I just installed the new Red Hat Linux 7.4/8.0(?) beta on my Notebook. To my surprise, this release looks more like Windows XP

Here a screenshot from the new desktop (running KDE 3.0.3):



Finally, a distro with good looking default fonts

I installed it as well. I've been looking for a distro that is suitable not only just for the uber-geek in the family (guess who ), but for all of the family.

Even though this is a beta, it's by far the

* easiest
* most compatible with my hardware (finally, no errors from my P4S533 USB ports under Linux)
* most consistent user interface
* prettiest
* most stable (so far)

...distro I've ever used. (-tried Mandrake 8.2 and latest beta, SuSE 8.0, Lycoris)

This may be the distro that actually can replace another OS on the desktop.

Sorry if this sounds like hype - check it out yourselves, oh skeptical ones.

kenzo

Oh yeah... this was also the first distro that not only recognized my GeForce 2 correctly (as have others), but also installed drivers with 3D acceleration enabled by default. Woo hoo! (That's a first.) OpenGL / 3D works "out of the box". (Or maybe it's "out of the ISO"...)

Pimpy.

Pimpy? Sorry, I understand engineering terms, but I'm not that familiar with "cool rad dude" -speak

Help out an old guy and explain...

cheers

Wow, well I guess you have to be like us cool, young 30 year olds to know that one. Basically, it looks nice.

Thanks for the clue.

The beta does look nice - more importantly, it works nice.

cheers

I have been using it for a couple of days now and must say it works very well (with some minor troubles).

When I first logged in I nearly puked. I have never seen such an ugly icontheme before...ever

To make it look real good install the slick icontheme. It's a easy download/install from kdelook.org.

Grab it here: http://www.kdelook.org/content/show.php?content=732

No builltin NTFS-support in the kernel

I'm trying to get authenticated by PDC-emulator on the AD so I can connect to some of the fileservers but no luck yet. Have to give the reading about the Samba-client a little more time.

I'm using rdesktop for now. Works very well, real cool

/Toby

The theme doesn't look that bad but I suppose some people won't be truly happy until we're all using 16 colour icons again...

Does the theme I posted look like 16 colors to you?

"Does the theme I posted look like 16 colors to you?"

...it does if his video card / monitor settings are at 16 colors

Toby, is your AD domain running in mixed mode? If it's in Native Mode, then it probably will not (or at least should not) work. Mixed allows for backward compatibility, while Native cans it in favor of newer features and greater security. Also, if you try to get authenticated against the Samba server using AD credentials, it will want to authenticate against your domain and there's a couple of ways to do it.

1. Disable full time broadcast encryption of credentials from the clients, or

2. Enable encryption handling by Samba

The second is a bit of a pain to setup initially, but it's worth it.

Just installed it for myself. Looks nice, had to change the window behavior back to click to focus and turn off double clicking.

The only problem I have is can't get networking to work. Doesn't like my nforce onboard nic, tried to build from source and it screams that the modules were created using a version 2 gcc instead of version 3????

Tried to use one of my trusty tulip clones LNE100TX or KNE110TX (which worked fine in any other distro), doesn't like those either. The module gets loaded fine but it won't pick up a dhcp response. Also when I assign a static, any time I try to ping my gateway it says destination unreachable.

The AD is running in mixed mode and I was trying go get authenticated against the DC that runs as PDC-emulator with no luck.

Thanks for the tips Cluth, I'll give it another try at work on Monday

Hello all!

No NTFS support built in?

I tried Mandrake beta 3 and 4. Both auto configured dual boot with Windows XP. But, beta 4 failed to configure my NIC. NTFS was built in and Mandrake reads my NTFS without a hitch.

Will RedHat beta install dual boot with Windows XP correctly? I much prefer RedHat, have 7.3 on my primary system with ME and have been very happy with it (I know, I need XP for some work stuff, at least for now). This "secondary" system will most likely become my primary once I get RedHat up and running.

"No NTFS support built in? "

There is still no NTFS support in Beta 3. Check out: https://listman.redhat.com/pipermail/limbo-list/2002-August/003580.html

"Will RedHat beta install dual boot with Windows XP correctly?"

Yes, however Windows XP is listed as 'DOS' in the boot menu

If you compile your own kernel you can include NTFS support. Just be carefult to mount the target FS in read only mode since the NTFS support still hasn't been completed yet (it's been in development since at least kernel 2.0.36, possibly even longer).

AFAIK, Red Hat lets you edit the boot loader configuration before it writes it to the MBR. Just change it from 'DOS' to 'WinXP' there.

Thanks for the quick reply, Gents. Interesting article Philipp. I guess Mandrake has decided to include the support anyway. I'm sure that I may have mucked up the installation of the NIC on install. RedHat Beta 4 did not like the NIC at all and tried to default to the USB provided by Roadrunner. I believe that I asked it to specifically configure the NIC on the first go around, as default, knowing that there are still issues with the USB. It looks like this Distro is more friendly with NIC cards than USB, even though it appears to detect the USB connection install, it's a no-go when opening Konqueror.

I'm going to try RedHat Beta (NULL) this evening and take the suggestions given. I feel very comfortable compiling the kernel later, if needed.

One last question, on the RedHat install. Do you need all 5 CD's, or will it accept just the 1st CD for a basic install? I keep getting server time-out errors downloading these ISO's and would like to take my time with the others.

You need the first 3 CD's for the installation

Hello;

RedHat would not install, complaining about the geometry of the drive from a previous installation (must be Mandrake). I assume that I have to uninstall Lilo from Mandrake. PartitionMagic will also not load, from the hard drive or the floppies "unable to define drive designation". This will be a project over the next week, if I decide to switch. I did install Mandrake RC1, which went without a hitch.

Thank you both for the quick replies. I was able to download the latest RedHat via FTP software.

I appreciate the information and input. Great resource, I will be back!

"RedHat would not install, complaining about the geometry of the drive from a previous installation (must be Mandrake)."

I had this error a few times. The solution: Simply click on the ignore button and continue with the installation.

OK, I tried the install. Got as far as the message, chose "ignore" and a second message came up "The partition table on device hda was unreadable. To create new partitions it must be initialized, causing the loss of ALL DATA on this drive. Would you like to initialize this drive?"

Does this just mean the Linux partitions;

hde5 - root
hde7 - home
hde - usr

Or is it telling me the the WHOLE DRIVE? I have Mandrake currently installed on ext3. I failed to mention, if not already assumed, Win XP on NTFS.

It looks like I may be better off leaving it well enough alone.

Sorry if this is a bit OT, but has anyone seen a preliminiary release schedule for the final version?