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Old 06-16-2003, 07:28 PM   #1
contrasutra
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Anyone tried source mage?


So the new version of SourceMage came out. It seems like a really cool Gentoo-like system that doesnt download everything during the install. I perfer this, because I have dialup, so downloading the whole thing on one connection is impossible, where if I already have a running system, I can download packages at a time and still be productive.

Anyway, has anyone tried/used/still use SourceMage? Is the package system (sorcerer) really as good as it sounds?

Any other comments, as I am thinking about switching. I use Slackware right now and love it, but I am in need of dependancy checking, 90% of the time im fine, but that last 10% really annoys me. And since you are downloading the and compiling the source right from the authors site, your not losing any of the customizability, it sounds like a good deal.

Anyone?
 
Old 06-26-2003, 06:01 PM   #2
rickenbacherus
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I've been a die hard Debian user for a while but since installing Sourcemage I haven't even booted Debian once. The "casting" of spells is incredible- it resolves dependencies like nobody's business. It even has the option to use "distributed compiling". Got some volunteer machines on your network? Just enter the i.p. addresses of those machines and they'll help make short work of compiling gcc and xfree86.

You have never seen anything as awesome as installing a sourcemage kernel. Do this:

cast -r -c linux

That's it. You'll be presented w/ not only a list of available kernels from kernel.org but also all the patches available! It will download the kernel to /usr/src, unpack, run menuconfig, build the kernel AND modules and install them. All you have to do is go add your new kernel to LILO (or GRUB) and that's it!

You can track the testing branch or the stable branch, the 'sorcery' command will fix any broken 'spells' for you and all you need do to remove a spel is 'dispel <spell>'.

You can cache all the spells if you have the hdd space and then if you need to recompile you don't have to dl them again- just 'cast' them again. All md5sums are checked for each downloaded spell as well- you won't be trying to install a broken app.

Go get the 0.6 .iso right away- you won't regret it. It's not even at 1.0 yet and already it's so awesome. Sure- there are some install bugs to work around but they're minor. It took about 30 minutes for me on my first install because I had to get a few answers. Now I can install it in about 15 miutes. This is a new Linux entirely I'd say. No, they don't have as many 'spells' as Debian or Gentoo but just give them time or better yet- write some yourself! Of course you can still install any tarballs you want just like always. Then do 'gaze alien' to see which apps were not installed via 'sorcery'.

Get on irc.freenode.net #sourcemage, talk to the dev's- they're a very helpful and friendly group.

I can't say enough about Sourcemage- it's the best thing since glowing green cheese.

Just realized that I'm going to have to change my sig line now!
 
Old 06-26-2003, 07:26 PM   #3
contrasutra
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Sounds pretty good.

My problem w/ Gentoo was that you had to download everything during the install, and I dont like that.

Would you say that Broadband is needed to run a SourceMage system? How much comes w/ the SourceMage ISO?


The packages on the ISO are already compiled, correct? You just compile any extra spells you install?

Last edited by contrasutra; 06-26-2003 at 07:28 PM.
 
Old 09-20-2003, 12:18 AM   #4
Lagg
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Registered: Jul 2003
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im glad i found this.

i stumbled apon this reiview they did of soucemage at distrowatch and i must say i was very intreged and thier website just looks really wicked (as in cool...not as in "trying to hard, but making a kidna crappy product" like evil entity)

i might give it a try.
 
Old 09-20-2003, 01:06 AM   #5
LSD
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Registered: Jan 2003
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How well does this support nForce and nForce2 chipsets? It'll take some doing but I might give this a look if I know my nForce MCP-T integrated LAN (I'm not fussed about the audio driver as I'll most likely end up installing ALSA again) will work "out of the box."
 
Old 09-20-2003, 05:54 PM   #6
contrasutra
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Hardware support is a kernel thing, all distros support the same hardware.

There are official Nvidia nforce(2) drivers available at their website: www.nvidia.com.
 
Old 10-06-2003, 03:19 AM   #7
BittaBrotha
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Registered: Jan 2002
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So did anybody new try it out? I just installed the base and need some info on getting my Nic working with my cable modem and router.

After installation and compiling the kernel, I didn't have any module files installed automagically.

Any suggestions on this?

Thnx.
 
  


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