1 |
On Thu, 2002-10-03 at 20:27, Mike Frysinger wrote: |
2 |
> help him out :D |
3 |
> |
4 |
> ---------- Forwarded Message ---------- |
5 |
> |
6 |
> Subject: [gentoo-user] Questions--help answer these and you might help Gentoo |
7 |
> and Linux as a whole |
8 |
> Date: Thu, 03 Oct 2002 19:23:04 -0700 |
9 |
> From: "Charles N. Burns" <charles.burns@×××.net> |
10 |
> To: gentoo-user@g.o |
11 |
> |
12 |
> I have a demo for a school tomorrow in which, if I can prove that Gentoo |
13 |
> will work well as a server OS (to use a big server rather than a bunch |
14 |
> of small workstations not running Gentoo) then the school will probably |
15 |
> go with my recommendation, and I have a few questions whose answers will |
16 |
> greatly help the demo's likelyhood of success. This server will be used |
17 |
> by thousands of people per year and, if Gentoo, I will let each one of |
18 |
> them know about it and how to get it. (These are good CS students, the |
19 |
> type of people that Gentoo is best for, IMO) |
20 |
> |
21 |
> 1) Mozilla's cursor isn't blinking as I type this. This is irritating |
22 |
> beyond belief and makes it impossible to see where anyone is typing. How |
23 |
> to fix this? (I am in GNOME2, which is what I will use for the demo) |
24 |
|
25 |
Why not use Galeon for the web and Evolution for email? |
26 |
If you don't know, galeon uses the mozilla rendering engine gecko but |
27 |
the gui is gtk+. The same took kit used by GNOME. |
28 |
Evolution is essentially a MS Outlook clone with better features for |
29 |
large amounts of email. |
30 |
|
31 |
> |
32 |
> 2) Can Gentoo's kernel safely, stably address 12GB of memory? If not, |
33 |
> will the stock kernel? (Clearly I have to enable high memory and |
34 |
> recompile, but back with 1.1a my system would crash when I enabled |
35 |
> highmem to support the full GB in my Linux server) |
36 |
> |
37 |
I doubt any of the patches to the gentoo kernel will prevent it from |
38 |
accessing up to 64GB of memory as the help for "High Memory Support" in |
39 |
the Linux Kernel Configuration states can be done. Enabling "High |
40 |
Memory Support" incurs a slight performance penalty. If your system has |
41 |
1GB or ram, you might change the "User address space size" to 2GB and |
42 |
disable highmem (gentoo specific). This will reduce the amount of |
43 |
memory a single process can utilize though. |
44 |
|
45 |
|
46 |
> 3) Does anyone know how to make HP X-terminals (specifically the Entria |
47 |
> 2) display 16-bit or 24-bit color rather than nasty looking 8-bit? Does |
48 |
> anyone know if it can't be done? Does anyone know these things even |
49 |
> exist? HP doesn't seem to! The things have 2MB of video RAM, so I would |
50 |
> think they can, but the screen gets scrunched into a small corner and |
51 |
> gets mangled when we try. |
52 |
|
53 |
> |
54 |
> 4) What CFLAGS should I use for the FASTEST compilation. I figure -O0 is |
55 |
> one (to not optimize). Any others to speed things up? I will be |
56 |
> compiling like 20+ files at once, so every little bit helps. |
57 |
> |
58 |
> 5) Biggie---How do I make X start up with a higher priority every time, |
59 |
> rather than manually renicing it each and every time it starts? I use |
60 |
> KDM if that matters. I can use something else, like GDM, if needed. |
61 |
> |
62 |
> 6) What other cool stuff can I do for the demo? The server (not mine, |
63 |
> mine is just the demo) will support 35 X-terminals (the Entria II's I |
64 |
> told you about above). I plan to show it running GNOME2, Anjuta, and |
65 |
> EMACS and perhaps a few shells for each user, and then simultaneously |
66 |
> compiling 20 or so programs to show that the system won't freak out or |
67 |
> get dog slow. I'd like to show that Linux is very useful for programmers |
68 |
> learning ANSI C, Java, BASIC (is there a BASIC interpreter for Linux??), |
69 |
> and general use--such as showing they can use Dia for making their |
70 |
> flowcharts. My demo system is a dual AthlonXP 1400MHz W\ 1GB RAM and an |
71 |
> 18GB 10KRPM SCSI drive. The server will be, if the demo works, a dual |
72 |
> Xeon 2.8 W\12GB RAM and 5 10KRPM SCSI drives in RAID10 + hotspare. (Not |
73 |
> bad for 35 X terminals!) |
74 |
> Any ideas on how to show it as useful (if it is for these tasks) and as |
75 |
> generally cool? I was thinking of showing off a few themes, but they |
76 |
> will look like crap in 8-bit color... |
77 |
|
78 |
I think BASIC is a terible language. I would recommend to anyone to |
79 |
stay away from BASIC at all costs. If you want an easy langauge to |
80 |
learn that is interpreted, look at Python. BASIC was the first langauge |
81 |
I learned and I still despise the time I wasted using it. I wish |
82 |
someone would have told me to learn something else. |
83 |
|
84 |
When I first saw DDD I thought it was cool. This debugger front end |
85 |
will show you nice structed diagrams of the data for the program you are |
86 |
debugging. |
87 |
|
88 |
> |
89 |
> 7) Hmm, Mozilla is just broken as hell. What browser should I demo? |
90 |
> Mozilla's cursor doesn't work, cut/paste doesn't work even between |
91 |
> Mozilla applications, and overall it is being a piece of junk. I see the |
92 |
> system install emerged 1.0 for some reason. I'll have to try 1.1. |
93 |
> |
94 |
> Any other ideas, warnings, caveats, etc? I am doing the demo TOMORROW |
95 |
> (Friday OCT 4 2002) so need answers ASAP, ***but answers after tommorow |
96 |
> will still be useful*** because I will have a few days to show off to |
97 |
> individual instructors. |
98 |
> Any help appreciated. Thanks. |
99 |
|
100 |
None of what has been mentioned so far is specific to Gentoo. Any newer |
101 |
linux distro should have all the mentioned applications. Is your |
102 |
audience familiar with linux? Is gentoo in competition with another |
103 |
linux distro? |