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Re: Keyboard and locale problems



On Monday 17 May 2004 11:44, Bob Proulx wrote:
> David W.E. Roberts wrote:
> > Bob,
> >
> > thanks for all the useful info.
> >
> > I had been led to beleive that if you did a HD install of Knoppix then
> > you had a Debian installation which could then be updated to the latest
> > version by using 'apt-get update'.
>
> (read with me making puzzled faces about how to explain it) Not quite.
> KNOPPIX is a very tricked out hot rod car.  It has many non-standard
> components making it a one-off.  But it is really cool.  The packages
[...]
> won't be completely consistent.  It is not a pure Debian system.  It
[...]
A lot of negative things have been said here about upgrading from Knoppix.  
I'd just like to add that I have had _no_ problems of this sort (plenty of 
others, but not things I can blame on the original Knoppix install.  My 
desktop machine has been tracking testing for months since I installed 
Knoppix 3.2.  My laptop did too (it has now been reconfigured for another 
use).  I have another machine installed from Knoppix and again have not 
suffered any problems.

> > The reason I went with Knoppix was because of the superb hardware
> > recognition - my previous attempt with RH 7.3 didn't pick up the USB
> > card, the floppy tape, or the ISA sound card.
[...]

That was my original motivation too.  The speed of initial set-up is also a 
factor.  I have recently installed my "new" laptop with Mepis, to see how it 
compares.  It seemed to me as effective as Knoppix at hardware recognition, 
and is better set up for installing to the hard drive - tools for this are in 
the initial menu structure.  Again, to date, I have had no problems with 
upgrades.  You might like to try this option as an alternative.  Mepis now 
makes a small charge for the download - at least the latest version: I forget 
whether the older version is still free.  Well worth a few dollars, IMHO.

Both of the above appear to "hold" a bunch of packages at certain releases (at 
least, I assume they did it, rather than some slip of my fingers).  I have 
arbitrarily released any that I felt would be nice to get more up to date, 
and occasionally had to release a few extras to satisfy dependencies.  Using 
aptitude, this has not been stressful - even with my almost total state of 
ignorance of the apt-get machinery.  So my boxes are in transit between 
knoppishness or mepishness and pure debishness.  A transition that seems to 
me painless - and any inconvenience certainly worth it for the ability to 
have a working system in half an hour.

Needless to say, YMMV.
-- 
richard



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