quote: Original post by A. Buza

Not exactly game related, but...

I was considering tinkering around with linux in a month or two (mainly because my new motherboard came with a linux dist.), and was wondering what the relation is between X11, Linux, KDE, Gnome, etc.

You don''t tinker with Linux. You fight it. And it fights back. These are some of my experiences while ''tinkering'' with the latest RedHat 7.

Lilo setup does not recognize my Win2K partition. It only gives the option to boot into Linux. Not good, but I guess I can change that later.

X configuration. This has always been fun. I have a GeForce 256, which XFree86 apparently now supports. The configuration cannot find how much memory the card has (if the Windows driver can, why can''t this one?), so I tell it 32MB. There''s a Test button, so being the cautious type, I decide I had better test it. Ok, it switched to 1024x768 physical screen with a virtual screen of 1600x1200. Strange, but I guess I could see it ok. Click Yes to go back to the configuration. Oh dang. It''s changed back to 640x480, but the screen is now completely screwed up with garbage everywhere. Time to hit the reset button and start the whole process again but WITHOUT testing the X configuration.

After a successful attempt at installing, I start X. Now the standard Microsoft two-button serial mouse that works with everything else in the world, including the RedHat installer, refuses to work in XFree86. Change XF86Config to use the Generic mouse. This worked in previous versions of XFree86. But not this time. Seeing that RedHat 7 (finally) supports PS/2 and USB, I used this as an excuse to get a new Microsoft optical mouse. This works great, but shouldn''t a plain old serial mouse work?

X is still using a 1600x1200 virtual screen. And no changes to XF86Config seem to do anything. After a few days of mucking around with this, I find a file called XF86Config-4. Finally, it is THIS file that configures X, NOT XF86Config that Xconfigurator still modifies. Egad!

Now I want to install some RPMs from the CDs. I start GnoRPM and browse the CD. The RPMs I want are not on that CD, so I put the other CD in. What? I cannot browse the CD? It still thinks I have the first CD in there? Remove the CD and try to unmount the CD drive. The device is busy? Ok, restart X and try again.

quote:
I know what linux is already, and I''ve read about a paragraph about x-windows (synonymous with x11?), and it seems to be a windowing system for unix... but KDE, gnome, Motif,etc.. whats with them?

GNOME is a strange one. It''s not quite a window manager (it still requires a window manager, preferably a GNOME-compliant window manager such as Enlightenment or Sawfish), but it does affect the way your widgets (what a silly name) look through the use of themes. But these are different themes to the themes your window manager uses.

I just have not had any good experiences the few times I have tried Linux. It is nowhere near the level required for common use yet.


Steve 'Sly' Williams
Tools Developer
Krome Studios

Everyone, sorry to interrupt the thread but I had to respond to Sly.

Sly: regarding your GeForce 256. Go to www.nvidia.com select linux and download the driver. Compile it into the kernel and then it should be able to detect the card. ( it''s the same thing as installing drivers for Windows... )



Cyberdrek
Headhunter Soft
DLC Multimedia

quote: Original post by zenic
The sad truth is that if you had to suddenly learn windows, it would be virtually the same thing... i have a domain name and an ip address... so how do i make it work?!?! under linux i just edit /etc/hosts!

Windows actually supports 'hosts' files too, in your windows dir (at least if you USE windows) there is a file called hosts.sam (sam as in sample) which you can rename to hosts and it works virtually the same way.



Gyzmo
=======================
Meddle not in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy and go well with toast.

Edited by - Gyzmo on October 24, 2000 10:07:38 AM