Wanna Try Linux?

[Tom]

Lots of Linux talk on Futurequest. Wanna try it out on your Windoz 9x box? I stumbled across a version that runs either from a DOS prompt, or even in a DOS window.

Check it out - it's free, it's a 9 meg download and if you don't like it, you just delete the directory:

http://www.dragonlinux.nu/

[Stephen]

Tom, thanks for the link. Looks interesting. I surveyed the DragonLinux site and carried home the readme file. Have you used this distribution? Can you recommend it personally? It sounds attractive to the Linux newbie. On the other hand, my guess is that it's probably pretty scant on the documentation side(?)

[Justin]

Well, I downloaded it, and I'm transfering it to my 486 laptop right now http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif I figured it would be a good way to learn Linux for now, until I replace my 233 and turn it into my Linux box http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif I don't have a floppy drive for the lap or I'd just throw Redhat on it. I shall provide a full report after I've tested it fully http://www.aota.net/ubb/biggrin.gif

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Justin Nelson
FutureQuest Support

[Daniel]

I downloaded it and expanded it to the C:\linux dir, but when I run linux.bat even after rebooting to dos mode it just restarts the pc and sends me to win98, any suggestions?
thanks,
Daniel

[Justin]

Hm, I installed it on my 486 laptop first and had no problems, so I tried it out on the 233. It worked fine here too, and I'm running 98 on it... using the same c:\linux directory... are you running any sort of boot manager? Like a partitioning tool or something? That's the only thing I can think of at the moment.

It runs on the 486, although a little slow, but better than I had expected considering it only has like 8 megs of ram (486 SX-33, no floppy drive - which is why I needed something to run under DOS 6.22 http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif)

On the 233 it was lightening fast, but when it's running there I can't read documentation to help me move around lol - what sucks is I have a Winmodem in the 233, so it won't work at all in Linux - but I have a 14.4 in the laptop http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif That'll be fun to play with when I get bored, or maybe I can use the serial cable and use the Winmodem through a network... need to get it all configured first though http://www.aota.net/ubb/biggrin.gif

The major drawback to DragonLinux is the documentation is very slim, which doesn't help in cases like this... let me know if you figure anything out though.

<edit>
Try renaming the directory to C:\LINUX, all caps - Linux is very case sensitive, and that's what I did on both machines... don't know if that will help or not though...
</edit>

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Justin Nelson
FutureQuest Support

[This message has been edited by Justin (edited 04-19-99).]

[JoeB]

I've tried the dragon07.exe and the install.exe versions
on my 6x86 Windoze machine and neither worked.[nbsp][nbsp]worse yet,
the install.exe version wrecked my windoze and now my
mouse is not functioning.[nbsp][nbsp]{even after re-installing win98}

I knew it was too good to be true.
I've seen two different accounts on whether or
not it works on a fat32. one sez yes, the other; no.

Help!!!!

[Justin]

It does in fact work on a FAT32 drive - I have it on my PC although I never use it - it's too slow really (as it's almost like having an x86 emulator running Linux on top of Windows...).

I do have it on my 486 laptop - it's really really slow there. Just doing an ls is painfully slow for some odd reason. I don't think this thing was optimized very much - but again, running one OS on top of another OS is probably just a bad idea anyway :([nbsp][nbsp]I'm just waiting to get another box and just set up 2 - one Linux, one Windoze.

In fact, I have a 386, but no ram and no hard drive - and my Windoze hard drive has been giving me blue screens for the last 2 days now (time for a surface scan I suppose).

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Justin Nelson
FutureQuest Support