Another Opinion Among Many

Shamelessly ripped from the Gentoo CD a few years ago (the xorg.conf file is mostly the same)

I’m beginning to wonder if I should bother keeping this page here because of its age…

# $XFree86: xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/XF86Conf.cpp,v 3.45 2003/02/20 04:05:12 dawes Exp $
#
# Copyright © 1994-1998 by The XFree86 Project, Inc.
#
# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
# copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”),
# to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
# the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
# and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
# Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
#
# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
# all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
#
# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
# IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL
# THE XFREE86 PROJECT BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
# WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF
# OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
# SOFTWARE.
#
# Except as contained in this notice, the name of the XFree86 Project shall
# not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or other
# dealings in this Software without prior written authorization from the
# XFree86 Project.
#
# $XConsortium: XF86Conf.cpp /main/22 1996/10/23 11:43:51 kaleb $

# ********************************************************
# This is a sample configuration file only, intended to illustrate
# what a config file might look like. Refer to the XF86Config(4/5)
# man page for details about the format of this file. This man page
# is installed as /usr/X11R6/man/man5/XF86Config.5x
# *********************************************************

# The ordering of sections is not important in version 4.0 and later.

# *********************************************************
# Files section. This allows default font and rgb paths to be set
# *********************************************************

Section “Files”

# The location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like “.txt” or “.db”). There is normally
# no need to change the default.

RgbPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb”

# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (which are concatenated together),
# as well as specifying multiple comma-separated entries in one FontPath
# command (or a combination of both methods)

FontPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local/”
FontPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/”
FontPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/”
FontPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/”
FontPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/”
FontPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/”
FontPath “/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/”

# ModulePath can be used to set a search path for the X server modules.
# The default path is shown here.

# ModulePath “/usr/X11R6/lib/modules”

EndSection

# **********************************************************
# Module section — this is an optional section which is used to specify
# which run-time loadable modules to load when the X server starts up.
# **********************************************************

Section “Module”

# This loads the DBE extension module.

Load “dbe”

# This loads the miscellaneous extensions module, and disables
# initialisation of the XFree86-DGA extension within that module.

SubSection “extmod”
Option “omit xfree86-dga”
EndSubSection

# This loads the Type1 and FreeType font modules

Load “type1″
Load “freetype”

EndSection

# *********************************************************
# Server flags section. This contains various server-wide Options.
# *********************************************************

Section “ServerFlags”

# Uncomment this to cause a core dump at the spot where a signal is
# received. This may leave the console in an unusable state, but may
# provide a better stack trace in the core dump to aid in debugging

# Option “NoTrapSignals”

# Uncomment this to disable the VT switch sequence
# (where n is 1 through 12). This allows clients to receive these key
# events.

# Option “DontVTSwitch”

# Uncomment this to disable the server abort sequence
# This allows clients to receive this key event.

# Option “DontZap”

# Uncomment this to disable the / mode switching
# sequences. This allows clients to receive these key events.

# Option “DontZoom”

# Uncomment this to disable tuning with the xvidtune client. With
# it the client can still run and fetch card and monitor attributes,
# but it will not be allowed to change them. If it tries it will
# receive a protocol error.

# Option “DisableVidModeExtension”

# Uncomment this to enable the use of a non-local xvidtune client.

# Option “AllowNonLocalXvidtune”

# Uncomment this to disable dynamically modifying the input device
# (mouse and keyboard) settings.

# Option “DisableModInDev”

# Uncomment this to enable the use of a non-local client to
# change the keyboard or mouse settings (currently only xset).

# Option “AllowNonLocalModInDev”

# Set the basic blanking screen saver timeout.

Option “blank time” “10″ # 10 minutes

# Set the DPMS timeouts. These are set here because they are global
# rather than screen-specific. These settings alone don’t enable DPMS.
# It is enabled per-screen (or per-monitor), and even then only when
# the driver supports it.

Option “standby time” “20″
Option “suspend time” “30″
Option “off time” “60″

# On some platform the server needs to estimate the sizes of PCI
# memory and pio ranges. This is done by assuming that PCI ranges
# don’t overlap. Some broken BIOSes tend to set ranges of inactive
# devices wrong. Here one can adjust how aggressive the assumptions
# should be. Default is 0.

