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Domain: solucorp.qc.ca

Stories and comments across the archive that link to solucorp.qc.ca.

Stories · 3

  1. One-Machine Linux Cluster

    Linux · Linux · · posted by chrisd · from the chroot-is-so-old-skool dept. · 260 comments
    An AC wrote: Forget Beowulf ? clusters, Jacques Gelinas has made available a kernel patch to enable many virtual servers running on the same machine, even the same kernel. Read his original message posted to the Linux kernel list." Imagine what this will mean for hosting companies...

  2. Simple Comprehensive Config Tools?

    Linux · Linux · · posted by Cliff · from the does-it-exist? dept. · 358 comments
    Speare asks a question which may be on the tongue of many Linux newbies: "Is there anyone working on a GNOME or X gui front-end that can help organize all of the known device configurators into one comprehensive front-end? Let me point-n-click at /dev/cua2 and see if it's got a modem on it, for example." He also has some valid comments about ways Linux Distributions can improve their configurators. I too feel that a single configurator is better than multiple configuration tools. Linuxconf is a move in the right direction, but it still has room to improve. (More)

    "I admit it, I'm a Linux newbie. As I write this, it is Day Two. I've been both impressed and unimpressed with the out-of-box experience. The variety of Linux I've picked up was RedHat 6.1 for my Intel machine. I hate lowlevel hardware tweaking like determining IRQs, and have hated it for 19 years, but I figured I could go through a little more of it.

    Impressed:
    I was pleased to find that there were gui or text-mode-gui things to help me get many items configured. There were a series of tools on most of the basics like mouse, monitor, graphics card, sound, net card, modem, ppp, and so on. If I knew the name of the tool or could find it (by using the Win32 laptop still attached to the Web), I was able to get my subsystems all working with a little effort. I'm not afraid of vi or bash or emacs, but the gui setup was well-adapted to letting me run around and choose options without having to remember or learn keystrokes like C-x C-s at the same time.

    Unimpressed:
    Very few things seemed to be organized, either in the online help, or the tools available. Most of the things I found were by searching the support requests on the RedHat page, not in any prepared documentation. Once I found *mention* of setserial(8), I could use it or get the manpage. Once I found the /etc/inittab(5), I could tweak it to get that graphical login that rh6.1 install didn't make. And so on, for problems I faced in an unsupported PnP Sony 17" monitor stuck in 640x480 SVGA, and other problems I've yet to figure out.

    If I had a *comprehensive* one-stop-shopping place to go, it would help a lot. It doesn't have to know all the esoteric PnP techniques, it just has to know how to execute the tools that have already been written.

    Perhaps it would let you browse all /dev/* entries, click on each one, and it would start the configurator tool that is responsible. Or at least point the user at what /etc/*.conf file was useful. I would hope to see loopback tests and more importantly, what to do or where to look if something's not working resources, even if they're just URLs back to the distro or author of the uberconfig tool."

  3. Configuring Monitors in X

    Ask · X · · posted by Cliff · from the aye-the-dreaded-modelines-strike-again! dept. · 408 comments
    Another Anonymous Coward submitted this question: " Everyone that I know, myself included, has had some trouble getting X11 configured under Linux. If your monitor doesn't happen to "work with X" right off the bat, it seems that you're out of luck. Why is it that I can plug my generic 17" monitor into any old Windows box and get 1024x768, but it won't work at ALL with my Linux box yet I can plug in my Sony Trinitron 15" and it works just fine? We're using the latest version of X, of course. Even Windows 3.1 didn't have the sort of monitor problems that plague X. I see this as being one of the biggest installation headaches for beginners *and* advanced users of the Linux OS." Ah yes: Modelines. I know there are programs that help with this. Which ones do you all suggest?

    Actually, I could have sworn we had done an Ask Slashdot on this, but as time passes improvements are made, so I don't mind doing another article on the subject. Just via a quick search on the web, I've found:

    • Modeline
    • and kvideogen (I'd bet there is a Gnome version of this as well)
    • This page that has a simple, web based, Modeline calculator.

    So if anyone has tried the above resources, we'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on how they work. If you know of other Modeline resources, please post links. I don't see why X11 has to have the reputation as "difficult to configure" when the tools to do such are out there.

    Just a thought: Would including Modeline functionality in configurators like Linuxconf be a good idea?