Redhat 7.3 or Mandrake 8.2?

[Arkaine23]

I have both of these, and this will be my first try with Linux, alothough I have helped my friend install it on his PC and tried to troubleshoot his problems. Which of those 2 distro's should I use and how are they different?

I figure I will have the most trouble getting the hardware configured and trying to learn the cmd line. I will be installing on 10GB of unpartitioned space on my raid 0 array, and will probably opt for a boot disk rather than LILO or grub. Should I make a small Fat 32 partition so that I can transfer stuff from my NTFS windows drives? I think I will. What's been holding me up is fear of the lack of ATI drivers... but then I just found out ATI released a linux driver recently so now it's on!

So, redhat or mandrake? My goal is to learn to use and configure linux so that I can get a job at the university adminstrating/troubleshooting on their networks. So for me, this is going to be a crash course in the basix.

[Arkaine23]

I will get SUSE 8.0 at the end of October, b/c I know its better.

[XWRed1]

The raid array might be a problem if its one of those software-driven ones like the Promise and Highpoints that are so popular.

[Jeff Bolton]

sorry for the threadcrap, but would a motherboard with raid built in such as an abit bd7ii-r be considered software raid or hardware raid? when i build my new computer here in a month or so i still want to use linux but if raid is gonna be a problem then screw it, cause i want the raid performance.

oh yeah, i prefer redhat 7.3, but lately i've been thinking about giving debian a shot if i can get someone who has broadband to download it for me.

jeff

[Arkaine23]

Highpoint 372 onboard controller... will that make installation of linux difficult/impossible?

[Arkaine23]

Here (http://sdb.suse.de/en/sdb/html/hmeyer_hpt37x.html) is how I need to install linux onto my raid array. I have a friend running Mandrake right now and he will be switching to SUSE soon. I think I'll just wait until he's running SUSE and ask him to compile a new kernel for me to use when installing it on my rig. Would that mess up his install in any way?

[Richard]

I have a 3ware escalade 6200 controller, and it functions just dandy in linux.

I've run some bonnie++ tests and its performance was where it should be.

Having said that, there's hardly any noticeable difference in the way the system "feels." YMMV

[XWRed1]

Those highpoints and promises that end up on most motherboards are like the winmodems of raid controller. There are drivers for them now, but I hear they are pretty flakey.

[Arkaine23]

1. I found instructions to get it working under SUSE 8.0 (see above link). It should be about the same under any distro I imagine...

2. I don't know enough nitty-gritty here to do what I need to do. I do have a 3rd HDD, very slow, very small, but enough to install either of the distros I have on and recompile the kernel to fit my needs. How do I compile the kernel to include the Linux Highpoint driver? Would it then fit on a floppy and I'd install from the CD's and use the floppy at some point during the installation? Or should I alter the contents of the cd so it just installs the new kernel?

3. If anyone wants to take a crack at it... with either RH 7.3 or MDK 8.2, I'd be very thankful. Just craft a new kernel for me and give me a way to d/l it and some instructions about how I should go about installing Linux with the new kernel.

Otherwise I will wait a couple of months for a guru I know to get back into town and ask him to give me a hand. But that kinda defeats the purpose, as I'm trying to learn new things here.... a kernel recompile and non-standard install seems like a nice issue to tackle to get me started.

[David]

Originally posted by Arkaine23
1. I found instructions to get it working under SUSE 8.0 (see above link). It should be about the same under any distro I imagine...

2. I don't know enough nitty-gritty here to do what I need to do. I do have a 3rd HDD, very slow, very small, but enough to install either of the distros I have on and recompile the kernel to fit my needs. How do I compile the kernel to include the Linux Highpoint driver? Would it then fit on a floppy and I'd install from the CD's and use the floppy at some point during the installation? Or should I alter the contents of the cd so it just installs the new kernel?

3. If anyone wants to take a crack at it... with either RH 7.3 or MDK 8.2, I'd be very thankful. Just craft a new kernel for me and give me a way to d/l it and some instructions about how I should go about installing Linux with the new kernel.

Otherwise I will wait a couple of months for a guru I know to get back into town and ask him to give me a hand. But that kinda defeats the purpose, as I'm trying to learn new things here.... a kernel recompile and non-standard install seems like a nice issue to tackle to get me started.

I am running SuSE 8.0 here and would gladly recompile you a kernel for your system. Or I could compile a vanilla 2.4.18 kernel for you?

David

[Arkaine23]

At this point, whatever will work. As stated I currently have Mandrake and Redhat, but will be getting SUSE as soon as I can. I found instructions and the driver and linked them above. I won't pretend to know what the heck I'm talking about, cuz I don't. My goal is to start learning linux and I'd rather not buy another hdd just so I can do that. Vanilla means nothing to me... is it a generic kernel that would maybe work with the distros that I already have? I will wait with a home-brewed SUSE kernel safely stored away until I can get my SUSE 8 disks back, which I foolishly loaned to a guy who's skipped town until late October, if that is what it'll take. Or maybe this can be done (ideally) cross-distro and I can get a kernel or 2 for use in mandrake and suse?

[Arkaine23]

Looks like I'll get my SUSE 8.0 disks back in the next two weeks. Anyone think they could trouble themselves to build a kernel with the HPT linux driver in it so I can install onto my raid array?