RedHat 7.2

[weasel]

Got an old laptop to use now for linux/showeq.. Couple quick questions.

My HD on the laptop is only 1.34gb. Is that enough to get it all on? I remember before from my attempts at VMware.. that following one of the guides on here it was only like 890mb-930mb to install red hat.. cannot remember exact. I did a quick try and it said i did not have enough room.. but i noticed that the total about on mb for install was like 1100mb.. BUT i had selected laptop install and then custom selected the packages i needed for showeq. I have a network card that goes into the cardbus (or whatever you call the 2 slots for network card/modem).. It said in the redhat install that i needed special package support for that to work... Any suggestions please?

[high_jeeves]

I used to run on a small (930MB HDD) machine. It will work, but setup can be a pain, because you will need to go through and customize your package selection. A few recommendations: You dont need KDE or Gnome, just install X and a basic window manager (icewm, twm, etc). Remove all the various editors, web/mail/news clients that you arent going to need on that machine.

Also, you might want to check out other distributions. Both RedHat and Mandrake (which are the only two I have much experience with) are fairly bloated with apps. There are probably some which have a much smaller footprint. Anyone here have experience with smaller distributions?

So, in summary, it can be done, but it will require some tweaking.

--Jeeves

[weasel]

I have started to do some looking into going with a smaller OS like you meantioned. One thing i have wondered though.. with those being smaller.. how hard will it be to get the packages i need for seq? or are they all pretty standard for linux based systems?

[fryfrog]

if you need small, and need good package system... and you can spend a little time learning, debian might be a good choice. the install basically puts the most basic version of linux onto your system (about 75-100mb) and THEN runs its little "setup" program that lets you choose which packages you want. since the package managment is AWSOME, you can usually just say... try to install X and not only will it find all the dependencies, it will download and install them as well.

but, i would say that it has a much higher learning curve than redhat or mandrake, due to the fact that it is VERY cmd line oriented (setup is). you are pretty much going to be getting X working yourself (no pretty X based GUI's that pick and test the config with little user inpu).

anyway, i know a lot of devs use it... i've tried it but didn't really feel like learning it at that point in time. i figure i'll give it a go when i have a spare system that i'm not using :)