Mint and Puppy

[troyatlarge]

For fun I loaded up Mint and ran it. It seems not to even have an option for a dial-up modem which made me lose interest real fast like (although I'm sure one could get it with some work).

I also loaded up Puppy Linux - the whole thing is 105mb and is, well, pretty darn zippy! I was very impressed with it. The thing loads up its word processor before you have your finger off the mouse button to open it - none of this sitting around waiting like with open office on one of these big systems. It was a very fun change of pace. Going to fire it on some old boxes at work today and see if we can't make them little speed demons with it - should be fun.

All the same, Fedora is still my top operating system - can't see changing that.

[Dan]

Gotta love that Puppy! The screen art is hideous, but that's easy enough to change.

[scottro]

Puppy is nice. I don't like the run as root thing, (though that's been debated on their forums forever.) It's made to be lightweight, and I liked the speed.

Another one that I found impressively fast was Sidux's xfce version. As xfce has gotten more and more bloated, I was pleasantly surprised.

Puppy, as I'm sure they say somewhere, is made to be carried around on a USB stick, a purpose it fits admirably.

Oh--to hijack your thread, totally, if you have a netbook, the latest version of Moblin is interesting. Personally, I'm not a big fan of its interface, but it most certainly is fast, and quickly worked with my wireless. Unfortunately (like the latest puppy) doesn't work with my moderately new all in one printer.

And now, back to Troy. :) Sorry, just thought I"d mention Moblin--has some Fedora roots, actually.

[troyatlarge]

When it comes to hijacking a real case of it took place when I loaded up Mint - its like the gurb config file no longer matters. When I start the box I have a choice between Mint and Fedora (the default being mint if I do nothing) and no selection for Puppy. I' would rather have no selection for Mint! All the same, my grub folder reads this way:

default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.30.5-43.fc11.i686.PAE)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.30.5-43.fc11.i686.PAE ro root=UUID=41ec699f-2f34-48ac-8985-e4f7ab1f8339 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.30.5-43.fc11.i686.PAE.img
title Fedora (2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i686.PAE)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i686.PAE ro root=UUID=41ec699f-2f34-48ac-8985-e4f7ab1f8339 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i686.PAE.img
title Fedora 12
title Puppy Linux 430 frugal
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
kernel /puppy430/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=puppy430 nosmp
initrd /puppy430/initrd.gz
configfile (hd0,4)/grub/grub.conf


Fedora 12 would not fire for me so I replaced it with Mint. Somehow got something all messed up. High time to learn about these things in detail I think

[scottro]

Heh, not surprising. (Insert several jokes about Mint Lead developer's political views here).

(His personal blog post, originally posted on the Mint Developer blog)

http://eclelef.blogspot.com/2009/05/palestine_03.html


Seriously, most distributions do it the same way, though I think Ubuntu and its derivatives make it a bit harder to find, but that's just my opinion. When installing grub with most GUI installers, you have to pick the "Advanced" options--with Ubuntu types it's in the lower right, just before installation begins on the last screen--to choose to install grub somewhere else than the MBR.

[troyatlarge]

Thank you very much for the link to those views - I had no idea. Left the office today with a new copy of the Fedora 12 dvd iso download going - I may just have to roast the mint tomorrow if favor of another alpha attempt - but you know, I am going to keep the puppy around unless i find one like it with a home directory where I can keep the root out growing in the garden!

[scottro]

I like puppy. Just my printer doesn't, and I suspect, were I to put more effort into it, I could fix that. For me, puppy's useful as something to have on a USB key and use from time to time.

[John the train]

Thank you very much for the link to those views - I had no idea. Left the office today with a new copy of the Fedora 12 dvd iso download going - I may just have to roast the mint tomorrow if favor of another alpha attempt - but you know, I am going to keep the puppy around unless i find one like it with a home directory where I can keep the root out growing in the garden!

I see that there is a multi-user puppy under development, in beta at the moment.
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=41675&search_id=1301843361

[M4rc0]

I have to say Mint is very very nice.

They took Ubuntu and make it look prettier and easier (!).

