[ltp] Re: Re: some windows and some linux question

[Andrew Barr]

On Tue, 2006-08-22 at 08:04 +0200, Axel Braun wrote:
> When it runs, it runs. But it still lacks some easy-to-configure tools.
> After I installed it on an older ThinkPad770, screen resolution was shit
> and sound not working. 

In my experience, autodetection for X.org using dexconf seems to work
great. I don't know about older hardware, but Debian has a program
called mdetect that can configure resolutions automagically on hardware
that supports it.

IIRC, there are (distribution-agnostic) issues with older Thinkpad sound
hardware. Isn't there information on ThinkWiki about that?

> Control center? Didnt help. Online? Not found what I
> was looking for (instead got stuckin a couple of 'loop links' on the
> website). Fortunately I noticed somewhere that there is a
> dpkg-reconfigure.....BTW, how far is Yast for Debian in between?

dpkg-reconfigure is a tool to use Debconf on specific packages, which is
kind of Debian's analog to YaST. The GUI part is fully separated out so
you can have a curses, Qt, or GTK+ interface. There's even a GUI
frontend to Debconf that eliminates the need to use the command line to
invoke dpkg-reconfigure.

> > I've tried to install SuSE several times and found its installer to be
> > flaky and counterintuitive (why isn't there a mirror list on the CD for
> > a net install?? Downloading multigigabyte-sized DVD images is so 2000)
> 
> Cant share this opinion, and I dont mind downloading 3G from the net. It
> pays off after the second installation from the DVD. The (graphical)
> installer is really easy to use...whats counterintuitive on that?

I don't like the multigigabyte DVD image model because it's unlikely
that I want or need everything on that disc. I'd prefer to download a
~130MB network installer and work from there. I've gotten Debian systems
up and running in under an hour that way.

As for the SuSE installer, it's just not very robust. I've tried to
install SuSE several times on a few different machines and even in a
virtual machine like QEMU and each time the installer has been slow and
sometimes even inexplicably locked up.

By counterintuitive I meant that the network install had no mirror list.
So you have to have another computer to look up the SuSE mirror list and
manually punch in the server information.

UI style isn't important--Debian has a GTK+-DirectFB based frontend
available, but the default curses-style interface we have now should be
fine for most anyone. 

(This is all my experience, though. Sounds like your SuSE experience has
been much better.)

-- 
Andrew Barr | http://www.oakcourt.dyndns.org/~andrew/

All parts should go together without forcing. You must remember that
the parts you are reassembling were disassembled by you. Therefore, if
you can't get them together again, there must be a reason. By all
means, do not use a hammer.
  -- IBM maintenance manual (1925)