man_exec
05-15-2004, 08:46 AM
I recently decided to compile a Linux installation from scratch. I am not a programmer or a professional writer. I am however, very enthused with Linux and want to offer my experiences to other non-programmers in the hope that it will inspire or invite them to take the plunge from Windows to Linux. I also hope that my comments will be read by programmers, to see opportunities for themselves to make their Linux creations more available to non-programmers.
To preface this article, I want to say that I don't believe that any one distro is better, worse, good or bad. I really know very little about Linux and this story should be proof of that. So, to the programmers that read about my mistakes with their creations, please don't be offended.
Why did I want to compile from source?
I've been using PC's since 1989. I used MS DOS, Win 3.11, Win 95/NT4.0/XP. Back with DOS and Win 3.11, I grew used to constantly tweaking the system files and memory settings in order to install a new program. I think that experience actually gave me the perseverance to dive into my new OS repeatedly. A trait that is really helpful in Linux. Or, as my spouse says - I like messing with things and I'm a control freak. No need to comment further on that subject.
I started using Linux about 15 months ago. I built a working PC from the scraps of three discarded PC's I found when walking the dog. I named this PC, the frankenputer because I created life from the parts of dead PC's. I thought that if I had a free PC, I might as well try a free OS. So...Linux it was.
I used Mandrake for almost one year. I loved how easily it installed. However, my nvidia geforce2 mx400 didn't work as well in Linux as it did in Windows XP.
(Note to beginners - create a dual-boot system! It was extremely helpful for getting drivers, .iso images to burn and access to the User Forums to get questions answered. Don't cut your umbilical cord to e-mail, web surfing and games. You may need to blow off some steam in Castle Wolfenstein.)
Mandrake is great, but I couldn't get the graphics to perform as quickly. Yes, I do know that the nvidia drivers are a 'challenge'. Still, I have what I have and I want what I want. Also, with Mandrake I noticed that while installing programs from source, Mandrake sometimes had locations for files that differed slightly from the source code's expectations. This meant to me, that often when installing a program that wasn't on the Mandrake CD-Rom, I would have failed installs and need to explore the system for files.
Then, I jumped into Slackware. I chose it because Red Hat's package management was similar to Mandrake and because I wanted to learn a little more about how Linux works. I also heard that Slackware is very Unix-like and that intrigued me. I got along with Slackware pretty well and had better luck compiling programs. Still, I didn't get the video performance that I wanted. I also ran into some of the same installation problems when compiling from souce - dependencies and file location preferences.
I had been reading about getting the best performance by using a source-based distro for months and decided to take the plunge. Actually, I had studied source-based distros from www.distrowatch.com early on in my Linux adventure. I even tried Lunar, SourceMage, Sorcerer and Gentoo in my first month. However, as a beginner I was in way over my head! My knowledge gap was too big and installing from the prompt or ncurses was too scary.
How did I prepare?
As I said, I had a dual boot. I dowloaded a free program for Windows called the Belarc Advisor. I used it to verify my hardware. I printed the manuals for all my hardware, MB, graphics card, NIC, Monitor, HDD's, etc. I backed up my e-mail and saved files on a separate drive and configured my e-mail program to leave mail on the POP server of my Internet provider. Then, I printed the installation documents for the distro that I would use, punched them into a 3-ring binder.
I also gave myself two mental tools. First, I set a goal of success in at least 30 days. This is good practice because most CD-Rom installations (Mandrake, Slackware, Windows, etc.) all happen pretty quickly and that expectation needs to go. Compiling is slow and if someone like me is doing it, it goes REAL slow! I make many mistakes and there's a lot that I don't know about Linux. Which leads to my second mental tool - I gave myself permission to make lots of mistakes. The files were saved, e-mail and addresses wouldn't be lost, so all I needed to do was keep at it and be patient. Expect the process to take a long time - longer than you think.
What happened?
Remember, none of my experiences and challenges are distro based. They're me based. What I know and really - what I don't know are the main factors in how things turned out.
I started with Lunar Linux 1.4.0. After a few stops and starts inside the installation, I was able to boot into the Lunar Linux. The installation instructions were OK. I definitely recommend access to the user forum for this one. I started the basic lin process (lin perl, lin moonbase, lin lunar, lunar update) but I couldn't get Gnome to compile completely. There were some broken dependencies with Gconf. I spent a couple of days on the forum looking for help and decided to try something else. I felt that if i knew a little more about Linux, then I would have been fine with this distro.
I did learn something that I found helpful and a little more familiar. I installed and configured XFree86, my mouse and then installed Xfce4 and Mozilla. These both compile pretty easily and allowed me to surf the user forums without having to reboot into Windows. I used this technique on every install afterward and suggest it to everyone when compiling a source-based distro.