I finally convinced my girlfriend to use linux, and I was between Mint and Suse.
We ran a suse livecd and she didn't like so much (too bad, I like RPM packages).
Then I tried the Mint livecd and she loved.

The custom menu they did is great and skin looks very nice. It's also very fast and has ubuntu support.
I had trouble with the videocard, but that wasn't Mint's problem.
It's a Dell Mini 10 with that (linux) problematic Intel GMA graphic card. The rest all worked out of the box as expected.

But now it's all good and nice. I also installed with Ext4 and I must say it's pretty fast :)

Puppy was my 3rd option but Mint is the winner.

Mint 7 > Ubuntu

[JN4OldSchool]

The Mint 7 Xfce version is even better. As far as I am concerned it is the "perfect" desktop Linux. It does not have the Mint menu though, it contains the Xfce menu, and the one single thing that is lacking is a nice GUI for editing that menu. That is the ONLY thing that is lacking. And everything works as advertised, it has a nice selection of default packages, nice artwork and theme, and did I mention everything just works. Cant be beat.

[scottro]

Since when did you callously desert fluxbox for that gaudy xfce?

(Although I have to say, Sidux's xfce was really fast, even on a VM.)

Fedora, I notice, on Rawhide, now has several new GUI install packages. That is, rather than just Gnome or KDE you can also pick LXDE, Sugar (I think), moblin--hrrm, should try that on the netbook, and see if Fedora's version works with my printer--as F11 and up have the necessary hplip. They also have a separate Window Manager group. You can choose fluxbox, openbox, and several other popular Window Managers if you choose. I was doing a network (over the Internet) install, so haven't seen how much of say, Gnome, is installed if you install fluxbox and deselect all others, but at any rate, I think it's a nice thing.

[troyatlarge]

I used Puppy's load tool and put it on a Kingston USB stick, but failed to be able to boot from it - a matter which I'll explore and master later.

All the same, I like running it now and then on the desktop (booted from a CD) and my kids seem to be really fond of it. The reason for this is simple, when you click on the word processor or spread sheet, the thing is loaded on your screen before your finger is off the mouse button! Sure, it is simple, but when push comes to shove, just how many features does a typical student actually need? I can calculate the APR on stated interest rates plus transaction fees and all the other fees on credit card loans well enough to understand exactly why the world economy bombed - in short, there are plenty of useful features.

On the boot problem I found "the" book on Grub, for those who want to learn it, here: http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/html_node/index.html It will be a good Sunday read : )

[JN4OldSchool]

Since when did you callously desert fluxbox for that gaudy xfce?

I didn't. :)

I still use Arch with Fluxbox on my two main computers, but I use Mint-Xfce on everything else. (except the two Vista installs of course...)

Fluxbox rocks once you learn how to use it, but it is hardly "user friendly." Even Crunchbang's openbox, though getting there, still would not be my first choice for introducing someone to Linux. My eight year old is playing with my fluxbox/arch installs more and more. He has been begging me to set him up with the same but I am hesitant because he uses his computer for school and he is reaching the point in Mint/Xfce that he can do most everything himself, I dont want to be working on his computer every day again...:rolleyes:

I may set him up with a dual boot though. But until then I let him play around with my laptop and he really digs fluxbox, probably only because his teenage brothers are too stupid to use it. :D

[scottro]

Are you familiar with dmenu? Not sure if Arch has it in their repos, but it's easily installed and compiled. Then, you set up a fluxbox shortcut, with the command being dmenu_run

It opens a narrow bar at the top of the screen (you can make it open at the bottom if you wish) you start typing in a command name, e.g. evol and it will highlight evolution, hit enter and it will open evolution. Handy program for fluxbox to use those programs that you don't open all that often.

[JN4OldSchool]

Hi Scott

Sounds pretty cool. I just use the menumaker menu. I do not install much and things stay pretty static. Likewise, I only really use a handful of apps. I have them all laid out as keyboard shortcuts using ctrl and the first letter of the name, ie. ctrl + f = firefox, ctrl + m = menu, ctrl + h = thunar home...This is really adequate for the things I do and I have been getting some keyboard speed back lately, something I have lost through the years, especially with all the mousework of the last two decades. Yeah...I wouldnt recommend Fluxbox for most but for some of us it really is the way to go. I dont see going back to the bloat anytime soon.

