Re: Lindows

[leif.asbrink@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi All,

> > To a "Linux person" Lindows has some problems.  The first of
> > which is that there is only one user "root", and everything runs as
> > root, finding an xterm takes some effort and nothing is set up in
> > the "standard" way. 
I must confess I am not a Linux person. 
As far as I know one must run Linrad as root because Linrad
writes directly to the parallel port for hardware control.
Should of course be done via a device driver but that is too 
difficult for me.

I do not know how to run svgalib without being root but I know
it can be done. Since I am not using Linux for any other purpose,
the Linrad computer is my radio receiver, not a general
purpose computer:)

> Please excuse my ignorance on this matter. Can you explain what  a
> root is and why this limitation might be a problem? My only interest
> in Linux is to run Linrad. Is this like a DOS root directory, so there
> are no sub directories? If this is the case would it prevent Linrad
> from working?
For Linrad it would be just fine.

> > The target market for this computer is your
> > gandmother not a software engineer.
I think most Linrad users are "grandmothers" :)


> > The Walmart/Lindows machine is
> > a first cut attempt to prove that Linux can be a better desktop
> > machine for a non-expert PC user than MS Windows.  It's biggest
> > advantage is the "click and install" web site where you can
> > automatically download and install Linux software.  (But if you know
> > what a *.tar file is you don't need or want this and having to run
> > as root is so bad you will re-format anyway.)
I do not agree. With Linrad you may have to run as root anyway.

> This would be a nice way to handle Linrad updates if it is practical.
> I do not know (yet) what a tar file is, but I do have a good
> understanding of DOS.
Linrad updates is very simple, you will soon find out what a tar
file is. Linrad actually comes as .tar.bz2 which is like .zip

> > But if you are reading this we assume you know a bit about Linux and
> > will simply re-format the disk and pick up a PC for $199.
It would be interesting to know if Linrad will run on the original
Linux installation.

> > Next question is, will the low-end Celeron CPU run FFTs fast enough?
> > The Celeron's Cache is small and the FFT allgorithum runs faster if
> > the whole thing fits in cache.  
It will of course depend on your radio hardware.
To process one channel of SSB bandwidth a 60MHz Pentium is adequate.
For two channels at 96 kHz bandwidth a 600MHz PIII is needed.
The Celeron may be fast enough, would be very interesting to know.

The crucial factors are: does svgalib support the videocard?
Are there OSS compatible drive routines for the soundcard?

On a cheap system sound and video are implemented on the 
motherboard and finding Linux drivers may be a real problem.

There may be ALSA drivers for the sound that do not work
with Linrad and svgalib is getting old.....

Hopefully we will read a report from someone who actually
tried Linrad on this computer:)


73

Leif / SM5BSZ



LINRADDARNIL