| From: | Alan Buxey |
| Date: | 5 Sep 2000 at 14:31:00 |
| Subject: | Re: Oh No not linux |
hi,
> Setting up the partitions
not too worrying these days....just make sure you have spare ones and then
use those under fdisk (under Linux)
> Understanding the directory structure
basics:
/ the root. everything goes under here
/home home directories for users (normally)
/lib system libraries
/bin system tools
/sbin superuser tools
/dev devices
/mnt mounting directory (though you can mount devices anywhere you want!)
/var variables, stuff that isnt really vital, but files use these things
/tmp temporary (often found in /var/tmp and /usr/tmp too)
/usr the user filesystem. udner here you'll find 'user-land' stuff, its
own set of bin, lib, local, directories
> The huge daunting text file detailing the installation
> etc etc
8-) oh, i know that file...
> I mentioned a little bit ago on this list that I installed Linux
> Mandrake (which I got from a PC cover CD) on my PC, and someone told
> me that it isn't very good. But he didn't give me a reason why not.
> (Was this you Alan? apologies if not) Mandrake seemed like a good one
If you chose to install as virtual-filesystem..which i believe is still the
default, then Mandrake uses a large virtual diskspace which lives in a
file...its fast, thanks to the mostly UDMA66 IDE ports on modern PC's,
compared to using a file as a drive under AmigaOS (old shapeshifter users
will know this!), but its not as fast as native/raw disk access. did you
have to make new paritions for your installation?
> to install because it had a simple install method with most tasks
> automatic and the destop environment is K. I had the red hat
> distribution for the PC a bit ago (which I seem to remember was a
> pain to install), and had a crappy start button which I didn't like.
old redhat? new RedHats have come with KDE and Gnome ....the 'start' button
sounds like the FVWM default for RedHat 5.1/5.2
> One thing I still don't understand about Linux is when you download
> programs off the net, are you downloading the source code which needs
> to be compiled with gcc before running. And amoung those numerous
> partitions that Linux has, where should the program be installed.
you can download 3 different ways.
1) source. this you uncompress and untar (a bit like using lha in two steps)
and then you read the docs, then should just be able to do
make
make test
make install
(yeah! often not true, but this is an example)
2) precompiled. these usally dont require many files...these you just put
wherever you want and then run them... the Distributed.net and Seti@Home
clients comes to mind (by the way, you can run Seti@Home on your LinuxPPC
Amigas if you want...)
3) RPM packaged. These ones you just install by doing
rpm -Uvh packagename.rpm
problems? yes, you rarely know where the files are going, some people
cant package stuff properly and some packages need others...this is the good
point though, because the packager will tell you. ie try to install pingus
via RPM and you'll be told you need around 20 other packages. certainly a
nice way to lose a bank holiday weekend. ;-)
> On a Windows system, you tend to install software in Program Files
> and use shortcuts to access the software. On an Amiga and Mac, you
> decide the paths yourself and run the software directly (ie not with
> shortcuts) What do you do with linux?
anything you want! however, these actually is an agreed layout system for
where files should go...so if you start sticking your libraries into a
/mylibraries directory (and edit the /etc/ld.conf.so accordingly!) dont
expect things to install or run okay without tweaking bits...especially
install and make scripts.
> I probably have a few more questions, but I will leave you with these
> for now. ;-)
thats okay....i wouldnt have replied this much if so much interest hadnt
been shown.
and why not? after all the first Amiga SDK has been created to run on
Linux....i guess its caused a headache for some Amiga developers but let me
just say...up until Geek Gadgets 2 CD, gcc was a nightmare to install under
AmigaOS...especially compared to Linux gcc installation!! ...and its still a
headache getting all the required tools installed afterwards for AmigaOS
(warpUP support, MUI, AHI, Warp3D, MESA, RTGMaster etc)
alan
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