ReactOS Reviewed: The Next Windows?

[SUBMAN1]

Wow. I didn't know a Windows XP clone had been produced that will run WIn XP apps natively. My experience with this is plugging Linux up with a ton of patches to make Windows apps work. Not the case here. A can see lawsuit written all over this!

-S

http://neosmart.net/blog/archives/220

[SUBMAN1]

http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/5926/11cm.jpg

http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/3268/25ew.jpg

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/5828/33ah.jpg

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/6015/48gr.jpg

[VON_CAPO]

Wow. I didn't know a Windows XP clone had been produced that will run WIn XP apps natively. My experience with this is plugging Linux up with a ton of patches to make Windows apps work. Not the case here.

-S I hope its development can reach a beta stage soon.
It would be wonderful if "Wine" gets the benefits of this, to integrate it into Linux as soon as possible. :yep::yep::yep:
http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/122/screenshotsk6.th.jpg (http://img141.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshotsk6.jpg)

Very good info. Thanks. :up:

[SUBMAN1]

Wow. I didn't know a Windows XP clone had been produced that will run WIn XP apps natively. My experience with this is plugging Linux up with a ton of patches to make Windows apps work. Not the case here.

-S I hope its development can reach a beta stage soon.
It would be wonderful if "Wine" gets the benefits of this, to integrate it into Linux as soon as possible. :yep::yep::yep:
http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/122/screenshotsk6.th.jpg (http://img141.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshotsk6.jpg)

Very good info. Thanks. :up:

You like it? i assume the thumbs up means you do.

-S

[VON_CAPO]

/quote]
You like it? i assume the thumbs up means you do.

-S Of course. :up::up::up:

You know, Linux is like the Borg.
"We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships.
We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own.
Your culture will adapt to service us.
Resistance is futile."
:lol::lol::lol:

http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/4865/unimatrixrs1.th.jpg (http://img164.imageshack.us/my.php?image=unimatrixrs1.jpg)

[SUBMAN1]

/quote]
You like it? i assume the thumbs up means you do.

-S Of course. :up::up::up:

You know, Linux is like the Borg.
"We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships.
We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own.
Your culture will adapt to service us.
Resistance is futile."
:lol::lol::lol:

http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/4865/unimatrixrs1.th.jpg (http://img164.imageshack.us/my.php?image=unimatrixrs1.jpg)

I'm considering running it, but I am so intrenched in Gentoo most of the time when it comes to Linux. I need to reload it however to support my 64 bit dual core, and new ULI RAID. I tried to transfer the RAID from the old system which was a SilRAID, but I lost all of Gentoo in the process. I prepared for that eventuallity however and backed up all my cool stuff, but still, I had a kick butt install of Gentoo (beyond the norm) in that I compiled stage one to my exact hardware - best running Linux install I have done yet, and everything worked as advertised after much tweaking. In about a month, I'll have time to have another go at it.

-S

[VON_CAPO]

I'm considering running it, but I am so intrenched in Gentoo most of the time when it comes to Linux. I need to reload it however to support my 64 bit dual core, and new ULI RAID. I tried to transfer the RAID from the old system which was a SilRAID, but I lost all of Gentoo in the process. I prepared for that eventuallity however and backed up all my cool stuff, but still, I had a kick butt install of Gentoo (beyond the norm) in that I compiled stage one to my exact hardware - best running Linux install I have done yet, and everything worked as advertised after much tweaking. In about a month, I'll have time to have another go at it.

-S Did you try GParted? It is a industrial partitioner and includes a lot of RAID drivers.
Ubuntu loads it during the instalation. And it recognized my array automatically.
If you still have problems try disabling APIC in the BIOS, this works almost always.

About the tweaking:
Using a script called AUTOMATIX you can get a full Linux system running in less than 2 hours with codecs, plugins, and a lot of stuff included. ;) (the same in Windows would take more than 12 hours :roll:).