# Option “EstimateSizesAggresively” “0″

EndSection

# *******************************************************
# Input devices
# *******************************************************

# *******************************************************
# Core keyboard’s InputDevice section
# ******************************************************

Section “InputDevice”

Identifier “Keyboard1″
Driver “keyboard”

# For most OSs the protocol can be omitted (it defaults to “Standard”).
# When using XQUEUE (only for SVR3 and SVR4, but not Solaris), comment
# out the above line, and uncomment the following line.

# Option “Protocol” “Xqueue”

# Set the keyboard auto repeat parameters. Not all platforms implement
# this.

Option “AutoRepeat” “500 5″

# Specifiy which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1)).

# Option “Xleds” “1 2 3″

# To disable the XKEYBOARD extension, uncomment XkbDisable.

# Option “XkbDisable”

# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults). For example, for a European
# keyboard, you will probably want to use one of:
#
# Option “XkbModel” “pc102″
# Option “XkbModel” “pc105″
#
# If you have a Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
#
# Option “XkbModel” “microsoft”
#
# If you have a US “windows” keyboard you will want:
#
# Option “XkbModel” “pc104″
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
#
# Option “XkbLayout” “de”
#
# or:
#
# Option “XkbLayout” “de”
# Option “XkbVariant” “nodeadkeys”
#
# If you’d like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
#
# Option “XkbOptions” “ctrl:swapcaps”

# These are the default XKB settings for XFree86
#
# Option “XkbRules” “xfree86″
# Option “XkbModel” “pc101″
# Option “XkbLayout” “us”
# Option “XkbVariant” “”
# Option “XkbOptions” “”

EndSection

# ******************************************************
# Core Pointer’s InputDevice section
# ******************************************************

Section “InputDevice”

# Identifier and driver

Identifier “Mouse1″
Driver “mouse”

# The mouse protocol and device. The device is normally set to /dev/mouse,
# which is usually a symbolic link to the real device.

Option “Protocol” “Microsoft”
Option “Device” “/dev/mouse”

# On platforms where PnP mouse detection is supported the following
# protocol setting can be used when using a newer PnP mouse:

# Option “Protocol” “Auto”

# When using mouse connected to a PS/2 port (aka “MousePort), set the
# the protocol as follows. On some platforms some other settings may
# be available.

# Option “Protocol” “PS/2″

# When using XQUEUE (only for SVR3 and SVR4, but not Solaris), use
# the following instead of any of the lines above. The Device line
# is not required in this case.

# Option “Protocol” “Xqueue”

# Baudrate and SampleRate are only for some older Logitech mice. In
# almost every case these lines should be omitted.

# Option “BaudRate” “9600″
# Option “SampleRate” “150″

# Emulate3Buttons is an option for 2-button mice
# Emulate3Timeout is the timeout in milliseconds (default is 50ms)

# Option “Emulate3Buttons”
# Option “Emulate3Timeout” “50″

# ChordMiddle is an option for some 3-button Logitech mice, or any
# 3-button mouse where the middle button generates left+right button
# events.

# Option “ChordMiddle”

EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Mouse2″
Driver “mouse”
Option “Protocol” “MouseMan”
Option “Device” “/dev/mouse2″
EndSection

# Some examples of extended input devices

# Section “InputDevice”
# Identifier “spaceball”
# Driver “magellan”
# Option “Device” “/dev/cua0″
# EndSection
#
# Section “InputDevice”
# Identifier “spaceball2″
# Driver “spaceorb”
# Option “Device” “/dev/cua0″
# EndSection
#
# Section “InputDevice”
# Identifier “touchscreen0″
# Driver “microtouch”
# Option “Device” “/dev/ttyS0″
# Option “MinX” “1412″
# Option “MaxX” “15184″
# Option “MinY” “15372″
# Option “MaxY” “1230″
# Option “ScreenNumber” “0″
# Option “ReportingMode” “Scaled”
# Option “ButtonNumber” “1″
# Option “SendCoreEvents”
# EndSection
#
# Section “InputDevice”
# Identifier “touchscreen1″
# Driver “elo2300″
# Option “Device” “/dev/ttyS0″
# Option “MinX” “231″
# Option “MaxX” “3868″
# Option “MinY” “3858″
# Option “MaxY” “272″
# Option “ScreenNumber” “0″
# Option “ReportingMode” “Scaled”
# Option “ButtonThreshold” “17″
# Option “ButtonNumber” “1″
# Option “SendCoreEvents”
# EndSection

#***********************************************
# Monitor section
# **********************************************

# Any number of monitor sections may be present

Section “Monitor”

# The identifier line must be present.

Identifier “Generic Monitor”

# HorizSync is in kHz unless units are specified.
# HorizSync may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY. REFER TO YOUR MONITOR’S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.

