Which other distro?

tamtam · 10-25-2008, 11:08 AM

After tinkering without much success with Solaris. I now find I have spare disk space on which I can tinker about with another distro.

So the idea is that I would like to install a Gnome based distribution which is as stable and fast as Slackware.

Any recommendations?

Mega Man X · 10-25-2008, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tamtam

After tinkering without much success with Solaris. I now find I have spare disk space on which I can tinker about with another distro.

So the idea is that I would like to install a Gnome based distribution which is as stable and fast as Slackware.

Any recommendations?

Give FreeBSD a shot. It is pretty solid and the documentation is great. It is not a distro, but then again, nor is Solaris

hitest · 10-25-2008, 11:24 AM

I'm running FreeBSD 7.0 in a dual boot with Slackware 12.1. FreeBSD is a rock-solid OS. Lilo plays very nicely with FreeBSD:-)

H_TeXMeX_H · 10-25-2008, 12:26 PM

How about Slackware + Dropline GNOME ?

Try the distro test in my sig, it will tell you what others there might be.

hitest · 10-25-2008, 07:56 PM

If you're into Gnome for Slackware in addition to DLG you can also use GSB:

http://gnomeslackbuild.org/download/

dugan · 10-25-2008, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hitest

If you're into Gnome for Slackware in addition to DLG you can also use GSB:

http://gnomeslackbuild.org/download/

Gnome SlackBuild is great.

I, however, am happily using Gnome Slacky.

MannyNix · 10-25-2008, 08:14 PM

If you just want another distro to play with, archlinux is nice too.

(not as stable as Slackware, maybe)

tamtam · 10-27-2008, 09:47 AM

Thanks for the suggestions guys, although I am not looking to run Gnome on Slackware. I previously run Slack 11 with Dropline and found that after installing I never used it. Looking for something different so will give FreeBSD a try.

niels.horn · 10-27-2008, 11:10 AM

If you want risk-free installations of other distros or Unix-like operating systems, you might consider installing in a virtual machine first. If you mess up there, you can start from zero without impact (just delete the VM).
After playing around in the VM and feeling comfortable with it, you can do your real install on your hard drive.

I have installed several Unices this way, including OpenSolaris, Minix, FreeBSD, and distros like Fedora, Debian, and others.

Personally I use VMware, but there are other solutions available.

amani · 10-27-2008, 11:14 AM

Ubuntu or Debian or Foresight

ErV · 10-27-2008, 12:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amani

Ubuntu

Wouldn't recommend it, because OP wants

Quote:

Gnome based distribution which is as stable and fast as Slackware.

To my experience Ubuntu is VERY slow when compared to slackware...

RJ @slackware · 10-27-2008, 12:51 PM

right on the money ErV....

hitest · 10-27-2008, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tamtam

Looking for something different so will give FreeBSD a try.

FreeBSD is an excellent choice. The FreeBSD handbook is an excellent source of information as you prepare to install. Sysinstall is similar in appearance, functionality to our Slackware ncurses installer.

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...ook/index.html

tamtam · 10-28-2008, 05:45 AM

Hi hitest,

whats your lilo look like to boot freebsd. I currently have grub as my bootloader as required to boot solaris. Going to restore lilo. Installed FreeBSD, or thought I did. Getting the boot error and F?. Going to reformat the drive in FAT32 with fdisk or cfisk and reinstall. My system is as follows..

Quote:

In Slackware Speak...

hda1 - Windows XP.
hda2 - Slackware \
hda3 - Swap
hda4 - Slackware \home

hdb - FreeBSD

bgeddy · 10-28-2008, 07:13 AM

Hi tamtam - I know you addressed you your question to hitest but as I run Windows, Slackware and FreeBSD I thought this might help.

I only have the one hard disk partitioned like so:

Code:

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        6374    51199123+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            6375        7011     5116702+  a5  FreeBSD
/dev/sda3            7012       20357   107201745   83  Linux
/dev/sda4           20358       38913   149047136+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5           20358       26809    51820512+  83  Linux
/dev/sda6           26809       27052     1951866   83  Linux
/dev/sda7           27052       27295     1951866   82  Linux swap
/dev/sda8           27295       28511     9767488+  83  Linux
/dev/sda9           28511       28997     3903763+  83  Linux
/dev/sda10          28997       38427    75746443+  83  Linux
/dev/sda11          38427       38913     3904976    b  W95 FAT32

and the corresponding lilo.conf to boot Vista, Slackware 12.0 and FreeBSD looks like this :

Code:

# LILO configuration file
lba32 # Allow booting past 1024th cylinder with a recent BIOS
menu-title = " ** DELLHOST ** "
compact
boot = /dev/sda
default=Linux_Initrd
prompt
timeout = 1200
change-rules
reset
vga = 773
# Windows bootable partition config begins
other = /dev/sda1
label = Windows
table = /dev/sda
# Windows bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz-generic-smp-2.6.21.5-smp
initrd=/boot/initrd.gz
root = /dev/sda6
label = Linux_Initrd
read-only
#
image = /boot/vmlinuz-huge-smp-2.6.21.5-smp
root = /dev/sda6
label = Linux_Huge
read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends
# BSD
other=/dev/sda4
label=FreeBSD
table=/dev/sda
#

Note that this FreeBSD stanza loads FreeBSD's bootloader. You should easily be able to adapt this to suit.