setting up suse linux
 

hi

i want to install linux on my box as only os. whats important for install ? and whats important to do first after install linux ?

i got
amd athlon 1200 mhz
256mb ram
100gb hdd
gf2mx
nec dvd-burner (can i burn dvd-r/+r with linux?)

can u just gimme some tips whats the best way ?
install linux lonely? install on partition ? how ?


thx 4 help :)

If it's SuSE you want to install, you should remember that the latest version is only available for sale. The download version is a little out of date i.e. 1 or 2 versions back.

If you've already got the disc's, then just make sure that you can boot from the CD and boot the system, the install is pretty straight forward (as I recall, I haven't done a SuSE install for about 18 months, I prefer mandrake.).

The only thing that you want to make sure of is probably your internet connection. By that, I mean the modem. If it's internal, then there's a pretty good chance that it's a "winmodem" i.e. it's a software modem that acts like a hardware modem. If it is, then you can get drivers for some of them, but a lot of them not, the advice that I have seen often around the forums is "get yourself an external modem".

Not sure, as I have an adsl connection, connected through a router modem (external) specifically for adsl - never bothered with my internal modem as it's a winmodem.

My advice would be to set things up as a dual boot to start with. Search LQ for dual boot, there's loads of threads to look through, and if nothing else, you can at least then boot back into windows, and sort any problems out/get advice - it's a little laborious, but at least you can then get advice.

If your kit is "cutting edge", then there is a possibility that you could have some problems with drivers for graphics and sound, but "boxed sets" of SuSE tend to be very upto date.

regards

John

thx first

you said that u use mandrake ?

i heard suse, redhat(mandrake) are the easiest for beginners... what about games on redhat(mandrake) i thought that suse is the distribution of linux which got the best support for 3d gaming and something like that ... .is redhat as good as suse for gaming too ?

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...003/01/4/42160
That should be a helpful article. There's tons of info on gaming in linux - just look around using google. ;)

To be honest lolinux,

I couldn't honestly say. I've never really been into games, though the ones I do "dabble" with are linux based, and come free either on the "boxed mandrake set" that I got or from one of the available download sights.

Don't mistake mandrake for redhat, because originally mandrake was just redhat with KDE, but it hasn't been like that for quite a while (and don't forget that SuSE is "rpm based" as well, but when you look for a download, you often find distro specific versions of the rpm that you are looking for, as well as "debs" and ".tar.gz" versions).

redhat is more aimed at commerce, whereas mandrake is aimed at the desktop and as such may be a better starting place.

Also, I would recommend a boxed set from mandrake, as there are a few bits of "commercial" software, that while freely available, are pre-compiled, and you will have to believe me when I say that makes one hell of a big difference when you are still "getting your feet wet" with linux. By this, I mean stuff like the nvidia drivers (you may not need them, but if your graphics card is nvidia based, then you only need to search LQ too see how many snags people have had installing them themselves, and this can matter with stuff like games, when frame rates and the like are important).

The package management system with mandrake is called "urpmi" which is a mandrake modified version of normal rpm's. If you google for "plf", there's a little facility called "easy urpmi", you just select the mirror's that you want to use and it tells you what you need to put in as command line to get the available stuff - in fact it's so easy, you just have to learn to do a "linux type cut'n paste". Both the plf and texstar provide extra stuff that you don't get via normal mandrake updates, and as far as I am aware, the games that you can get easily, aren't as basic as you might have been given to understand.

If nothing else, they get you "playing" while you are working out how to run/use wine and/or winex to try the windows based games.

Of course, once you are "all about" with linux, then maybe go for something like debian, slackware or gentoo. I run a triple boot (as per my info in the left panel), and I can say for certain that when I tried "normal" debian, I didn't really know enough (I've been playing with linux for 18 months). Hence when I found out how easy it was to use knoppix (which is basically a debian install if you put it on your hard drive, instead of just running it from the CD), I "installed to hard disc".

If you check out the gentoo site, it does point out that the distro is really for "power users", and you need to have good knowledge of what you are doing - though one of the blokes at my LUG has recently installed it with out too many problems (but he is an IT professional, and I would say that qualifies him as a "power user"!).

There are also those who say "no no no, go for slack/deb/gentoo", and end up with the reasoning that that's the best way to learn linux. Well, I'd say that if you are well into IT then why not, but I get far too stressed out when things don't go to plan, and I end up more than a little "over my head".

So it's up to you.

good luck.

regards

John