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Grex > Micros > #199: FreeBSD, Linux, or other PC Unixes? |  |
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| 25 new of 257 responses total. |
raven
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response 202 of 257:
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Oct 31 06:11 UTC 1999 |
re #201 Ouch, easy for a guru like you to say. I know a little javascript
and html, raw postscript sounds like a steep learning curve. I will
try LaTex to see if it's what I'm looking for which is a page layout
application with a lot of text control that is WYSWYG. I think there is
a postscript editor for x-windows called something like ghostscript.
I haven't looked at it though.
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gull
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response 203 of 257:
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Oct 31 07:24 UTC 1999 |
I remember seeing a series of columns (I think it was in _Electronics Now_)
about Postscript. The demonstration programs would do things like generate
graphs; you could literally send the program to your printer, along with
some data, and the processor in the *printer* would calculate and draw the
graph. Interesting stuff.
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raven
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response 204 of 257:
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Oct 31 08:42 UTC 1999 |
There seem to be some rudimentry page layout programs out there, but nothing
quite as all inclusive as Pagemaker. :-( The good news is there seem to
be excellent html editors and the GIMP is a very good graphics editor.
It was satisfying to mount my windows hds and bring up images in GIMP.
I still need to see if there is a scanner driver for my Artec Viewstation
scanner & a sound driver for my OPL-Sax sound card. It looks like I'll be
able to do about 80% of my work on Linux, when I want to, which is not bad
for freeware OS. :-) Not to mention ofcourse learn serious sys admin, and
other networking skills.
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raven
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response 205 of 257:
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Nov 8 01:03 UTC 1999 |
Well I got the sound card to work. The only way I have heard the get the
scanner to work is to use windows 3.1 drivers under wine, which frankly I
didn't quite understand. Do you then run an image editing program under
wine that supports TWAIN? If so, no go, all my image editors crash under
wine..
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atticus
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response 206 of 257:
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Dec 1 00:09 UTC 1999 |
From a LaTeX source file you can (1) output PDF using pdflatex (2)
output PostScript using latex and dvips (3) output HTML using
latex2html. Cool, isn't it?
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pfv
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response 207 of 257:
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Dec 1 15:31 UTC 1999 |
"filters" (aka "Translators" and "xlators")
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mwg
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response 208 of 257:
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Jan 20 20:06 UTC 2000 |
On the MBR problems...
Useful tip: *NEVER* install Windows 9X on a PC with Linux already on it.
Even if you have DOS running already, Windows will re-arrange the
partition table according to its' preferences, and Linux often breaks
badly at this time. (If Linux is on a different physical drive, you can
disconnect the drive, install Windows, then use the boot disk solution
below after reconnecting the drive.)
If you need a dual-boot system, install Windows first, then Linux. *MAKE
THE BOOT DISKS*, better yet, two or three. If Windows replaces the MBR
again, which it does at random times for no obvious reason, boot with the
boot disk, log in as root, run lilo, this will regenerate the LILO MBR and
put back your configuration exactly as it was, including booting Windows
by default, if that is what you selected in lilo.conf.
Note that for this purpose, unless you do something like swap your
standard keyboard for a USB model, you don't need to worry if you've
upgraded your kernel on the hard drive, the lilo program will still be
able to do its job under the old kernel used for the boot disk. If you've
added special support for things to newer kernels, you want to reboot
after fixing lilo for the newer kernel to run.
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scott
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response 209 of 257:
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Jan 20 21:45 UTC 2000 |
And if you really just want your Win9x mbr back, try putting in a Win9x boot
floppy, booting (hopefully) to the command prompt, and using 'fdisk /mbr'.
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gull
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response 210 of 257:
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Jan 20 22:05 UTC 2000 |
Actually, I've never had a problem with a windows re-install screwing up the
partition table. It will over-write the MBR, though, so you'd better have a
Linux boot floppy ready.
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prp
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response 211 of 257:
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Jan 20 22:18 UTC 2000 |
It shouldn't matter which MBR program you use, but rather which
partition is active. All the MBR does is read the boot record from
the active partition, and transfer to it.
