TPN :: The GNU/Linux User Show

Upgrade Schmozzle

Jon — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 00:26:52 +0000

Blog entries are a little sparse the last few days. I attempted to upgrade from Fedora Core 3 to Fedora Core 4 and that just totally blew up in my face. The FC4 upgrade broke my desktop, my soundcard, and did something to make my laptop run like it’s wallowing in molasses.

I then decided that since this is Linux this provided a perfect opportunity to try a new distro. So, I tried SuSe personal which was bust. I should have remembered that because it was on a single CD that it doesn’t come with the gcc compiler (and other assorted development tools that I need to get my wlan card up).

Finally…I’m downloading Mandriva/Mandrake as we speak. It’s 3 CDs and I’ve confirmed that it comes with gcc. I’ll let you know how that goes.

One of these nights I’ll have a working laptop again to do my podcast on :)

Fedora Core 4 Out!

Jon — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 18:33:29 +0000

I’m working on a way to get the latest releases from Distrowatch on this blow, but until I do I’ll be posting them manually.

Yes…I only went there today to see if my Fedora Core 4 was out and it was! So, I’m starting the distro notification with Fedora.

Welcome to the Linux User’s Show!

Jon — Mon, 30 May 2005 13:53:04 +0000

Welcome to my shiny new blog on The Podcast Network. I’m working hard to produce the first Linux User’s show which will be online this coming Sunday (June 5th).

In preparation for hosting the show I upgraded my Dell Inspiron 1000 from Fedora Core 2 to Fedora Core 3. FC3 isn’t all that new really, I was just hesitant to do the upgrade because my wlan card isn’t supported by Fedora. I managed to get it working in FC2, but remembered it being a total beast.

As it turns out, I managed to get my card up and running with little difficulty (I give it a 2.5 tricky penguin rating) which leads me to believe that the problems I have with FC2 were more related to my inexperience with Linux than any real problem with inserting the correct modules, etc.

On that note, FC3 installed like a dream (2 tricky penguin rating, but most of that is due to the iso burning process). It was the most Windows-like install I’ve seen yet on a distro (although I’ve been told that Suse is quite slick as well) and had none of the problems FC2 had. My laptop didn’t like the video handlers on FC2 and I had to do a text install because the default refresh rates weren’t compatible with my screen and caused the thing to flicker horribly during the install. To this day I’ve had to run vesa drivers with FC2 on my laptop which were OK but far from ideal. Not so with FC3. I just popped the disk in and off it went. I’m running at 1024×768 for the first time since I switched to Linux and it was totally painless.

I see that FC4 ‘test’ is out now as well!

Edit: Now that I’ve played with FC3 for a while, I notice that there are some intermittent sound problems with the distro. I thought it was just me, but a quick Google search shows that this is a rather widespread problem. Before installing FC3, please be aware that you may experience soundcard related problems.