I went to SourceMage 0.9.2. I had a few botched installs and then got a bootable Linux. However, I ran into trouble getting my nvidia drivers to work. The nvidia program was looking for kernel headers and the CD-Rom kernel didn't install them on my HDD. I checked the forum for this problem and there was a bug open, but I didn't know how to work the solution. There was also a broken depend on HD Parm. I had some more trouble with Gnome compiles being incomplete. There was one 'spell' that needed an extra line break at the end of the file , for it to compile correctly. I got Gnome up, but getting OpenOffice to install was real hard. After about a week, I moved on. Once again, my lack of Linux skill hampered me. The installation instructions are nearly identical to Lunar. In fact, by reading the two of them, I was able to get further along with both installations. I did manage to get the nifty little audio program to work and every time I successfully compiled something, Captain Kirk told me how happy he was. That broke up the install monotony and made me laugh every time. Still, I wanted more.
My third stop for compiling from scratch was Gentoo 2004.0. Their installation document was DETAILED!!! It covered everything. I got frustrated when I installed everything exactly as they mentioned - but I couldn't boot into Linux. I did it over and over until I found the problem - Gentoo's instructions lead with Grub as a bootloader and I was dual-booting with my Linux partitions on the second hard drive. Only by researching Grub, did I find that it only wants to be on the first hard drive. This detail wasn't in the Gentoo installation documents. (I hope that they put it in for rookies like me.)
I reinstalled, this time with Lilo and voila! I was in Linux. Gentoo has other documents for Desktop Configuration, Printing, Alsa and more. I do recommend reading the documents on Portage, USE=options, rc-update, Alsa and more. I made a mistake that forced me (because of not knowing any alternative) to rebuild. However, since I learned the Lilo v. Grub trick, it has been smooth sailing.
I have installed Gnome, KDE, AfterStep, Xfce, Xsane, Evolution, Mozilla, Setiapplet, Gimp - all without fail.
Conclusion
My choice is Gentoo because I got it to work.
My graphics are faster. I'm still playing with AGP options to see where I'm most satisfied. I've got some games programs to install, but Gentoo has a forum devoted to games, so I am sure that I'll be OK.
I really wanted SourceMage and Lunar to work, but I just needed a little more help at install. Gentoo provided that and outside of the Grub issue, I will bet that anyone who follows the Gentoo instructions will be able to get a Gentoo Linux up and running. I'm really happy with the results. I feel a great sense of accomplishment by compiling my own Linux, from source, just the way I want it. I learned more about Linux and I haven't booted into Windows in 3 months.
Arvan Reese
Chicago, IL
man_exec@yahoo.com
http://www.setisynergy.com/cgi-bin/junk.cgi?id=1577
To preface this article, I want to say that I don't believe that any one distro is better, worse, good or bad. I really know very little about Linux and this story should be proof of that. So, to the programmers that read about my mistakes with their creations, please don't be offended.
Why did I want to compile from source?
I've been using PC's since 1989. I used MS DOS, Win 3.11, Win 95/NT4.0/XP. Back with DOS and Win 3.11, I grew used to constantly tweaking the system files and memory settings in order to install a new program. I think that experience actually gave me the perseverance to dive into my new OS repeatedly. A trait that is really helpful in Linux. Or, as my spouse says - I like messing with things and I'm a control freak. No need to comment further on that subject.
I started using Linux about 15 months ago. I built a working PC from the scraps of three discarded PC's I found when walking the dog. I named this PC, the frankenputer because I created life from the parts of dead PC's. I thought that if I had a free PC, I might as well try a free OS. So...Linux it was.
I used Mandrake for almost one year. I loved how easily it installed. However, my nvidia geforce2 mx400 didn't work as well in Linux as it did in Windows XP.
(Note to beginners - create a dual-boot system! It was extremely helpful for getting drivers, .iso images to burn and access to the User Forums to get questions answered. Don't cut your umbilical cord to e-mail, web surfing and games. You may need to blow off some steam in Castle Wolfenstein.)
Mandrake is great, but I couldn't get the graphics to perform as quickly. Yes, I do know that the nvidia drivers are a 'challenge'. Still, I have what I have and I want what I want. Also, with Mandrake I noticed that while installing programs from source, Mandrake sometimes had locations for files that differed slightly from the source code's expectations. This meant to me, that often when installing a program that wasn't on the Mandrake CD-Rom, I would have failed installs and need to explore the system for files.
Then, I jumped into Slackware. I chose it because Red Hat's package management was similar to Mandrake and because I wanted to learn a little more about how Linux works. I also heard that Slackware is very Unix-like and that intrigued me. I got along with Slackware pretty well and had better luck compiling programs. Still, I didn't get the video performance that I wanted. I also ran into some of the same installation problems when compiling from souce - dependencies and file location preferences.
