Linux

JCoster · 03-27-2005, 12:48 PM

Ok. I have a Sony Vaio PCG-F801 and have XP Pro on it, yet I've decided I want to give Linux a go, so, I researched into different distributions and thats as far as I got. I am so confused. Can any one guide me through the whole process, from download to use? Also, it needs to be a small pacage as I only have 3gb hard disk space left.

--
James Coster
james.coster@gmail.com

lixy · 03-27-2005, 12:55 PM

Read the articles of people that have already installed linux on their Vaios and decide for yourself http://www.linux-laptop.net/
SUSE or Mandrake are the more attractive distributions for a newbie.

twilli227 · 03-27-2005, 01:02 PM

Go to distrowatch and download one of the live-cd's. Use your burning software in XP and burn it as an iso image. Put the cd into your drive and re-boot your computer. You will now have linux running on your computer. No installation necessary. When you are done, re-boot, take out linux cd and your XP will be there for your use. I would suggest knoppix, it is one of the best hardware detection cd's, you will be able to see if linux will install on your computer without the installation. From there you can play around with linux and if it is to your liking, then read up on the installation process, or do a search here, there are many post with this information. When you have a question, post back.
http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=cd

JCoster · 03-27-2005, 01:22 PM

Thanks for all of your help so far. I am currently downloading Dynebolic which apparently I can run from the CD. I will report back tomorrow.

--
James Coster
james.coster@gmail.com

JCoster · 03-28-2005, 03:07 PM

So I've downloaded and burnt the CD, booted up into Linux. However, I seem to find p2p software. I am not a great fan. Will they run automatically at start up? if so, how can i stop them doing this?

JCoster · 03-29-2005, 04:45 AM

Any follow-ups?

ahh · 03-29-2005, 05:27 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by JCoster
So I've downloaded and burnt the CD, booted up into Linux. However, I seem to find p2p software. I am not a great fan. Will they run automatically at start up? if so, how can i stop them doing this?

To see what connections you have, type

Code:

netstat -npa -A inet

in a console (tty, command line, shell, xterm, konsole, gnome-terminal - whatever you want to call it).

I'm guessing they don't start up by default, but if they do the programs should have an option to specify if you want this behaviour or not.

edit: Just thought, this is a live cd, right? Preferences will probably not be saved for the next boot. So if any services are running that you don't want you can get the PID from the above command and use

Code:

kill PID_from_above_command

to stop them.

JCoster · 03-29-2005, 05:34 AM

As I said, I am a newbie. You need to guide me through directle from the start... Sorry for the inconvenience!

Haiyadragon · 03-29-2005, 06:10 AM

Maybe you should try a more popular livecd like Knoppix. I know nothing about Dynebolic but it wouldn't be running p2p software unless it was designed to do so (or if it was made by somebody evil). What makes you think it's p2p software? What's the name of the application?

ahh · 03-29-2005, 06:23 AM

To do what I suggested in my previous post:-

Click on the desktop to bring up the menu.
Click on XTerm (this will open a terminal [also called a console and various other things] where you can type commands).
Type in

Code:

netstat -npa -A inet

and press enter.

If you have any programs connected to or wating for connections from the internet they will be listed like this:-

Code:

bash-2.05b# netstat -npa -A inet
Active Internet connections (servers and established)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State       PID/Program name   
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:631             0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      3939/cupsd          
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:25              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      5555/master         
tcp        0      0 10.0.0.160:36108        212.58.224.99:554       ESTABLISHED 23199/realplay.bin  
tcp        0      0 10.0.0.160:36564        66.102.11.104:80        ESTABLISHED 24470/galeon        
tcp        0      0 10.0.0.160:36571        66.102.11.104:80        ESTABLISHED 24470/galeon        
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:6972            0.0.0.0:*                           23199/realplay.bin  
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:631             0.0.0.0:*                           3939/cupsd

If there are any programs listed that you dont want you can stop them using the kill program and the PID of the program.

e.g. In the above example, to stop realplay.bin I would type in the XTerm

Code:

kill 23199

and press enter.

ahh · 03-29-2005, 06:34 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Haiyadragon
...I know nothing about Dynebolic but it wouldn't be running p2p software unless it was designed to do so (or if it was made by somebody evil). What makes you think it's p2p software? What's the name of the application?

From the Dynebolic web site:

Quote:

...does automatic clustering with other dyne:bolic on the net, to join the CPU power of multiple computers

It looks like a really interesting project, maybe the best multimedia solution in a box.

prasanta · 03-29-2005, 06:39 AM

Try with Knoppix or Ubuntu. That should work. And about Dynebolic, it has a whole lot of multimedia stuff useful for creating and running multimedia applications. Nyway you don't have to install Dynebolic for it to be functional. You can copy the dyne folder present in the cdrom to / and make an entry in the grub or lilo.

-Prasanta

JCoster · 03-31-2005, 05:08 AM

Thank you for all of your replies so far. I have now tested Knoppix and decided that I like Linux. I now want to move on to Debian. However, I am unaware of which files I need to download, for there are several CD images:
ftp://debian.blueyonder.co.uk/pub/debian-iso/i386/30r2/
Which one(s) do I need?

Haiyadragon · 03-31-2005, 09:26 AM

You can use apt-get to download most of the stuff on those cd's once you've installed and setup Debian. I think you only really need the first cd. But I wouldn't exactly call Debian a newbie friendly distro. The last time I installed it, it was quite a hassle.