I think maybe I should at least make a suggestion that solves my own
problem.
If we're serious about getting people involved with Linux, then for
those with my problems, we need one of those "boot Linux from CD" or
some similar basis of a solution.
My main box, the one with my D44 and Santa Cruz card in it, the one
that's connected to the SDR and I don't want to disturb, has a single
NTFS partition on its single hard drive.
I shouldn't have done that, perhaps, but remember, I'm nicely
internetworked, so I didn't envision booting Linux on this particular
box. Be that as it may, many others are likely in exactly the same boat
anyway. So, if this is about more than just me (and I suspect it is),
there needs to be a solution that's reasonable for a lot of folks
similarly placed.
What I think we need is:
1. Some suitable distro or distros (Knoppix, a Linux distribution made
for this scenario, is probably a great start).
2. A list of supplemental packages to download while running Windows
still to supplement Knoppix after we boot Linux from CD.
3. A willingness of those in my boat to buy and use a suitable USB
"thumb" drive. These are upwards of 1 GB now and for cheap, you can get
sizes like 128MB or 256MB. That sounds small by today's standards, but
in fact, you could still do a lot of code development on one of these.
Source code just isn't that much space. It's really a question of "how
many supplemental packages" and "how large." The point of the thumb
drive would be to have a place to read and write the necessary data to
develop code. It could be a second hard file, I suppose, that you don't
let Windows use, but many people would find a thumb drive easy to deploy.
4. A little time taken, when rebooting to Knoppix, to install the
things you need from the thumb drive.
If the pieces could be pulled together, this is a pretty much totally
fail-safe, anyone can do it, who cares about NTFS, no risk to anyone's
Windows box kind of approach.
It would enable the nervous (like me and, I think, others) to tinker
with Linux and the SDR without getting into the whole "moving the wires
about." I have options like NFS that others may not, so I'm not going
to assume technology like that for this solution. I want something that
we can assume anyone can use. Perhaps the read only NTFS support could
enable the packages to be safely read from the Windows disk as another out?
Anyone already try this? Know whether Knoppix or one of its many
variants has suitable drivers for at least the Delta 44?
Is there a list of minimum packages and levels of same needed to dvelop
and run the Linux stuff so we know that it would work once one bothers
to download it so one cold quickly get going?
Larry WO0Z
- Re: [Flexradio] Linux for Windows Boxes (was Ho... Larry Loen
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