# HorizSync 31.5 # typical for a single frequency fixed-sync monitor
# HorizSync 30-64 # multisync
# HorizSync 31.5, 35.2 # multiple fixed sync frequencies
# HorizSync 15-25, 30-50 # multiple ranges of sync frequencies

# VertRefresh is in Hz unless units are specified.
# VertRefresh may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY. REFER TO YOUR MONITOR’S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.

# VertRefresh 60 # typical for a single frequency fixed-sync monitor

# VertRefresh 50-100 # multisync
# VertRefresh 60, 65 # multiple fixed sync frequencies
# VertRefresh 40-50, 80-100 # multiple ranges of sync frequencies

# Modes can be specified in two formats. A compact one-line format, or
# a multi-line format.

# A generic VGA 640×480 mode (hsync = 31.5kHz, refresh = 60Hz)
# These two are equivalent

# ModeLine “640×480″ 25.175 640 664 760 800 480 491 493 525

Mode “640×480″
DotClock 25.175
HTimings 640 664 760 800
VTimings 480 491 493 525
EndMode

# These two are equivalent

# ModeLine “1024×768i” 45 1024 1048 1208 1264 768 776 784 817 Interlace

# Mode “1024×768i”
# DotClock 45
# HTimings 1024 1048 1208 1264
# VTimings 768 776 784 817
# Flags “Interlace”
# EndMode

# If a monitor has DPMS support, that can be indicated here. This will
# enable DPMS when the monitor is used with drivers that support it.

# Option “dpms”

# If a monitor requires that the sync signals be superimposed on the
# green signal, the following option will enable this when used with
# drivers that support it. Only a relatively small range of hardware
# (and drivers) actually support this.

# Option “sync on green”

EndSection

# ****************************************************
# Graphics device section
# ****************************************************

# Any number of graphics device sections may be present

Section “Device”

# The Identifier must be present.

Identifier “Generic VGA”

# The Driver line must be present. When using run-time loadable driver
# modules, this line instructs the server to load the specified driver
# module. Even when not using loadable driver modules, this line
# indicates which driver should interpret the information in this section.

Driver “vga”

# The chipset line is optional in most cases. It can be used to override
# the driver’s chipset detection, and should not normally be specified.

# Chipset “generic”

# Various other lines can be specified to override the driver’s automatic
# detection code. In most cases they are not needed.

# VideoRam 256
# Clocks 25.2 28.3

# The BusID line is used to specify which of possibly multiple devices
# this section is intended for. When this line isn’t present, a device
# section can only match up with the primary video device. For PCI
# devices a line like the following could be used. This line should not
# normally be included unless there is more than one video device
# intalled.

# BusID “PCI:0:10:0″

# Various option lines can be added here as required. Some options
# are more appropriate in Screen sections, Display subsections or even
# Monitor sections.

# Option “hw cursor” “off”

EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “any supported Trident chip”
Driver “trident”
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “MGA Millennium I”
Driver “mga”
Option “hw cursor” “off”
BusID “PCI:0:10:0″
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “MGA G200 AGP”
Driver “mga”
BusID “PCI:1:0:0″
Option “pci retry”
EndSection

# ******************************************************
# Screen sections.
# *****************************************************

# Any number of screen sections may be present. Each describes
# the configuration of a single screen. A single specific screen section
# may be specified from the X server command line with the “-screen”
# option.

Section “Screen”

# The Identifier, Device and Monitor lines must be present

Identifier “Screen 1″
Device “Generic VGA”
Monitor “Generic Monitor”

# The favoured Depth and/or Bpp may be specified here

DefaultDepth 8

SubSection “Display”
Depth 8
Modes “640×480″
ViewPort 0 0
Virtual 800 600
EndSubsection

SubSection “Display”
Depth 4
Modes “640×480″
EndSubSection

SubSection “Display”
Depth 1
Modes “640×480″
EndSubSection

EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “Screen MGA1″
Device “MGA Millennium I”
Monitor “Generic Monitor”
Option “no accel”
DefaultDepth 16
# DefaultDepth 24

SubSection “Display”
Depth 8
Modes “1280×1024″
Option “rgb bits” “8″
Visual “StaticColor”
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 16
Modes “1280×1024″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
Modes “1280×1024″
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “Screen MGA2″
Device “MGA G200 AGP”
Monitor “Generic Monitor”
DefaultDepth 8

SubSection “Display”
Depth 8
Modes “1280×1024″
Option “rgb bits” “8″
Visual “StaticColor”
EndSubSection
EndSection

# *******************************************************
# ServerLayout sections.
# *******************************************************

# Any number of ServerLayout sections may be present. Each describes
# the way multiple screens are organised. A specific ServerLayout
# section may be specified from the X server command line with the
# “-layout” option. In the absence of this, the first section is used.
# When now ServerLayout section is present, the first Screen section
# is used alone.

