Linux for freebsd admins

[Kevin Monceaux]

Ian,

On Fri, 11 Jul 2008, Ian Lord wrote:

>
> I have to install a linux machine and don't know which distribution to take.
>
> I tried debian ubuntu and fedora and didn't like them.
>
> I want:
>
> - A basic install (not 900 packages installed by default
>
> - No gui, I like my flashing cursor
>
> - an equivalent of ports. I want to easily compile my ports I don't like
>   prebuilt package. Want to retrieve them by cvs.
>
> - an equivalent to portupgrade.
>
>
> Could you tell me which distribution you are using when you have no choice
> and need to go to linux ?

Well, sort of.  In my case I did have a choice.  I just recently switched 
my home PC from Linux to FreeBSD after having been a Linux user since the 
1.xx kernel, not to mention the i486, days.  I've tried many Linux distros 
over the years, some source based and some binary package based.

>From the above it sounds like you want a source based system.  I've tried 
several.  I ran Gentoo for a few years before I got fed up with it and 
moved on.  I think of the completely source based distros I've tried my 
favorite was SourceMage.

As others have suggested, CRUX or ArchLinux might be good choices for your 
requirements.  Although I think the CRUX ports system uses rsync instead 
of CVS to update the ports tree.  I forget what Arch uses.  If you don't 
want a GUI installer, you can't get much less GUI than CRUX.  Quite a bit 
of the installation process is done "by hand."  One first uses fdisk and 
mkfs to partition and format their hard drive, mounts the partitions, then 
runs the setup script to install packages.  After the packages are 
installed, one exits the installer, chroots into the new system, edits 
fstab, rc.conf, etc., by hand, compiles/installs a custom kernel, then 
installs a boot loader.  I ran CRUX for a while followed by ArchLinux for 
a while and liked them both.

The Linux distro I was running just before switching my home PC to FreeBSD 
was Debian, and I think overall it's the one I liked best.  It has a text 
based installer, and one can install a minimal system via the installer, 
then install other needed packages later.  Although it is binary package 
based rebuilding packages from source isn't too difficult, once one gets 
the hang of it.  There were a few Debian packages I found the need to 
rebuild.  For example, the ffmpeg package available from 
debian-multimedia.org has mmx disabled.  Enabling mmx roughly triples 
it's performance.  My notes on rebuilding the package can be found at:

http://www.RawFedDogs.net/DebianFfmpegMMX.html



Kevin
http://www.RawFedDogs.net
http://www.WacoAgilityGroup.org
Bruceville, TX

Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes.
Longum iter est per praecepta, breve et efficax per exempla!!!