Check this out ---> (you must read it) http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=138405

For 64 bits version ---> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=185604

Automatix home page: http://www.getautomatix.com/

Enjoy. :up:

[SUBMAN1]

I'm considering running it, but I am so intrenched in Gentoo most of the time when it comes to Linux. I need to reload it however to support my 64 bit dual core, and new ULI RAID. I tried to transfer the RAID from the old system which was a SilRAID, but I lost all of Gentoo in the process. I prepared for that eventuallity however and backed up all my cool stuff, but still, I had a kick butt install of Gentoo (beyond the norm) in that I compiled stage one to my exact hardware - best running Linux install I have done yet, and everything worked as advertised after much tweaking. In about a month, I'll have time to have another go at it.

-S Did you try GParted? It is a industrial partitioner and includes a lot of RAID drivers.
Ubuntu loads it during the instalation. And it recognized my array automatically.
If you still have problems try disabling APIC in the BIOS, this works almost always.

About the tweaking:
Using the following script you can get a full Linux system running in less than 2 hours with codecs, plugins, and a lot of stuff included. ;) (the same in Windows would take more than 12 hours :roll:).

Check this out ---> http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=138405

For 64 bits version ---> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=185604

Automatix home page: http://www.getautomatix.com/

Enjoy. :up:

I wish that was the case. Its not the OS that is the problem though - it was the RAID controller not recognizing a parition created by another RAID controller, which means - my drives were wiped just by going to another RAID controller. I knew it was going to happen since I gave it 3 to 5% chance that the new controller would recognize the old drives and keep the same array, but of course it didn't. All hopefull thinking is all.

-S

[VON_CAPO]

I wish that was the case. Its not the OS that is the problem though - it was the RAID controller not recognizing a parition created by another RAID controller, which means - my drives were wiped just by going to another RAID controller. I knew it was going to happen since I gave it 3 to 5% chance that the new controller would recognize the old drives and keep the same array, but of course it didn't. All hopefull thinking is all.

-S Try this: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/index.php

This is not a OS, this is a partitioner, your problem is located in this step.

Burn the live CD, boot with it and check if it recognizes your current partitions.
It will load its own RAID drivers. So, your current drivers will not have importance at all.

Because it is a live CD no changes will be done to your hard drives. :yep:

Print and read carefully the documentation, FAQ and troubleshooting.

Only proceed if you understand perfectly how to create "MANUALLY" the partitions and "how" and "where" to mount them.

The installers of the OS get confused when they see an RAID array, and install the OS in a wrong partition, or worst, wipe the entire disk.
Also, many times they mount the partitions in a wrong place, so, the hard drive will not boot.
So, you must do this step manually.

Remember, if you still have problems, try disabling APIC.

[SUBMAN1]

I wish that was the case. Its not the OS that is the problem though - it was the RAID controller not recognizing a parition created by another RAID controller, which means - my drives were wiped just by going to another RAID controller. I knew it was going to happen since I gave it 3 to 5% chance that the new controller would recognize the old drives and keep the same array, but of course it didn't. All hopefull thinking is all.

-S Try this: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/index.php

This is not a OS, this is a partitioner, your problem is located in this step.

Burn the live CD, boot with it and check if it recognizes your current partitions.

Because it is a live CD no changes will be done to your hard drives. :yep:

Print and read carefully the documentation, FAQ and troubleshooting.

Only proceed if you understand perfectly how to create "MANUALLY" the partitions and "how" and "where" to mount them.

The installers of the OS get confused when they see an RAID array, and install the OS in a wrong partition, or worst, wipe the entire disk.
So, you must do this step manually.

Remember, if you still have problems, try disabling APIC.

Won't work. The RAID controller sets up the drives first thing by writting it's own parition table. No way around it. Already too late. I'll reload it soon anyway since I should recompile for 64 bit instead of using the old 32 bit version.

-S

[VON_CAPO]

Won't work. The RAID controller sets up the drives first thing by writting it's own parition table. No way around it. Already too late. I'll reload it soon anyway since I should recompile for 64 bit instead of using the old 32 bit version.

-S My estimated Linux friend.

Please do not say "won't work".
Give me a chance please.

Download GParted and try it first (I repeat again, GParted recognizes your CPU and hardware configuration and it loads the right drivers), after that, you can tell me: "It did not work". :roll:

The million dollars question is: How are you sure that GParted does not load the right 64 bit driver?

[SUBMAN1]

Won't work. The RAID controller sets up the drives first thing by writting it's own parition table. No way around it. Already too late. I'll reload it soon anyway since I should recompile for 64 bit instead of using the old 32 bit version.

-S
My estimated Linux friend.

Please do not say "won't work".
Give me a chance please.

Download GParted and try it first (I repeat again, GParted recognizes your CPU and hardware configuration and it loads the right drivers), after that, you can tell me: "It did not work". :roll:

Your proggy is just like Parition Magic. Not even partition magic can save me on this one because the partition table is spread across opposite drives in a different format. The reason being is that the ULIRaid writes things in a different sector format than the SiLRAID, so even if I could recover my partitions, the new RAID controller will still not be able to read the data on the new controller. On top of that, the split happened at 16k chunks before and I am now using 64k chunks to deal better with larger file sizes at the expense of smaller file transfer speeds, so data is even allocated differently between the drives than they were in the past.

I wish i could do an easy fix, but look at the bright side, everytime I reload Gentoo and compile it by hand, i learn a little more and I figure out how to do things a little more efficiently.

-S

PS. What I describe above is one of the disadvatages of using RAID

PPS. Thanks for the info on that proggy - I will save that link and will use it in the future. Its a free Partition Magic!

[VON_CAPO]

the partition table is spread across opposite drives in a different format. The reason being is that the ULIRaid writes things in a different sector format than the SiLRAID, so even if I could recover my partitions, the new RAID controller will still not be able to read the data on the new controller. On top of that, the split happened at 16k chunks before and I am now using 64k chunks to deal better with larger file sizes at the expense of smaller file transfer speeds, so data is even allocated differently between the drives than they were in the past.
That is a huge mess!!! :o:o:o

My machine in the begining was configurated with a array composed by 2 hard drives in mode "striped", and like you I've got a lot of troubles.

My solution was to configurate 2 separated arrays composed each one with only one hard drive, and they work perfectly.

By the way, if you have plans to create a NTFS partition, make it with the Windows XP's default chunk size (4K), to avoid problems with Linux installers. ;)

[SUBMAN1]

the partition table is spread across opposite drives in a different format. The reason being is that the ULIRaid writes things in a different sector format than the SiLRAID, so even if I could recover my partitions, the new RAID controller will still not be able to read the data on the new controller. On top of that, the split happened at 16k chunks before and I am now using 64k chunks to deal better with larger file sizes at the expense of smaller file transfer speeds, so data is even allocated differently between the drives than they were in the past.
That is a huge mess!!! :o:o:o

My machine in the begining was configurated with a array composed by 2 hard drives in mode "striped", and like you I've got a lot of troubles.

My solution was to configurate 2 separated arrays composed each one with only one hard drive, and they work perfectly.

By the way, if you have plans to create a NTFS partition, make it with the Windows XP's default chunk size (4K), to avoid problems with Linux installers. ;)

No - it is not WIndows XP chunk size - it is the arrays chunk size. ie. - One drive takes 64k, before the alternate drive gets the next 64k size, before swapping back to the first drive - back forth back forth - it's RAID 0. 16k chunks works better for many smaller file types, but what I use RAID for in the first place is for large files (Up to 150 GB files) so a larger chunk size works more efficiently for this at the expense of some performance for smaller files.

[VON_CAPO]

No - it is not WIndows XP chunk size - it is the arrays chunk size. ie. - One drive takes 64k, before the alternate drive gets the next 64k size, before swapping back to the first drive - back forth back forth - it's RAID 0. 16k chunks works better for many smaller file types, but what I use RAID for in the first place is for large files (Up to 150 GB files) so a larger chunk size works more efficiently for this at the expense of some performance for smaller files. I understood well what you are saying.

