From: doppler.UUCP!jdries@naspac.tc.faa.gov (J. Francis Dries III)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: (Another) New Installation
Keywords: Linux OS/2 WinNT
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 92 18:30:17 EST
Reply-To: doppler.UUCP!jdries@naspac.tc.faa.gov (J. Francis Dries III)
Distribution: world
Organization: Only Posers Wear Black Productions

(This may be verbose, for that I apologize)

I know people get tired of reading these kinds of messages, so I'll
apologize for wasting the bandwidth upfront.  However, I have read the
FAQ, and I've been following the newsgroup on & off now for about a
year.  I've kinda grown up along with Linux, but not yet participated
because I haven't had the time to "just Play".  Most of my hardware
wasn't supported, until just recently... so, my question is:

What should I be looking for to do a new installation of Linux to my
system.  Before you answer...  from what I've been reading, the SLS
distribution would be the best thing to get my hands dirty and get
going.  I have, however, a few reservations that weren't quite answered
*directly* by the FAQ and other postings here on c.o.linux:

1)  My basic hardware setup includes a TSENG ET4000 based board
    (Everex), an Intel 403E 486/33 EISA and an Adaptec 1742 SCSI
    controller running in enhanced mode, and a Logitech Bus Mouse.  I'm
    mostly settled on getting the SLS distribution and installing that,
    rather than hunting down all sorts of packages & putting them
    together piecemeal.  I may have to do that anyway, because of my
    hardware configuration.  Someone looking at this may be able to
    settle my "which distribution to install" question by my
    restrictions.

    a)  The video should be no problem running X stuff, however I've
        seen a number of problems with Bus Mice.  Does the SLS
        distribution currently support ET4000 based cards with Logitech
        Bus Mice, or could the SLS distribution be modified with the
        (numerous) available patches for X and BusMice?

    b)  I also see that there are ALPHA SCSI drivers available for Linux
        that DO support the Adeptec 174x in enhanced mode on EISA based
        systems (out of lazyness I refuse to switch my Adaptec back to
        1542B mode, I have OS/2 and Windows NT installed and configured
        for the Adaptec in 174x mode, and I'd rather wait for Linux to
        change to match my configuration).  How would one include this
        code, or is it already included in the SLS distribution?  It
        would have to be, in order to be installed correctly, or am I
        misinterpreting the necessity of the SCSI driver code?

2)  Related to my hardware, I have already on my drive MS-DOS 5.00 (as a
    primary FAT partition), Windows NT (first primary NTFS partition,
    which occludes the MS-DOS partition), OS/2 2.0 (in an extended HPFS
    partition), and OS/2's Boot Manager.  If I remember correctly, I can
    only define 3 primary partitions (already done between Boot Manger,
    MS-DOS and WinNT) and (n) extended partitions (1 used as an OS/2
    system partition and another as programs and data for a total of 2).
    With that in mind:

    a)  From reading messages dealing with people running OS/2's
        Boot Manager you need to use OS/2's FDisk to create the
        partition for use with Linux, and then use the Linux
        installation to change the partition's ID byte.  Will I need to
        create 1 large partition for Linux (about how big would be
        acceptable, 200mb?), or do I need to create several partitions,
        1 for /bin/.., one for swap, and another for /u/?

    b)  Does the SLS installation understand that I may need to do all
        this trickery & mirrors?  And I believe it comes with LILO, can
        that be configured through the SLS installation to not replace
        the MBR? (killing OS/2's boot manager)

    c)  Does Linux currently allow for booting from an extended
        partition (all I can create now), and can the bootable extended
        partition be an extended file system?  And what is the size
        limitation on all this, I believe that the standard FS is
        limited to 64MB, correct? That is insufficent for any sort of
        serious use.. as I would like to run both X, and the
        NEWS/MAILpaks.

3)  And final (for now) question:  I have currently a Mountain TD8000
    series tape drive using the Mach2 controller.  I understand there
    are timing problems backup under Linux to QIC-40/80 based tape
    drives (the Mountain can be accessed as either QIC-40/80 or TD-101
    [Mountains own tape format to make 2120 tapes 150mb]).  Is there any
    support planned for this tape drive format, or would my time be
    better spent on getting a good SCSI based tape drive (I know I want
    one, I just cannot justify the $ right now).

Thank you in advance for any answers or pointers, or even nasty rummors.
I would appreciate direct E-Mail to my address, however, if you feel the
information would better suit the net (and keep lengthy posts like this
one from happening again), feel free to post the answer here.

---
J. Francis Dries, III             doppler.UUCP!jdries@naspac.tc.faa.gov
jdries@doppler.UUCP                  ...!rutgers!faatcrl!doppler!jdries

"Indecision is the key to flexibility"
  -- Author Unkown
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux