I did just what you are talking about with slack. installed the distro, it configured everything I needed, and installed a suitable kernel from the cdrom and it's been running fine for months. -- A message from the system administrator: "I've upped my priority, now up yours!" On Thu, 10 Apr 2003, Thomas D. Ward wrote: > Hi, Adam. As I mentioned in another post we are really comparing apples to > oranges, or two different approaches. > You must enjoy compiling kernels, editing files, and spending lots of time > customizing every little detail on your Linux os. > Sorry, to say but I personally as well as several others around the world > hate spending unneccessary time recompiling kernels or whatever. I would > just assume install an os, get everything working, and leave it alone. > RH/Mandrake have kernels which fit just about every and any situation which > means I've grown vary use to never compiling kernels. Why should I really > have to spend three or four hours of time doing that when I can already be > setup and enjoying my os. > Mandrake also has some edditions to their kernel source which are vary nice. > You can put the kernel in secured mode, and the supermount allows you to > automatically load floppies, cdroms, just by cd into that mount point. > It is something specific to <Mandrake, and I don't know of another distro > which has supermount. > I think many Slack users forget one slight problem. Many average computer > users would never be able to compile a kernel, and would find the task way > too complicated. I don't, but I know of people who would not make it through > make config. > Thus an all purpose kernel works fantastically for such users. Thus > utilities like supermount simplify everyones lives when you never have to > use mount to mount and unmount drives. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Adam Myrow <amyrow at midsouth.rr.com> > To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> > Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2003 9:44 PM > Subject: Linux distros (was Re: RH9 disks on the net.) > > > > The idea of a utility confuses me. How does it deal with floppies? It's > > possible that what is actually happening is that it is using automount > > which is an optional feature of the kernel and was originally designed for > > NFS. It apparently has been used with CD ROMs as well, but I've never > > played with it. > > > > That's funny that you say that the Slackware kernel doesn't have enough. > > I find it too bloated still. It has support for RAID, PCMCIA, and other > > things I don't use. The first thing I do when I get a fresh copy of > > Slackware installed is to build a custom kernel. I like how Slackware > > encourages you to do it, where Redhat has a hands-off approach of > > automatically loading modules and assuming that you are leaving the kernel > > alone and will never compile one yourself. If you compile the drivers for > > your network card straight into the kernel in Redhat, it will get upset. > > Even in Slackware, it is possible to load modules for all sorts of > > drivers, and I can get a Slackware system working fine without a kernel > > build. However, I noticed that after building a custom kernel, I was able > > to shave several seconds off the boot time mainly by eliminating modules > > for stuff I don't use. My approach is to build almost everything into the > > kernel, but make modules out of things I will seldom use. For example, > > since I have Roadrunner, I build my network card's drivers in, and I keep > > PPP as a module in case I have to revert to dial-up. I also keep support > > for the Minix filesystem and loopfs as modules since I occasionally need > > loopfs and run into a Minix disk image here and there. About the only > > other modules are Alsa. The result is that my kernel is under 1MB and my > > system comes up pretty fast even on this ancient computer. To me, being > > able to tweak things to perfection is part of the beauty of Linux. You > > can't simply remove support for hardware you don't have in windows like > > that. BTW, the new hotplug support didn't detect anything on my computer, > > but I suspect it may do more on modern computers. It's probably a good > > compromise between the sluggish Kudzu of Redhat and no attempt at all to > > find hardware. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Speakup mailing list > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >
