Moving from Windows
 

Hello,

I'm not sure I'm writing this at the right place, so sorry ahead of time.

I've been using Windows since 1995 and at first I didn't really know anything about it. Today I'm a Windows network administrator and support professional with multiple MS certifications.

I've been trying a few times to get ahead with Linux and I found it to be very difficult and complicated to do so. On Windows, I install Windows and then add my chosen applications. On Linux, I install it and... How do I find equivalents to my Windows applications? What if I absolutely must have a certain Windows application, I tried installing WINE that was way beyond me and I couldn't install any Windows application on it and make it work.

So, like a good boy, I reinstalled Windows and forgot about Linux for a long time.

Now, I really want to get into Linux, both as a desktop and as a server admin. I want to be able to manage common aspects of Linux in a work environment and to troubleshoot problems when they arise and to write scripts but where do I start?
The community keeps referring newbies to the man and HOW-TO pages, they are great, but for a newbie that just starting the journey, they can be complicated. So in order to do things faster we ask direct questions and hope to get direct answers, not RTFM. And when we read the FM part of RTFM, it’s like reading a whole book. We lose interest and give up.

How can I start working with Linux on a regular basis as a desktop and learn to be able to manage a network with Windows and Linux servers?

Thank you for your answers,

The best way to REALLY learn it is to load it on your PC and USE it. USE it everyday. When you hit the wall with a problem, find the solution to that problem and then keep moving forward. No one here can tell you in one post how to be Linux/UNIX Administrator. Every problem you solve will help you with the next one to come. When you give up and reload with Windows, you're beat.

Stick with it.

The knowledge base in this group is tremendous. We (they) can help you out as problems arise, but you have to decide that you are going to stick with it and work on it until it's resolved. If it was EASY, everyone would use it... There is still a LOT that I don't know, but I am leaps and bounds ahead of where I was 5 years ago...and I attribute most of what got me through the hard stuff to this forum and persistent research.

Probably not exactly what you wanted to hear...but it's the truth, nonetheless....

Good Luck!

I'm a Windows-sysadmin too, but I started with Linux back in 1994 and nowadays don't really like Windows. Beeing a Networkadmin is a good startingpoint because the networkpart is mostly independent of the Operatingsystem.
you should tell us which applications you use on Windows, then we can tell you which programs on Linux you can use.
If you want to get a certificate from Redhat, install Centos or Redhat, if you want to go for LPIC you could use Suse and Debian. If you really want to learn Linux, install Slackware, we have a very helpful and knowledgable community here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/ at LQ

As for RTFM, here's a tutorial about reading the manpages: http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:gen...es_efficiently

Unfortunately you will have to read the documentation.

Markus

Just another idea for you as a Windows Sysadmin ;)

If you have a USB-scanner, here is a tutorial how you can share the scanner in your network with other Linux-computers: http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/...r_over_network

Try it out. And if it works with Linux, do the same thing with Windows :rolleyes:

Markus

Linux distribution developers have their own repositories from which to download compatible programs. They are more likely to work as any dependencies will be resolved and they are closely watched so the likelihood of malware is less.

Do an online search for "Linux equivalent to windows program".

If you have a windows program that is important to you, you apparently already have windows installed so use it. A lot of programs work with Wine and a lot don't. I haven't used it for years so I don't have any advice.

I've found the man pages at times very cryptic and don't usually use them. They are an excellent source of information though.

If you have a specific problem or get a specific warning or error message when trying to do something, the first thing I would suggest you do is either come to LQ and use the search function on the upper right or use whatever search engine you prefer and enter the exact warning/error message.

If you are trying to do something specific, I would suggest you do the same and when you get to a site you the first thing I would check is the data of the articule/tutorial because everything changes and something written in 1998 may not be applicable now.

This is the place to ask this type of question!


If you must have a windows app, I would tell you to forget about wine until you get more experience in linux. Try using vmware or virtual box with windows in them to get your windows apps.

