Linux packages

[John Adams]

Can anyone please explain to me why, when I de-select every possible option in a Linux setup, there are still 858 packages to install? WTF! seriously?

At least Windows people are smart enough to not tell you it takes so many files just to set up an OS that you then have to add 20,000 more packages to just to use it.

[LethalEncounter]

What distro are you using? For a barebones install you shouldn't have to install many packages, certainly less than 800+.

[John Adams]

Well it's Fedora Core 10... which I imagine is the "Windows Vista(tm) of Linux" from what others tell me... bloated, fat, mom & pop could install it.

Which is exactly why I use it!! I have all SATA drives, and every-stinking-distro EXCEPT Fedora locks up on the GRUB after completing install. Come to find out, the Linux dinosaurs haven't deemed SATA worthy of being included in the kernel yet, and I'd have to compile my own - which is like asking me to build a human brain out of a bag of sand.

[LethalEncounter]

Really? I've never had a problem running SATA drives in linux (even in Ubuntu). I'm running Fedora 8 without problems. You might want to give it a try if you continue to have issues.

[John Adams]

Fedora has never had problems with my SATA (RAID0, yes, but not a single sata drive heh). Literally every other one I've tried... debian, centos, suse, ubuntu, gentoo, they all hang at GRUB soon as initial load from CD is done.

Fedora behaves this way IF I RAID0 2 drives... otherwise, it loves Sata it seems. I'd love to try Ubuntu, but no idea how to get SATA working -- and by this, I mean every post I read, every "expert" I talk to, says Ubuntu is a >real< OS and doesn't come with SATA support in the kernel, you have to add it. I'm like... REAL OS, that doesn't support SATA - in 2009? Get the f**k outta here... lol

[LethalEncounter]

I must have deleted it, but I'm pretty sure I installed the latest Ubuntu on a single SATA drive a few months ago and I didn't need to do anything special to it.

[Bion]

gentoo live cd has sata support as well as usb hard drives. I think anyway it has been awhile since i used it but if it did not then I used knoppix live cd to boot a temp desktop so i could install gentoo. from the live cd setup as long as everything was detected all you have to do is copy the kernel's config file to your new installation before you reboot and run genkernel and it will compile a kernel for you based on the live cd config file.

I normally do this to get the system up and running then later when I feel like it I go though and see if there is anything i do not need and recompile the kernel. at that point you could use ufed or another app to tell you what each option does in the kernel config. but really it is not needed most of the time unless you just wanted to add support for something that was not detected or later added to the system.

sabayon has out of the box support for sata. it is based on gentoo but focused on desktop with full 3d acceleration support out of the box. but it does have a server install template too.

[John Adams]

I think I understood 5 words in that whole thing.

Bion saying, "I'll do it for you".

[Bion]

I could hook that up for ya john just load up a good live cd that detects most of your hardware and has net support already so you could give me ssh access and a list of what hardware is in the machine so i could find drivers if needed.

[John Adams]

I am staring at a fresh install of FC10x86 on an ancient box (one I built to actually play EQ2 in 2004, ironically), with no X and everything turned off except the basic crap. 3 NICs for the net, loc and dmz. I downloaded FWBuilder for Windows, because I was told that's the most awesome'st tool ever for building a firewall graphically.

You keep mentioning these other OS'es, but really, if FC will do it, I might as well stick with something I barely understand but can get working haha.

[Bion]

haha I hear ya on that. ya you can make any linux do what you need for it to do.
in fact FC has given alot to the linux community as far as source updates for the kernel and gcc etc etc.
and they are sponsored by red hat so of course it will be kept pretty well up-to-date.

I was just mentioning a few other alternatives if ya wanted to try them out. and gentoo is the linux distro i use
love the "Portage" system.

I could not tell if you wanted to try another distro or was happy with FC.

the cool thing about linux while it may not be easy you can take core features one distro has and apply them to another.

linux can be very huge if you install alot of binary packages but it also can be pretty small
dsl distro is a desktop focused distro and it is 50 megs
they also have dsl-n which is slightly bigger think 100megs.

i remember a few years back seeing a linux distro that ran off a floppy. it had just very basic function. it acted as a router and firewall and that is about it.

I have not used FWBuilder but if ya heard good things about it go for it. I am guessing it is a iptables front-end? like shorewall got to be quicker and easier then editing iptables directly.