[troyatlarge]

LOL - you guys crack me up - you go through systems like teen boys whose folks read to many self-esteem books go through girl friends! The problem is, the more you try them, the more you some new stuff to try!!

I've read through my bash book, and most of the way through my Python book - now I'm starting with an old A+ course book which will then move into an assembly book and then take on C from the bottom up (hopefully will then be able to follow in depth the book on the Linux Kernel). Anyway, as a result I may well spend a good deal of time with terminal run levels only, dropping the pretty front ends all together, at least for awhile - you know, just to hone the start of skills. In that spirit I may have to at least look into this Fluxbox.

[JN4OldSchool]

There are even more minimal window managers. Fluxbox is pretty optioned out for a WM.

[scottro]

Yup, agreed--btw Troy, it seems you're not holding hard feelings at us for the way we hijack your threads, so thanks.

Anyway, back to JN4, yes, I have some legacy keyboard shortcuts. I used to use rxvt all the time, now I use uxterm, so my terminal shortcut is Mod4 r. I use Mod4 p for firefox--remember when it was called phoenix?

Like you, I only have a few programs that I use regularly, and really, dmenu is more or less of an indulgence. The others have their keyboard shortcuts.

Really minimal are weewm and evilwm. I've played with them, but on any modern system, you hardly notice--as mentioned, Sidux's xfce was quite fast for me, though I went to fluxbox on it. For me, the most important two things are being able to open programs with keystrokes and also to move windows around on the screen with keystrokes.

[M4rc0]

Are you familiar with dmenu? Not sure if Arch has it in their repos, but it's easily installed and compiled. Then, you set up a fluxbox shortcut, with the command being dmenu_run

It opens a narrow bar at the top of the screen (you can make it open at the bottom if you wish) you start typing in a command name, e.g. evol and it will highlight evolution, hit enter and it will open evolution. Handy program for fluxbox to use those programs that you don't open all that often.

I use gnome-do for that and it's excelent.
Though it stays hidden (just how I like clean desktop please!)

It also support many plugins, you can start typing to search for a file or open a document etc..

I've been interested in install fluxbox for a long time. My favorite desktop is Enlightenment but after I've meet compiz my desktop has been much more productive, now can't live without it.
Sorry for the off-topic but, Does fluxbox run well with compiz? And does it have NetworkManager?

Regarding Mint again, what confuses me a little bit is this thing that each version is based on a Ubuntu version.
Although that is a good thing it can get confusing of what you can upgrade and not without possibly borking your system.

[scottro]

Unfortunately, I don't use compiz or NM, so I'm not sure about either one. I would guess you should be able to run NM with it, at least.

As for Mint, I would *guess* that they do it in the same way Ubuntu does--when you upgrade the distribution, that is, from Jaunty to Koala, for example, you get new sources.lst. Judging from all the comments about it's being user friend and all that, one assumes that they handle it properly.

[JN4OldSchool]

Fluxbox cannot run compiz. Generally speaking you need a desktop environment to run compiz, which is itself a window manager. Xfce can run it with no problem.

Mint need not be confusing for you. Just understand that the version you use correlates with the Ubuntu version it is based on. This should be all you need. Say you do want to run a more modern app and need to raid the Ubuntu testing repos? You can do this too. It is a little trickier to figure out your deps but with a little common sense you shouldn't bork your system.

But the way to run Mint is to just stick with the default repos and accept them. Your app might not be the latest but so what? It works and it is stable. Same for the kernel, the Mint kernel lags the Fedora kernel but does this really matter to you? If it does then just use a more cutting edge distro, Mint is a compromise in the direction of stability and soundness for newer users who might be intimidated by sorting deps and worrying about packages breaking things. In fact, the ideal way to run Mint is to only accept the 1 level security updates. Do not even update the rest, just run the ISO for the six months until the new release. This guarantees no breakage, that is unless you break it yourself.

Also, to step on the path Scott started down, the best way to upgrade ANY Linux distro is by clean install. You can argue this if you like, and I myself have had great success every time I tried an upgrade, but to be 100% sure a clean install is the way to go. Just the other day we had a poster in the Mint forum who complained of 3 issues with Mint 7. Two had to do with sound and his audio player, but the third was he claimed OO.o wouldnt open and was all borked. After much head scratching it finally came out that he had upgraded from Mint 6 and was using those config files. This was the problem with all 3 issues! Instead of fighting it he just did a clean install and everything was fine. I just installed Mint Xfce on 3 computers, they each took LESS than 10 minutes. I use a separate /data for personal stuff and just mount it in the Mint partitioner (without formatting it!!!). It shows up under root (/) with full permission for the user. As far as config files, I never save them. I use xmarks in FF and just redo everything else. It never takes more than half an hour all told to install the extra apps i need and set my theme and wallpaper. It is a very small price for the stability.

[M4rc0]

wah what don't worry I don't want cutting edge :D

Imagine my girlfriend with a cuttind edge distro haha she just got introduced to linux
she's scared enough when her skype mic doesn't work (bleh..have to fix that)

The thing about the updates is that her graphic card is not that friendly so I had to upgrade the kernel to be able to make it work (ubuntu repo).
so there I already lost "Mint's way", you know?
that's why I wondered what happens next.

I use a separate /data for personal stuff and just mount it in the Mint partitioner (without formatting it!!!). It shows up under root (/) with full permission for the user. As far as config files, I never save them. I use xmarks in FF and just redo everything else. It never takes more than half an hour all told to install the extra apps i need and set my theme and wallpaper. It is a very small price for the stability.
and don't forget your emails folder inside .mozilla profile!! (if you use thunderbird)
I almost did once :(

I do the same thing as you do. And I have never upgraded Fedora before.

And fluxbox without compiz.. I guess I will wait for a stable E17.
XFCE will do for now. But that is off topic :)

[troyatlarge]

"btw Troy, it seems you're not holding hard feelings at us for the way we hijack your threads, so thanks"

From what I learn for you folks - you feel free to take it anywhere you want!

Mint is causing me some problems in that the beast took over grub in ways I don't understand. I went and got the GNU GRUB Manual 0.97 and read it. However, when I go to grub config or menu.1st, etc. I never find a single entry for mint and all appears to be set up to fire fedora as first choice default, so clearly I am missing something because Mint is the default fire-up. I thought about running grub-set-default with my F11 number but being we are talking grub her, I must admit a certain reluctance to dive into the boot when I can't even find the mint boot. I would like to get this sorted out as the family (kids included) want Fedora, not Mint (they are now use to Fedora) and its a pain to babysit start-up every time (also I want to learn it for its own sake). Furthermore, I got the new samab manual printed out yesterday and am in a rush to start reading it and be past this problem! Any help on where to look and learn on this matter would be most welcomed.

[JN4OldSchool]

I am not clear at all on what is happening to you, but take a step back and refocus on this. Grub is as simple as it gets, you must be missing something here. The Mint grub is no different than any other. Is it possible you are looking at the wrong grub? Maybe the other distro's grub is active in the MBR? Mint does have a LOT of commented out lines in its grub, maybe this is throwing you. Worst case though, you could just reinstall the Fedora grub and manually map it to the Mint grub. The proper way would be to put the mint grub in the mint /boot partition. Then you chainload from the fedora grub to the mint grub. This way kernel updates can be automatically registered by both grubs. But as Mint hardly ever has a kernel update you could probably just forget this. Just reinstall the Fedora grub and then map it to Mint.

[troyatlarge]

OK - I understand what you suggest as a very real way to go about this - but doing so does not get me to understand exactly what is going on in my present case.

I did the following - installed Fedora 11 making a /boot. a /, a swap, and leaving a partion so latter I could load Fedora 12 A. Later I loaded Fedora 12 A and altered grub such that I could choose which system to load upon start-up.

You will see that situation reflected below in my grub.conf file, altered by the fact of kernel updates in Fedora 11.