Let me explain you better my idea.
I should have done this from my first post, but you do not read minds :lol::lol::lol:, so, it is my fault.

My idea:
1- You have already a huge mess.
2- My best idea is to format the disks and start again.
3- If you decide to follow this path of action:
a) About the the arrays, try my solution: stick one disk to each array.
But if you need the combined capacity of two disk, the unique solution would be:
a.1) get new bigger disks to use them in separated arrays.
a.2) Get a third disk (ATA or SATA it is up to you) and use it as boot disk.
Try to use the others ones in a combined array as storage.
b) About the tweaking:
To tweak a OS is time consuming :shifty:.
Switching to Ubuntu IMHO is the best choice.
I think you will resist this idea because you are used to Gentoo.
Let me tell you my experience with Ubuntu and the time required to finish a complete tweaked installation.
Get the Ubuntu 6.06 DVD version (yes, DVD, you will need it; it is like 3.4Gb) --> time: depends of your connection speed.
Burn the DVD --> 8 minutes
Create the partitions --> 5 minutes
Install Ubuntu and to set user and pass --> 35 minutes
Now the tricky part:

Create your Root password: in the console write "sudo passwd"
Put your Ubuntu DVD in the drive and the Package Manager will pop up.
Install from the DVD, using the Package Manager (some of this packages are not in the CD version)
- gcc
- build-essential
- libnl1-pre6
- libnm-util0
- dhcdbd (>= 1.10-Oubuntu2)

Enable all the repositories --> System-Administration-Synaptic Package Manager-Settings-Repositories

Go to the links of AUTOMATIX and read about how to install.
You will get a Linux system able to play all kind of media files, able to rip DVDs, music CDs, and so go on.
Also you will get NVIDIA driver, Acrobat Reader, Java, Real Player, Flash Player, and a lot of stuff more.
All this installed automatically (without any user configuration) in less than 2 hours. :rock::rock::rock:

EDIT:
If you choose to do the above explained, please, do not mix chunk's sizes again. :p
Do not forget to create a FAT32 partition for file exchange.

[SUBMAN1]

No - it is not WIndows XP chunk size - it is the arrays chunk size. ie. - One drive takes 64k, before the alternate drive gets the next 64k size, before swapping back to the first drive - back forth back forth - it's RAID 0. 16k chunks works better for many smaller file types, but what I use RAID for in the first place is for large files (Up to 150 GB files) so a larger chunk size works more efficiently for this at the expense of some performance for smaller files. I understood well what you are saying.

Let me explain you better my idea.
I should have done this from my first post, but you do not read minds :lol::lol::lol:, so, it is my fault.

My idea:
1- You have already a huge mess.
2- My best idea is to format the disks and start again.
3- If you decide to follow this path of action:
a) About the the arrays, try my solution: stick one disk to each array.
But if you need the combined capacity of two disk, the unique solution would be:
a.1) get new bigger disks to use them in separated arrays.
a.2) Get a third disk (ATA or SATA it is up to you) and use it as boot disk.
Try to use the others ones in a combined array as storage.
b) About the tweaking:
To tweak a OS is time consuming :shifty:.
Switching to Ubuntu IMHO is the best choice.
I think you will resist this idea because you are used to Gentoo.
Let me tell you my experience with Ubuntu and the time required to finish a complete tweaked installation.
Get the Ubuntu 6.06 DVD version (yes, DVD, you will need it; it is like 3.4Gb) --> time: depends of your connection speed.
Burn the DVD --> 8 minutes
Create the partitions --> 5 minutes
Install Ubuntu and to set user and pass --> 35 minutes
Now the tricky part:

Create your Root password: in the console write "sudo passwd"
Put your Ubuntu DVD in the drive and the Package Manager will pop up.
Install from the DVD, using the Package Manager (some of this packages are not in the CD version)
- gcc
- build-essential
- libnl1-pre6
- libnm-util0
- dhcdbd (>= 1.10-Oubuntu2)

Enable all the repositories --> System-Administration-Synaptic Package Manager-Settings-Repositories

Go to the links of AUTOMATIX and read about how to install.
You will get a Linux system able to play all kind of media files, able to rip DVDs, music CDs, and so go on.
Also you will get NVIDIA driver, Acrobat Reader, Java, Real Player, Flash Player, and a lot of stuff more.
All this installed automatically (without any user configuration) in less than 2 hours. :rock::rock::rock:

EDIT:
Do not forget to create a FAT32 partition for file exchange.

