Thomas --
The way you posed your questions reflects some misunderstandings about
exactly what a Linux distribution is. In answering them below, I'll try to
address these misunderstandingas as well.
At 09:12 AM 3/10/99 -0500, Thomas Olenio wrote [abridged]:
>When I run 'fdisk' with the p option it tells me I have one
>partition;
>
> /dev/hda1 Primary Linux 115.95 (mb)
>
>When I run 'free' I am told;
> total used free shared buffers cached
>mem 6576 6364 212 1616 4276 956
>-/+ buffers: 1132 5444
>swap 0 0 0
>
OK. 115 megs of hard disk, 8 megs of RAM, no swap. First thing to consider
is using fdisk to repartition your hard disk so you have some swap -- I'd
say 16 megs, given how little disk space in total you have to work with. Run
fdisk; delete partition 1; make a new,smaller hda1 at 99.95 megs, and a new
hda2 set as type swap with 16 megs.
>
>Now in selecting my distribution I opted for either "AP" or
>"X". The whole point of this laptop is to learn Linux.
AP and X are package sets within Slackware, not distributions. X is the
basic X11 installation; AP is supplementary packages oriented to the command
line.
>
>My questions are (in no particular ranking);
>
> a) is this machine capable of supporting the "AP" or
> "X" distributions?
It can easily support command-line apps like the ones in the AP series. With
only 8 megs of real RAM, you'll need to watch memory closely if you try to
run X. You'll be swapping a lot, with resulting performance losses.
Although this machine technically *can* support X, I personally wouldn't
try. Instead, I'd do a text-console installation, putting in what I needed
from series A, AP, N if you have networking, the minimum from D plus perl if
you can fit it, and F (this assumes you stay with Slackware - details differ
by distribution).
> b) as the laptop has an emulsion type screen are there
> special considerations?
Don't know; someone else will have to help you on this one.
>
> c) which distribution/version is best for the new
> user to learn how Linux works? (I know PICO
> and PINE)
There is no clear winner among the major distributions for ease of learning.
Your main consideration is your very limited memory and disk space.
Slackware is good at fitting on small machines, probably better than the
other majors, because it's easier to fine-tune the installation. But then
I'm most familiar with Slackware ... perhaps a real Red Hat fan, for
example, can suggest how to configure RH for small memory/disk systems.
Whatever distribution you select, get the latest version if you're
connecting to a network (for security reasons). If the machine will *never*
connect to a network, including by ppp, older distributions are probably okay.
>
> d) what is the size of the memory and hard drive
> of this laptop?
Answered above, based on the reports of free and df.
>
> e) is this the correct approach to repair what
> seems to be beyond my meager skill?
Can't say without knowing what went wrong before and what problems you are
seeing now.
------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo
762 Garland Drive
Palo Alto, CA 94303-3603
650.328.4219 voice [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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