VL on a Ferrari3000

[Ken75]

Hi Im a really newbie at Linux, and Ive heard that VL linux can be one of the best OS to begin with and use if youre a newbie or Pro.
Ok this is my situation
I have a Ferrari3000 (ACER)
I tried to install the Vector Linux 5.9 Gold editon first with a swap disk of 1024 MB ..cause the laptop has 512 MB RAM (is this correct)
I think it worked in a way, but I saw that my grahpic card didnt install properly, and it didnt find my wireless card..so I couldnt use the Laptop at Wireless connection..(I think personnaly thats important )
After this I tried the Vector Linux V6.0 STD edition but it did not work either...It had the same problems.
So here id my questions:

1. My Ferrari3000 had 512 MB of memory is it correct to use a swap disk of 1024MB then ?
2. What vector linux can I use to make my Ferrari3000 work exellent ?(with all drivers and everything)
3. If it so that its smart to buy a version ? will this make it work ? Im thinking of VL 5.9 Deluxe 2-CD Set....if it so I´ll do that.
4. Is the buy version much better then free versions.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
To help you mabe support me better I found that linux Ubuntu is working ok on my computer I havent tested it but I found this on the WEB. this is the same PC like mine...hope that this can help you eventually to support me better.

http://www.noc.kth.se/~bengan/acer_ferrarri_3000.html

http://wiki.ubuntu.org.cn/UbuntuWiki:HardwareSupportMachinesLaptopsAcer#Acer_Ferrari_3000

Hope to get an quick answer cause Im really looking forward to test this .....

Best Regards

From Ken

[bigpaws]

6.0 is at a release candidate give a try:

http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/Uelsk8s/test/VL6.0-STD-RC1.8.iso

That should get most of your hardware running.

Bigpaws

[Ken75]

6.0 is at a release candidate give a try:

http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/Uelsk8s/test/VL6.0-STD-RC1.8.iso

That should get most of your hardware running.

Bigpaws

Thank you so much for your answer, but Ive tried that one.
After this I tried the Vector Linux V6.0 STD edition but it did not work either...It had the same problems.
(wrote this in first Post)

SOrry I have tried Vector Linux V6.0 0.8A  is the new 1.8 ver much better??

regards Kenneth

But thanks anyway.
Regards Ken75

[Ken75]

6.0 is at a release candidate give a try:

http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/Uelsk8s/test/VL6.0-STD-RC1.8.iso

That should get most of your hardware running.

Bigpaws

Sorry this is the version I have tried before...much correction here....
VL6.0-STD-A0.12
Is it alot of fixed and more drivers in the RC1.8?
Regards
Kenneth

[bigpaws]

There were many fixes since the alpha.

Bigpaws

[newt]

I've never used a swap partition larger than ~512mb and have never had a problem.  I've done this on systems with anywhere from 512mb-3gb ram.  I think you're safe with a smaller swap partition, especially with a Standard release.

[Ken75]

I've never used a swap partition larger than ~512mb and have never had a problem.  I've done this on systems with anywhere from 512mb-3gb ram.  I think you're safe with a smaller swap partition, especially with a Standard release.

Hi..ok then I have been thinking wrong on this. I tought that if you have f.ex 256MB ram it should be exellent to use a swap partition of 512MB
1024MB of Ram 2048 SWAP..but ive been thinking wrong mabe then?

Ken

[newt]

I've never used a swap partition larger than ~512mb and have never had a problem.  I've done this on systems with anywhere from 512mb-3gb ram.  I think you're safe with a smaller swap partition, especially with a Standard release.

Hi..ok then I have been thinking wrong on this. I tought that if you have f.ex 256MB ram it should be exellent to use a swap partition of 512MB
1024MB of Ram 2048 SWAP..but ive been thinking wrong mabe then?

Ken

Perhaps Windows has influenced your judgement, as I was under the same basic impression when first using linux.  The general rule of thumb in Windows is to utilize 1.5x to 2x your ram as virtual memory (i.e. swap); thus if you had 512mb ram you would choose 1024mb as pagefile size.  In Windows, this is still mostly true.  However, linux seems to utilize ram and swap space in a different way such that the more ram you have the less swap you need (and, actually, this line of thinking makes more intuitive sense than that of Windows); it would make sense that if you have a TON of ram you wouldn't need any/much hard drive swapping space.  Of course you need to take into account the distro you'll be using and it's own resource requirements, but in the case of VL 5.9 Standard I've found 512mb swap to be plenty (perhaps Suse 11.x would do better with more  ). 

[Ken75]

I've never used a swap partition larger than ~512mb and have never had a problem.  I've done this on systems with anywhere from 512mb-3gb ram.  I think you're safe with a smaller swap partition, especially with a Standard release.

Hi..ok then I have been thinking wrong on this. I tought that if you have f.ex 256MB ram it should be exellent to use a swap partition of 512MB
1024MB of Ram 2048 SWAP..but ive been thinking wrong mabe then?

Ken

Perhaps Windows has influenced your judgement, as I was under the same basic impression when first using linux.  The general rule of thumb in Windows is to utilize 1.5x to 2x your ram as virtual memory (i.e. swap); thus if you had 512mb ram you would choose 1024mb as pagefile size.  In Windows, this is still mostly true.  However, linux seems to utilize ram and swap space in a different way such that the more ram you have the less swap you need (and, actually, this line of thinking makes more intuitive sense than that of Windows); it would make sense that if you have a TON of ram you wouldn't need any/much hard drive swapping space.  Of course you need to take into account the distro you'll be using and it's own resource requirements, but in the case of VL 5.9 Standard I've found 512mb swap to be plenty (perhaps Suse 11.x would do better with more  ). 

Yes Ive taken that rule of thumb from windows...I didnt think of it..but there it is..
Thank you so much for your answer.
This is a great support place..I also have to recommend mIRC to people where I get great support even if my questions are more silly then ever.
Lets use Linux and smile

Regards

Kenneth

[StrayBit]

Somewhere I had heard that Linux could only handle 128 MB swap spaces - tho it could use several of them.  I set it up with 3 128MB swaps when I reinstalled VL5.9STD then was surprised that the setup had NOT initialized them.  Running mkswap on each of them solved that problem but I have yet to see any activity on them.  So far, tho, seamonkey is the largest program I've used.

[lagagnon]

Somewhere I had heard that Linux could only handle 128 MB swap spaces

Wrong! From "man mkswap": "The maximum useful size of a swap area now depends on the architecture. It  is  roughly  2GiB on i386, PPC, m68k, ARM, 1GiB on sparc, 512MiB on mips, 128GiB on alpha and 3TiB on sparc64."

So in your case you could make one swap partition of 2GB if you really wanted, but that would be way too big, one swap partition of 512MB is fine.

[StrayBit]

Thanks lagagnon.  That's what I get for having my education stretched over 15 some odd years!   I think I had a single 500 MB swap on my earlier installation but didn't know then how determine if it was being used.  The new install from the same cd cleared up several faults I had earlier.  BTW I only have 128 MB ram.

[Windozer]

It  is  roughly  2GiB on i386, ...

I've read that the rule of thumb is to make the swapper the same size as memory - would that be true on the i386 platform?

[lagagnon]

That is a reasonable amount, yes. However, it sort of depends what you do with your machine. I have 1GB of RAM and a 512MB swap partition but what I do with my machine I never or rarely use any swap, so for me a 1GB swap partition is too big. You can check what you need by doing your most intensive computing you are ever likely to do and then run "free" in a terminal and check how much free RAM you have and how much swap you might be using.