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Free Libranet Review: sort of


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OK, I went for the Libranet download. "Try as long as you like, buy it if you like it."

Since I multi-boot, I remebered to make changes in my /mnt and fstab prior to installing. In fact, I went ahead and formatted the partitions so that they were clean and ready. I also actually read the install guide, just to see what I would be looking at. OK, so I skimmed it. It's more fun to just jump in anyway.

 

Installing Libranet was something like installing Mandrake 7.0, Except that it actually worked! It does a command line type of install with simple graphics. But it is automated, and the automation worked well for most of it. I had to id my video card; it tried to use vesa on my nvidia fx5200, which would have been a disaster. Once I told it to use the nv driver, it offered to use the nvidia driver! Cool! Setup worked great. I forgat that this is actually a commercial release and uses proprietary drivers. X configuration went great, as did my mouse and sound setup.

 

Libranet first installs a base system with its own kernel, like some other distros.(SuSE) It insisted that it be used to multi boot my machine, but i told it "no". At the reboot, I went back into Mandy, copied the kernel stuff into /boot, and edited my lilo.conf. It crashed on reboot!. So, I went back into Mandy and removed the append, and changed the video to normal. That did the trick. Back in Libranet, I was asked to setup root and user passwords, and continued the install from the cd's. I installed all desktop stuff, no servers. Libranet is using kernel 2.4.21, so I had to emulate scsi in order to burn cd's. The "Libranet" desktop uses an odd combo of Icewm, with gnome and debian tools. It looks good. I went into kde 3.1.3. I'll try to update to 3.2 in order to "test" its ability to update later.

 

All in all, this is an easy distro. I did have to know some linux type stuff, but if I remove my multi-boot history, any beginner could install this with normal heart palpitations. it's a cool distro.

 

More later.

 

I forgot to note that it only installed into one partition, with no immediate options for installing into multiple partitions. Not cool.

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Haven't used any of those. Mandrake is easiest because of the gui. MEPIS is very easy because you actually boot into it as a portable distro and then install. What I like about Libranet is that it seems faster than Mandrake, even in kde! I just installed true type fonts off the internet using the tools. Works great. You should try it, though. I could see a beginner installing this.

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Haven't used any of those. Mandrake is easiest because of the gui. MEPIS is very easy because you actually boot into it as a portable distro and then install. What I like about Libranet is that it seems faster than Mandrake, even in kde! I just installed true type fonts off the internet using the tools. Works great. You should try it, though. I could see a beginner installing this.

 

 

Is that compared to a Mandrake 2.6 kernel.... (im guessing so cos of the comments on cdburning and ide-scsi)?

 

what is the installed /etc/apt/sources.list ?

Im wondering what happens if you do update the kernel, what happens with nvidia support?

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I'll check it out!

Here it is.

# See sources.list(5) for more information

#Libranet
deb http://libranetlinux.com updates/2.8/
deb http://libranetlinux.com security/2.8/

#Debian
deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian sarge main contrib non-free
#deb-src ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian sarge main contrib non-free

#Debian Non-US
deb http://non-us.debian.org/ sarge/non-US main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://non-us.debian.org/ sarge/non-US main contrib non-free

#Debian security updates
deb ftp://security.debian.org/debian-security sarge/updates main contrib non-free
deb ftp://security.debian.org/debian-security stable/updates main contrib non-free
#deb-src ftp://security.debian.org/debian-security sarge/updates main contrib non-free
#deb-src ftp://security.debian.org/debian-security stable/updates main contrib non-free

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I have never purchased Libranet, but the sight calls it an "evaluation" edition that has no expiration date. Everything works, including apt and other debian tools, so I am thinking they might be trying a Mandrake approach to increase users and thus appeal to potential buyers.

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