Complete Disappointment - Slackware on an IBM Thinkpad

[tsg]

I reclaimed an IBM Thinkpad that was going to get thrown out. I decided I needed a new hobby project and decided to throw Slackware Linux on it (10.2 if anyone cares, because I had it already). Format, partition, install, boot, login prompt. Cool. Now the fun begins. I get to make all the peripherals work!

First up, video card. Just for grins I try to fire up X to see how far it gets. Flawless. What happened? Slackware's install detected the video card and chose the right framebuffer driver. X uses the framebuffer driver. Damn! It works.

Okay, all is not lost, I still have to get the touchpad working. That already works too? Geez, I can't win.

Sound card! That ought to be hours of messing around. Driver modules are loaded, but no sound. Ha! I knew it. Okay, dig out the HOWTO's. First step, unmute the mixer. Done. Sound. That was too easy.

Networking. Put the pcmcia card in the slot. Hotplug/pcmcia modules detect it and even run dhcpcd. I'm connected. Damn.

Power management. Ha! KDE says the battery monitor won't work without apmd running. Check /etc/rc.d/rc.ampd. chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.ampd. /etc/rc.d/rc.apmd. Restart KDE. There's the battery monitor. And now the laptop sleeps and hibernates correctly, too. I'm batting nothing here.

In the end I gave up and set up Apache and now it's a webserver test bed. I hate it when everything goes right.

[Ducky]

BAH! Where's the fun in THAT?!

Ok just for giggles, take a back up and try that with OpenBSD. If that goes too well, Try OpenSolaris...

[tsg]

BAH! Where's the fun in THAT?!

Ok just for giggles, take a back up and try that with OpenBSD. If that goes too well, Try OpenSolaris...

What am I, a sadist?

[TobiasTheViking]

HAHAHA.... That was GREAT. :D

Now try it with a debian distro. that should be harder.

[jimlintott]

I think the real challenge might be getting it to run Vista.

[TobiasTheViking]

getting debian(or any offshoot) running would be pretty impressive to me.

[tsg]

Yeah, Vista. It's only fun if it's theoretically possible.

I have no experience with Debian or its derivatives. One of the things I like about Slackware is how small you can make it. Although in this case I did a full install.

[TobiasTheViking]

Yeah, Vista. It's only fun if it's theoretically possible.

I have no experience with Debian or its derivatives. One of the things I like about Slackware is how small you can make it. Although in this case I did a full install.

Some of the things i like about debians and its derivatives are:

I can use slackware for 2 years, get pissed at the package management system and thus want to try debian. Which results in an entire day of me NOT being able to get X to start. ON THE VERY SAME COMPUTER... Now, if i can get X up and running on slackware, i can bloody well do it on any distro considering slackware is the least userfriendly distro(atleast back then).

A few years later i have to boot a knoppix and do some system stuff. I want to watch a video while in knoppix, so i spend 6 hours... FAILING to get the nvidia driver installed.. Now, by this time i have run slackware for 3 years, and 3 years of gentoo, which is at about the same level as freebsd). And if i can get X and nvidia to work on slackware, gentoo, but not on knoppix, then something is wrong.

So, a bit later, i have to install gentoo on a computer.. So i think to myself, i have an ubuntu livecd here, i just need to boot into some linux, i don't specifically need to have the gentoo install cd, i can do it from ubuntu(and this isn't just an assumption on my part, totally doable).

But what happens. The *********** debian livecd can't get an ip from the dhcp server.

Wait.. what? the card is found, i can see it in dmesg and ifconfig. But YAY, X is up and running, though in vesa(crapy video card in the comp). But the piece of **** can't get an ip from the dhcp server.

After i burn a gentoo livecd, it just works, find the network, i run the dhcp client, and it gets an ip. Only change was going with gentoo instead of ubuntu.

So, if i can install Slackware, Red Hat, Gentoo, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, on a computer. and i can't install any debian(or derivatives) it can't bloody be my fault. Not because I'm perfect, though i am, but because debian(and especially ubuntu) are supposed to be easy, whereas all the ones in my list(sans red hat, which i barely used) are extremely hard to install. If this really really good easy distro doesn't work, when all the ones that are harder works, it can't be me *********** it up, i know how to work all those conf files. I know how to install nvidia drivers(or build them from kernel headers).

But noo no, knoppix doesn't come with kernel headers, but i can just install them.. right? Nope, can't do that either, *GAH*. and it wasn't because i couldn't write to the disk(i could) i just had to upgrade the entire kernel, which was not doable.

*********** crap.

i HATE debian and derivatives.

Sorry for the rant.

[Ducky]

I've never had a problem with a debian build. Nor a Fedora build. Nor a BSD of any type (open, free etc.) in fact, even setting up OpenSolaris was pretty easy.

But gentoo wouldn't build any which way I tried on one specific box of mine. I finally threw FC6 on it and used that.

