2001-10-22 17:33:55 +00:00
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<META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO 8859-1">
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<META http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css">
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<META name="author" lang="en" content="Michiel Broek">
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<META name="copyright" lang="en" content="Copyright Michiel Broek">
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<META name="description" lang="en" content="MBSE BBS Manual">
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<META name="keywords" lang="en" content="MBSE BBS, MBSE, BBS, manual, fido, fidonet, gateway, tosser, mail, tic, mailer">
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<TITLE>Linux distributions.</TITLE>
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<LINK rel=stylesheet HREF="manual.css">
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<BODY>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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2001-12-29 15:17:18 +00:00
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<h5>Last update 29-Dec-2001</h5>
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2001-10-22 17:33:55 +00:00
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<P> <P>
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2001-12-29 15:17:18 +00:00
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<H1>Unix Distributions.</H1>
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2001-10-22 17:33:55 +00:00
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<P>
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<H3>Which distribution</H3>
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<P>
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Linux is available in several distributions, they all have advantages and
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disadvantages for bbs use. Which distribution to pick is very personal.
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2001-12-29 15:17:18 +00:00
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Since late 2001 a port to FreeBSD is available, from version 0.33.19 this
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port is ready to use.
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2001-10-22 17:33:55 +00:00
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You should also consider the fact if the bbs machine is the same machine on
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which you do your daily work on or if you use a seperate system for the bbs.
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I will describe the distributions below for use on dedicated bbs computers,
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that means you don't do daily work on them and don't use them to play games.
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Most important is that this is my personal view.
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<P> <P>
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<H3>Slackware</H3>
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<P>
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I am using MBSE BBS on several Slackware distributions. You can make a very small
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setup for MBSE BBS like Zipslack. Not included is the mgetty package.
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<P> <P>
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<H3>Redhat and Mandrake</H3>
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<P>
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I write this as if these are the same which isn't true of course. From MBSE
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BBS's point of view they are almost the same, so that's why I treat them as
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the same distributions. For people with little Linux experience these
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distributions are a good choice if you can spare the diskspace. I haven't
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found a simple dedicated setup for the bbs, so the safest way is to install
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allmost everything, which is quite simple. This will cost you about 1200 Megs.
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Maybe that someone more experienced with these distro's can give more details
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on how to build a small server. Please note that from RedHat 6.1 and up the
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startup script (/etc/rc.d/init.d/mbsed) is different than before. Maybe
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this is needed for Mandrake 6.1 and up too.
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<P> <P>
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<H3>SuSe</H3>
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<P>
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Since SuSE 7.1 the setup scripts are working and tested. Older distro's
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might work.
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<P> <P>
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<H3>Debian</H3>
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<P>
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The installation works on a Debian 2.1 and 2.2 distribution without any problems.
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How to build an optimized Debian system is not tested by me.
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<P> <P>
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2001-12-29 15:17:18 +00:00
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<H3>FreeBSD</H3>
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<P>
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I test on a FreeBSD 3.2 stable release. Newer releases will not run on the
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hardware I have available. (Don't ask me why, they crash during install).
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The setup is quite simple, do a small setup (average user), and add some needed packages
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from the ports collection such as gcc, mgetty, infozip etc. The test machine
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has a 500 MB harddisk, about 250 MB is still free. Note that the older
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precompiled mgetty packages may not always have Fidonet support compiled in.
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You may need to build mgetty yourself if you have an older FreeBSD distribution.
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<P> <P>
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2001-10-22 17:33:55 +00:00
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<H3>Famous last words...</H3>
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<P>
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I don't have the diskspace for all kinds of Linux distributions to install
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at the same time, with the current size of Linux, I only have 2 versions
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installed. Also, I don't buy every new distro that's available. If you have
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a problem with that, just send me the new distro on CD to test by snailmail.
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<P> <P>
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2001-12-29 15:17:18 +00:00
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2001-10-22 17:33:55 +00:00
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