.
    ./configure && make && make install
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  9. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by Darkbolt
    ./configure && make && make install
    Even easier:
    slackpkg update/search/install/remove/upgrade-all .. etc
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  10. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by teeitup
    I've been using nothing but ASUS motherboards for so long now I can't remember the last non-ASUS board I used.

    The voice was a surprise the first time. The "audio POST" messages can be controlled in the BIOS.

    I just switched from Kubuntu to opensuse, because Opensuse has backported some essential improvements from KDE 4.2.
    I tried fixing this in bios, but I was probably messing with the wrong configuration. I'll have another look soon. Whatever's going on, it's happening a lot less. I used to be constant. I would have to keep the speaker turned off.

    Tell me how to use Slackware when I actually have it running, which ought to be fairly soon, when I have two machines up and running. The bottom line is that I know how to use Debian-based Distros, and I know how to use SUSE, and a computer that I can use is more important to me that a computer I can learn from. If I had the patience to learn a distro while depending on it for everyday use, I'd be smarter and nobler. I'd be thrifty, clean, and reverent, and a better person in every way. Unfortunately, I sort of suck. Plus, after six years of trying to be more disciplined about study, my motto still appears to be FRTM, if you know what I mean. Fortunately, my computer can read the books out loud. Sooner or later, it sinks in.
    Last edited by blackbelt_jones; 12-24-2008 at 03:37 PM.

  11. #26
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    Silly BBJ, how many times do we have to tell you that linux == linux...All you're learning is new package managers :-P
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  12. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by Darkbolt
    Silly BBJ, how many times do we have to tell you that linux == linux...All you're learning is new package managers :-P



    I really don't see your point. Most of what I find daunting about Slackware does involve package management. I never said otherwise.

    On the other hand: You know how they say "learn Red Hat, know Red Hat. Learn Slackware, Know Linux" ? What you're expressing here is the Slackware user's perspective, and it's a good example of why I need to learn Slackware, so I can see things that way, too. To me and others like me, who are not used to interacting with their system at the most essential unix level, it's a little more complicated. With opensuse, for example, system administration is all about YAST, and not just for package management.

  13. #28
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    Ironically, SuSE is a derivative of Slackware.

    And contrary to popular belief, Slack does have a package manager, however, by design it doesn't do dependency checking.

    You're best bet for the Slackware stability with the ubuntu feel is Zenwalk. It's package manager, netpkg, is very similar to synaptic et al, albeit with smaller repos to pull from.

    And finally, there is nothing wrong with running ubuntu or any other distro for that matter. Find one you like, learn it inside out, and then don't whine about it.
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  14. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by psych-major
    Ironically, SuSE is a derivative of Slackware.

    And contrary to popular belief, Slack does have a package manager, however, by design it doesn't do dependency checking.

    You're best bet for the Slackware stability with the ubuntu feel is Zenwalk. It's package manager, netpkg, is very similar to synaptic et al, albeit with smaller repos to pull from.

    And finally, there is nothing wrong with running ubuntu or any other distro for that matter. Find one you like, learn it inside out, and then don't whine about it.

    HUH? Was somebody whining?

    Let's recap. You implied for the 97th time that I should be using Slackware, and I replied that I'm very interested in learning Slackware, and will get to it when I once again have a second machine, which will be any day now, when my new hard drive arrives.

  15. #30
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    Not just now, but you have been know to.
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