Try getting a linux book, and then reading through it, taking notes might help. Also, try getting linux onto a personal computer so that you can get use to it in an environment that you might not necessarily need those windows apps in.
Don't use the man pages until you get a little more experience in linux built up.
Ubuntu might be the easiest linux os for you to start using. It even has a software downloader and installer that you can look through to find the right programs for your job. Here is a site with some good linux programs on it for download:http://softpedia.com

Hello netnix99,

I like your answer, thank you. I downloaded Linux Mint Maya Mate and Cinnamon (two ISOs) and I’m ready to install one of them. I’ll start as a VM at work because I don’t have an extra computer at home to make it my main OS. I will make an effort to use it as my regular admin workstation. If there will be things I cannot do, I’ll install VMware server on it and install a Windows based VM as a guest on it.
When I have issues, I’m very persistent and stubborn and usually never give up until I find a solution.


Hello markush,

The list of applications I use on a daily basis is very limited. Here is most of it:

- Office 2007
- Internet Explorer
- Nero Burning ROM (ISO burning and audio conversion abilities are almost a must for me)
- Ability to rip CDs at high quality and converting .WAV files to .FLAC or MP3
- Winamp
- Adobe Reader, flash
- RDP client

There are many others, some more important and some less important that I can do without. But I don’t use them on a regular basis.


Hello Yancek,

I hope the list above is satisfactory


Hello Nbiser,

You are saying “try getting a linux book…” but which one would be a good reading? Most computer books can easily be reduced from a few hundred pages to less than a hundred pages condensed but concise version that will direct readers exactly to what they are looking for. I’m not exactly a total newbie and I don’t want a book that will bore me right from the start. I want a book that will tell me how to do things right away, without all the useless mambo-jumbo that computer book writers write in order to justify their effort into actually writing a book and not a notebook.

How about books from a few years ago, will those be a good source to look at today?

I’ll be happy to hear some advice as too which book to get a hold of.

With Linux you can use Openoffice, Libreoffice, calligra and others as Office-suite.
Firefox, Opera, Seamonkey or Google-chrome as Webbrowsers.
K3b (from KDE) or xfburn for burning.
As of ripping, there are many tools with commandline or gui, I don't have that much experience with them.
There are several media players, VLC for example.
I would not use Adobe Reader with Linux, there's Okular or Evince which are much better.
For RDP there's krdc (from KDE) or rdesktop which connect to a Windows Terminalserver quite well (I've used it already).
I would not recommend to read old books, they don't cover modern concepts. As you probably know, the opensourceworld is much more in a movement than Windows.

Either you purchase a book which covers Systemadministration in General and not only Linux but Unix in General (and therefore is distributionindependent), I once read this one http://www.amazon.com/UNIX-System-Ad.../dp/3897213478
Or you read online, there are many resources: http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz and here some other hints http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...es-4175442607/

Learn to read the manpages which are the common documentation system in Unix/Linux http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:gen...es_efficiently

Markus

Member Response
 

Hi,

As other members have pointed out that you should do some experimentation or work with a Gnu/Linux. You have many choices to select from. Personally I use Slackware as my Gnu/Linux of choice. You should be able to install a VM on your personal machine without to much effort. VirtualBox is another VM to use for a sandbox to do your testing of different Gnu/Linux. Look at: Virtual for other useful information.

Look at: Linux Books & Online Magazines for free online information. Many books are downloadable PDF.

Be sure to look at the rest of Slackware®-Links which is more than just Slackware Links. :)

You should take moment to reflect as to how things were when you started out with Microsoft Windows. Likely you started by using the OS then learn the inner workings, be it for network or application support. No one can start in the middle without causing undue work or confusion. Building blocks and planning!

Do some topic Search here at LQ since you are not the first to be in this position. You will find loads of information to provide pathways to a successful journey. :)

BTW, sometimes the suggested links below the thread will be useful.

HTH!

EDIT: Look at: Get Your ISO, LiveCD & Pocket OS to get a LiveCD/DVD to test drive.

Hey Arie01
Linux Mint is not that difficul that you need to read an entired book about it. Infact you can do almost everything from the graphical interface. Sure you will need to use the command line for some hard core administrador task but take it easy and get familiar with everything on your desktop first then dive in the command line.

For the programs you mention on your post Linux Mint offer equivalent programs.

For Office you will get LibreOffice suite by default but you can buy and install other suit office such as SoftMaker http://www.softmaker.com/english/

For Web Browsing you will get Firefox by default but you can install lot other web browser too, Google Chrome, Medori, SeaMonkey, etc.