Section “ServerLayout”

# The Identifier line must be present

Identifier “Main Layout”

# Each Screen line specifies a Screen section name, and optionally
# the relative position of other screens. The four names after
# primary screen name are the screens to the top, bottom, left and right
# of the primary screen. In this example, screen 2 is located to the
# right of screen 1.

Screen “Screen MGA 1″ “” “” “” “Screen MGA 2″
Screen “Screen MGA 2″ “” “” “Screen MGA 1″ “”

# Each InputDevice line specifies an InputDevice section name and
# optionally some options to specify the way the device is to be
# used. Those options include “CorePointer”, “CoreKeyboard” and
# “SendCoreEvents”. In this example, “Mouse1″ is the core pointer,
# and “Mouse2″ is an extended input device that also generates core
# pointer events (i.e., both mice will move the standard pointer).

InputDevice “Mouse1″ “CorePointer”
InputDevice “Mouse2″ “SendCoreEvents”
InputDevice “Keyboard1″ “CoreKeyboard”

EndSection

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “another layout”
Screen “Screen 1″
Screen “Screen MGA 1″
InputDevice “Mouse1″ “CorePointer”
InputDevice “Keyboard1″ “CoreKeyboard”
EndSection

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “simple layout”
Screen “Screen 1″
InputDevice “Mouse1″ “CorePointer”
InputDevice “Keyboard1″ “CoreKeyboard”
EndSection

This list often changes:

I have two hard drives.  One is an 80 Gig Maxtor Diamond Max 9.  Hopefully, it will last for a long time.  The other us a 16 Gig Seagate U-series drive that I bought for $5.

The large drive houses my main distro, Ubuntu (currently Hardy Heron, somewhere around Alpha 4-5) and the smaller one houses whatever I want to play with.  Right now, its got Arch, running e17.

Second session from the K menu

Getting sound to work

My distros

Here’s a sample XFree86 config

Here’s Kmix with a good setting for PCM and Master so you know what to look for

In my quest for a more powerful but cheap computer, and ebay acquaintance happened to send me a motherboard that he had replaced because of a random freezing problem when spooling a print job. The board was, of course, the Asus P3B-F. This board was, at its introduction, hailed as a strong contender for the Abit BX6 and its siblings (or a logical progression from the P2B). This board comes with a Intel 440BX chipset and an ATA33 drive controller. I happened on the model with only 1 ISA slot and 5 PCI. The nice thing about this board was the 4 RAM slots, which was a good thing, as the BX chipset had a limitation on the size of RAM it could handle (and this extends to the chips size as well).I installed this board in a new case I had purchased for the reason (my first ATX computer) of accommodating my new slot 1 board. Unfortunately, I had the same luck with it. It was no problem to boot the machine and I successfully installed Debian GNU/Linux (Woody - 3.0 original) as the OS. It ran in console mode fine, but when I fired up an X-Server, that’s where the problems arose. I experienced the same freezing when I was doing anything CPU intensive like screen paints - as in scrolling down a web page!!!!!! I had to do something, for sure. Since I didn’t have anything to lose, I resorted to a bit of surgery. After many hours of diligent searching on the web about my problem, I hit upon the right search terms and came across the Asus Motherboard Reworking Guide, which is an excellent resource for those who also have a problematic Asus board. I should note that when I found the page, the author had a different URL and was “off the net” for a while as well. He’s back, which is excellent.

This is where I found the suggestion to solder a capacitor on my motherboard’s CPU socket, bridged between pins A1 and A3. I followed Chris Gardener’s example and used the back of the motherboard. This way, I didn’t have to rip the shroud off the CPU, which looked like it would break when I pried at it ( ). I got a bit luckier than he did, I think, as I happened across some flat surface-mount tantalum capacitors on a broken modem I got for free in a pile of junk. They were the perfect size to bridge between the two pins and they were flat, so I wouldn’t have to worry about contact with the case and I didn’t require any extra wires. Above and below are a few images. Please excuse my old webcam. Its all I had when I started this adventure.

