Linux Installation

SARA Get with the Penguin ! Part 1

The Penguin is the symbol for Linux, the opened source operating system that is being used by millions. Actually it is much more than just an operating system. It is an operating system plus many useful ?packages? that come with it and it mostly depends on which Linux you choose, I chose Mandrake 9.2 because it was recommended at this web site: http://www.n9nu.net/linux/linux.php which was in an article in one of the QST magazines, but Mandrake 10 became available right after I got my disks. Some have heard that Linux is free. Well, it can be if you choose to download it, but with a standard modem that could take a week or more. The east way is to just spend a few $ and get Linux on CD disks. Nearly all packages (over 50,000 reported to date) are free for downloading also. I doubt if there is anything that most of us are currently doing that cannot be done with Linux without purchasing software. Both Microsoft and a virus are my reasons for making the switch. For years I have used a Macintosh and never been attacked by a virus, but when I bought a PC so I could run radio programs like PSK31 and MMSSTV I had a virus within a month. Linux is a much more secure system than windows. You have much more control, but it comes with a price (effort.) I feel the effort is worth it. Linux does seem to be an extremely powerful system, but that power does require learning and effort. You might think that I will loose everything on the computer that I have in the Windows environment, but that is not always the case. If you have sufficient disk capacity you can run Windows and Linux as a dual boot system and Linux can access nearly all Windows files. I had tested one version of LINUX without even installing it. I borrowed a book from the Library that had a bootable CD version of Linux (there are several versions like this.) The name of the book is ?Moving to LINUX, Kiss the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye!:? This book is also an excellent LINUX tutorial and it should be read by all interested in exploring LINUX as an alternative to 'WINDOWS. “ After a short test I figured that I could keep all of my old files and have access to nearly all of them through Linux. I had a problem though, my disk was insufficient. If you have a small disk and really want both systems it is recommended just to get another HD for Linux. I chose to clear my disk and loose all previous data. Windows ran so poorly that it was practically useless anyway. If you have a new computer with a large HD it can be partitioned or can add a second HD you will have little difficulty. I would say that you want to allow at least 5 Gigs for Linux, much more if possible, I only have a 6 gig drive and it seems sufficient. Information about Linux is readily available in books and on the internet. I would suggest the above mentioned book and also a book entitled ? LINUS TORVALDS, JUST FOR FUN.? This book describes how Linux came to be. .

So far I have found 36 versions of Linux readily available so choosing which version can be a problem. Below are 3 web sites where Linux disks can be purchased at a reasonable cost. http://www.cheaplinux.org/v0.1/index.php http://almostfreelinux.com/ http://www.osdepot.com/

Of course you can download most (maybe all) of the versions for free, but you really do need a broadband connection for that.

I would suggest that anyone interested in possible making a move to Linux to do plenty or research, ask many questions and join a Linux users group. I joined the Wftl-lug user group. It is an email reflector and you can get all emails sent to the reflector. The folks at this reflector are absolutely great. It is hard to explain how helpful they were to me in getting my Mandrake installed properly and functioning. You can always unjoin if you choose to. http://www.marcelgagne.com/wftllugform.html.

One thing I should mention, and this is important. In order to install Linux you have to know EVERYTHING about your equipment. Most modems will not work on Linux, external modems seem to work best, win modems rarely work at all. Also, I am having problems with Linux recognizing my sound card (I may have to invest in another sound care.) I had a lot of trouble with the install because I did not know about my graphic card and monitor. If you don' give Linux the right information the install becomes useless. I have to say, moving to Linux is not for wimps. I have heard that Mandrake is one of the hardest for installing so it might not be so bad with other versions, I do not know for sure.

Look for Part 2, The installation of LINUX and More, I may have to write several more installments about this system. It is extensive.

Mike KB1DXC ``When you say `I wrote a program that crashed Windows', people just stare at you blankly and say `Hey, I got those with the system, for free'.'' - Linux Torvalds

To be continued in future editions of the Squelch Burst.

The installation of LINUX

Penguin Part 2, July Mandrake 9.2 Installation

The first thing that I have to mention about installation. Not all CD's work on all computers. I say this because the first set of Mandrake 9.2 disks just did not work. I contacted the folks where I purchased the disks and they did send me another set. This did delay installation quite a while.

If you desire to maintain your current operating system it will be necessary to do a defrag on your hard disk and partition it or another option would be to have a second hard drive just for Linux. The price has come down considerably on hard drives lately. Either way will work, but the second hard drive is the easiest and safest way for the dual boot system.

If you are going to maintain a dual boot system, I would recommend that you set your computer to boot off of the floppy drive and install LILO (gives you boot choices) on the floppy. This way you may be able to maintain instant booting into Window by removing he floppy. At least I think this is how it works. I have LILO on the floppy even though I do not have dual boot.

