2001-12-10 01:24:21+00 by Dan Lyke 8 comments
Damn it, once again packages screw me up. Something in a package upgrade while attempting to fix some sendmail glitchies has hosed mod_perl's use of DBI. So the database stuff will be a bit slower 'til I can get this figured out.
I keep threatening to just compile everything from source, but think that'd take too much time. Sigh.
[ related topics: Flutterby Meta Perl ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:33:37+00 by: TC
I'd never a kick a friend when he's down, but since your still standing Dan http://www.rpmfind.net/ is a very cool (almost cpan cool) database if your using something RPM friendly like dead rat or mandrake. I always install stable versions and it seems to keep a linux novice like me safe.
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:33:37+00 by: Larry Burton
This is the one hurdle that Linux will need to clear before it is accepted widely on the desktop. Ximian appears to be close to clearing that hurdle.
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:33:37+00 by: Dan Lyke
Sigh. Yep, the problem is probably that I'm running the "testing" Debian distribution, 'cause there are a couple of things I want later than the last stable release. I'll try again in a few days, if it doesn't speed up maybe I'll just drop back and compile from source.
And yes, I run Dead Rat at work, and I think given my usage patterns that it wouldn't be any better. Probably no worse, but...
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:33:38+00 by: meuon
Ximian... The evil Microsoft compatible e-mail system and more. I assume it also embeds lots of html and font junk into an e-mail?
On the good side, it will allow better interoperability with MS-Users.
I have just spent a few days getting RedHat 7.2 on my dual-head machine working the way I want it.. I installed XIG's latest X-Server with support for my video card ($249.00) to get things working extremely well, as well as 'Turbo Print' to make my HP DeskJet 1220c work like it should ($19.00) and I have to say I am impressed overall. Except for my wanting to do 3D accelerated games and OpenGL stuff on my dual-head, requireing the better X-Server, this is a VERY usable "Dead Rat" system.
I still like Pine for e-mail. :)
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:33:38+00 by: Larry Burton
I gave up on playing with "Dead Rat" and went with Mandrake 8.1. I also gave up using the KDE Desktop and went with Gnome. Ximian's Evolution product is what convinced me that Linux is now a viable desktop alternative for Windows... except for when I attempted to install software. Compiling everything myself is just too inconvenient.
Evolution can throw out plain text emails with nothing embeded or can throw out HTML laced emails, just the same as KMail can. It integrates well with my Palm and pretty much gave me the final pieces I was missing. Ximian's Red Carpet holds some promise to making software installations easier, too.
And, yeah, I still like Pine also.
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:33:38+00 by: ebradway
I gave up on distributions other than Red Hat a few years ago. I was fighting a hardware problem with Mandrake and tried Red Hat and it went away. I still wish that either Red Hat had a minimal 'server' install or that someone made a 'just a kernel' distribution.
But for now, I upgrade my boxes every couple years and just use the latest Red Hat release.
BTW, meuon, why XiG? Didn't Xfree86 4.x support dual-head display on that Matrox card of yours?
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:33:39+00 by: Mike Gunderloy
As someone who doesn't want to spend time chasing patches, I've been quite happy with KRUD lately (www.tummy.com). Though the last time I rebuilt my Linux box, I went with the Linux From Scratch instructions (and some help from another human being), and that turned out OK too. I'd recommend everyone go that path at least once.
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:33:39+00 by: John Anderson
Having played with the "everything from scratch" method, the "apt-get is your best friend in the world" method, and the Slackware method (which is sort of inbetween), I think inbetween is probably the way to go. Start off with a Debian base, and then compile the important stuff (MySQL, Perl, Apache, etc.) That way, you can even use Debian "stable" for the base, which avoids many of the foot-shooting sorts of bugs that you seem to have been running afoul of.
If you decide to do this, you might want to check freshmeat for "checkinstall", which is a library that dynamically overloads certain libc calls with traps, so that it can detect paths during the "make install" process. It uses these to build a package (RPM, DEB, TGZ) for you from a compiled source tree. It won't have the full-blown dependancies that make apt such a nice tool, but it does make upgrading significantly easier, and that's a good half of the packaging battle.
And I second Mike G's suggestion: all serious Linux users/admins should do the linuxfromscratch thing at least once. On a newish machine, you can easily do it in a weekend, and if you pay attention, you'll learn a tremendous amonut about the way stuff works.