DSL -vs- FEDORA

Forum: water cooler
Topic: DSL -vs- FEDORA
started by: 300c_pilot

Posted by 300c_pilot on April 18 2006,00:08

Here is the story: I just installed a new Dell sc400 server, it has a DT 2.8ghz cpu 512 megs of ram. I have spent three days configuring it only to learn that the tape drive that is in it, is no longer supported by the Fedora kernel(Needs ide_scsi module). I have spent all day today trying to recompile the kernel only to learn that all of the source code is not included, so you can not compile. Downloaded source code, it is incomplete, so still no luck.

The delimma: booted DSL, tested that it ran the tape drive. worked fine...

So do I delete fedora and put on DSL? or Go back to Redhat 9.0?

Posted by doobit on April 18 2006,01:41

I guess that depends on what other apps you need. Maybe you should try some other RPM based distro, like Mandriva, that has a lot of server support.

Posted by cbagger01 on April 18 2006,17:57

If you want a nice, thin OS, DSL will do fine.

If you want a thicker, Fedora-like OS, I suggest giving KNOPPIX a try.

The core of the DSL livecd is made from the KNOPPIX system, including the hardware detection part, so it is great for hardware support.

KNOPPIX can also be installed to your hard drive as a fully functional Debian distribution, which gives you the ability to install or upgrade 14,000+ DEB packages (similar to RPM packages).

FYI, you will need to use the ALSA sound drivers if you are using the 400SC's built-in sound system.

Posted by AwPhuch on April 18 2006,19:03

You could always go < CentOS >

Just think of it as RHEL with all the proprietary images and stuff removed..its still RHEL..but not with the beefy pricetag!

Then I recommend < http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect_setup_centos_4.3 > which shows you how to install specific services to turn it into a pretty tight server box!

Dont forget < WEBMIN > to give you a nice purdy graphical interface to help you configure your headless linux box!

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by 300c_pilot on April 19 2006,01:31

Thanks, I will look at CentOS, always got to have webmin, sorry to see they are going commercial though. I have been playing with Redhat since they were in version 4, and for the fedora developers to add and delete things without putting a question to the users is hard to swallow. Another reason to really like DSL. Keep it up.

Posted by 300c_pilot on April 19 2006,01:40

Sorry Doobit & CBagger01, I did not see your posts until I answered Brians. I will check on Knoppix & Mandriva, thanks for the idea's.

This server is only a Samba server, no other services. No monitor, keyboard or mouse. The client has been telling his software vender it is a MS small bizz server, because the venders software will not run on a linux server...Its been there for more then 4 years.
The server loaded Fedora from a DVD it 8 minutes, I was shocked at the speed of this thing. For a cheapy Dell server anyway.
Thanks you guys.

Posted by 300c_pilot on May 02 2006,04:30

CentOS won out, for two main reasons:
easy install and easy yum updating.

Compiling a new kernel proved to be a challenge, so I did not try it on the other distro's. After it worked, one was enough. The latest kernels do not support ide tape drives. So I had to add ide-scsi module, failed, so I got ide-tape to work instead. What a pain in the butt.

Thanks to all that played along!