For ISO burning K3b is the program you need, Open up Sypnactic pakage manager in Linux Mint, your will need your pasword for it. There search for K3b mark it for install and click on apply changes, you will have to confirm the changes and then let it do its thing. You can find the newly installed program under Sound and Media category programs.

For copying movies K9copy is what you need. installed the same way described above.

Instead of Winamp you will get Rhytmbox or Banshee or Amarok I dont really know what is the one that comes in Linux Mint by default. For sure it will be a good one.

Adobe, flash, MP3 capabilities, media convert, and all that junk is provided when you install Linux Mint

Remote desktop viwers too are provide so basically you get everything.

I am sure a smart guy like you will figure it out in no time. It really is not rockets science.

Good luck to you.

Wow guys, that’s a lot of information. I really appreciate it.

One software that I forgot to mention and I use almost daily (on my laptop, that’s why I didn’t mention it before) is a DLNA server with support for Panasonic Plasma TV’s. Any good DLNA server that doesn’t hiccup in the middle of streaming a movie?

Onebuck, why Slackware? Can you please elaborate why this is your distro of choice and how does it differ from other distros?

TroN-0074, thanks for the compliment. I’m not really a smart guy, just an average Joe.
I’m sure using the desktop will not be too difficult for me to figure out (until I get into an issue).

Thank you all so much for all your help. I will install my mint and look at the reading materials and decide for myself on which software variants to chose.

In general there are different concepts of distributions. Ubuntu, Mint and similar distributions are made to make it easier for Windowsusers to step into Linux. They do almost everything in a GUI and try to be familiar for the typical Windowsuser.
Other distributions like Slackware, Arch, Debian or Gentoo follow the traditional Unix way. Most configuration is done on the commandline and it is necessary that you know what you are doing.

Markus

Slackware is known for its stability and reliability. As Markus mentioned, it may not have all those fancy GUI configuration tools that you use mouse with, but using command line for configuration has lots of advantages; so of them are mentioned here:
http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:cli...l:introduction

as others have said you can use google to easily find what equivalent programs have linux and windows support (once you start using some of these programs you will realize most of the open-source alternatives have more features than their closed-sourced alternatives).
also, xbmc has a dlna server but that may be overkill for what you need.

Member Response
 

Hi,
Slackware is 'UNIX-like'. I have been using UNIX for years and when Slackware came out in 93 I wanted the luxury of having a UNIX-Like on my PC equipment. Look at: Look at the timelines above and you will see that Slackware has many derivatives. Slackware is stable and user configurable once you learn the basics. 'GUI' for me is something that actually dumbs down to provide what the author thinks you need done. Sometimes this can be hampering to users when and if they get into trouble. If you learn to work at the 'cli' (command line) then doors are open to a knowledgeable user. If you decide that a 'GUI' is a must then you will have choices for DE or wm for Slackware.

Learn and enjoy!

I like Linux+ by Roderick W. Smith, published by Sybex. However, I would just skim over the first section and then jump into the commands in the second chapter. All that the first chapter has is partition info and some boot loader and distro stuff.

I use MediaTomb to stream to my portable devices. It has a web interface to configure what directories to share. It should be available in your distro's repository.

When running after a fellow man, please live some strength to take you back home. Install a dual boot as a fall back plan when things go wrong. Install wine if you love your windows apps that much.

Hi onebuck,

What about FreeBSD? That's also a UNIX-like OS and it can be installed practically on any computer, old and new.
But what are the differences between FreeBSD and Linux?

Well, FreeBSD, as all the BSDs are traditional Unix. Linux is a flavor of Unix. But note that the difference between the more Windowslike Linuxdistributions as Ubuntu or Mint and the more Unix like as Slackware or Gentoo is much bigger than the difference between for example Slackware and BSD.

But that's all theory, just install it and try it out. You will need to make your own experience. Linux is much more versatile than Windows. And the experiences and expectations of the people here at LQ vary in the same way. That means you'll get 5 answers and 10 opinions for each question about "which Linux" or "Linux or BSD".

Markus

Member Response
 

Hi,
Agree with markush! My preference is Slackware as a UNIX-like OS therefore no need for change. I really do not need BSD at this point in time. But if necessary then FreeBSD would be a good choice.