After not being able to fire up F12A I decided to try out Mint so I had Mint load where F12A had been. Now, when the computer starts up, Mint is highlighted on the page which lets me select which operating system, and thus fires up by default if no system is manually selected within the timeout. I want to understand how that is taking place when right now my grub.conf looks like this:


[Troy ~]$sudo cat /boot/grub/grub.conf
[sudo] password for Troy:
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda2
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.30.8-64.fc11.i686.PAE)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.30.8-64.fc11.i686.PAE ro root=UUID=41ec699f-2f34-48ac-8985-e4f7ab1f8339 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.30.8-64.fc11.i686.PAE.img
title Fedora (2.6.30.5-43.fc11.i686.PAE)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.30.5-43.fc11.i686.PAE ro root=UUID=41ec699f-2f34-48ac-8985-e4f7ab1f8339 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.30.5-43.fc11.i686.PAE.img
title Fedora (2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i686.PAE)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i686.PAE ro root=UUID=41ec699f-2f34-48ac-8985-e4f7ab1f8339 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i686.PAE.img
title Fedora 12
title Puppy Linux 430 frugal
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
kernel /puppy430/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=puppy430 nosmp
initrd /puppy430/initrd.gz
configfile (hd0,4)/grub/grub.conf


The way I read it, default 0 should fire up Fedora (in fact, I don't even see Mint listed - furthermore I would expect it down at (hd0,4). Clearly I will feel stupid when what I'm not getting is pointed out to me - but I'm ok with that - point away!!

[JN4OldSchool]

Are you sure you did not install the Mint grub OVER the Fedora grub? You seem to be using the Mint grub. Boot into Mint and edit that /boot/grub/menu.lst. Just switch defaults to the Fedora title.

[troyatlarge]

This morning I opened Mint, went to the /boot/grub/menu* and sure enough, its plenty different than what I find from going to /boot/grub from when I'm in Fedora. Did the editing, and now Fedora is the default for opening (after 5 sec instead of 10).

I find the matter interesting. The physical partion, at least from the Fedora side, is /boot followed by / followed by swamp - that making up the Fedora sector. After that there was a small sector with a /boot and a / for Fedora 12 which then I wrote Mint to.

In short, this leaves two /boot sectors on the drive (presently) and apparently either one can be the dominate boot sector - at least as I presently understand it. If this is correct, then I would guess that I can change the primary boot sector back to the old Fedora sector - but to do so requires a reinstall of grub on the sector - is that correct? Or can I, with some key strokes, while in Fedora, make the /boot sector for Fedora (the one listed above) again the primary sector???

Anyway, thanks for your help - simple idea and it cleared it right up.

[JN4OldSchool]

You almost have it. Grub does not actually sit in /boot, it merely maps to it. Grub sits in the MBR of which there is only one MBR per drive. What happens is unless you specify differently when you install a distro it will write its own grub in the MBR, hopefully also catching the other OSs that are on that drive.

You can feasibly share a /boot just as you can share a swap partition. You can actually share most any type of partition outside root. But for us small time home users there is not any benefit to this, /boot is so small it is usually best to keep one in each distro's root partition. I also argue that /home belongs here also and that a user should set up a /data to share his documents between distros...That is another matter entirely though.

What happens is when the computer boots the CMOS looks for an executable OS to run. It eventually gets around to the primary hard drive after it searches USB, floppy optical, or whatever you set in the BIOS. You can just jump it right to the HD also. When it hits the HD it looks for the MBR which is just a small hidden partition which contains the bootloader, which is the bit of program that points the CMOS to the executable part of the OS. This is contained in /boot in Linux distros. Of course I am simplifying things here and I am sure others can argue that I am not being exact.

[troyatlarge]

Hey, thanks for the enlightenment for sure - I wondered about the MBR but mistook it for /boot - I see it better now. It would then appear to actually get the old Fedora record back I would have to reinstall grub outright. Furthermore, when in Fedora /boot/grub I am but looking at an old reflection of the grub mapping which is no longer being pointed to from the MBR (a rather glaring difference between Mint /boot/grub and fedora /boot/grub, the former of which is actually active and manipulatable).

You spoke of, in a multi-bootable system, "I also argue that /home belongs here also and that a user should set up a /data to share his documents between distros". I want to learn to do that for sure!! However, if it can be done with data and the home folder - can we not also do this with the boot sector such that when in any distro, when we run
vi /boot/grub*, we are dealing with the actual active mapping thereby having it fully manipulatable from any distro we happen to be actively using via our multi distro hard drive?

[JN4OldSchool]

Hey, thanks for the enlightenment for sure - I wondered about the MBR but mistook it for /boot - I see it better now. It would then appear to actually get the old Fedora record back I would have to reinstall grub outright. Furthermore, when in Fedora /boot/grub I am but looking at an old reflection of the grub mapping which is no longer being pointed to from the MBR (a rather glaring difference between Mint /boot/grub and fedora /boot/grub, the former of which is actually active and manipulatable).

Generally speaking, grub is grub. The debian grubs do seem to have something a bit different about them that they recognize other distros better, not sure why this is though. But the easiest way to multiboot is just to allow the newest distro's grub to overwrite the previous one and pray that it sees all the distros on the computer. If not then you simply map them in manually. The problem with this is when a previous distro updates its kernel it does not automatically get registered in the current grub, which belongs to the last distro and really has nothing to do with any previous distros except having them mapped in a title section. So unless you want to constantly change this map in the Fedora title and point the distro X grub to the new Fedora kernel you will need to come up with another plan. Because the Mint kernel does not change often you could get away with simply reinstalling the Fedora grub in the MBR and manually mapping it to Mint (if it doesnt automatically see Mint). This way the Fedora kernel changes, which are frequent, will be registered. Mint Kernel upgrades (which are almost non-existent, besided, the kernel is so old anyway there is no point in upgrading it in the six months the distro is active) are not registered.

The best way to beat this is, once again, by chainloading the main grub to slave grubs inside their own distro's /boots.

You are right in that even if the grub is not active the menu.lst is still there. I wonder if you could delete this file without any problems, it does nothing anymore.

In your case, unless you wanted to reinstall and play with chainloading, the simplest solution would be to restore the Fedora grub and overwrite the Mint grub. I suggest this because of Fedora kernel upgrades. Otherwise, just use the Mint grub. Other than all the commented out lines in the Mint grub they are really the same, they are configured the same way. Not sure if you know but when they place the "*" asterisks before anything in a config file this "comments" that line out. The computer does not see that line, it is for documentation purposes. Say you do not want a timeout at all in grub. I dont, I always do this myself. Just place an asterisks before the timeout line. The computer will then simply skip this option and grub will sit until you make a choice.

You spoke of, in a multi-bootable system, "I also argue that /home belongs here also and that a user should set up a /data to share his documents between distros". I want to learn to do that for sure!! However, if it can be done with data and the home folder - can we not also do this with the boot sector such that when in any distro, when we run
vi /boot/grub*, we are dealing with the actual active mapping thereby having it fully manipulatable from any distro we happen to be actively using via our multi distro hard drive?

When you install a distro just do a manual partition. Then create a partition and just type /data in the label section yourself. Format it in this first distro you install. From now on, when installing another distro just do manual partitioning, edit this /data partition, type the /data label in manually, BUT DO NOT FORMAT IT! The distro will mount /data inside /root, it will show up as just another file in your file browser under /root.

You can indeed share a /boot. And you are correct in your premise. I have never done this though, I feel it is an unneeded complication. But this is certainly the "correct" way to do it in a professional environment where redundant /boot partitions would not make sense.

[troyatlarge]

All this stuff is great! Now I'm going to have to be a distro **** and go collect a slew of them - a large number for sure. The idea would be to get /home/* and /data (the huge jazz file : ) to distribute between whatever os I happen to want to use that day and keep the updates for each os in a way that makes life easiest (aside from simply not updating anything!)

Of course now my brain is saying - "hey, if I can share /home and /data between os's, then, with two video drivers, two monitors, and two mice (or mouse's if that's correct in this case), could I reach a multihead Linux running two distros? (my feeling is NOT at least at this time - but still - if one could, then each person on the multihead would be basically unable to jump partitions onto the user - but then, I'm new, so probably talking way out my a**).

For now, time to set up my plan for many os's starting with downloading iso's and burning data!

[darksideforge]

Heh, not surprising. (Insert several jokes about Mint Lead developer's political views here).

(His personal blog post, originally posted on the Mint Developer blog)

http://eclelef.blogspot.com/2009/05/palestine_03.html


Seriously, most distributions do it the same way, though I think Ubuntu and its derivatives make it a bit harder to find, but that's just my opinion. When installing grub with most GUI installers, you have to pick the "Advanced" options--with Ubuntu types it's in the lower right, just before installation begins on the last screen--to choose to install grub somewhere else than the MBR.



I was actually playing around with Mint back in October and ran across your links to his views. Ever shot skeet using a 12 gauge and a Mint7 CD??? :D

I came back across your thread this morning as I was researching some stuff on Puppy and DSL and Arch....not sure I've got the brainwaves necessary to tackle the rugrat or the DSL but may try out some Arch pretty soon.

~Just dropping my 2 cents.

[scottro]

Arch isn't all that difficult if you've ever done any sort of textmode installation. They walk you through it quite well, their documentation is extremely well done.

It does require a bit more of a technical mindset. On the other hand, it usually works quite well.

[CSchwangler]

I've setup Arch a couple of times and it is actually not very difficult, IF you stick to their excellent Beginner's Guide, which explains almost everything in sufficient detail.

[kyryder]

I use Puppy when I am mobile and on a less than secure wireless connections. So I didn't have to carry a live cd with me I created a small partition about 250 megs and copied the puppy disk to the new partition, added the puppy lines to grub, and whala. I now can boot puppy without a full install or cd and get a "fresh" OS with every boot.

[darksideforge]

All this stuff is great! Now I'm going to have to be a distro **** and go collect a slew of them - a large number for sure. The idea would be to get /home/* and /data (the huge jazz file : ) to distribute between whatever os I happen to want to use that day and keep the updates for each os in a way that makes life easiest (aside from simply not updating anything!)

Of course now my brain is saying - "hey, if I can share /home and /data between os's, then, with two video drivers, two monitors, and two mice (or mouse's if that's correct in this case), could I reach a multihead Linux running two distros? (my feeling is NOT at least at this time - but still - if one could, then each person on the multihead would be basically unable to jump partitions onto the user - but then, I'm new, so probably talking way out my a**).

For now, time to set up my plan for many os's starting with downloading iso's and burning data!

distro-****? ROFL! That's awesome!! I think I can lay claim to being one of those...nothing wrong with it imho although it probably makes learning your way around the Linux OS a little more difficult. I tried Mandriva first and promptly thought it was too much like M1cro$hit. I tried Ubuntu 8.10 next but never could get my wifi working. Fedora 10 worked out of the box and I loved it and that's about the time I joined this forum....because rpm's and yum were totally different than apt and synaptic. For some reason (oh! work server) I went back to 9.04 and fell in love with it...and stayed with it until 9.10 came out and suddenly nothing worked on my poor 3 yr old Toshiba laptop anymore. F11 and F12 were next and I enjoyed them but then I got really heavy into RHEL at work on one of my servers and that led me to CentOS which I've been using for several months now and love....for the most part. I'm sort-of semi-maybe kinda-ready to try Arch, but I'm not looking forward to learning pacman when I'm just now getting the hang of yum...but I guess I need to in order to keep learning more stuff about linux.

One thing to keep in mind as you progress with your multi-display idea: you only have one processor and one set of bios. Your processor can basically only handle one *set* of commands at any given time. I don't have any experience with quad-cores and the new multi-quads that people are arranging at places like Los Alamos and Duke and NCSU and the University of Kentucky....32 cores inline....you could probably split your I/O in some fashion amongst your cores and achieve a decent performance, but my guess is that your power usage and heat would go through the roof. Your overall concept sounds a lot like you want two thin-client workstations....so you might consider experimenting with a server using two sets of pxe boot sequences (if that's possible...not sure) and go from there.

Supposedly by early 2015 there will be a computer that will be able to replicate all of the processing power of the human brain, so we're definitely getting there.

~just a few words from another distroslut.:rolleyes: