gentoo/knoppix or redhat9

[Linux_cat]

I am thinking of installing a new distro on my pc, i am currently using redhat 9 and am having big trouble compiling a kernel, (i've never done it before), are kernels easier to compile and install on these other distros?

out of the three which one would you have running on your system?

[frimann]

I would recomend gentoo, i have installed it a few times and in the prosess you compile your own kernel (as recommended in the install isstructions) and it is quite easy to recompile the kernel to add options.
But the install can take quite some time (day or too), it all depends on what you chose during the install.
After installing gentoo you will know a lot more hove the linux system is made, bootloader-fstab-kernel and so on.

Go over to www.gentoo.org and read a bit before making a desision, as it can be quite scary to install gentoo.
At least for a newbee like me.

[trc]

compiling kernels on RPM-based distros can be a headache. your best bet is to download and install the kernel rpm or else search for a redhat specific kernel compile guide. gentoo has a tool called genkernel that simplifies the compilation process a little, but i have heard that some people find it annoying and would rather do it themselves. i would suggest taking a look at slackware. it doesn't include any distro specific apps or automated scripts that build the kernel for you, making it fairly simple to compile the kernel yourself.

[bosox79]

I guess to help better answer your question, it would help to know what you are looking for out of your distro? Do you want something that is easy to setup & ready to go out of the box? do the packages need to be optimized for i686? how old is the hardware you are going to be running the distro on? are you going to be changing distro's manly because you are needing to compile a kernel?, if I had to choose between the 3 although I like all of the distro's, I would say go with knoppix or another debian variant. What distro are you currently running?

HTH

bosox

[CoffeeMan]

I would advise against RedHat, because it is dead. Knoppix and other Debian variants are a good way to go because the package manager is better than RPM, and binaries are faster to install than source. (although source is worth the wait).
Gentoo is a great learning experience and offers a lot in the way of control. And Knoppix is very easy to install.

[Linux_cat]

Thanks guys, im thinking of knoppix now, due to the easyness of the update.

I would love to use gentoo but i dont think my linux knowledge at the moment would warrant such a move, (I just tried to recompile my kernel and it failed misrebly).


Ill let you lot know which one i go for (if your bothered).

Thanks again.

[hkctr]

If you are considering Knoppix, take a look at Mepis. If you are used to a packaged distro like RH, you may prefer Mepis because it comes with some configuration tools.

[arkaine23]

I'd choose Yoper. It's i686 optimized, uses rpm's, but has apt-get just like debian/knoppix.

Installing the latest kernel (2.6.8 currently with con kolivas patches) is as easy as

apt-get update
apt-get install kernel