As to differences, look at license for FreeBSD & Slackware or Gnu/Linux in general. Sanity is one reason for me to keep Slackware. :)

To make the transition a bit easier for you go with a Linux Base Operating System. When you install FreeBSD the Operating System doesn't even provide you with a graphical interface, you need to install and set up the X server in order to have a working desktop. It might be little overwhelming for new users and some might even give up after few hours or work. It might be fun for other people I guess it will depend on what you like to do with your free time.

Under Linux there are more support for different hardware and a vast of applications at the reach of a click. In FreeBSD you will have to do more hacking and tweaking to make some hardware work.

See you have a list of Applications that you say you most have chances are these application will have an equivalent in a Gnu-Linux distribution.

Good luck to you.

Hello everyone,

Just to let you know that I decided to go with Fedora instead of Mint.

I downloaded Fedora 17 Gnome (and KDE because I don't like Gnome very much) and I installed it on one of the spare computers at work.
It looks good. So far I don't see any problem in using it as a desktop, although it’s lacking some of my tools but for now I’m only using it for learning and testing. I find it a bit confusing to install new software packages, but I'm sure I'll get it in time.

I also started reading the Fedora documentation, specifically, the Fedora 17 System Administrators Guide. I feel comfortable using the CLI to move around the file system, search for files, creating and editing new and existing files using vi, and many more aspects. I feel like I might be a good beginner...

I haven’t been able to enable SSH, unfortunately. I also tried to set up VNC server to be able to get to the desktop from my Windows machine and it wasn’t successful either. Could anybody help me with these two problems please?

Speaking about Gnome, is there a way to reduce the size of the top bar of opened window? Let’s say a terminal window. There is a very wide bar on top where the menu bar is.


Thank you,
Arie

HI.
Another n00b here. FWIW I'm a blind wouldbe network / sysadmin. So the command line is my friend. I'm trying to get certs, experience, Windows / Cisco, etc but using Linux a lot now too and fumbling my way round. Messing around with networking tools, setting up a private nameserver, mailserver etc. My suggestion, is write notes. I forget a lot of command line swithces and the man pages are too involved sometimes. Also there are several excelent books by the likes of O'Riely. Maybe start with using a live distro. Get familiar with the interface, then grab something like Linux in a nut shell as you're nosing around the system... And Google. What's the /etc/ directory for. What's a simlink etc. Google these questions as they occur.

Oops. See you're up and running. I just wanted to make my first post... Don't know about VNC but not sure why SSH isn't running. I'm presuming Fedora comes with Openssh (I use a Ubuntu varient.) Is anything listening on port 22?

Try:
netstat --tcp --listening --programs

hi Arie01,

Glad you managed to install Fedora and are exploring the possibilities of Linux. I would like to elaborate about Slackware however just to give you a little to think about :)

As you saw from the experience of Fedora, it installed all by itself and when you first started your computer, it was mostly configured and you were presented with nice graphical login and desktop. That is the way "user friendly" distros are. They do a lot of black magic underneath and present you nice glossy interface. Slackware however has different philosophy.

Slackware assumes that the user is in command and that user is the king in the machine. Hence as other distros try to babysit the user by doing the black magic, Slackware sits there, its hands folded and waits patiently for the next command. That is the elegance of Slackware - it does NOTHING for the user. The installer even starts with login prompt. You have to login with root account to start installation, you have to use separate tool to partition your harddisk. Slackware does not partition it for you, because really computer is not supposed to know how you want your system to be laid out. After you have partitioned your hard drive, you explicitly start the setup routine which uses text-based menu system to guide you through the package installation and initial system configuration process. While it might be frighting to think about text-based installer, it is actually very clean and simple and easily understandable. After you have finished installation of Slackware, you reboot (again explicitly inputting the reboot command) and after the system comes up, you are presented with login prompt in text console. from there you log in, and first you get couple of emails which introduce you the concepts of Slackware. You are advised to use text-based tool to pick your graphical environmend (like KDE, or XFCE or windowMaker etc) and after that you can issue the startx command to get into graphical environment. You are also advised to add a separate user to the system using adduser command. As you can see, Slackware does nothing for you and leaves you all the power to do what YOU WANT.

