Well I haven't made a lot of Linuxish progress on my new system.
The essential problems which make it difficult to install any Linux on it are:-
The JMicron PATA controller isn't recognised by install versions of the Linux kernel. There is (I believe) support for it in the latest 2.6.18 kernel but the problem is how to get that kernel built on the system.
The Realtek Gigabit RTL 8168 NIC interface isn't supported in current kernels. A driver is available but needs to be, yes you've guessed it, compiled into a new kernel.
I have currently got Windows XP64 Professional installed in a partition on the new system, that was moderately easy though one has to feed it several floppys during the install and it's a bit of a guessing game which ones should be used at times. So, anyway, I have at least proved the system works and can copy stuff to and fro even if only in Window'ish formats.
I need to come up with a strategy for getting a basic system onto my new box that will then allow me to compile a new kernel with the required bits in it.
One question this raises is one that I originally asked - what Linux version should I choose? The original answers here were along the lines of "try them all" but I really don't fancy having to recompile kernels for all of them (and I don't believe one recompiled kernel will work for all, each distribution will almost inevitably have its own tweaks I believe). I think the three choices are Suse, Ubuntu or Mandriva. Suse 10.1 seems to have the fullest support for Vmware Server so, if nothing else seems to point elswhere, I may go for Suse.
So, how do I get a system loaded? The options would seem to be:-
Get the distribution files onto the disk using Windows XP and install from there. Question - can Linux installers read Windows file systems?
Add a "well known" NIC to the system (I have spare PCI slots) and do a network install, this I think may be the simplest approach.
Do a USB drive install (I'm not sure I have a big enough USB memory thingy).
Any comments or ideas?
cl@isbd.net wrote:
I need to come up with a strategy for getting a basic system onto my new box that will then allow me to compile a new kernel with the required bits in it.
Is is necesary to compile the kernel on the actual system itself? I would have thought it would be possible to compile the necessary modules on another system and just copy and modprobe them on your new one.
Ian
On Thu, Sep 28, 2006 at 10:16:57AM +0100, Ian bell wrote:
cl@isbd.net wrote:
I need to come up with a strategy for getting a basic system onto my new box that will then allow me to compile a new kernel with the required bits in it.
Is is necesary to compile the kernel on the actual system itself? I would have thought it would be possible to compile the necessary modules on another system and just copy and modprobe them on your new one.
But I'd need a full installation of the (new to me) distribution to do the build, I don't think it would be that easy to build a module on (for example) Slackware and use it on Suse would it?
cl@isbd.net wrote:
On Thu, Sep 28, 2006 at 10:16:57AM +0100, Ian bell wrote:
Is is necesary to compile the kernel on the actual system itself? I would have thought it would be possible to compile the necessary modules on another system and just copy and modprobe them on your new one.
But I'd need a full installation of the (new to me) distribution to do the build, I don't think it would be that easy to build a module on (for example) Slackware and use it on Suse would it?
Should be fine. You only need the kernel source for the new distro. No different realy than building different version kernels on one system. Each distro tends to patch its kernel but that should not affect module building provided you use the right kernel source.
Ian
On Thu, Sep 28, 2006 at 09:45:39AM +0100, cl@isbd.net wrote:
One question this raises is one that I originally asked - what Linux version should I choose? The original answers here were along the lines of "try them all" but I really don't fancy having to recompile kernels for all of them (and I don't believe one recompiled kernel will work for all, each distribution will almost inevitably have its own tweaks I believe). I think the three choices are Suse, Ubuntu or Mandriva. Suse 10.1 seems to have the fullest support for Vmware Server so, if nothing else seems to point elswhere, I may go for Suse.
Any comments or ideas?
Could you perhaps try the latest Beta of Ubuntu Edgy (which should be out today or thereabouts) as they are planning a release by the 20th of October and they quite often include support for slightly weird and wonderful hardware. It also looks like they have a fix for the Jmicron issue on your motherboard but I'm not sure if they've applied it to their daily builds yet or not.
Adam
On Thu, Sep 28, 2006 at 11:24:23AM +0100, Adam Bower wrote:
On Thu, Sep 28, 2006 at 09:45:39AM +0100, cl@isbd.net wrote:
One question this raises is one that I originally asked - what Linux version should I choose? The original answers here were along the lines of "try them all" but I really don't fancy having to recompile kernels for all of them (and I don't believe one recompiled kernel will work for all, each distribution will almost inevitably have its own tweaks I believe). I think the three choices are Suse, Ubuntu or Mandriva. Suse 10.1 seems to have the fullest support for Vmware Server so, if nothing else seems to point elswhere, I may go for Suse.
Any comments or ideas?
Could you perhaps try the latest Beta of Ubuntu Edgy (which should be out today or thereabouts) as they are planning a release by the 20th of October and they quite often include support for slightly weird and wonderful hardware. It also looks like they have a fix for the Jmicron issue on your motherboard but I'm not sure if they've applied it to their daily builds yet or not.
It's certainly worth a try. The JMicron fix is in the 2.6.18 kernel which is now released so if that's in Edgy it may do what I want.
I'll download the installation ISO and have a go this evening.
On Thu, Sep 28, 2006 at 12:41:52PM +0100, cl@isbd.net wrote:
It's certainly worth a try. The JMicron fix is in the 2.6.18 kernel which is now released so if that's in Edgy it may do what I want.
I /think/ that Ubuntu edgy is only 2.6.17 but that they have backported the fix as many people are having the problems that you are. Of course as it is still beta you may be out of luck.
I'll download the installation ISO and have a go this evening.
Certainly take a look, as it does look like the fix will be in the final release towards the end of october. Even if you end up using the Beta for a few weeks it won't be a disaster.
Adam
On Thu, Sep 28, 2006 at 12:55:03PM +0100, Adam Bower wrote:
On Thu, Sep 28, 2006 at 12:41:52PM +0100, cl@isbd.net wrote:
It's certainly worth a try. The JMicron fix is in the 2.6.18 kernel which is now released so if that's in Edgy it may do what I want.
I /think/ that Ubuntu edgy is only 2.6.17 but that they have backported the fix as many people are having the problems that you are. Of course as it is still beta you may be out of luck.
I'll download the installation ISO and have a go this evening.
Certainly take a look, as it does look like the fix will be in the final release towards the end of october. Even if you end up using the Beta for a few weeks it won't be a disaster.
Yes, it would be fine, initially I'll just be playing around to see if VMware satisfies my needs or not. It'll take a while playing with VMWare and so on so if I need to re-install a released version of the host OS in a while that's not a problem really. Not to mention that I'd be able to keep any guest OS images and carry on using them after the host re-install.
-
Adam Bower -
cl＠isbd.net -
Ian bell