General :: Recommendations For A Simple Rolling Distro?
Jun 4, 2010
Assistance in choosing a no frills rolling Linux Distro. Over the past few months have gotten my feet wet with Mepis, Linux Mint, Ubuntu and other distros. I really like these Linux distros. However, I dislike the need to frequently "reinstall" a distro as often as every 6 months just to keep it updated.
My computer:
PC with 1.4 GHz Athlon
512 RAM
320 Gig hard drive partitioned equally between Windows XP and a Linux Distro.
My computer is used primarily as a jukebox connected to my stereo system, and for email, browsing, etc. I am not a gamer.I'm tired of Windows and its problems; malware, viruses, and currently if I upgrade to Windows 7, I'll need a new computer just to meet the hardware requirements when what I have works for my needs, but the XP operating system is becoming obsolete.
I've been an ubuntu user and fan , i love itm and i think it's a perfect OS, now i heard some bad news and It is " Canonical want to change ubuntu to a rolling release distro like Arch linux! Is this true .
I am looking for a distro with an extremely simple desktop interface. I am looking for something as simple as the iPad where you can only run 1 application and it gets maximized. You click an icon and... you get that. Also the hardware is well described as "Aging," it is not dual-core, and may be as low as 64mb of RAM.
This is because the computer will basically be used as a simple game machine, and by game I mean Minesweeper and Solitaire. For Multiplayer games maybe virtual board games on a single screen, no LAN type stuff. Also I do not want the primary users of this computer to be able to access anything besides exactly what I determine they are supposed to. Basically what we want is something that is Child-Safe and Child-Simple. There will be no internet browsing or document creation or anything complicated.
Now I am not saying however that there won't be a possible user login that does have access to a full complement of software programs, just that I need to be able to setup at least one login that meets the criteria I specified. I have used Ubuntu in a few iterations, I can use a terminal with some internet help, and consider myself "Technical." Primarily I will be managing the software.
I'm a low-demand home desktop user concerned mainly with OS stability and simplicity. Current setup is dual-boot PC with Ubuntu10.04+Mint9. I use my PC mainly to write, using Word on Wine. Even more boring: I connect to net via external dialup modem. Both Ubuntu10.04+Mint9 seem excellent but have tons of features I don't need.
Is there a distro that will trade off advanced features in exchange for stability and reliability? I've read that Mepis is among the most rock-stable distros, with no attempts to be cutting-edge. Is this the case? Is there another distro emphasizing stability and simplicity? Must be a simple install, like Ubuntu+Mint. Must work well with Wine and dialup.
He's on dial-up so getting updates and installing packages such as restricted extras would be painful. I'm thinking Mint but have little personal experience with distros beyond Ubuntu.
I've used worked with gentoo for a little while but I kind of get annoyed by the rolling release. It seems that I need to emerge something every week. So I was wondering if there was a source based distro that had a dated release of stable packages, kind of like ubuntu. The primary use of this distro will be for my latitude 2100 net-book with touchscreen and an atom processor, so it will need to have a fairly new kernel. Also, I love the way gentoo is built from scratch. It allows for a very clean system. I would be happy with either linux or bsd based system. Also, since it is this is a notebook, I would like to be able to compile through a nfs network so i can use the resources from another system.
I am using Ubuntu 10.04LTS and receive regular software updates. Being a silver-surfer I frequent an old fogies site called "Beyond the realms of AOL - forumotion.net" where we share memories and the like. The site (message board) has a rolling menu which up until recently worked on my computer ... now it doesn't! When I log-in, the rolling menu pops up for a second and then disappears. I get the feeling that one of the regular upgrades has removed a plugin or something from my system. I have Adobe Flash 10 (latest version) installed ... perhaps I'm missing something!It has to be my system because the rolling menu works perfectly well using Windows XP.
I noticed over the weekend that there don't appear to be any new stories showing up at linuxtoday.com. Does anyone know what's up? Any recommendations for a suitable replacement?
I am so fed up with my Sony HDR that is already obsolete. As I am a linux geek, I have been thinking on building my own media central. Reading various hardware support list gives some information about if a card works or not, but not if its good. Also, I would like to buy a card from a vendor that actively supports linux. Can someone recommend a really good DVB-T card?
I would need: DVB-T support.Radio as an option.Two or more channels, three seems like the maximum that I would ever need, but who knows. Doesn't matter if its one or two cards, as long as it works. CAM support. Additional card or built in. I have no idea of how this works actually, but I think the CA module must support mpeg4 too? HDTV/Mpeg4 support (Software is fine, I guess.) I would also need a good remote control (bluetooth) that not neccesarily needs to come with the card, and a decent fanless graphics card that handles hdtv on linux...
I'm still kinda new to linux. I've been learning my way around the command line and been experimenting with linux on a couple computers of mine. Occasionally after trying a few things, grub or linux won't load right. I've done some research on possible tools to help but I was wondering if any of the more experienced users had some recommendations for boot disk or tools to help repair grub and/or linux desktop/server editions.
p.s. I would also be interested in any fun and interesting tools, programs, and/or repository's that other users have found beneficial.
My foray into Linux is one of hopeful necessity:I have a friend who doesn't have any comp & whose son is leaving for the military. I have an old pc I was planning to recycle but instead would like to see if it can be put back into use.She has wireless service in her apt building which she would like to access. I don't know if the versions of Linux that are light duty enough to operate on such a low end machine still suwifi networking... (I will have to download it at home to a mac, burn it to cd & install from there)? Is it possible to install a wireless card into an old P3/128mb ram (IBM 6564/GL300) and get it working?
i'm a college student studying pc programing, and i was given today a special work and i have to program using miranda... which i've never used it >.< can anyone give me a hand to where to download, how to compile, and a simple tutorial for making a simple program or something?
I know on Windows boxes you can defrag and run disk checks on large file shares to find and fix errors. What would be the equivolent to those for an ext3 800GB samba share containing pictures, documents, and videos? Is their online vs. offline (during a reboot) things that should be done?
I've been using Xubuntu consistently as my main and only distro for some time now and I'm considering coming over to Debian. My question is about the screen rolling when I run the live CD. I'll scroll with the mouse wheel on my desktop and if I scroll one way with a browser window open, for example, the entire browser toolbar area scrolls away, and scrolling the other brings back the browser toolbar area but then hides the panel. I've only run the live CD, not installed, and I use one panel on the bottom. The times I've tried the latest Debian I've deleted the stock bottom launcer panel then moved the top panel to the bottom as I traditionally do in Xubuntu. Is what I'm describing a feature ? Either way can this scroll effect be disabled ? This isn't how I would like my desktop to behave, and I'd like to try out a full install.
I want to use a rolling release. I have distro hopped and know I want Debian (not a derivative like LMDE) and a rolling release. Is testing updated so you never have to do an upgrade or re-install when a new version is out? Or, do you have to add Sid Repos to never do another re-install when new version comes out?
I added a PPA repository to my sources list in order to install a package. After a day, i decided i didn't like the software, so i uninstalled it & removed the PPA from my sources list. Everything is still working just fine.
However, Synaptic is telling me that there is a "local or obsolete" package left over from the software i had originally installed. I can't remove the package because it is something that my entire desktop depends on (in Synaptic Package Manager, when i mark it for "Complete Removal," or even just "Removal," it says that pretty much everything else will be removed with it).The package i would like to "roll back" is libgtk2.0-common (2.24.0-1.1). although i had originally got this from a PPA, a very close version is available on Debian experimental here, which is version (2.24.0-1).
I, someday in my life, tried to add GUI to my installation of ubuntu server 8.04 LTS (don't ask me why, ). The problem is, I gave up before the instalation had finished, and some packages became broken. Now, everytime I try to install a new package, aptitude forces me to also install the dependencies of the previously "installed" packages, like abiword, xinit and so on.
The worst part: I don't remember what package I used to try this installation (x-window-system-core, gnome, gnome-core, {k,x,}ubuntu-desktop...).
Does anybody have any suggestions??? I must fix this as soon as possible, because this server is already at production...
The output from aptitude is listed below (just the list of suggested [imposed] packages):
Code: The following NEW packages will be automatically installed: abiword abiword-common abiword-help abiword-plugins aspell aspell-en dictionaries-common doc-base docbook-xml dvipdfmx gnome-icon-theme
Lubuntu is nice - but it seems the LXDE version is not as up to date as Fedora LXDE Spin or even Debian squeeze with LXDE installed. I do like Chromium on Lubuntu though... its faster and a nice touch. I am looking for a lightweight 64-bit distribution for my main laptop (it is by no means "old" or "low spec" but I like that Lubuntu starts up in like 2 secs).
LXDE version seems not to be recent (esp in 10.04 version which seems to work more stably for me - with Nvidia drivers etc)64 bit install is currently a pain - requires first install of minimal CD or alternate CD both of which required wired Ethernet, then install of lubuntu from PPA. Native 64-bit support would be nice. Linux Mint LXDE, for example, is also only 32-bit.
I'm trying to run 'grub-install /dev/sda', it stays stuck on 'Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub' after leaving it for an hour, nothing happens. I have tried removing all Grub related packages and installing grub-legacy several times, to no avail.
The machine is quite an old one and is an offline sandbox for a friends kid who likes to tinker with older OSes. The hard disk has failed in it so I have donated an old drive to get the machine back up and running for him, as the menu.lst is a lot easier to modify than the newer grub.cfg, he would like the older grub back.
I've done a few searches particular for Debian 8, but the closest I can find is for Ubuntu here, [URL] ....
I have tried to use both the grub rescue disk and the command line listed in the link above.
I am having trouble with netatalk after rolling out 11.4 on my home server. I am using the same conf files from my previous 11.3 setup. I use netatalk for my macs as it tends to work better than samba.