Another philosophical difference of Slackware compared to all other distros out there. It does not have any dependency resolution mechanism. In linux, programs depend on other packages and libraries to work and for example Fedora does great effort to make sure that if your program depends on some library, that library is indeed installed before you start the program. Nothing like that in Slackware. Seems a problem? Actually totally opposite. The problems with dependency tracking come obvious if you have several versions of some library installed or there is a program that demands very specific library version - even if you have newer installed. So you get a lots of headache by the package manager trying to tell you that you need something else that you do not have. In Slackware, you are in total control what is installed in your system and what is not. You are free to install/uninstall anything you want. It is your system and you are solely responsible resolving all the dependencies your self. Slackware is probably only distro out there that allows you to uninstall the kernel package on a running system without any questions asked whatsoever. It is absolute joy to maintain Slackware box knowing that I am the responsible party and there is no babysitting going on. I install exactly those libraries and programs that I need. I know that if I break something, I can also fix it as system does not monitor my actions and allows me to do anything I want.

Once you've seen the dependency hell you never want to use anything but Slackware with it immence level of freedom.

You use Ubuntu, you learn Ubuntu, you use Fedora, you learn Fedora, you use Slackware, you learn Linux!

Hi wigry,

Wow. You sure wrote a lot in your post.
I read it and it does sound interesting. I liked the last line the most though.

I will look into Slackware in more details.

Thanks for the info,

your ssh problem mite be becuz of firewall. please show us the result of this command:if it says it is active and running run sudo system-config-firewall and make ssh a trusted service.

For Linux equivs of MS SW http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/...ndows_software
Loads of free to read manuals/books www.linuxtopia.org

Lots of distros to choose from www.distrowatch.com; each has its own quirks.

FYI Fedora is Redhat's R&D/unstable distro that is used to test SW that goes into RHEL (& therefore Centos; a free rebuild of RHEL).
It also has a high turnover of new versions.
On the other hand, RHEL etc is supported for many years http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/errata/.

schneidz, I fixed my ssh issue, thanks for the advice.

chrism01, Thanks for the info aboutt he distros. Which one do you suggest I will start using?

RHEL vs Fedora? as RHEL is commercial Linux that costs money, then I believe the more correct chice would be CentOS vs Fedora as CentOS is a free alternative to RHEL.

So I suggest starting from CentOS and if that seems too conservative for your taste, then move on to Fedora.

Hi wigry,

I downloaded the Slackware image (Slackware 14.0 x86 Install ISO disc 3 (KDE)) and burnt it onto a CD but it doesn't seem to be a bootable image. Can you please tell me how to install Slackwate? Which images I need to download?

Thank you,

Slackware comes as 6 CDs, the first is the bootable one, the third comes with the KDE packages. You will have to download CD1 and CD2 and if you want KDE you'll also need CD3. CDs 4-6 are the sources.

I would suggest that you instead download the packages from a mirror with wget and create only a minimal install-CD as described here: ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/slackwar...nux/README.TXT

Markus

Hi markush,

6 CD's? Isn't that a bit archeic?

How come there is no image that contains all the necessary files to install Slack? I understand that it gives the user total control of what to do, but at least the files should be available in one image.

Your post suggest to create such image, which is great. But it assumes I will be working from within a Slack or other linux system. What if I, as a beginner, prefer combining the images into one install DVD from a Windows workstation? Is that possible? How?

P.S. I'm currently using Fedora Live CD...

Thank you,

You could also download the DVD image, it comes with all packages. You could also (which is most easy) download and burn only CD1 and then make a network installation. This means that the packages are downloaded while installation.

BTW: you can do a minimal install with only the packages of CD1. But as far as I remember, the X server is on CD2.

Markus

recommend to download DVD which gives you single disc for everything. If you must use CD-s you need at least CD1 and CD2 and if you want KDE, then as told, CD3. But nowadays it is quite rare to have CD-ROM in the machine without capabilities to read DVD-s

BTW what was your reason to download CD3? All countable things start from 1...

Hi wigry,

My first experience was with Fedora. I saw that it has the default image (gnome) then it has spins for KDE, Games and other. I looked at the Slack download link and I saw different images and one of them is KDE. Since I wanted to try KDE, I was under the impression that this CD image is the only image required to install Slack with KDE.

I'll download the DVD from home and see how it installs tomorrow.

By the way, is there a way to get to you faster that throughthe forum? I'm thinking that I will get stuck a lot in my attempt to go with Slack and since it was your suggestion... Just kidding! But it would be nice to be able to reach you faster.