Way ahead of ya! I already have reformatted and repartitioned long ago (forced to by the new RAID controller which is why all this will not work). I'm up and running again, but haven't had time to get Gentoo back up yet. Recompiling Gentoo properly with KDE will take a day or two (I compile to my exact hardware by hand to get the most speed possible). The reason I don't run a pre-compiled Linux OS like Ubuntu or Mandrake, or Redhat is that it is compiled for a generic system to support as many PC's as possible, which leads to over bloated code and reduced speed. Building you Linux box to your exact hardware, compiling just for your hardware leads to a completely optimized system that only works on your stuff.

This way you can compile in support for say, OpenOffice, but if you know you aren't going to use KDE for example, you have the option not to compile in support for KDE.

When building your kernel, you also remove all the bloat from there as well. You only compile in the kernel what 'your' system needs to run and function.

You can also build your own GCC flags, etc. Remove anything you will not need or want. An example of what my future compilation of Gentoo on my particular system will probably look something like this (though mine eventually gets larger to support compile caching, etc):
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=athlon64 -O3 -pipe"
CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"-fomit-frame-pointer is not used because I don't plan to do any debugging and removing this breaks debugging if I remember correctly.
I like an optimization level of 3 - it makes the code slightly larger, but in trade you get slightly faster processing with the risk of possibly breaking the code. Most source code will force an -O2 if they know -O3 won't work, so its really a non issue.

Per IBM:
Techniques used in optimization level 3

[/URL] At optimization levels 3 and above, the compiler is more aggressive, making changes to program semantics that will improve performance even if there is some risk that these changes will produce different results. Here are some examples:

In some cases, X*Y*Z will be calculated as X*(Y*Z) instead of (X*Y)*Z. This could produce a different result due to rounding.
In some cases, the sign of a negative zero value will be lost. This could produce a different result if you multiply the value by infinity. [URL="http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/tips_02_03.htm#tips_02_03"]Getting the most out of optimization levels 2 and 3 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/) provides some suggestions for mitigating this risk.
At optimization level 3, all of the techniques in optimization level 2 are used, plus the following:

Unrolling deeper loops and improving loop scheduling.
Increasing the scope of optimization.
Performing optimizations with marginal or niche effectiveness, which might not help all programs.
Performing optimizations that are expensive in compile time or space.
Reordering some floating-point computations, which might produce precision differences or affect the generation of floating-point-related exceptions (equivalent to compiling with the -qnostrict (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/../../compiler/ref/ruoptstr.htm#ruoptstr) option).
Eliminating implicit memory usage limits (equivalent to compiling with the -qmaxmem=-1 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/../../compiler/ref/ruoptmax.htm#ruoptmax) option).
Performing a subset of high-order transformations (equivalent to compiling with the -qhot=level=0 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/qhot_opts.htm#qhot_opts) option).
Increasing automatic inlining.
Propagating constants and values through structure copies.
Removing the "address taken" attribute if possible after other optimizations.
Grouping loads, stores and other operations on contiguous aggregate members, in some cases using VMX vector register operations.
Anyway, building your own OS, though time consuming, is the best way to run Linux I think. You put in what you want, make things tailored specifically to your stuff and you end up with an OS that runs smooth.

[VON_CAPO]

I thought I was a geek trying to explain to a newie.

But you are one of those guys who loves "Linux from Scratch"!!!!!!!!

You are a fanatic without remedy. :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

I will be away from you. :yep::yep::yep: