Installing Sun Java Desktop System on my computer was an easy task. I used the manual install option because I normally use OS/2. Therefor I needed to be certain that it was still there after I had installed SJDS. I only had to point out that Linux should boot from my / partition.
As you can see I had already used LVM in OS/2 to make 3 partitions for Linux. The first was my SWAP partition (579 MB), the second my / partition (8503 MB), and the third / partition3 (5998 MB) is just an empty partition for Linux to use.
I still use the boot manager from OS/2 to choose which os I want to use. Therefor I had to install the Linux boot loader GRUB on the / partition. with a non graphical interface and a time out of 5 seconds.
Hardware problems.
My machine has an onboard Intel graphic chip. Intel i810 with 4 MB RAM. I also have a Voodoo2 PCI card installed. OS/2 can not use this card but Linux can with the Mesa drivers. I have a Xerox XL775D TFT screen. I can push the screen resolution up to 1280x1024 but then it starts getting a little unstable. I had set it to 1024x768 and 16 m colours. OS/2 reads the screen as a PROVIEW TECHNOLOGY CORP GA 780L screen and is happy with that. Linux reads it as a PROVIEW screen and doesn't like it. SJDS sets the resolution to 1280x1024 automatically. After install the screen freezes. By using F2 when booting I could enter 640x480 mode and then change the settings in YAST2. I have therefor installed it as a LCD screen and changed the frequencies so they match. I have installed Quake 3 Arena and it works fine with the Voodoo 2 card.
My machine has an Intel 82810 onboard sound chip. In OS/2 this works fine with Sound Max analog drivers installed. But I have no sound in virtual DOS and no MIDI sound. Linux reads the sound chip as Intel 82801 AA . Again the AC'97 sound card works fine with ALSA drivers but I have no sound in Quake 2. These stupid AC'97 sound chips are only for Microsoft Windows. I have installed a Creative Sound Blaster Live PCI card. It works just great under both systems. It uses the EMU 10K1 drivers in Linux.
Linux did not connect with my SONY CRX 100E CD-RW because it is a IDE burner. So I did this:
Log in as root and start the YaST2 Control Center from a terminal. First select "System", then "Boot loader configuration". Click the item "Modify current configuration" then "Next". Do not change the preset values on the next page "Where should the boot loader be installed?" (se above). On the following page, click "Expert settings" then "Add options". A new window opens: "Implement new option". Write "Append". Click the "Option value" field and insert the following.
hdd=ide-scsi ( because I have hard disk 1=hda , hard disk 2=hdb , dvd player=hdc ). And then finish.
You then have to add this line "/sbin/modprobe ide-scsi" to the file /etc/init.d/boot.local which you find in Nautilus.
Then you have to make a symbolic link to your CD writer. Go to a terminal and write
ln -sf /dev/scd0 /dev/cdrecorder
Then check the file /etc/fstab in Nautilus( se below). If the CD recorder is not there - write it in.
I use a lan connection to the internet. My lan card is an ACCTON EN 1207 D TX. It works perfectly in both OS/2 and Linux, even though Linux calls it an ACCTON SMC2-1211 TX card. I have already configured my connection in OS/2 so I don't know how difficult it would be to do in Linux.
Otherwise it found what it needed to know and everything works fine.
Configuration.
I had to edit the /etc/fstab file to see some of my OS/2 JFS partitions. But that was no problem.
The file now looks like this:
Conclusion.
I have tried many Linux flavours before. I must admit that I think SUSE is the best (nobody misses Slackware). Followed by Mandrake. I was therefor very happy that SUN decided to use SUSE 8.1 as their starting point. It may be not as fancy as SUSE 9.0 but it is very stable. In OS/2 I use Mozilla 1.4 because I find it the most stable. SJDS also uses Mozilla 1.4. I have used Star Office since the German company Star Division made it for OS/2. I still have Star Office 5.1a on my OS/2 partition. Sun Star Office version 7 that comes with SJDS is a great product and works perfectly but does not have the database included. But if I am to be completely honest I still prefer FreeBSD as an operating system.
Links.
I have downloaded more programs from SUSE's ftp site. Note that not all SUSE 9.0 programs can run on SJDS.
After downloading 3 iso files from Sun's homesite I could right click on the iso icons in Nautilus and choose "write to CD". I then placed CD 1 in my pc and booted to Linux. I chose to install Linux and then I chose to do an update . All went well.
So far I cannot see so many new things. Just a lot of updates., some new desktop backgrounds and so on.
One new thing is the Remote Desktop program. And it looks more like Windows.