Thank you,

i agree, especially since the last 2 pc's i've owned dont come with a cd-rom drive. most newer distros provide a persistent live-usb bootable image.

That's no problem, when you run into problems with Slackware, post here http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/
The LQ Slackware forum is the official Slackware forum. You will quickly find help there. I would also recommend, that you post every Slackware related question there!

You may take a look at http://docs.slackware.com/start our Slackdocs page.

There is everything explained.

Markus

One can boot the Slackware installer from
1. CD
2. DVD
3. USB-memorystick
4. PXE

The installation can be done with packages on
1. The CDs
2. The DVD
3. On the USB-device
4. On a premounted partition of your computer
5. from an FTP server in your own network or in the internet.

aren't this enough choices?

Markus

ok, i was wondering why the op was talking about burning disks; the live-usb option would be better.

hi Arie01,

I am just one of very many happy Slackware users and there is no need to ask the questions from me specifically. The Slackware subsection of LQ pointed out by markush is the best place to get immediate help by fellow Slackers.

Also before diving into Slackware installation it is good idea to make some homework by skimming through the http://slackbook.org/html/index.html

It really helps and gets you up and running the fastest way. Please pay attention to what is told there. Otherwise it would be very very frustrating to be stuck in the middle of installation and waiting for 15 minutes to get answer to some simple question. All what you need to know should be answered in the book. Read the installation section through before actually starting the installation and see if you understand it? If it is quite confusing then come to the Slackware section of LQ and post your questions.

Good luck and I'll be watching :)

My suggestion would be perhaps do a installation in a VirtualBox first. And set it up to your likes. Once you sussefully do that then move on to install it on your computer.

The Slackware install DVD is not a liveCD like the one for Fedora or linux Mint. it will drop you to a command line and you go from there. There is not graphical interface, after booting you login by typing root, then you create your partitions by typing cfdisk. once you have your partition you can start the installation by typing setup

It is very exciting and rewarding if everything works from the first try (rarely happens so be prepared) Otherwise it can make you want to kick your computer with a hammer(be prepared for that too)


Good luck to you

I'm using Slackware since about 19 years, but I've never kept a hammer at hand while installation :D

Markus

Once I started to experiment with custom kernels I wanted to throw the computer out of the window on the third Kernel Panic :D But after countless re-installs (how else an inexperienced newbie kernel hacker would recover from the panic) I realized that really I need to have at least my disk controller and file system drivers in the kernel to have any success of seeing the Init process to start.

Shall I think of myself as an unusually lucky Slacker as I've never had any problems with Slackware installations since I started using it which was around 10.1? I usually fear installing Mint/Ubuntu types of distros more because they either work out of the box or they are hell to troubleshoot due to redundant and/or unnecessarily complicated layers of GUI tools.

Perhaps it's the question of familiarity but I seriously find installing Ubuntu more challenging than Slackware.

An inexperienced kernel hacker would normally recover the system in the same way as an experienced one would do: Reset the system and boot using your still installed kernel, or use the Slackware DVD to boot the system.

That is already advanced knowledge to give the boot prompt special parameters like kernel name etc and well backup like item for the working kernel in lilo.conf is for wimps anyway :D

It is not advanced knowledge. If you compile your own kernel you have already to configure your bootloader to use the new one, so what is the problem in keeping the old one also in there?
Also, the advanced knowledge of using the DVD to start an installed system is taught to you by the first bootscreen of the DVD. If you have made several re-installs you could have read that at least once, which would have saved you a lot of time. The information given to you before even installing Slackware can hardly count as advanced knowledge.

Many problems solve themselves if you are just reading what is on the screen.

Reinstalling the whole system every time you compile a dodgy kernel is a lot of headache for no good reason. When I roll my own kernels, I always keep the distro "stock" kernel as an option in my bootloader (in my case always lilo irrespective of distro). It's a lot easier to just boot the old kernel than it is to reinstall the OS.

Even recently when I reinstalled on a new HDD, I made sure the huge kernel was setup in lilo.conf and bootable before switching to the generic one - as I am forgetful and prone to typos. (I am the sort of person who would get side tracked and forget to build the initrd and just reboot...).

If you're methodical and careful, you can build kernels to your heart's content and always retain a "failsafe" option.