Linux distro suggestions?
by John Vanderbeck · in Torque Game Engine · 04/03/2004 (6:57 pm) · 33 replies
I'm looking to install Linux as a dual boot, seperate partition from Windows XP Professional. I've used Debian in the past.
I'm wondering if there are any certain distros that are generally considered better for development and/or game development, as well as any suggestions when it comes to certain distros that play better with Torque. This box will be used, for the most part, solely for Torque development.
Thanks in advance :)
I'm wondering if there are any certain distros that are generally considered better for development and/or game development, as well as any suggestions when it comes to certain distros that play better with Torque. This box will be used, for the most part, solely for Torque development.
Thanks in advance :)
#3
-- Personal opinion
I'd say it depends on what you want to do with the box. Since you're running it as a second partition from Windows XP, I'm guessing you want a desktop/workstation type distro. I'm going to have to go with SuSE for the easiest package updates, most current package updates (besides RedHat) and no dependency issues like Redhat. Just pick one of the two major commercial distros (RedHat, SuSE) and you'll get a consumer level distro. I usually run Slackware or Debian on servers and SuSE on workstations.
04/04/2004 (5:56 pm)
You'll end up with every distro there is here =)-- Personal opinion
I'd say it depends on what you want to do with the box. Since you're running it as a second partition from Windows XP, I'm guessing you want a desktop/workstation type distro. I'm going to have to go with SuSE for the easiest package updates, most current package updates (besides RedHat) and no dependency issues like Redhat. Just pick one of the two major commercial distros (RedHat, SuSE) and you'll get a consumer level distro. I usually run Slackware or Debian on servers and SuSE on workstations.
#4
04/04/2004 (6:07 pm)
My personal favorite is Mandrake, the new 10.0 has KDE 3.2 STABLE, so you get the new K Develop and other tools, its really nice. Its also easy to set up, just update your drivers, open the software thinger, search for the stuff you need, hit install, and your good to go. I've had bad experiances with Gentoo and everything else, mandrake works pretty much out of the box, if you have a radeon card, it installed the proper drivers and stuff, so you dun need to update your drivers.
#6
04/04/2004 (6:11 pm)
Fedora is very nice, but the new beta has issues
#7
I've used most of the distros out there, started with Slack, tried Redhat, tried Stampede, tried Mandrake, stayed with Debian for a long time, then finally went with Gentoo when my Debian box developed kitten-induced failures.
04/05/2004 (7:43 am)
What Peter said. Personally, I'm happy with Gentoo, though it's not a desktop system for me, it's a media player / file server. Not the friendliest of installs mind you, so I wouldn't reccomend it to a Linux newbie. But once it's installed, it's easy to keep current, and they're a lot faster than Debian when it comes to new packages.I've used most of the distros out there, started with Slack, tried Redhat, tried Stampede, tried Mandrake, stayed with Debian for a long time, then finally went with Gentoo when my Debian box developed kitten-induced failures.
#8
In any case, I tried to install Gentoo back on the 3rd as it looked like it was a good distro for what I wanted. Boy did that turn out to be a mess.
I have two drives in my machine that are both at 0,0 - one is hooked up to the Ultra DMA controller the other to the standard IDE controller. When I was setting up Gentoo apparently those drives got mixed up by the system. It was a mess. In the end I ended up with an unbootable system. After spending a couple days between working around the house hoping to find a way to boot back into my regular Windows, I finally gave up and reinstalled Windows so at least i'm back online again.
Ug.
04/05/2004 (8:43 am)
Well like I stated above I was looking for one oriented towards game development in some manner of another.In any case, I tried to install Gentoo back on the 3rd as it looked like it was a good distro for what I wanted. Boy did that turn out to be a mess.
I have two drives in my machine that are both at 0,0 - one is hooked up to the Ultra DMA controller the other to the standard IDE controller. When I was setting up Gentoo apparently those drives got mixed up by the system. It was a mess. In the end I ended up with an unbootable system. After spending a couple days between working around the house hoping to find a way to boot back into my regular Windows, I finally gave up and reinstalled Windows so at least i'm back online again.
Ug.
#9
04/05/2004 (2:07 pm)
John, I usually have all sorts of trouble with IDE assignment with my aging Linux PC, because it uses an offboard EIDE controller. Some kernels reverse the numbering of the devices, and I had a great deal of trouble updating my Gentoo box to a 2.6 kernel until I built it using the genkernel way, not the traditional manual way.
