Subject: Re: Circus, between KDE and Gnome and YDL in general
From: John L Grantham (john@grantham.com)
Date: Sun Jun 11 2000 - 13:54:41 MDT
At 2:53 pm -0400 11/6/00, David Haines wrote:
> Is YDL Champion Server supposed to work with the G4, by default ? It
>really doesn't.
It does, with a grain of salt. It takes some fiddling with it. Linux
-- by which I mean the proper sense, the kernel -- boots and runs,
but some of the software may or may not work properly. In many cases,
all you can do is wait for updates, I'm afraid.
>I've successfully installed it (following the directions to
>the letter), and it boots fine, but in the file-navigator in KDE, my "core"
>file has a bomb symbol, in Gnome it shows up with a frowning-face icon. What
>happened, I don't know. How do I fix this one ?
That's a core dump file created when a file has a segmentation fault
(i.e. a serious crash). It's mainly for debugging information, if you
wanted to send a bug report. You can safely erase it if you wish.
> Sound works in Gnome, but not much else: many items that show up in the
>Gnome menu, _don't_ launch when selected, nothing happens at all. Plus, I
>keep getting a message (when starting Gnome), "can't find host OIT, adding
>it to the hosts file should help" or words to that effect. Plus business
>about Gnome not working properly because of this. What ? The information
>Gnome is looking at, was set up within KDE, where I can successfully connect
>via PPP & modem dialup to my Internet server.
GNOME does its own hostname lookup, for some reason. I had similar
trouble, and traced it back to DNS and hostname configurations
locally. Installing a caching name server (and setting 127.0.0.1 as
the primary DNS server, with the other DNS servers for my ISP also
there for when I'm connected to the Net) seemed to solve that trouble.
> KDE: no sound except for the simple machinistic backspace/del "beep."
>When I try to test (yes, after selecting the "Enable" check-box) system
>(event) sounds, all I get is white noise. I read the KDE help info, not much
>help there.
> Trying to read the Gnome help, there's no index (!).
You need to install the GNOME documentation RPMs. Those are in a
separate package. You can get the most recent ones from
www.helixcode.com.
> Video works, passably, but only after getting lots of help from others,
>and wasting an incredible amount of time...
> What a mess.
Welcome to the world of Linux on new hardware. I don't mean that
sarcastically or harshly, but sad to say, but that's just the way it
is in the beginning. Don't forget that Linux developers doing kernel
drivers are often working practically blind on hardware support, with
no official help from Apple, and they also don't get to even try the
hardware until it's on the market (whereas Apple engineers get to it
long _before_ it hits market, for obvious reasons).
In that light, it's pretty amazing that Linux boots and runs at all
on G4s, Pismos, slot-loading iMacs and so on, given that Apple
(unlike PC companies) also tends to be a fast-moving target,
constantly changing hardware specs.
> Yes, yes, I know: RTFM. Well, the vast majority of linux for PPC sites
>are for LinuxPPC, or a PC-based distribution. Even Yellow Dog's web-pages
>link to help-sites that are specifically about LinuxPPC. Most times, the
>info supplied just doesn't _quite_ apply for/to YDL.
That's because YDL and LinuxPPC are very similar, and LinuxPPC
happens to have been around longer and therefore is more widespread.
You can safely do most anything you see for "LinuxPPC" (which also
refers to the Linux port to PowerPC in general). You can also safely
use software from one or the other -- or from MkLinux R1, if you wish.
HTH
John
--John Grantham | Dipl.-Designer (FH) | Homepage http://surf.to/multimedia | Linux for Macs: http://www.maclinux.de/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Sun Jun 11 2000 - 13:57:23 MDT