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| DistroWatch + TuxReports | October 22, 2002 | |
by , 5 January, 2002
My personal system right now, and used for this review, is as follows:
IBM Thinkpad EL-760 with 3GB IDE hard drive (split about 50-50 to Windows 95 and Linux) P120 CPU, 72MB RAM, 1.4" floppy, USR 56K External Modem, 100MB Parallel Port Zip drive, no CDROM, and rounded out with an Epson Color Stylus 640 inkjet printer.
The laptop's graphics are horrific to say the least as the screen is one of the older LCD (i.e., dual-scan and not TFT) screens. Onboard graphics is a 1MB Trident LCD9320. Other than the graphics being a bit lacking (to be kind) it is a perfectly adequate system to run Linux on and get useful work done, or at least it should be.
I'd been running Vector Linux 1.8 (a 90MB download) in a dual-boot configuration for quite some time. I kind of stumbled across Vector Linux while out roaming the Net in Seattle. Back in the days of DSL and yeah, what the hey, it's only a 90MB download, let's check it out. Although right now I'm restricted to a 56K dial-up connection, I'm pleased to report that my new residence (in New Hampshire, about 50 miles from Boston) is DSL-ready, just as soon as I am. I assure you it won't be long. (By the way, in my next column, I'll be reviewing Vector Linux 2.0.)
I downloaded the absolute latest and greatest version of Peanut Linux (9.1, 99MB) since it was updated as of 27 December 2001. Can't get much more recent than that, can you?
The install process itself went smoothly. Booted up into the install program, typed setup and was presented with a screen, with 3 options:
Being the curious geek that I am, I took the option to resize the partition just to see what was up with that. Worked very well. I believe it is the GNU Parted program they use. I already had a spare 300MB partition, so I just left that be. Partition 2 (hda2) was where I had been running Vector Linux, and was where the files were to install Peanut Linux. I went through a bit of resizing, and creating a swap partition (32MB in my case) and then was pleasantly surprised.
Kernel 2.5.0 is the default install. Peanut Linux 9.1 has quite a bit going for it. Supports both the Reiser and Ext3 journaling file systems, as well as good old Ext2. I decided to go with the ReiserFS, just to check it out, and the rest of the install went with no problems.
I'm pleased to report both the Epson (identified by name) and the Zip drive were recognized with no problems.
I simply had to uncomment the imm driver (for Iomega) in /etc/rc.d/modules.conf. This was easily enough done from the main Installation and Configuration menu (during installation). One of the options is for drivers and the script puts you into the proper file to edit. Nice touch that.
Simply typing setup will bring back the main Setup and Configuration menu. This allows the newbie (or old pro) to access most of the critical setup functions via scripts. Things like setting up the Lilo bootloader or setting your modem device (so Linux can find it) and inputting your ISP's dialup information is very straightforward and easily done.
One of the options is to setup the X Window server. Peanut Linux uses Enlightenment as the default window manager and XFree86 4.x as the X Server. I had never had much luck with XFree86 4.x before but tried it out anyway.
There are many things to like about Peanut Linux. Default file manager to use for almost everything is Midnight Commander (MC), similar to the Norton Commander of long ago DOS days. Another bonus is that Peanut Linux is RPM-based, should you prefer RPM's to installing software with tarballs.
Peanut Linux, in my opinion, has dropped the ball badly though in respect to the graphical environment. My laptop needs to have one of the older drivers, specifically the SVGA generic one that had been included with XFree86 3.3.6 and that I discovered was no longer a part of the latest and greatest in XFree86 4.x. I have no idea why. Only that it is not there.
Peanut Linux has the Linux kernel 2.5.0, it has Perl 5.7.0, but it does not have GCC as part of the default install. GCC is included as part of an entirely separate 30MB download. Now, for me, this is a problem. GCC should be part of any Linux distribution in my opinion. To have that as a separate download just makes no sense to me.
What this means is that on the one hand, you have (relatively) the latest Linux kernel, but on the other, even though Midnight Commander makes it possible to install even source tarballs, you do not have the ability to compile those tarballs.
Unless you have a fairly recent set of hardware to install Peanut Linux on, there's a chance it may not find your graphics card. This, given the heavy dependence on GUI-oriented tools, makes Peanut Linux a waste of time to download for many people. That's a shame.
Including GCC as part of the default install, and allowing an option to use the XFree86 3.3.6 X server instead of the latest and greatest 4.x version would go a long way to making Peanut Linux a worthy distribution to consider for many.
I would prefer something other than Enlightenment as the default window manager, but I've used Enlightenment in the past and know a lot of people swear by it, instead of at it, so that's a matter of personal preference on my part.
Also, some console software to consider would be WvDial. WvDial is just about the best console software to setup, and use, your modem with a PPP connection. This should be a necessity for every Linux distribution I reckon. Along with PortSentry, and maybe a copy of Screen which is a favorite of mine. Let's not forget Wget either.
Yes, I'm a dinosaur. I freely admit that. :)
I have downloaded most of the files necessary to do an install of Vector Linux 2.0 and will be starting on that soon. I loved Vector Linux 1.8, and with an option to select either the XFree86 4.x or XFree86 3.3.6, I know that the GUI won't be something I can't even try because no driver exists for it. I'm really looking forward to that.
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