#10
It was very confusing. Neither one of the disks at "0,0" showed up as /dev/hda. In fact what showed up as /dev/hda was I don't know what. It wasn't readable. The two disks at 0,0 showed up as /dev/hdc and /dev/hde for who knows what reason. At least i'm pretty sure it was those two :) I have 4 drives in this machine. I was thoroughly confused. Took me about 2 hours of trying things to even figure out which one was the one I had left unallocated space on. Something that would have been damn simple in Windows/DOS fdisk was clear as muddy water in Linux's version of fdisk. Once I finally figured out which was what I created my partitions went through the whole install (the Gentoo install manual is pretty good) starting with a stage 2 thingamajig. Get errors compiling my kernel, got mad, tried again, got errors, got mad, when online using links and found a solution, recompiled, it worked, everythign else seemd to go fine. Then I got to setting up LILO and thats where I think it all got screwed up. I specified the wrong drive for the windows boot. So I tried to go back into Gentoo to fix it only to find that my keyboard wasn't working (I have a Logitech wireless keyboard, USB receiver). Apparently while it had worked fine with the LiveCD, my own installation of Gentoo wasn't setup right. So I pulled out an old keyboard from the closet which seemed to work, only to find that half the keys on it no longer worked :p
Aye aye aye!
All that took me about 8 hours total to do. And I love the Linux guys who say Windows takes a long time to install. Geesh I can have Windows installed in 30 minutes, and it involves a lot less typing.
04/05/2004 (2:31 pm)
I'm certainly going to take another stab at it, but first I need to get my Windows system back up to par and then GHOST it so I can easily recover should this happen again.It was very confusing. Neither one of the disks at "0,0" showed up as /dev/hda. In fact what showed up as /dev/hda was I don't know what. It wasn't readable. The two disks at 0,0 showed up as /dev/hdc and /dev/hde for who knows what reason. At least i'm pretty sure it was those two :) I have 4 drives in this machine. I was thoroughly confused. Took me about 2 hours of trying things to even figure out which one was the one I had left unallocated space on. Something that would have been damn simple in Windows/DOS fdisk was clear as muddy water in Linux's version of fdisk. Once I finally figured out which was what I created my partitions went through the whole install (the Gentoo install manual is pretty good) starting with a stage 2 thingamajig. Get errors compiling my kernel, got mad, tried again, got errors, got mad, when online using links and found a solution, recompiled, it worked, everythign else seemd to go fine. Then I got to setting up LILO and thats where I think it all got screwed up. I specified the wrong drive for the windows boot. So I tried to go back into Gentoo to fix it only to find that my keyboard wasn't working (I have a Logitech wireless keyboard, USB receiver). Apparently while it had worked fine with the LiveCD, my own installation of Gentoo wasn't setup right. So I pulled out an old keyboard from the closet which seemed to work, only to find that half the keys on it no longer worked :p
Aye aye aye!
All that took me about 8 hours total to do. And I love the Linux guys who say Windows takes a long time to install. Geesh I can have Windows installed in 30 minutes, and it involves a lot less typing.
#11
04/05/2004 (7:38 pm)
I like SuSe personally. We are using it at work for all the server side deployments, and it has one of the slickest installers I have ever seen. Even easier to install than Windows XP, if you have the right hardware ;-) !
#12
04/06/2004 (2:34 am)
Going straight to gentoo wasn't a very wise move. Linux n00bs need hand-holding and slackware is your boy for that. You may even want to try a knoppix install to start out. Compiling a kernel and using command line fdisk is not the way to be introduced into Linux.
#13
Sure I could go to something simple like RedHat or a variation there fo. But simple isn't any fun :) Simple also usually means you tradeoff performance.
04/06/2004 (6:10 am)
I tend to disagree. I've been a programmer for something like 15 years. I'm no newbie computer user. I've worked with Windows, DOS, Unix, and Linux in the past. I'd used fdisk a hundred times in the old days of DOS. Compiling the Kernel really wasn't a problem. It was just a bug in the make process, which I found information on and fixed. Really the whole problem just came down to not being able to tell which disk was what in fdisk and frankly i'll bet a linux pro would have had the same problem.Sure I could go to something simple like RedHat or a variation there fo. But simple isn't any fun :) Simple also usually means you tradeoff performance.
