LINUX Users - what version and distro?

For those of you that are doing robotics development on a Linux PC:

What Linux distro are you running? What version (number)?

Do you have KDE running on your system and if so, what version?

Thanks.

Reply to
Robert Oschler
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My robot is running Mandrake 9.2 only because I haven't upgraded.

I think I have it installed, but the robot has no screen or keyboard, and the mouse port is used for motor encoders. So, I don't run it.

Reply to
mlw

Although I suspect it will take at least until Xmas to get up to speed I took your suggestion (mlw) to get KNOPPIX, although I still have figure out how to burn something called an ISO image of it onto a CD.

However there is also a Flash Linux designed to boot directly from a USB flash key. This might be a neat idea instead of using a hard drive on a mobile robot?

John

Reply to
JGCASEY

If you have a CD burner, the application that came with it to burn them, should know what an ISO file is.

Maybe.

Reply to
mlw

I use Gentoo (2005.0) -- but if you're new, I wouldn't recommend this particular distribution. For a WM I use WindowMaker -- I don't use either KDE or Gnome.

A great way to test drive is to use knoppix -- you can just boot it from the CD and have a full distribution (desktop and all) up and running directly from the CD. It does very good hardware detection as will.

If you like it, you go ahead and install it on a spare partition, new disk, or even into an NTFS partition (there is some trickery involved here, but knoppix makes this fairly straightforward). The resulting distro is basically debian -- whioch can lag behind the leading edge quite a bit but is pretty stable, and has a good package management system.

Reply to
the Artist Formerly Known as K

Any reasonably current windows CD burning software should support burning an ISO image. The ISO image is just a file image of the CD contents. What are you using to burn CDs?

Reply to
the Artist Formerly Known as K

Hi Robert.

I am running Slackware 8.(something). I do not run an X server on the robot, and just X and FVWM on the machines that talk to it (no KDE).

It has been very reliable (I have been running Slackware for nine years or so), and has most of the features I need.

Jeff.

Reply to
Jeff Shirley

I use Debian. While it's a great distribution for someone with experience, it's probably not a good choice for most new users unless you've got a guru handy to help you.

Reply to
Joe Pfeiffer

Gentoo with a 2.6 kernel from gentoo-sources. It is the latest version as of yesterday.

No KDE. At the moment no X at all.

-- D. Jay Newman

formatting link

Reply to
D. Jay Newman

I tried to burn KNOPPIX 3.7 that came with the Linux Format magazine using Nero Express. Then I tried to burn SimplyMempis 3.3 that came with the APC magazine.

At first I thought nothing had happened. However using the disc info button on Nero it seems I have filled the CD with a number of burning sessions :)

Just have to start again with a new CD. I think maybe the Linux Format needed a linux OS to work. I had hoped they would come with gcc and a beginners tutorial on programming Linux with C. I tend to learn by stepping through examples of how to do something not by trying to extract the info from some boring manual.

I guess Flash Linux doesn't need to be burnt just copied to a USB flash key. Then I need a C compiler and a tutorial on writing C code for Linux, in particular how to access a web cam to load images into an array at a reasonable speed. I hoped to use the flash memory as a hard drive for data and programs. I thought maybe a 1GHz flash key might do the trick? Portable Linux that can run on any PC. Flash Linux was on the Linux Format magazine disc.

John

Reply to
JGCASEY

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