Wanting to get my hands really dirty!

[Personalfreedom]

Hello all and I am glad to be here among you!

I have been using opensuse 11.1 for a bit pure install on my laptop and a dual boot on my desktop!

I spend about 99% of my time in linux and any MS related software i just run on a VB host.

figured out all the eye candy and what not (compiz 3d rendering blah blah)

but I want to know more about the internals of this operating system.

I will be taking my first classes for a CCNA, and also wish to become unix certified. but in order to do that I need to get uber geek with this shizzle!

so aside from these fantastic forums can we point me in the direction of massive knowledge related to linux,networking programming (in C Perl etc)

basically johnny 5 needs input!!!! show me everything! I must have massive amount of doc's data etc to absorb!

[The Coder]

Hi PersonalFreedom,
OpenSuse is considered a binary distribution, where the code is already compiled for you and you just install the binary. You should really start looking into the more intense distributions like Gentoo and Linux From Scratch. They have huge amounts of information and you basically configure everything yourself from the ground up. I just started to get into Gentoo and know a little about it. It is a source based distribution, where you have to compile all the source code yourself to create the executables. You set the compiler flags and such. I don't know a lot about LFS, but it seems even more low level than Gentoo. Check out these 2 distros. They have a lot of info online on their sites. Also check out the Rute guide(link below). It is a free book on the internet that is really great. has a lot of Info about Linux. It is a few years old now, but unlike a lot of the Linux books that become outdated soon, it really holds its value. See below..

E. N. J. O. Y. :D ;)

Gentoo (http://www.gentoo.org/)

Linux From Scratch (http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/)

Rute Guide (http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz)

[Personalfreedom]

I like the idea of a source distro.

Linux From Scratch is even more appealing sence it seems to get me into the core of it right at the start by building the initial build tools from source.

it seems a bit daunting at first but they have rovided several links and prereading for me to explore before I take that plung.


Gentoo also has it's merits clearly... I guess now it comes down to pure preformance potential whom does this mark go to LFS or gentoo?

I am in no way afraid of doing intense work or expecting a flawless install/config OOB with either of these distros.

the reason being is Ill want to fine tune for my Arch my GPU my GUI needs etc this being said makes me thing LFS would be a better choice.

but I guess when dealing with source distros the greater my ability with source the greater my ability with either distro right?

[gamblor01]

I'm not sure that it really matters all that much which distribution you are using. There are plenty of popular distributions out there that mostly work by distributing binaries such as Ubuntu (all Debian-based distros actually), Fedora, SuSE, etc. You could decide to run Slackware or LFS or something like that, but at their heart, ALL of them are using the same basic Linux kernel. ALL of them will allow you to build software.

So I would say you don't need to switch your distro if you have it setup exactly like you want it. Just make sure you have gcc and you should be capable of building your own software. Feel free to experiment with other distros, but I generally like to have one box setup the way I like it that is my "main" distro. I don't generally mess it with too much. Then I have other partitions or machines for installing all sorts of new distros and trying things out.

I would also recommend learning to program in C, learning how makefiles work, learning how kernel modules work, and so forth. This information can be found on the internet though I personally think a book (yes, a real book) is a better structured/more comprehensive resource for true beginners. Of course, taking classes is even better.

Or you could just go study under bwkaz. I'm pretty sure you will be a Linux guru by the end of the week. :D

[mrrangerman43]

Here are a few things on programming.

ProgC1 (http://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/Dave/C/)
ProgC2 (http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial.html#ctutorial)
CPointers (http://www.linuxjunkies.org/avijit/chelp/c9.htm)
Unix-Shell-Programming (http://cis68b1.mikecappella.com/)

Networking

OSIlevels (http://www.comptechdoc.org/independent/networking/protocol/protlayers.html)
Protocals (http://www.protocols.com/)
IPAddresses (http://www.faqs.org/docs/linux_network/x-087-2-issues.ip-addresses.html)

[Personalfreedom]

Well as luck would have it my local college has a decent linux/unix admin course which gives me three more credits (thats wootage there fer sure)

I have used the power of the almighty google to dig up a massive amount of documents for my reading pleasure (good thing I just recently got my RX for my glasses tweaked and renewed)

From the various searches I have conducted on these forums there appeares to be a healthy helping of edumacated folks more than willing to share their collective wisdom!

[Personalfreedom]

hes baaaack lol whats crackin everybody I hope the evening (or morning or whatever time slot your in for that matter) is treating you well.

after a Long internal debate as to go gentoo or LFS I have decided to give LFS a shot.

I am still in the data backup stage (you know music .avi files etc)

However sense this stage can be rather time consuming I thought id ask a few questions.


I have determined even after a Complete a LFS system and pick and choose my toppings from the selection of the BLFS packages. I will still have a pretty bare bones Linux OS.

A few things I have noticed are alot of the eye candy programs compiz etc dont have their own section.

this also goes for say a nice graphical boot only a few WM's are covered.

now a few articals have mentioned that programs will NOT work with WM's such as fluxbox is this a general rule or just hasnt been done?

if so and I was to pose the question of which GUI system would you choose if the line up was Gnome or KDE what would it be?

Also what would be used to allow me for a graphical boot like say opensuse's

here is another big question what about op flags for software which packages should I set things like CFLAGS CXXFLAGS on Im pretty sure any core Library packages should be left alone but if not is the preformance going to be worth the mods?

Im rambling I guess so one to my main question

I got 80gb of space on the target Laptop

Im planning a partition setup as follows

/dev/hda1 2gb swap
/dev/hda2 20gb /root
/dev/hda3 extended
/dev/hda4 /home 57gb
/dev/hda5 /var 500mb
/dev/hda6 /tmp 500mb

this scheme was suggested by a friend whom claims that keeping my /var and /tmp filesystems seperate from the rest of the system will increase my security.

love it or hate it rip it apart or stamp your seal of approval I want to know what you all think!