#14
My work machine (which is an IBM laptop) still boots on WinXP Pro but my home desktop machine is very happy with Mandrake. My wife assembled a new PC for me last week and its now using an ASUS PC4800 motherboard with an Intel P4 3Ghz Hyperthreading CPU and its booting on a Mandrake 10 Community Edition. Its my best machine yet. :D
04/06/2004 (6:24 am)
I tried Gentoo and 2 hours into the install ... I realized I was way in over my head. ;)My work machine (which is an IBM laptop) still boots on WinXP Pro but my home desktop machine is very happy with Mandrake. My wife assembled a new PC for me last week and its now using an ASUS PC4800 motherboard with an Intel P4 3Ghz Hyperthreading CPU and its booting on a Mandrake 10 Community Edition. Its my best machine yet. :D
#15
Ah, sorry about that. I just assumed n00b status from:
>All that took me about 8 hours total to do. And I love the Linux guys who say Windows takes a long time to install. Geesh I can have Windows installed in 30 minutes, and it involves a lot less typing.
Since if you *could* compile a windows kernel to fit your needs, it would take much longer than the default 30 minute install also.
Running 2.6.4 here and manoman is it ever faster than the 2.4 line. Getting nvidia's drivers to play nice was a little painful, but it was worth the effort.
04/06/2004 (7:32 pm)
>I've been a programmer for something like 15 years.Ah, sorry about that. I just assumed n00b status from:
>All that took me about 8 hours total to do. And I love the Linux guys who say Windows takes a long time to install. Geesh I can have Windows installed in 30 minutes, and it involves a lot less typing.
Since if you *could* compile a windows kernel to fit your needs, it would take much longer than the default 30 minute install also.
Running 2.6.4 here and manoman is it ever faster than the 2.4 line. Getting nvidia's drivers to play nice was a little painful, but it was worth the effort.
#16
04/06/2004 (7:48 pm)
I actually found NVIDIA's new driver install method completely painless. 
#17
04/06/2004 (8:18 pm)
I find that SuSe Pro 9.0 has everything I want and easier to install than windows XP.
#18
The problems I'm talking about are specific to the 2.6.x kernel. First, (in case someone else has issues) disable acpi by passing: acpi=off and noapic or a combination of pci=noacpi and pci=biosirq to the kernel.
This occurs on some boards and pci=noacpi worked on my specific board.
Also, CONFIG_4K_STACK option is very much a nvidia driver killer. Until they fix their binaries, you gotta use the 8k stack option.
04/06/2004 (9:38 pm)
>I actually found NVIDIA's new driver install method completely painless.The problems I'm talking about are specific to the 2.6.x kernel. First, (in case someone else has issues) disable acpi by passing: acpi=off and noapic or a combination of pci=noacpi and pci=biosirq to the kernel.
This occurs on some boards and pci=noacpi worked on my specific board.
Also, CONFIG_4K_STACK option is very much a nvidia driver killer. Until they fix their binaries, you gotta use the 8k stack option.
#19
True about Windows there, guess I wasn't really thinking when I posted that. I guess if I just downloaded a distro that had everythign already compiled it probably wouldn't take much longer than Windows. Just seems that anytime I try to use one of thoe distros, they never work. I only seem to be able to get Linux working when I build it by hand for my system. Seems Windows is more tolerant of various hardware by default that Linux is.
In any case i've got most everythig reinstalled so i'll be ghosting it soon and trying this again. Probably this weekend. I think I might just yank that second drive out that caused so much trouble. At least while I install, then stick it back in after.
04/07/2004 (4:49 am)
@NfoCipherTrue about Windows there, guess I wasn't really thinking when I posted that. I guess if I just downloaded a distro that had everythign already compiled it probably wouldn't take much longer than Windows. Just seems that anytime I try to use one of thoe distros, they never work. I only seem to be able to get Linux working when I build it by hand for my system. Seems Windows is more tolerant of various hardware by default that Linux is.
In any case i've got most everythig reinstalled so i'll be ghosting it soon and trying this again. Probably this weekend. I think I might just yank that second drive out that caused so much trouble. At least while I install, then stick it back in after.
#20
04/07/2004 (7:21 am)
NfoCipher, to be fair, it's not like you have a very typical mobo, is it? *jealous grin* 
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