Baslinux mailing list

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On Jan 24, 2008 11:02 AM,  sindi wrote:

> BL 2.1 has a later X that lets you use precompiled versions of add-ons
> which may not be available or compilable for 3.5.  If you are not going to
> use X, it does not matter.  At least one version of xpdf would not work
> with BL3.  It would be complicated to upgrade Steven's neat little X setup
> to a later X.  But you can upgrade kernel and libc easily.
>
> I use BL2 on most computers, with Steven's Xvesa and rxvt.

Yes, I will use X, but I want to do as much as I can sans X.

> If you upgrade to glibc, use the one from Slackware 9.0 or 8.1, and then
> you can add Slackware 9.0 or 8.1 or 7.1 packages (that don't use X).

OK

> You can change kernel and glibc.  I upgraded to kernel 2.4.31 because
> someone sent me a Slackware 10.2 CD with the source code.  I upgraded to
> glibc 2.2.5 from Slackware 8.1 because they sent that too.   The 2.4
> kernel is needed to use USB-storage devices such as flash drives, cameras,
> external hard disks, SATA-USB adaptors.  It is needed to compile a few
> modules (2.6 is needed for others) because nobody bothered backporting.
> 2.2 would not work with one wireless network card, where 2.4 did.

I want USB storage support. I also want USB aircard support, which
doesn't happen until kernel 2.6+, and I still must apply a patch even
then.

I have a pcmcia wifi card that works great with xubuntu 7.04, but
xubuntu is painfully slow on this notebook.

Half of the distros that I have tried that are using kernel 2.6.23
resulted in a kernel panic message saying that the processor isn't
supported, but I think it was due to the way those distros compiled
their kernel, since I didn't get that message on all of them.

> > Second item, the poll...
> >
> needed to compile (10MB?) and compiled kermit on it.  The Slackware 4.0
> compiler (gcc) and libc5 won't compile a lot of newer software but you can
> upgrade them (and then you need 100MB to compile with).

As long as I'm using a "minimalist" distro, with a 4 GB HD, space is
not an issue.

> Your laptop has more memory than anything we are using to run BL3.5 or
> BL2.1, and is as fast as our best laptop.  A 100MHz laptop with 24MB and
> an 85MB HD works fine for BL3 (if you won't be compiling kernels on it,
> for which it helps to have more speed, and probably more space and
> memory).  BL does not fill up the memory with unneeded logging daemons,
> and Xvesa/rxvt is low-RAM.

I will be compiling kernels.

> So what you have is overkill.

Using xubuntu does not leave one with that impression! :-)

> What were you planning to use the laptop for?

Browsing and email mainly, either via wifi (mobile) or aircard (home).
Perhaps listening to classical music while doing so. :-)

I suppose I can get around the aircard issue by installing wifi at
home and using the computer with the aircard for the internet
connection.

Thanks, Sindi!

steve