I had been reading about getting the best performance by using a source-based distro for months and decided to take the plunge. Actually, I had studied source-based distros from www.distrowatch.com early on in my Linux adventure. I even tried Lunar, SourceMage, Sorcerer and Gentoo in my first month. However, as a beginner I was in way over my head! My knowledge gap was too big and installing from the prompt or ncurses was too scary.
How did I prepare?
As I said, I had a dual boot. I dowloaded a free program for Windows called the Belarc Advisor. I used it to verify my hardware. I printed the manuals for all my hardware, MB, graphics card, NIC, Monitor, HDD's, etc. I backed up my e-mail and saved files on a separate drive and configured my e-mail program to leave mail on the POP server of my Internet provider. Then, I printed the installation documents for the distro that I would use, punched them into a 3-ring binder.
I also gave myself two mental tools. First, I set a goal of success in at least 30 days. This is good practice because most CD-Rom installations (Mandrake, Slackware, Windows, etc.) all happen pretty quickly and that expectation needs to go. Compiling is slow and if someone like me is doing it, it goes REAL slow! I make many mistakes and there's a lot that I don't know about Linux. Which leads to my second mental tool - I gave myself permission to make lots of mistakes. The files were saved, e-mail and addresses wouldn't be lost, so all I needed to do was keep at it and be patient. Expect the process to take a long time - longer than you think.
What happened?
Remember, none of my experiences and challenges are distro based. They're me based. What I know and really - what I don't know are the main factors in how things turned out.
I started with Lunar Linux 1.4.0. After a few stops and starts inside the installation, I was able to boot into the Lunar Linux. The installation instructions were OK. I definitely recommend access to the user forum for this one. I started the basic lin process (lin perl, lin moonbase, lin lunar, lunar update) but I couldn't get Gnome to compile completely. There were some broken dependencies with Gconf. I spent a couple of days on the forum looking for help and decided to try something else. I felt that if i knew a little more about Linux, then I would have been fine with this distro.
I did learn something that I found helpful and a little more familiar. I installed and configured XFree86, my mouse and then installed Xfce4 and Mozilla. These both compile pretty easily and allowed me to surf the user forums without having to reboot into Windows. I used this technique on every install afterward and suggest it to everyone when compiling a source-based distro.
I went to SourceMage 0.9.2. I had a few botched installs and then got a bootable Linux. However, I ran into trouble getting my nvidia drivers to work. The nvidia program was looking for kernel headers and the CD-Rom kernel didn't install them on my HDD. I checked the forum for this problem and there was a bug open, but I didn't know how to work the solution. There was also a broken depend on HD Parm. I had some more trouble with Gnome compiles being incomplete. There was one 'spell' that needed an extra line break at the end of the file , for it to compile correctly. I got Gnome up, but getting OpenOffice to install was real hard. After about a week, I moved on. Once again, my lack of Linux skill hampered me. The installation instructions are nearly identical to Lunar. In fact, by reading the two of them, I was able to get further along with both installations. I did manage to get the nifty little audio program to work and every time I successfully compiled something, Captain Kirk told me how happy he was. That broke up the install monotony and made me laugh every time. Still, I wanted more.
My third stop for compiling from scratch was Gentoo 2004.0. Their installation document was DETAILED!!! It covered everything. I got frustrated when I installed everything exactly as they mentioned - but I couldn't boot into Linux. I did it over and over until I found the problem - Gentoo's instructions lead with Grub as a bootloader and I was dual-booting with my Linux partitions on the second hard drive. Only by researching Grub, did I find that it only wants to be on the first hard drive. This detail wasn't in the Gentoo installation documents. (I hope that they put it in for rookies like me.)
I reinstalled, this time with Lilo and voila! I was in Linux. Gentoo has other documents for Desktop Configuration, Printing, Alsa and more. I do recommend reading the documents on Portage, USE=options, rc-update, Alsa and more. I made a mistake that forced me (because of not knowing any alternative) to rebuild. However, since I learned the Lilo v. Grub trick, it has been smooth sailing.
I have installed Gnome, KDE, AfterStep, Xfce, Xsane, Evolution, Mozilla, Setiapplet, Gimp - all without fail.
Conclusion
My choice is Gentoo because I got it to work.
My graphics are faster. I'm still playing with AGP options to see where I'm most satisfied. I've got some games programs to install, but Gentoo has a forum devoted to games, so I am sure that I'll be OK.
I really wanted SourceMage and Lunar to work, but I just needed a little more help at install. Gentoo provided that and outside of the Grub issue, I will bet that anyone who follows the Gentoo instructions will be able to get a Gentoo Linux up and running. I'm really happy with the results. I feel a great sense of accomplishment by compiling my own Linux, from source, just the way I want it. I learned more about Linux and I haven't booted into Windows in 3 months.
Arvan Reese
Chicago, IL
man_exec@yahoo.com
http://www.setisynergy.com/cgi-bin/junk.cgi?id=1577