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kentn
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response 212 of 257:
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Jan 21 00:58 UTC 2000 |
Note that this Windows 9x messing up a Unix system problem is not limited
to Linux, but also affects FreeBSD and other systems. Which is to say,
this is Microsloth's fault...
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jazz
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response 213 of 257:
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Jan 21 12:30 UTC 2000 |
It depends on how you install the system, really. It's Microsoft's
fault for considering "upgrade" and "new install" seperate functions and
putting profitability before utility, but it's entirely possible to reinstall
Windows and not touch the MBR.
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mcnally
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response 214 of 257:
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Jan 21 15:15 UTC 2000 |
I just keep around a floppy with an install program for my favorite
boot manager (os-bs, which I got in the habit of using back in my
FreeBSD days, for some reason I really don't like using LILO) and
re-apply it after any changes (particularly MS re-installs..)
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gull
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response 215 of 257:
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Jan 21 23:05 UTC 2000 |
LILO's not really a very good boot loader. I don't know why Linux doesn't
default to FreeBSD's scheme, which is to put the boot loader on the FreeBSD
partition, and use a little program called EasyBoot to pick whether the DOS
or Windows partition is active. The biggest advantage of this is that since
FreeBSD's boot loader doesn't have to squeeze into the MBR, it can do a lot
more. For example, it understands the filesystem, so you're allowed to boot
any kernel file, not just pre-selected ones.
Granted, you can install LILO on the Linux partition and get basically the
same scheme, but you don't gain any functionality by doing so.
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pfv
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response 216 of 257:
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Jan 22 02:47 UTC 2000 |
Sounds like a sensible scheme..
Certainly sounds more reasonable that that other scam - er,
scheme: the one with a bootstrap program *AND* an entire kernel
run from the dos partition.. (I can't recall the name right now).
Although, I certainly prefer even lilo over what win95 and win98
are stuck with..
In fact, we could live with lilo if we could write a real short
program to the dos-parition that was ALWAYS capable of resetting
lilo after M$ has - as usual - munged the MBR.
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gull
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response 217 of 257:
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Jan 22 04:08 UTC 2000 |
You're thinking of LOADLIN. I've never tried it, but apparently it's handy
in a few difficult situations.
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pfv
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response 218 of 257:
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Jan 22 14:13 UTC 2000 |
yah, loadlin..
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jazz
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response 219 of 257:
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Jan 23 03:02 UTC 2000 |
Loadlin works pretty well under unusual filesystems. I've run a very
small UMSDOS-FS (unix-over-MS-DOS) 120-meg Linux kernel on a system that was
far too small to repartition and install on, which booted into DOS and then
loaded linux from the command prompt.
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drew
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response 220 of 257:
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Jan 29 19:07 UTC 2000 |
A 120 meg kernel??? Yiao!
Loadlin works well enough, but it's a kludge. I think the last place I
ised it was on the Packard Bell, as for some reason LILO choked on that
machine.
For my part, I've reinstalled NT many times and not once has it touched
the MBR.
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mcnally
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response 221 of 257:
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Jan 29 22:14 UTC 2000 |
I'm sure that "kernel" was not what he meant..
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jazz
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response 222 of 257:
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Jan 30 16:37 UTC 2000 |
Kernel distribution, yep.
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prp
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response 223 of 257:
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Jan 31 21:46 UTC 2000 |
If you run a windows program to make windows the active partition, it
may well rewrite the MBR.
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mwg
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response 224 of 257:
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Feb 2 19:28 UTC 2000 |
Windows will re-write the MBR under any number of circumstances, some of
them so obscure as to be filed under "it just wanted to". Hence my advice
on keeping a boot disk on multi-boot Linux systems.
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darkskyz
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response 225 of 257:
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Feb 4 17:20 UTC 2000 |
no way is that a kernel. even with all features turned on, the linux kerlnel
prolly doesn't pass the 1M line.
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sno
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response 226 of 257:
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Feb 4 21:10 UTC 2000 |
I've seen kernels that were > 1.2 meg uncompressed. Compressed kernels
come in around 350K to 700K.
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