New box coming soon. Not sure what I will put on it. Probably opensolaris. Or gentoo.

[TobiasTheViking]

I've never had a problem with a debian build. Nor a Fedora build. Nor a BSD of any type (open, free etc.) in fact, even setting up OpenSolaris was pretty easy.

But gentoo wouldn't build any which way I tried on one specific box of mine. I finally threw FC6 on it and used that.

New box coming soon. Not sure what I will put on it. Probably opensolaris. Or gentoo.

Well, that is my personal experience with Debian, and i know it isn't like that for everyone. And i have no intention of trying to convert you.

I will be doing an openbsd server next week(i have installed it before, but never done a real server on it, so, gonna be fun, looking forward to it).

If you go for gentoo and run into problems, just ask me. I have it on all my computers. :)

[Ducky]

Well, that is my personal experience with Debian, and i know it isn't like that for everyone. And i have no intention of trying to convert you.

I will be doing an openbsd server next week(i have installed it before, but never done a real server on it, so, gonna be fun, looking forward to it).

If you go for gentoo and run into problems, just ask me. I have it on all my computers. :)

What? Not fanatical about something? Stop being reasonable.

Actually opensolaris will be the first choice for the specific reason of getting myself up to par on it, and having that to offer on a resume.

[TobiasTheViking]

What? Not fanatical about something? Stop being reasonable.

Actually opensolaris will be the first choice for the specific reason of getting myself up to par on it, and having that to offer on a resume.

That is a very good reason imo, and i fully support it. :)

I'll be going with openBSD to get it on the resume, and because it is the OS/distro i trust the most, so i want to use it. :D

[tsg]

I can use slackware for 2 years, get pissed at the package management system and thus want to try debian. Which results in an entire day of me NOT being able to get X to start. ON THE VERY SAME COMPUTER... Now, if i can get X up and running on slackware, i can bloody well do it on any distro considering slackware is the least userfriendly distro(atleast back then).

This is precisely what turned me on to Slackware: it pretty much forces you to learn the nuts and bolts of the operating system. Slackware's package management does no dependency checking. That's a feature. It means the sysadmin is responsible for knowing what's on the system and making the decision to install the package even if all the necessary components aren't installed. But you can. Anyone who's been in RPM dependency hell can attest to that. I got into Linux because I was tired of Windows (*cough*95*cough*) obscuring the workings under a layer of "user friendliness" that was great until it broke. I wanted to learn the nuts and bolts. I like the nuts and bolts. Tweaking the nuts and bolts is fun. I was so looking forward to tweaking this IBM Thinkpad.

Oh, I forgot something, I got it to play DVD's as well. It's slow and clunky and the framerate is terrible, but it works. And all I had to do was download a library. Damn.


Sorry for the rant.

It's computer stuff. It's impossible not to rant.

[Ducky]

This is precisely what turned me on to Slackware: it pretty much forces you to learn the nuts and bolts of the operating system. Slackware's package management does no dependency checking. That's a feature. It means the sysadmin is responsible for knowing what's on the system and making the decision to install the package even if all the necessary components aren't installed. But you can. Anyone who's been in RPM dependency hell can attest to that. I got into Linux because I was tired of Windows (*cough*95*cough*) obscuring the workings under a layer of "user friendliness" that was great until it broke. I wanted to learn the nuts and bolts. I like the nuts and bolts. Tweaking the nuts and bolts is fun. I was so looking forward to tweaking this IBM Thinkpad.

Oh, I forgot something, I got it to play DVD's as well. It's slow and clunky and the framerate is terrible, but it works. And all I had to do was download a library. Damn.




It's computer stuff. It's impossible not to rant.


I had the same DVD problems. IIRC it was an hdparm setting to fix.

[tsg]

I had the same DVD problems. IIRC it was an hdparm setting to fix.

It could be. I'm betting on "old hardware" though. I don't actually want to watch DVDs on the thing, I just wanted to make it work. But if I get bored enough, I'll look into it.

[logical muse]

I'm running debian on my desktop machine (this machine!). I love it. I'm in love with it.

Hmm.. Maybe I should get out more?

[cyborg]

Hmm.. Maybe I should get out more?

What, you mean open a ssh session?

[MortFurd]

Well, that is my personal experience with Debian, and i know it isn't like that for everyone. And i have no intention of trying to convert you.

I will be doing an openbsd server next week(i have installed it before, but never done a real server on it, so, gonna be fun, looking forward to it).

If you go for gentoo and run into problems, just ask me. I have it on all my computers. :)
I'm with you on Ubuntu. I tried to install it on an old PC for a co-worker, and Ubuntu would just barf. I gave up and installed SuSE 9.2, and all is cool.

The Ubuntu installer seems to start a complete, full scale system from a live CD, then install from that. It takes a LOT of RAM, and this older system just didn't have it.

[logical muse]

What, you mean open a ssh session?

hehe :D