Kern, On Friday 29 September 2006 10:28, Kern Sibbald wrote: > On Friday 29 September 2006 16:53, Mike Reinehr wrote: > > I'm catching up with this thread with interest after just coming into > > work this morning. Kern, my sympathy. I can imagine how frustrated you > > are, but > > it > > > just goes to show how good a programmer you are, that it wasn't Bacula > > after all! > > Thanks. :-) > > > After reading the merits & weaknesses of RHEL, SUSE, & Centos, I have > > only > > one > > > question. Have you considered or tried Debian lately? I settled on Debian > > several years ago after becoming disenchanted with each of the major > > commercial distributions and haven't regreted it for a moment. (My > > servers are humming along happily with Debian AMD64-Sarge & Bacula 1.36 > > as we > > speak!) > > Yes, I tried Debian (3.1 if I remember right), but where I could get it to > install, it came with a 2.4 kernel, and it won't install on most systems I > want because it cannot recognize either my graphics card or my ethernet > card. Without the ethernet card, I either go through a painful process of > writing files to a CD or give up, which is what I did.
I understand. The Sarge (3.1r3) installer also comes with a 2.6 kernel, but in my case, even that wasn't new enough to support my SATA controller. I think I ended up using a Knoppix disk with a newer kernel to bootstrap my installation. The new Etch installer (beta 3) includes a 2.6.16 kernel that solves that problem, but if you want Sarge you either have to obtain a custom install disk, or do a basic Etch install & then downgrade. > Yes, Debian is very stable, and they are good about applying security fixes > to their production system, but getting it running is a problem, they don't > yet (at least as of a few months ago) provide security updates for > "testing", and they lag very far behind where I want to be on my > development machine. FWIW the security team has begun providing at least some security updates for Etch. > I don't want to sound in the least like I am knocking > Debian, it just doesn't at the moment quite fit what I am looking for. I > see that they are discussing/changing a lot of things (possibly hiring > developers!), perhaps some of that comes from Ubantu, so I'm lingering in > the sidelines waiting to see what happens. I don't exclude Debian for my > server, which is currently on FC4 -- except that I don't think that Debian > either has SELinux (as my server does) or AppArmor as SuSE does. Actually, SELinux does seem now to be available both for Sarge & Etch, but I don't know anything about it. Oh well, I just couldn't resist putting in a plug for Debian, but I think I rather would prefer discussing religion or politics than debating the merits of Linux distributions! ;-) Cheers! cmr PS Bearing in mind your message about email bounces, I received three copies of your reply--one addressed to me, personally, and two addressed to bacula-users. PPS I'm a user of apcupsd, too! > > Three Cheers for Bacula! > > Thanks, especially for the words of encouragement. > > Kern > > PS: Thanks to all of you who voted for the bug report I filed -- the last > time I looked there were 18 votes! > > The good news as of a couple of minutes ago is that their 10.2 kernel > 2.6.18-rc5-git6-2-bigsmp does not have the bug, so at least I have an all > SuSE solution :-) > > > cmr > > > > On Friday 29 September 2006 08:00, Kern Sibbald wrote: > > > On Friday 29 September 2006 14:39, Alan Brown wrote: > > > > On Fri, 29 Sep 2006, Kern Sibbald wrote: > > > > >> Centos is _very_ stable. RHEL can be licensed quite cheaply if you > > > > >> don't buy the support package (about US$10/machine) > > > > > > > > > > The last time I looked (some time ago), it was over $200/machine. > > That > > > > > > is > > > > > > too > > > > > > > > much for me. For a company or someone serious about servers, > > > > > that's > > OK > > > > and > > > > > > > > quite far given their security updates. > > > > > > > > Redhat offer some discounts for developers, etc. > > > > > > That is interesting. > > > > > > > As a Bacula feature request is now in their system and has been > > requested > > > > > by at least 25 different customers, they may well be interested in > > giving > > > > > you a free license for development purposes. > > > > > > Hmmm. That is even more interesting. > > > > > > I actually have RHEL and access to their network, but that is because I > > > administer a machine, where the organization (MercyShips) has a global > > > RedHat license. That said, other than having the CDs for recovery > > > purposes, which unfortunately I needed recently, I cannot load them on > > > my machines. > > > > > > > I don't disagree with your assessment of installations - I use suse > > > > at home, but I have serious issues with their level of > > > > professionalism in the commercially supported products. > > > > > > Well, distros are a bit of a religious thing and very personal. I look > > for > > > > leading edge software, good update/security service, and stability. > > RedHat > > > > is excellent for that, but now that they are commercial, too expensive. > > > Fedora as you say and as I experienced is too "bleeding edge". I asked > > > them to use a 9 month release cycle, and they sent me a very kind reply > > > giving their reasons for a 6 month cycle. I then looked at a lot of > > > distros: debian, kubantu, ubantu, madrivia, ... However, most of them > > > wouldn't even install on a leading edge Dell (debian, ubantu), others > > > (kubantu) are for users that don't know Unix or the distro is a one man > > > show without a significant organization, or rely on other distros for > > > security patches, ... > > > > > > For me, for the moment, with the exception of this SCSI bug, SuSE has > > > been great (as I say, for me). One good thing from the time I wasted > > > on this "bug" is that I learned that within certain restrictions > > > (SeLinux, AppArmor, ...), unlike rpms, I can mix and match kernels from > > > different distros as I want. > > > > > > > (Having said that, RHEL installation is also very straoghtforward) > > > > > > Yes, but if *anything* goes wrong, it simply dies. SuSE has a vga > > > exception handler that takes over (sort of like a rescue disk) that > > > allows you in many cases to get out of trouble -- e.g. switch where the > > > source > > CDs > > > > are coming from, .... really quite cool. > > > > > > > AB > > > > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > > >-- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT > > > Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share > > > your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys -- and earn > > > cash > > > http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVD > > >EV _______________________________________________ > > > Bacula-users mailing list > > > Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net > > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users > > > > -- > > Debian 'Sarge': Registered Linux User #241964 > > ---- > > "More laws, less justice." -- Marcus Tullius Ciceroca, 42 BC > > -------- > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT > > Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share > > your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys -- and earn > > cash > > http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV > > _______________________________________________ > > Bacula-users mailing list > > Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT > Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share > your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys -- and earn > cash > http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV > _______________________________________________ > Bacula-users mailing list > Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users -- C M Reinehr AMS Enterprises, LLC (334) 269-4358 (Voice) 323 Bibb St P O Box 20 Montgomery AL 36111-0020 (334) 262-1706 (Fax) ---- Debian 'Sarge': Registered Linux User #182151 ------ "Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior." -- Dee Hock ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys -- and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users