If you have one of these old boards I hope that this helps you. Its still in service, by the way. The machine has also been running the same install of Windows XP since it was recommissioned as my Wife’s computer (I replaced it with an AMD board and I didn’t want her to be stuck with the new one of there was any weirdness.

This is just an update on Feb 3, 2008.  The board is still running in the same computer like a champ (depite the wonky power supply).

I won an mp3 player a few months ago. Its a Sony Network Walkman, model NW-E403.

This model sports 256MB of flash memory (holding 55 mp3s right now) and an incredible 35-50 hours of play on one charge! (no batteries to put in - charges via your USB port). It seems quite easy to navigate and the songs are entirely playable. I like the fact that this unit is quite small but the display is still easy to read. The requirement that you transfer your songs through the provided Sonicstage software is a bit of a drag (Windows only), but it seems to work reasonably well. You can also store files on the player as well, if you want to connect it to a PC and use it that way (but they’re not viewable in the mp3 player’s display). For the price that I got it for, it was great, of course. Now, this unit seems to buck the trend and be less expensive if bought in person. I noticed that the price online was as much as $30 higher than what the local electronics store was selling it for.

This unit also comes in 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB models. If you are intested in this neat little toy, I’d suggest that you shell out the extra $20-30 for the larger capacity.

This page is where you’re going to be dazzled by how awesome it can be to have Gentoo with Reiser4 and Nitro-sources from the beginning, instead of that messy “after” stuff.

Stay tuned. I’m still figuring out how to say what I want to. I’m going to leave this part up top until I get enough written that it actually looks like a helpful page.

Starting Point and Preparation

There are some things that one needs to know to do this:

• you can browse the web and your cd with links2
• establishing networking up front is good
• lxnay’s RR4 Live-CD is needed
• RTFM - I can’t stress this enough (you will fail if you don’t)
• Reiser4 is still not considered stable so you have to get it yourself
• You’ll need the Reiser4 patch in your kernel (so get one with it in unless you think that’s too sissy)
• You will encounter roadblocks (normal Gentoo install x2 difficulty)
• You need a weekend
• Beer helps (at least the first part of the box)

I started my install by getting the right system/CD to install from. I headed over to the Gentoo Wiki to get the cd image because lxnay only makes DVDs now and I have no DVD burner. I downloaded the ISO for the 2.30 Live CD, which is the latest version on cd. It does have a fairly recent 2.6 kernel (from around last March) with Reiser4 patches, so you can create the Reiser4 filesystem with it. Otherwise, there’s no point to this whole exercise, right?

For those who have a DVD burner, you can get a more recent incarnation of this neat idea by downloading the Live DVD, which can be had through links from lxnay’s website and the Gentoo Wiki. You’ll have the advantage of being able to install a lot from the DVD itself. I’m never really interested in that, so I won’t be discussing it.

I got the file from within a Microsoft Windows environment, so I grabbed the md5sum and compared it to the one generated from the output of winmd5sum, a free graphical md5sum checker for Windows from Nullriver. Always do an md5sum check on images that you wish to boot from. If they don’t match, download the file again - its been corrupted some way.

I then burned the cd image using Burnatonce, I think. Its been two weeks, and, frankly, I had too many beers at that point to remember which software I used for the job. It may have been Nero (a little hint - with Burnatonce, you’re getting a free cdrdao front end with no bloat. You can burn a CD image with a double-click and two clicks - no coasters) but not likely. I then booted the computer with the CD in the drive and the installer started loading. If you don’t do this much, be sure that you BIOS is set to boot from CD before your hard drive.

Once the installer was finished loading, I had a full Live-CD environment within which to do with whatever I want. No, folks, this is not a pretty graphical installer like Anaconda. With this Live-CD, you’re greeted with a command prompt (which is not a bad thing). If I knew how to make a screenshot from that point, I would, as its got more info there than anyone seems to have reported. There is a short blurb (kind of like the MOTD) explaining that you can use links2 to browse the install instructions from the CD and/or from the internet at http://www.gentoo.org. The instruction to set up networking is stated as well. You’ll be prompted to type “net-setup” at the prompt. I did this, as I got my install fresh off the internet. There’s a dialogue box that pops up showing the device representing your network interface (I only have one, so there is no choice - although I did install a dialup modem afterwords to interface with faxing software later). You would then either choose to get on the net via PPP (if you’re insane enough to install over dialup), DHCP, or manually. I chose manually, as my piece of crap Linksys BEFSR41 router doesn’t broadcast and assign addresses via DHCP, although the server is on.

The rules for the IP setup are generally the same. You’re going to set it up with a private IP range, either 192.168.x.x, 10.x.x.x, or 172.x.x.x. I always choose what the router’s default range is. The Linksys uses 192.168.1.x. I understand that dLinks use 192.168.0.x. Whichever. The subnet is 255.255.255.0 (if you have a complex network, then it’ll be something different, but you’ll also be ignoring this part of the instructions if so, right? Don’t forget to add the router’s IP address as the gateway address. Then, if nameservers are asked for, I use my router, as it finds the nameservers from my ISP and uses them. This keeps the setup simple, effective, and easy to troubleshoot.

At this point, I must disclaim that much of what is to follow is a combination of knowledge from the Gentoo Handbook, the Wiki article, and stuff that I’ve picked up along the way.

The next step is to test the success of your network configuration. Typing ifconfig eth0 gives you the status of the first ethernet card (the only one for me). You should see an IP address and some stats for rx and tx transfers. If all’s well, you should, then, be able to go to the internet with links. I do, at this point, and go straight to the Gentoo Handbook to get the most up to date instructions. At this point, using the Handbook is the simplest way to get going. All instructions really remain the same, except for the Reiser4 specific instructions. I’ll concentrate on that part next.

Warning! Geekiness ahead!

I was going to post this, but I was too far along in my “dist-upgrade” to be able to have this work. The kio_http handler was broken at the time I tried to post, so I’m finishing now, after a reboot.

I downloaded (what I thought was) Kubuntu’s Breezy RC, but it was the stable 5.04 (Hoary) version. Looks like Ubuntu has fixed their upgrade issues as the releases have gone by. That’s a good thing.

I chose to download the installer version and replaced Mepis on my hard drive (nothing seems to be a good Gentoo replacement, though). The install went quite quickly - about 25 minutes. There was an option to boot without DHCP, which was nice. When the networking was to be set up, the installer stopped and asked me what my IP settings were, which is the way I wanted it to. Not too many recent “Live-cd”-derived distributions seem to do this. Since the Ubuntu crowd seem to have developed with a lot of things borrowed from recent hardware discovery tools, I found this to be a pleasant addition to the bootscripts.

The installer also asked me how and where I wanted to install. Since I’ve been installing Linux to the slave drive on the first controller and putting the bootloader on the first drive (with Windows XP on it), I have been paying close attention to how much work was involved on my part to get this to work, as there should be no extra work or headaches. There wasn’t. It installed GRUB neatly in the MBR of the master drive, which is what I wanted it to do. Mepis also passed this test with flying colors.

When the installation was finished, the cd ejected and the installer asked me to reboot, when some configuration would occur. So, I did.

This is where Kubuntu reminded me that it really was Debian underneath. This paragraph also applies to my feelings on Mandrake/Mandriva. When the computer rebooted, the install continued, informing me that it would need to fetch 350MB of packages from the net to complete. Now, is this reasonable? I have a really fast cable connection so it doesn’t matter as much to me, but what about Kubuntu’s intended audience, the new user? Nobody seems to want to admit that if you really want a comfortable means of keeping your Linux system up to date, then you’re going to need a broadband connection to the internet. I mean, c’mon! 350 MB? Some dialup connections couldn’t download that much data over night, let alone do it sporadically while installing. These updates, I’m assuming, came from the directory with the bugfixes found after the officially release of “Hoary”. Why didn’t they point us to an updated ISO for download? 5.04 was released 6 months ago. It seems that if you don’t want all updates in a big chunk, you’d better download and install a release the very day its released, to avoid tremendously large updates. I shouldn’t say that this is the Debian way, because when enough bugfixes exist, a new ISO (point-release) is put on the mirrors and its announced.

Well, it booted and seems to run, at least for the 10 minutes I explored it. Now, after going to the forum, I read that I should be able to “dist-upgrade” to the latest RC of 5.10, so I’m trying that now. I’m writing this post from within my new Kubuntu install right now. I’ll let you know shortly if the system survives the upgrade…

Well, guess what! I’m back (obviously) in the new system and it seems to have been upgraded successfully. If this is what we’re to expect from Breezy, then K/Ubuntu, then its going to be a fun time in the Linux world. There seems to be quite a bit of polish in this release. Who knows, I may actually have a new recommendation for newbies (providing that there isn’t a huge update the second you install it). Kudos.