What are everyone's thoughts on holding an installfest sometime soon? I think it would be a great first event, and it would really compliment the intro to UNIX series that is being planned.
Victor
Oh yes! That would be a great thing to do; I'd love displaying a FreeBSD install. Maybe it could get rid of those notions that FreeBSD is hard to use.
I just want to get some feedback to try to help make this happen. Is this something we would like to do on a Friday night? I think that would provide us the most amount of time. If you can think of a better day, let us know.
I have a crabby old laptop that is waiting to challenge linux pcmica support. It will be sure to attend :)
Peter
I think its a great idea because I just recently installed linux on one of my machines and I sure could use some tweaking or configuration help. Still can't get my network card to work :(. And what about maybe a Saturday day rather than a friday night.
What does a person need to bring to an installfest? Just the cpu, or all of the toys that go along with it. I've been wanting to get a version of linux installed, but have been a bit unsuccessful in my own attempts. It sounds great that a person like me could abuse LUUCS member's knowledge.
What distro do you want? If you want to learn everything there is about Linux, then Slackware or Gentoo would be good, but if you want to have it on your comp, then Mandrake or SuSE would be better. Then you have your BSDs.
Jon
I would personally like to see gentoo run on the little laptop I have. One problem is that the system does not have a cdrom drive and the pcmcia services are not supported by any linux distro boot disks (I have tried Suse, Redhat, Slack, Debian so far). My only option is using a laplink cable to copy the distro files via the lpt port to a fat partition and installing linux from it.
Anyway, we can get a myriad of distros stored on solar.cs.siue.edu and host them via nfs. I sure would hate for everyone to come out and then install via congested ftp mirrors. Lets start a list of the MUST have distros to have on hand.
Peter
The SuSE 8 bootdisk does support PCMCIA. You need to boot the disk, select manual, goto modules, select PCMCIA, and then do a install via PCMCIA or you can do a FTP Install from solar. You still got SuSE 8 ftp version up, right?
Jon
Yes they do support PCMCIA in a broad sense. I have just been unable to find a boot disk that will detect and control this specific PCMCIA controller. It does not seem to be an oddball vendor, it is a TI i think.
We can take this up at the installfest. Until then, lets hear some more suggestions on how to make the event more successful.
Peter
I suggested to Grim that at the Presentations on how to use Linux, we could hand out SuSE CDs so they get something for going to a lecture. SuSE has a free version of their OS. All you need to do is contact them, and they will send you ever how many copie you need. Then if there are some left over, they could be used at the "Installfest 2002". Good Idea? Bad Idea? I don't know which department to contact at SuSE, but they are always will to promote their product. The reason why I mentioned SuSE is that I think it is the easiest distro to install. Well, that's just _my_ opinion. Mandrake is also another easy one, but I don't think they hand out a free copy of their product. Granted you might need to pay for shipping on the CDs, but it won't be that much. SuSE, sometimes, gives out bargins to anyone that promotes their software.
Jon
Jon,
That sounds like a great idea. What does this free version consist of? I imagine it is a fully functioning verison of linux, but is it stripped down or something? I will poke around the Suse website and see what I can find.
I would love to be able to give away linux disk sets that are not just burned downloads.
Peter
They offer the CD as a DL off their ftp server, but I'd figure it would look better if it had SuSE printing on it rather than a burned CD. You can DL it and find out what's on it. Their is no commercial software on there that you need to pay for. I think SuSE can send you a copy of SuSE 8 Standard for free or a redused rate, and raffle that off. I forget what their promotions are.
I do know that YaST 2 and other gui bs is on that singul give away cd.
Here is the link to download theSuSE Evaluation CD (ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/live-eval-8.0/liveeval-8.0.iso).
Jon
Yeah, I brought up SuSE at the meeting the other day. I'll contact SuSE this week and see what I can find out about getting CD's from them.
Also, I agree with Jon that as far as GUI linux distros go, SuSE is by far the best of the bunch.
Peter, I'll be willing to help setup gentoo on your system; although, I don't know how we'd do it with no CDROM (I thought you said that at least).
I'll make sure to bring my desktop system and put FreeBSD on one of the free partitions as a display.
If no one really wants to see FreeBSD; I won't bother. I'm primarily interested in just getting people to use some sort of Unix-like system.
I think saturday afternoon would be good. That way nobody has to miss out on their friday or saturday night activities.
Victor
I like the idea, and I love SuSE, but I think we should try to remain vendor neutral. We could always download and burn lots of copies of other distributions and then have options for people.
Victor
If you go to the Gentoo forums, there are some post where ppl have made a bootable floppy to install Gentoo. I could probally make one myself if I had the time. All I need to do is extract the boot information and use WinImage to make a boot floppy. Then when booted with the floppy you set up Gentoo normally, but when you get to the part about extracting the tar.bz image, you use wget and DL it. After that, you can extract it.
As for as other distros, you need to see what their polocy is about distributing burned copies of their software. The _Only_ two reasons I mentioned SuSE is that I know they have a free distro they send to you, which is prettier and more professional looking than a burnned cd, and it is easy to use. If Mandrake and Red Hat have freebe versions that they send you with their logos and stuff on it, then by all means, use them as a choice.
Jon
Well, this saturday is out because it is simply too late to try to arrange this event so soon. How does the 21st sound? I could get started on allocating tables and power equipment. Also, if we could start assembling a list of other supplies that might be needed. How does the attrium sound? I think the nice open space would be a change of scenery from the labs.
Peter
I'm open on the 21st; I think that would be a great time to do it.
By the way, does anyone here want to see a FreeBSD installation? I just thought I'd ask, b/c I don't want to try to display something if no one has an interest.
If no one has an interest, then it'd be better if I just help display Linux installations; otherwise, I'm open to putting up FreeBSD for people.
Open on the 21st? But there is a carnival on the 21st! Well, it is looking like CAOS won't be there anyway. Maybe we could have the install fest at the carnival. We could show off our linux boxes to the sorority girls. Then by studying their reactions, maybe we could better understand why there are so few CAOS girls.....
Oh man! I didn't have it marked on my newly made schedule about the Carnival yet; sorry about that, I really am.
Well, if the carnival interferes, I can do it another day.
Perhaps a carnival installfest would be good? However, we would have to have a set way of how we demonstrate installations; it would be less personal. I was hoping the installfest could be hands on and interactive; I thought that was the point of it at least.
But man! Missing out on sorority girls? This puts me in an awkward position.
Women? Computers? Women? Women? Computers? Women?!
I was just giving you a hard time about being more excited about Linux than fundraising. The proposed installfest has been getting a much larger response than volunteers for fundraising and club promotion. That's a natural response. Maybe we need to find a way to put fun back in fundraising.
Count me in.
Victor
Perhaps we could combine the installfest with pizza or doughnut selling at the carnival :-) People could come for the installation and then be hooked on then food.
Victor
I wasn't critisizing your choice to emphasize SuSE. We can get Red Hat CDs but we would need to ask people to register with Red Hat so that we could continue to get them in the future. Registration is free, and painless, but we would need to feel comfortable with asking people to register.
I also understand about the unprofessional look of CDRs. I point out that this is Linux we are talking about, and passing out CDRs wouldn't be entirely out of character :-)
Anyway, we could always hand out the SuSE CDs, but have fliers or something with information about the different distributions.
Victor
How come all the topics about computers end up talking about women and the lack there of? We really need girlfriends, y'all!
Yeah! I think we should compile a list of all the well-known, good distros. Have a blurb on all of them, and the website to the maker's homepage. We need to hand out at _least_ a copy of one distr, because ppl might not want to DL it or are on 56k lines. The paper will look more professional than burned CDs. Most of these ppl will be new to Linux, and will be like, "A burned CD!?!hat kind School hands out pirated software at a publised event?" Of course, it's not pirated, but will they be used to free software? So point being, if we want to distribute Red Hat CDs, we contact Red Hat, and find out if the have a free version with their pretty little logo on it. Same with Mandrake.
Jon
Agreed. I wouldn't mind putting the information sheet together. I also don't mind contacting Red Hat. I just want to make sure that we are cool with asking people to register with Red Hat. If we aren't, then we should stick with SuSE.
Victor
The other thing we could do is perhaps shell out the money for a distribution sampler pack from Cheap Bytes or Linuxcentral. Then we would have nice looking CDs for several distributions. If anyone wanted a copy, we could burn them one, and give it to them along with a paper copy of the GPL.
This gets areound the problem of having homemade CDRs and it would introduce people to the world of free software.
Victor
Oh yeah, I forgot about the Sampler. Thanks for reminding me. How much is it, and do we have enough funds to buy a lot of copies? I have no problem haveing ppl register with Red Hat. We just need to reafirm the fact to them that it is free.
Jon
CheapBytes has the cheapest and most up to date combo for $17.95. That includes Red Hat 7.2, Mandrake 8.1, Slackware 8.0 and Storm Linux 2000.
I don't think we could afford CDs for everyone unless we burned copies ourselves. The cool thing is that all of these CDs can be copied. We don't have to worry about licenses in this case, because we can assume that CheapBytes already did all the leg work for that.
Victor
Well, everyone seems to be ok with saturday for this event, but what time works for everyone? My first idea is 12-4. Let me know how this works for everyone.
Peter
Here is my workup of a flyer. If I dont hear any feedback soon I am going to consider pushing the event off another week. I would have liked to have these posted today, but oh well... Let me know what you think.
http://caos.cs.siue.edu/luucs/installfest.jpg (http://caos.cs.siue.edu/luucs/installfest.jpg)
If you have some ideas/comments do let me know.
Peter
You know what, I've been thinking.
As long as you're pretty sure 1-2 people will show, you might go ahead and have it - if it's small, it will give you a chance to live and learn and improve the event for better billing, more notice, and a larger crowd. Might as well learn (and potentially make mistakes) small.
For the flyer - might want to give a precise list of what to bring: cpu, monitor, keyboard, etc. or just cpu? (ie, is important for linux and getting the appropriate drivers to have the monitor, mouse, printer, etc. there? or is it easy for us to get the accessories from somewhere else so people don't have to bring them?)
QuoteElizabeth wrote:
For the flyer - might want to give a precise list of what to bring: cpu, monitor, keyboard, etc. or just cpu? (ie, is important for linux and getting the appropriate drivers to have the monitor, mouse, printer, etc. there? or is it easy for us to get the accessories from somewhere else so people don't have to bring them?)
Drivers? I think all attendees should have to write their own drivers like you had to in the ole days :-)
My tongue is firmly in cheek of course.
Victor
I've wanted to write a driver, but I haven't taken the time to learn how to do so yet.
Maybe someday.
I don't know about everyone else but for me it would be much easier to lug around a CPU rather than all the peripherals.
I don't know if I can RSVP here but I'm coming :pint:
ok - 1 RSVP for "anonymous" coming up ... :-D
To RSVP, please send and email to luucs@caos.siue.edu
If anyone has a spare powerstrip or two that they could bring with, we could use them.
Thanks,
Peter