I'm about to give up with Mandrake 8.2

[MartinB]

I was quite happy with Mandrake 8.2 until I tried to do more than just browse the web and check e-mail with it and now, I really just think that I'm never going to make this work properly... firstly, it won't compile programs using X11 libs or QT libs because it can't find them (This is from following beginners tutorials that give several different methods; "At least one of these should work for you" - Yeah right, my Mandrake system apparently doesn't know what -lX11 or -lQT means), my network is only one way because my Windows 98 machine keeps prompting me for unknwon passwords when I try to access my Linux machine through Network Neighbourhood, even though I haven't set passwords in Samba (And smbpasswd doesn't have an -a option according to the help it gives (I noticed some people here suggested that)), Star Office 6.0 refuses to read my MS Office files, giving me an "unrecoverable error" and then closing every time I try to load a Word or Excel 2000 file, I keep getting stupid things with .rpm files telling me that I can't install them because "You already have this package installed" or some other stupid reason that's not true, and it's driving me crazy...

Tell me, should I try Debian (Which is what I've been thinking of doing) or should I just continue to try to fix my current Mandrake 8.2 setup? Would I ever get it into a working state? Will another distribution like Debian work better?

Thanks,
Martin

[mdwatts]

:cool: Caldera OpenLinux Workstation 3.1.1 :cool:

Why try the rest when COL is the best.

[MartinB]

Okay, I've just been looking at various distributions and I found one called "Linux From Scratch", which sounds quite interesting, especailly because I would like to learn much more about Linux. Would anyone reccomend this? Is this a good way for a linux newbie to learn linux or should I just go with Debian or another distribution? I guess what I mean is, would it be trying to learn too much at once to attempt to use LSF?

[liquidfx13]

Not a newbie, but not a guru either.......I haven't tried a LSF install (mainly because i don't have the time to devote to it) but for a newbie i might think that it would be a lil bit much to handle. though that really depends on the person too. What i would suggest is that if you have a second box lying around then ya give that a go and see what happens....if all else fails you can always put 'Drake back on or another distro of your choice. It never hurts to play in the world of computers. How esle do you learn.

[mdwatts]

With LFS you need a working distro to be able to compile and install all the components for LFS.

Why not try Gentoo?

www.gentoo.org

[JohnT]

Originally posted by MartinB
Okay, I've just been looking at various distributions and I found one called "Linux From Scratch", which sounds quite interesting, especailly because I would like to learn much more about Linux. Would anyone reccomend this? Is this a good way for a linux newbie to learn linux or should I just go with Debian or another distribution? I guess what I mean is, would it be trying to learn too much at once to attempt to use LSF?

A good way for you to learn is to stay with the install you have now.
(" would like to learn much more about Linux".) Couldn't have a better learning environment than you have now. :cool:

[jglen490]

MartinB -- all of your problems can be fixed and have been fixed before right here in LNO. However, if you want to try another distro, I don't think the distro police would mind :) !! Try another distro, but remember that whatever you pick won't necessarily solve all your problems, and may in fact introduce new ones. But also remember that trying something new will only broaden your horizons and make you smarter!!

Pick another, pick two or three more, get good at some of them if you want. Just don't forget the purpose of a computer system and an OS.

[MartinB]

Thanks for the advice... One of the things that is somewhat off-putting from getting one of the popular distributions is that I'm only on 56k dial-up, so downloading isn't really an option (Unless I wait for several days downloading, and my connection cuts off every two hours)...

I think for now, I'll try Linux From Scratch (I'm currently downloading it and have partitioned my drive ready) and then try other distributios (Debian, Caldera, Slackware) once I'm at university in September on a broadband connection...

Thanks for the infos anyway :)

[JohnT]

For inexpensive cd's in your neck of the woods........................http://www.google.com/linux?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=linux+cd%27s+in+the+u.k.&btnG=Google+Search

[pcghost]

I am the biggest linux nube in the world and I think you should give red hat 7.3 a look. Its teaching me alot about this wonderful operating system and it works quite well. RPM's are easy to install and with a little help from my friends (thanks again md, got the USB hdd working;) ) my linux box is now a squid proxy, samba server, iptables firewall, and so much more. Good luck, and all hail King Tux, Long Live The King!!!:D