Wait, or not to wait?

Pyntix · #1 4th May 2007, 01:39 AM

As some of you may know, I used to have Fedora Core 6 installed in a dual boot with XP. Since it was my first real attempt to actively use Linux (and not just play around with it) I managed to screw up some things. For example setting the whole /etc-folder to fully read/writeable for everyone, causing the smclient and sendmail not to startup with Fedora (what are they, anyway?) and also caused me to have half my harddrive unpartitioned and unusable to Fedora AND Windows.

The change came when I tried to install FC6 on my sisters computer, but the CD wouldn't work. Instead of Fedora I then installed Kubuntu (which my other sister had, and liked) and it worked perfectly. I soon liked it and decided to install it when I got home from my sister. I downloaded it, installed it and after a few tweaks it worked perfectly.

...besides the screen which looked like it had taken a bit too many drinks last night. Obviously it was because of the NVidia driver, but I couldn't get it installed. At all. Yay. I try even harder, switch runlevels and installs a lot of different drivers, with which I just screw everything MORE up. Yipiiie. So what do I do next? I throw Kubuntu aside and try to forget that I have abotu three quarters of unused space on my harddrive, and goes back to good ol' Windows XP. Boring as something verrrry old but at least it works, for the most part.

After a complete failure with installing DreamLinux over Kubuntu, I once again comes to Fedora, just to realize that the evil Fedora 7 KDE LiveCD doesn't work. Wohoo. Even so, I've now decided to come back to Fedora, which I've found is better for me than (K)Ubuntu or any other distro I've found or tested. Also, I have to say, this community is much better than Ubuntu's or other distro's.

But now I've come to a pretty difficult decision. I want to have Fedora, but preferably the latest (stable, not test/RC) version. Therefor, I can
1) wait for Fedora 7 to come out and use Windows XP or shortly test some minor distros for three weeks, or
2) install Fedora Core 6 now and hopefully just be able to upgrade it to 7 when it comes, if that's even possible...?

Some help would be very nice.

#2 4th May 2007, 01:47 AM

The devs don't even recommend upgrading from 6 to 7 so if you install 6 now you'd have to do a clean install of 7 when it's released. If you can wait till the 24th (or thereabouts) then it will save you installing twice and give you the opportunity, as you say, of playing with some other distros. At the end of the day though, the choice is yours

Wayne

marcrblevins · #3 4th May 2007, 01:47 AM

Wait it out, I'm waiting for it and will do a clean install. Update are not recommended.
Just backup /etc, /var, /home on a separate drive. When you get Fedora 7 installed, copy back what you need, not all.

All of my .conf files, I made a backup, like httpd.conf as httpd.conf.original. For me, just look for original and copy/paste what I needed.

***Dan*** · #4 4th May 2007, 01:55 AM

Just for the giggles and grins of it, try the Debian Etch Live CD and/or the new Elive live CD. Both are a lot of fun and worth a serious look.

Dan

***bob*** · #5 4th May 2007, 01:55 AM

Meanwhile, play around a bit! Elive 0.67 or 0.68 are stunning; Debian Etch is rock solid, complete and it all works beautifully. Heck, I'm still in awe of Puppy!

Pyntix · #6 4th May 2007, 02:04 AM

rondonjin: Ok, you (and the devs

) are probably right. Also gives me an opportunity to maybe try out Sabayon and try again with DreamLinux. A darn shame that I can't fully replace Windows though. Mostly because new games and demos don't work with Linux nor Wine. Oh well.

marcrblevins: Actually, I don't have anything of use on the internal hdd, I haven't had the time or the will to shove in all my files from the external harddrive, luckily.

Tangledweb and bob: Thanks for the tips, I'll try them out, not that I have anything useful to do with the messed up Kubuntu anyway.

Gotta love the fast replies here by the way. Two more replies before I even had time to finish the post

By the way, can anyone just point out to me the big differences between FC6 and F7? Just out of curiosity and motivation to wait it out.

Plossl · #7 4th May 2007, 04:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TangledWeb

Just for the giggles and grins of it, try the Debian Etch Live CD and/or the new Elive live CD. Both are a lot of fun and worth a serious look.

Dan

I like Etch but it is still fussy, or maybe I'm the fussy one. Etch didn't see all my RAM and the only fix was to change memory settings in the kernel and compile it.

I've used Linux for 2 years and I haven't compiled anything. I'm not breaking my record now.

update: A pre-compiled kernel did the trick.

MasonM · #8 9th May 2007, 06:09 AM

Spend some time playing around with Slackware while you're waiting. You'll learn a lot about some basic Linux skills. I've used Slack for about 12 years and learned a lot from it.

Flounder · #9 9th May 2007, 04:58 PM

I'm with the others here give Etch a go. It's got so much software that I don't know what to do with. You could go package shopping every few hours and still find more and more cool stuff.

JN4OldSchool · #10 9th May 2007, 05:24 PM

etch is like a mainstream, normal ubuntu. Or, to put it another, more fair way, ubuntu is a screwed up version of etch!

Ok, Ok, I am running Fiesty Christian edition on my kids box and absolutely loving it! Finally! It is a good, tight distro that just works. Automatix did its job easily, the nvidia driver was no sweat. I still dont like the "stock" limitations of out of the box buntu but it is good for my kid. A good learning distro for a 6-7 year old who is just starting with easy stuff. And the Dans Gaurdian parental controls (the main reason I chose this distro) gets a hefty thumbs up! But yea, give etch a try. In fact, why not DL the XFCE version? It is...what is it that my punk kids say..."off the hook!"