Hi, Ed. Well, I would suggest Red Hat 7.2 myself. If you have access to a high speed internet connection, and a cdrom burner there is a version of Red Hat 7.2 on the Linux Speakup site that has Speakup already built in. It has boot disks to help you with a self voicing install, etc. Red Hat was my first distribution, and still is my favorite distribution. Fpor newbies it has quite a lot to offer. The sound configuration tools, kudzu hardware maniger, and other configuration tools to help you get it going. Your partitioning sounds good. It would be a vary good idea to put /home on /dev/hdb. I will leave it up to others to give specifics on partitioning they use. ----- Original Message ----- From: Ed Barnes <ed.barnes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: linux speakup listserve <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> Sent: Friday, February 22, 2002 11:22 AM Subject: choosing a distro and version > Hi again folks, hope nobody is sick of hearing from me yet, if so, I'm > sorry. > nevertheless, I was looking at the speakup web site, in particular available > information on Debian and Red Hat Linux distroes. > I am debating choosing to setup either a Debian or a Red Hat system as my > first Linux system > I have spoken with some Linux users locally and the general consensus from > those who have used both distroes is that for a first-timer Red Hat might be > an easier setup and that after I have successfully conquered setting up a > Red Hat box I would have enough skill to conquer setup of Debian and/or > Slackware as desired. > Any thoughts? > The system which I was planning to use and dedicate to setting up Linux as > its only operating system is a Pentium II 233 MHZ w 64 mb of ram and two > HDs, it has a sound blaster pro sound card, and it will have a Symbios Logic > pci video adapter or an Sys chip set based AGP though I am leaning toward > using the AGP so as to be able to use the extra pci slot for something more > practical like one of the nics. > I know that I should create a min of three partitions, /home, /root, and a > swap partition. > I have rough ideas of how big I want these partitions to be based on what I > wish to do with the server from a functional point of view. > The two HDs are 1.6 gb and 2 gb in size respectively. > From a point of view of incorporating some level of fault tolerance in the > system I was thinking the root partition and the swap partition should go on > /dev/hda and the home partition should go on /dev/hdb. > This would make system backup more convenient as I would only have > to backup the /dev/hdb drive to save user data. > In the event that I do anything to cause the kernel to blow up I could > simply flatten /dev/hda and re-install it and re-create the user accounts > whose data is still stored on /dev/hdb and or my backups. > I was figuring that I would optimize hd space usage by using the 2 gb > drive as /dev/hda and use the 1.6 gb as /dev/hdb as I don't estimate that my > system would have any more than 2 too 5 users, root, an user account, for > myself, and one too three accounts that I might create to facilitate my own > fooling around and attempting to learn more about Linux aside from the > accounts which some Linux services, processes create after they are compiled > into the kernel and started. > I was also thinking of putting a min of two nics into the system so it could > be used to store a dynamic routing table for dns and create an ip subnet > mask so though I am paying for only one ip through my cable internet service > provider all the machines I have at home could both access the internet and > be accessed from the internet by me. > I know that steps to create an ip subnet mask and setup dns are well > documented at linuxdoc.org and I enjoy reading tech docs as required so I > won't bor you guys with questions that have already been answered elsewhere. > I have read the readme files pertaining to speakup when it is installed with > both Red Hat 7 and 7.2 respectively and I already have copies of both > versions gotten directly from a Red Hat mirror. > Due to the fact that easy-to-use boot disk images are available for 7.0 and > I don't need to modify any software which I already have other than > downloading the appropriate boot image and using rawrite to copy it to > floppy it seems that this would be the best distro to choose in my case. > In reading the speakup-related readme for Red Hat 7.2 it seems that I would > have to radically alter the CDs I already have to make it work with speakup > and I don't really want the extra work at the moment. > Lastly, for synths I have two Accents, a pc and an sa, a transport, and a > BNS. > From the collective experience of others, is there one which is easier to > get talking or which works better than any of the others given the ones I > have available to me or is it just a question of me choosing the one I like > to listen to the most and choosing to use it over any of the others. > > In closing, thanks for reading, I'd appreciate any thoughts on what I've > written and guidance as to whether I am hitting a home run or if I am very > much out in left field so to speak. > Any and all opinions welcome either sent to the listserve or to me directly > using either ed.barnes at janus.northatlantic.nf.ca or ebarnes at superweb.ca. > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >
