Thursday stuff

[altivo]

So, I found out I was wrong. CentOS isn't the only current Linux for the Alpha systems. Debian's current version is also available in Alpha form, so I need to compare that before deciding which to run on the DS10 at work. I thought it was inconvenient that CentOS needed four CDs, but the full Debian distro for Alpha takes up 21! That must include a heck of a lot of packages. Fortunately there's a single CD version that gives you the basic system and you can then apt-get whatever packages you actually want. That will work at the library, where there's a decently fast connection. It won't work at home though with only dialup available.

I figured out how to undo the LVM2 formatting of the two drives on the home Alpha, and now I will probably go with a dual boot setup, Linux on one drive and OpenVMS on the other. The disk tower that came with this machine doesn't have hardware RAID, and was set up only with software LVM. The tower with the DS10 is quite another problem. It's a Compaq Storageworks RA3000, with a DEC hardware RAID controller integrated into it. I don't have the software CD that originally came with it, and apparently the HP website no longer has it either for sale or for download. The RAID controller is supposed to be configured by running some software originally provided by Compaq that runs under Windows. Once the drives are configured, then the controller makes them appear to any operating system as whatever they were configured to be. They might be individual standalone drives, or mirrored, or striped for RAID 4, etc. I believe the two active drives in there right now are set to RAID 4, so that if one drive fails, the system keeps running with just the other drive until the damaged one can be replaced. I'm guessing this is the case because the Linux installer routines see them as a single drive, with the capacity of only one of the pair, yet the activity lights flicker on both drives when Linux tries to access them. I could just go ahead and use them that way, but I'd rather be able to split the pair and treat each as a separate unit. That would also double my capacity (which may not matter, since I never seem to fill up hard drives.)

For the library setup, I think I want Apache and a php forum system of some sort (preferably not phpbb, which seems to have been broken into by more hackers than I can count, even on the few actual forums to which I belong.

[EDIT: Somehow I forgot Gentoo, even though they are usually the first distribution I think of when someone mentions 64 bit processors. The one time I looked at Gentoo, though, I found it so odd in the way it starts up and configures that I really didn't want to get involved. As a long-time UNIX user, I prefer to stick with a start up that seems relatively familiar.]

Comments

[duskwuff.livejournal.com]

I'd actually recommend using phpBB 3.0 as soon as it goes gold. They've tightened up a lot in the last few years, and the alternatives really aren't much better unless you start looking at commercial software like Invision.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about Simple Machines. But I'll compare.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

*plays in a pile of unwravelled computer tape*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I doubt there are any mice in that.

[keeganfox.livejournal.com]

Yes... *stares blankly* Veeeerry interesting...

*clueless*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, I can't fly an airplane either. ;p

[keeganfox.livejournal.com]

Well, airplanes aren't that hard to fly actually. Once you get the basic aerodynamics and physics down, it's a matter of practice. I honestly think a large part of it is just confidence.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I should have worded that as "don't know how" though "can't" might apply in another sense. I'm enough of an acrophobe to have little interest in learning. I've ridden in small planes (five or six passenger amphibious, twenty seat prop commuter) and the usual large commercial ones, but never enjoyed it at all. My last commercial flight was in 1979 after which I said "never again" and I've stuck with that. The two trips on the pontoon plane were made to Isle Royale in Lake Michigan and back, in about 1981. I wanted to take the ferry, but one of our small hiking group adamantly refused, saying he'd get seasick. I don't suffer from motion sickness, but I found the trip to the island and back inside what seemed little more than an aluminum mosquito very nerve-wracking.

[duskwuff.livejournal.com]

Gentoo is... ugh. It's got a number of serious flaws, but the worst by far is that it's not very well tested (and, in fact, it's impossible to test properly, as there are far too many potential configurations). As far as I can tell, it's aimed primarily at users who have more time than sense - the whole "we compile everything for maximum performance" schtick falls apart when you finally realize you're spending much more time compiling software than you'd ever gain from the optimizations.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

That's been my impression of it too, but I haven't really looked at it in depth.