[wplug] Debian questions

Jack Detrick vze24938 at verizon.net
Mon May 7 00:02:54 EDT 2001


On Sun, 06 May 2001 21:12:32 -0400 (EDT)
David G Matthews <dgm4+ at pitt.edu> wrote:

> I'm thinking about possibly switching to Debian,because it sounds pretty
> cool.  However, I just wanted to get some
> thing straight before I do so.  So for all you Debian types out there,
> I've got a few questions:
> 1.  Is it possible to use ReiserFS with Debian (even unstable)?  I like
> Reiser and wouldn't want to give it up.

You can use ReiserFS with any distribution--it has nothing to do with what
distro you're running, it's simply the type of filesystem on a given
partition.  As long as the kernel you're running has reiserfs support (and
even if it's old and it doesn't, you can patch it easily), you can mount
the filesystem just fine.  Your distro _does_not_care_--it leaves that up
to the kernel, and as long as the kernel can read the filesystem, the
software that you have installed can operate normally.

> 2.  How well does the "alien" script (to convert RPM's to DEB's) work? 
> A
> few of the packages I use are mostly distributed as RPM's, and I haven't
> been able to track down deb's for them.

As far as I know, most distributions (even Slackware) provide support for
RPM packages.  Even if you're running your own custom linux build
(non-distro), you can compile & install RPM with only a little difficulty
(depending on the version of glibc on the system).  Then again, I advocate
source compilation in preference to any other option, but that's just me. 
YMMV.

> 3.  How hard is it to use a 2.4.x kernel and X4.x?

Compiling a 2.4.x kernel isn't really any different than compiling any
other kernel.  Choose what you need in the config, compile the kernel &
modules, copy to the proper locations, make sure /etc/lilo.conf is updated
to point to the new kernel image, and run lilo.  Voila.  As far as X4
goes, it all depends.  Are you planning to install a console-based debian
build and then get the X sources or (blech) binaries?  Not much of a
problem, just follow the in structions (a nice little hint is in the
"hints" section at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org, but that's for the
source compilation).  Also, you can use apt-get to update, which would be
your least painful option (as far as I hear).  Other debian users can help
you in this department.

> 4.  How multimedia friendly is it.  (This one's really important for me,
> since I use my box mostly for audio.  I can't use a distro that's more
> aimed towards servers.)

As multimedia-friendly as any other linux distribution.  Linux is
linux--as long as you've configured your system to match your hardware and
you have the software you want to use installed, it doesn't matter which
distro you're using (not a one of them has some special magic "optimizer"
that is going to make your hardware pump out any better quality, and
conversely not a one is going to reduce your box to scrap).

> Thanks,
> dgm

No problem.

PS: Remember, a distro is a linux system "prettied up" with tons of extra
applications and distro-specific package management (and a few helpful
utilities in some cases).  As far as hardware-specific issues go, if
there's support for the device in your kernel, you can use that device (or
filesystem type or whatnot) in any distro out there, whether or not this
new one you haven't used before has some nifty configuration utility.  I
still _highly_ recommend everyone try http://www.linuxfromscratch.com if
you haven't already--even if all you do is set aside a 1GB partition, do
the build, and then wipe it clean.  I've seen quite a few people write to
the mailing list that said that they had only switched to linux within the
last month, got disgusted with redhat or whatnot, and found out about LFS
and succesfully built a functional system.  If you have a little extra
time, it wouldn't hurt anything--but it would add to your linux experience
tenfold.



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