I can access the afp volumes if I enter the full unc in finder (afp://server/data). The problem is that if I try to browse to the server via finder (click on the server icon) I get a connection fail. With 11.3 this would simply list out all available volumes.
Before upgrading from Fedora 13 to v.14, VLC Media Player (v1.1.9) worked perfectly. But under Fedora 14, when I try to use it to play .AVI files that played perfectly under Fedora 13 (with the same hardware), VLC opens, stalls for a second, then closes. I've tried several files -- all of which play under Movie Player (and DID play on VLC under Fedora 13), so I know the files themselves are valid. I'd like either to have VLC work under Fedora 14, or revert back to Fedora 13 and permanently block any future upgrade to 14. easy way of rolling back to v.13 without losing my configurations or any of my installed software? Would using a Fedora 13 CD do it?
I recently bought a 37" Vizio M370NV HDTV and connected it to my Kubuntu 10.10 desktop.Currently my resolution is 1280x1024, so there is black bars on the side of my screen. I want my resolution to be 1920x1080, which is what the TV/monitor says is it's primary resolution. However, when I set that resolution in nvidia-settings, my screen scrolls up. By that I mean that my screen keeps moving up my monitor and appearing at the bottom.
I tried installing 10.04 via Wubi on a friend's notebook and have hit problems with the display. The installation seemed to proceed OK (took ages to download / install - left it running overnight) until it came to boot to Ubuntu. The GRUB menu appears OK, but choosing Ubuntu leads to a blank screen with some icons at the bottom, which is displayed for a few seconds, then the (login?) screen just shows rolling display, like an out-of-tune analogue TV. I suspect that I need a graphics driver or something? The notebook is a logiQ notebook, with 128MB SiS Mirage-3 graphics.
I have a linux box set up as a multi-purpose server for my home with three Windows client PC's. The linux box is based on a slightly modified Slackware 9.0 distribution using Linux 2.4.20 and an unfortinately old, slow AMD processor with a miserable 512Kb RAM. The linux box serves the CIFS file system to the Windows boxes, runs the SQUID HTTP proxy, the Apache web server, a print server, does masquerading, mail serving and a very effective firewall using iptables.
This system, although slow, has run perfectly for several years.Let me say that again - This system works perfectly.I had decided that now is the time to upgrade the hardware, so I bought a Gigabyte LGA775 motherboard which has two 1Gb network interfaces on it, an ASUS 256Mb PCI-E display card, 2Gb of DDR3 RAM, an Intel Core2-Quad processor and a bunch of 500Gb SATA drives to set up a RAID5 array (but I intend that the system boot off one of several 40Gb PATA drives I have).I set up the processor, motherboard, display card, RAM, a SATA DVD Drive and a 40Gb PATA hard disk in a "breadboard" layout and installed distro 13.1, being careful to set up the static IP for the local network, dhcpcd to get an IP address from the cable modem (my internet connection) and to enable ip_forward in the network configuration.
Then I installed a script invoked by /etc/rc.d/rc.local which installed all the SAME iptables rules as my old Linux box. There was one minor glitch when I had to change 8 occurrences of "-d ! $LOCAL_NET to" "! --destination $LOCAL_NET" but that was no problem. I also set up /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/hosts , the BIND server files etc. etc. exactly as in the old box.
I am able to ping mirror.aarnet.edu.au (this is at the heart of Australia's internet hub network - if it's down the whole bloody thing is down) and have the system find the correct IP from the designated nameservers and contact that server with a return trip time of 35ms. I am able to run a telnet session from one of the Windows boxes and edit files on the Linux server. So both network interfaces work and I've got them the right way around.I am able to run FTP on one of the Windows boxes and connect through to mirror.aarnet.edu.au, although it seems to hang when I try a DIR (but then so does the old linux system).
I installed ubuntu on a spare computer that i have and i need to write some simple programs in C. Only problem is that i'm not sure how to do that. Do i need to install some sort of C compiler?
how (or what to use) to build a simple GUI on an embedded Linux system? I am using the Linux distribution Angstrom with a gcc compiler, and need to draw graphics on the screen. Preferably NOT in X11, but in a console only image. Are there simple graphics commands in C that will draw circles, boxes, and lines?
I have written this simple script to delete files and keep a log i have put this script in crond job
The script check the test directory in /home/francis if it encounters a file which is a 30 days old it must delete that file and place the file deleted in mylogs as a log report the script works fine i manually i have two problems:
First when the script ram the first time it generated the log of the files it deleted but the next day when i came it deleted the file but no log was generated
Secondly i run the script every day at 9 am this is the entry made in crond file * 9 * * * ~path to file but it seems to run every minute i even triedseperating the fields by tabs still the same
I would like to pipe a raw email from cPanel to curl, using curl to send the raw email via a post variable.wever, I am unsure of the command line syntax that would receive the piped email and post using curl.Ideally, the email would pipe to the curl command "curl -d 'emailvar=RAWEMAILHERE'
