hi, well, what I would like to do is that i am getting a new computer and it will have removeable hardrives and so I have 1 60 gb hard drive that dosn't have an os on it at all so was thinking of using it for linux if posable. or, do i need to have another os on there to work with linux? charles On 2002-03-08 blinux-list@redhat.com said: >"Joel Zimba" <jzimba@erols.com> writes: >> My thought is this. Assume there's such a thing as a generic >>computer out there... which there is starting to be: >> some kind-o-pentium with a processor from severa vendors (yes yes, >>I know pentium means intel, but linux isn't that picky) >> if we assume a generically huge hard disk and of course a sound >>card, how complex would the cm be to come up with a distribution >>or just a bootable cd (problem in itself) that would at least >talk out of the box... I once did a bootable live CD with tmpfs and >brltty. WOrked quite well. DId that using the nice debian system. >Basicly, you just use debootstrap to make a chroot >system, chroot into it, and set it up until all the >packages you like/need are there, and the config is right. >Then you check the size again, maybe add/remove something, >and make a bootable image out of it using mkisofs. >That worked, and was basicly work of about 5 hours. >The more problematic areas are: >Repartitioning, >hardware detection. >1. Repartitioning is what most users who switch >need. Nearly no one buys a extra computer for Linux >experiments these days, and a second hard disk >isnt always availablle too. >Hardware detection: You talked about soundcards, yeah. For most >of them, including all drivers in the kernel on the CD >works fine, some others need tweaking which isnt simple >if the thing is on a CD. >Also, it would be nice to have a simple braille driver >detection program, separate from all those different >screen readers. That prog should just scan ttyS0-3 and probably >even the USB bus for a braille display and return an identification >strhing. This that tool, one could build a nice >autodetecting braille driver start script. >Same applies for voice synths of course... >> recorded .wavs would be less desirable then tts, but might do in >>a pinch... at least enough to bootstrap someone... preferably >>without having to own various kinds of somewhat compatible >assistive technology products. Yeah, the idea of a soundcard as >synth is good. But we shouldn't forget about people actually having >some asssistive technologies hardware. >> It woulden't even have to be a full system, but it must easily >>migrate to a full installation. >I can only say, debian! Didnt find any other distro >which has such a nice upgrade process. >> I'm thinking maximize stability and do our best to keep the change >> monsters from getting out of control. >Reading that sentence, its probably better to try >to work at debian boot-floppies for a voice install? >Then, we could integrate that effort into debian itself very easily, >and wouldnt need to care about maintaining the other packages >(keeping them up-to-date...) >> just imagine a free or inexpensive cd shoved into a dirt cheap >>computer ($50 for a reasonably powerful machine these days) and >>bang, net access... and alll the gnu software you could want. >As I said, a live bootable CD is easy. >Just try it yourself. >-- >CYa, >Mario >_______________________________________________ > >Blinux-list@redhat.com >https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list Net-Tamer V 1.11 - Test Drive