The second most important thing to realize is that installing a full install on Mandrake and some other Linux versions is quite a bit more than just an operating system and requires considerable disk space. Originally I had partitioned a 6 gig drive with 4 gigs for Windoz and 2 gigs for Linux. My installation is on a very old computer. Well, all I had room to install was a very minimal installation that did nothing for me. I threw destiny to the wind and cleared Windoz and all of my files. They were useless anyway because Windoz never worked very well and I never turned on the computer . So, I would recommend at least 5 gigs just for the install, but 6 or more would be much better. If the installation is on a modern computer I would allow half
of the disk, in many cases this would be 40 or more gigs.

Next, you do need to know just about everything there is to know about your hardware. Gather every bit of information on your disk drives, CD drive, sound card, modem, graphic card, mouse, keyboard, and all of your add-ons like the printer, scanner, web cam, DVD drive or anything else that you will want to use with Linux. The install requests information about these things (Mandrake does, I don't know about other installations. There may be issues with some hardware and it may not be compatible. I did have to get an
external modem before I could get on line (Thank You Fred, and Thank You Bob) I have not got the sound working yet and the printer and web cam that I have are apparently not compatible. So some research would be warranted before you go all out and clean off your current system as I did. You may prefer to wait until you know that everything will be compatible and work right away after the install. Compatibility information is available on the WWW.

BTW, because I was unprepared without all of the information I did have to go through the installation several times before I got the monitor and the GUI (Graphical Users Interface) to function properly. Having a local Linux expert would have certainly helped me, but I did have the on line support from the
WFTL_Lug email reflector ( http://www.salmar.com/mailman/listinfo/wftl-lug ). Those guys are top-notch. Without their help I would have been in deep trouble.

Attention modem users only. Mandrake 9.2 assumes that you will have a broadband connection so the part of the installation necessary for connecting with a modem is not in the installation and has to be added after the fact. It is on the disk though. It is "kppp". This did cause me some grief until someone else actually downloaded the same version and found out why I had a problem. I can help some with this if necessary. Folks with broadband should not have a problem getting connected.

I do now have Linux in my PC and it is fully functional except that some of my hardware is not compatible and that will be corrected over time. If you are into instant gratification I would suggest your interest in Linux would be better satisfied by purchasing a computer with Linux already installed. This option is becoming more available rapidly.

Coming Next: What programs are installed along with the Mandrake operating system.

Mike
KB1DXC

Part 3, The Programs installed with Mandrake 9.2

As mentioned Mandrake 9.2 is much more than just an operating system. It is also a collection of very useful programs. I will attempt to relate to you about the applications.

Nearly everyone that has a computer gets onto the internet and surfs the web, sends email, uses instant messages, and some use other internet service such as IRC and FTP. Mandrake is stuffed with internet applications.

The theory of having choices here is to try all the choices, choose one And uninstall what you don't like. Doing part 3 is good for me as I have to check out ever darned application on the system, and I had barely touched the surface prior to today.

I should mention that there appear to be help files for all of these some of the applications are very extensive. There is also plenty of documentation on the web if what is supplied is not sufficient. Have you heard about Xmag. It is an application to magnify parts of your display. There are 2 file compression applications, Ark and File-Roller.

For communications there is Gnomemeeting, I presume for group internet chats, KdeprintFax and Kfax I assume for faxing. I have nobody to fax to right now. Maybe I will try faxing my resume to some uninterested company.

There are 5 Development applications, these are for programmers, not much sense in me attempting to figure them out. There are also 8 Development tools program capable of doing personal and business accounting. A view of this told me that it is probably as good as that PeachTree thing I used when I had a job.

There is an entire section for Monitoring. You can really monitor what is going on in your system. Bear in mind that Linux is used extensively as a network server and much of this stuff is beyond me. Here is a list of these app's. GNOME System Monitor, KDE System Guard (I should mention that KDE is the Graphic
interface that I use. I do have the graphic interface GNOME installed that I have only tried once. There are KDiskFree and KwikDisk, for disk access and control. Ksim appears to monitor disk activity. Mtink -Epson inkjet printer maintenance and ink level monitor. Print Jobs is for spooling print jobs. There is a system log, but you need to go into root to use it. This would be a good time to mention that Linux is set up in a manner that users are given permissions and root is all encompassing. While in root you can change the system, add to it remove from it and you can also ruin it. So Linux users only go into root when absolutely necessary. Xconsole and Konsole are a way into the text based side of Linux. The test based side of Linux is very powerful and can speed things up when you know how to use it properly. Also, some stuff just cannot be done through the GUI and the text side is needed. There is Xkill, I have not figured this thing out and I am not sure what it is. The same thing goes for Xrefresh.

Publishing tools are KGhostView and Unicode Character Map. GhostView was transparent to me and I could not see what it is for. The Unicode Character Map however shows you all of the various characters in the fonts and Languages. I did not recognize much here and there are many screens of characters to see.
There are 2 math tools, KCalk, a Scientific calculator and Gnuplot, I assume for making plots, that is beyond me. There are 3 Text tools, GNOME Dictionary, KChar Select (for selecting characters other than the standard letters and numbers) and Kjots which appears to be for making notes, it looks like a simplified text editor to me. There is Galeon, a web browser that I am not real familiar with as yet. Then there is Konqueror, the default web browser for Mandrake. It has such features as the ability to block popup adds and to control cookies. It also has ?Tabs?. With tabs you can have several web sites loaded at the same time without having multiple windows opened. I find it a very good feature. It has a terminal emulator, you can split the screen with left and right or top and bottom. There are many keystroke shortcuts with Konqueror, for instance, just typing gg into the address bar takes you to google.com. And it links to Kmail for sending email. Next there is Mozilla and Mozilla Composer. Mozilla is another web browser that is set up to look like Netscape. It has many of the same features that Konqueror has. The tools for Mozilla are Form Manager, Cookie Manager, Image Manager, Popup Manager, Password Manger, Download Manager and a Web Development JavaScript Console. It has a Full Screen mode that is easily turned on and off. It also gives you Text Views from 50% to 200% or you can type in and % you like. I just tested it for 500%. This is an excellent feature if you lost your glasses. You can swing over to the Composer either from the menu or with keystrokes. The Composer is for building web pages. I have not worked with this yet, so I have no input on it as yet. There is Quanta Plus. This appears to be a browser of the system. You can surf your system just like you can surf the web. It opens up to your home directory where you will store all of your files.

Last is Screem, the Creation and Editing Environment. This appears to be a complete document control center for creating and editing files. I will have to investigate this program when I get some time. For email there are 2 applications. Kmail is the default program and I like it. Evolution is very similar to Microsoft Outlook. I will say that I do like the spell checker in Kmail very much. It is superior to the spell checker that I have been using in Netscape Navigator on my Mac.

For File transfer there are also 2 applications. Kbear looks to be a program for transferring files around the system using the GUI and it is an FTP client. I have not done any FTP as yet with Linux. There is also gFTP which seems like a standard type FTP client. I will have to test both of these to see which I prefer. For instant messaging there is Gaim. You can set up accounts in Gaim for AIM/ICQ, Yahoo, MSN, IRC, Jabber, Napster, Zephyr and Gadu-Gadu. I never new there were so many instant message servers. I have only tried with AIM so far and it does work for that.

There is Xchat for IRC, no experience with this yet. I am not big into IRC but I will set it up.

For Newsgroups there are 2 applications. I have set up the Knode. You should all check out alt.radio.amateur. There is also Pan. It appears to be much more extensive that the newsgroup program in Netscape. I will have to try this one, it may be better than Knode, but it is all personal preferences anyway.

For remote access there are Kppp for modem connections (not in standard installation, I had to add this), LinNeighborhood (for networks I think), Telnet, TightVNC (for connecting to VNC servers. I don't know what they are) and Virtual Network Connection.

For amusement there are 2 Arcade Games, I am not a gamer but they do work, totally boring.

Multimedia, now here is another entire world including Graphics, Sound and Video.

For Graphics I have FLPhoto (GPhoto 2), FTKam (GPhoto 2). The first 2 are for managing your digital camera pictures. Image Magick display is a Graphic manipulation application, Kooka is a scanning application, Ksnapshot is for a screen capture and finally The GIMP. The GIMP looks like it can give Photo Shop a big run for its money and it comes on the disk.

On the sound side of things, there is KAudio Creator. This looks like it is for manipulating CD?s so you can make new Tracks out of the old Tracks. KsCD is for playing your audio CD?s. Last is Totem Media Player for playing DVD, VCD and CD?s, I think it views movies also.

Lastly for Multimedia is Totem Movie Player, guess what it does.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the Mandrake Control Center. This is where all system configurations are handled. Such as manage your software, add or remove users, view system logs, set up your security (firewalls etc.), set up the internet, define and resize drive partitions, set up sharing hardware, setting up hardware, changing screen resolution, set up a TV card, set up printers, etc. etc. etc. The system puts you in control of everything, are you up to the challenge?

Well, I have gone through the menu of applications. As you can see, Mandrake 9.2 is much more than just an operating system. I will probably never use all of these applications but I am sure I will use some of them extensively. After I have had ample opportunity to try everything I will uninstall the apps that I know I will never use. This will free up more disk space for me. If the description of what you get on the disks does not satisfy you, don't worry.

I have read that there are about 50,000 possible downloads for Linux. Perhaps they won't all work on the distribution that you choose but you will still have more than you could imagine. Also, all of the radio programs are available like SSTV, PSK31 and Echolink.

The next part will finalize this series about Linux. In it I will give my critique and opinion of Linux. I will wait a while to write it as I need to do much more testing of the applications.

"When you say `I wrote a program that crashed Windows', people just stare at you blankly and say `Hey, I got those with the system, for free'.'' - Linus Torvalds.

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Thursday, September 02, 2004