Marks Notes on Linux flavors from the Dec 00 WUSA Meeting

From CTSWiki

Linux Distribution Overview

Going over:

RedHat Mandrake Caldera SuSE Debian

Generic Install notes:

Most distros have the same steps to their installation:

Boot on Floppy/CDROM

Choose Keyboard and Mouse, Time Zone

Choose Packages/Package Groups

Set Up Networking (ehternet, ppp, dsl, all sorts)

Set Up X/Video

Root Password

Add Normal User

Boot Loader (LILO, GRUB)

Installation:

• RedHat 7.0
  • Straightforward, has a choice of WorkStation, Server, or Custom.
  • Can choose KDE/Gnome, Games as options.
  • Good partitioning tool, graphical interface somewhat like 'Partition Magic'
  • Default Workstation install is a bit over a gigabyte.
  • Custom package selection a bit of a pain, you get large icons with text instead of a list tree
  • Ethernet/X Windows setup fine
  • LILO as bootloader.
  • Main problem with RedHat 7.0 after install is GCC 2.96 - with .0 releases, RedHat attempts to move to something new, like from libc5 to libc6, and glibc versions. This GCC version is not binary compatible with either 2.95 nor will it be with 3.0 - they did include a 2.95 version for compiling the kernel and other software that may not work with the new version.
  • Good hardware support.
  • Security OK: Nothing like telnet/ftp running, just time/echo under inetd.
  • RH does have corporate support options, don't have any experience with them, and is the most likely distibution that you'll see bundled with machines, Dell and IBM (i think) use RH.
  • Very quick with security updates, has an automatic daemon to do updates if you register.

• Mandrake 7.2
  • Originally based off of RedHat, has seperated almost cleanly from it now, originally RedHat+KDE
  • Good graphical installer, can resize partitions like PM as well during installation.
  • Has Desktop, Development, Server options. Custom is a list-tree.
  • Has security options, labeled from 'Welcome Crackers' to 'Paranoid', it will lock off a lot of directories and options for non-root users - Paranoid works well for servers, but would be a hassle for a workstation.
  • Ethernet/XWindows Setup OK, the usual LILO or GRUB as bootloader
  • Main problem with Mandrake is that it installs several libraries (one I've noticed most is qt) in directories where many programs compiling for those libraries will not expect them - when you go to upgrade say, QT, you'll end up with 2 differing versions.
  • Good hardware support. on par with RedHat, will usually have newer and more packages than RedHat does, they release usually right after RedHat.
  • Security pretty good, inetd is very closed down, with default security option.
  • Mandrake does have corporate support through a third party if you purchase the box, else there are a good amount of pages dedicated to it. It has outsold RedHat for a little while now - they also started distributiing to Wal-Mart, of all places.
  • Installed both Mandrake and RedHat on various laptops - had two Sony VAIOs, one RH, one MDK. RH took the ethernet card OK, but hung on the soundcard and needed some tweaking to get the USB Floppy to load on insertion. MDK hung on the ethernet card, did OK on the soundcard and USB floppy however.
  • Very quick with security updates, has several graphical tools for choosing what needs to be updated based on what you have installed.

• Caldera eDesktop 2.4
  • An RPM based distribution, they target businesses - their original gimmick was a psuedo-NetWare server/client for Linux, they've helped Novell with the work to port NDS to Linux.
  • Graphical install: Clean look. Has a 'detect hardware' option before the install even starts to show you what it can and can't see in the machine, a very good idea, most others you have no idea what it's found until you finish and something's not there.
  • Recommended, All, Business, Development, Home as options, 'All' for some reason needs a floppy. (had a LS120 in the machine at the time so I didn't investigate it) Chose All.
  • LILO as bootloader.
  • Good X Setup, pretty close to a Windows 'Display Properties' dialog, many options
  • Partition Method: Didn't like this - there were 3 partitions set, /, /usr, and /home, you can change their size but not delete them (no way that I found at least).
  • Starts package installation while you choose the remainder of the options, nice touch for fast machines, will suck on slow ones.
  • Makes you add a non-root user.
  • Active networking setup - this one pre-chose an IP after determining what my subnet was, (chose one that was in use, wrong subnet too duh) chose a printer off of our Solaris server (the right one, strangely) Easy to switch over however.
  • Don't know what caused this: Libraries are in strange places in Caldera, there's a /shlib directory, a /usr/gnulib for GNU libraries - reboot after install, even things like vi wouldn't work, couldn't find the library - had to edit ld.so.conf and ldconfig to get things to go. Don't know if 'Install All' caused this.
  • Security, bad - everything that could be on in inetd was on, as well as ftp and telnet. Why this happened on an release labeled 'eDesktop', I do not know, may have been the 'Install All' option.
  • Messy / structure, many things that don't need to be there.
  • Keeps recent with security/bug updates.

• SuSE 7.0
  • SuSE guns for business and enterprise-type setups, big in Europe, it's a german company. First distro to bundle ReiserFS, a journalling file system. Has close ties with XFree86, best graphic card support out of the box most likely. Large distribution if you buy it - 7 CDs.
  • Did an NFS install, which forced a text install, so do not know how the graphical install is.
  • Partitioning was pretty straightforward.
  • Does ask about inetd services you want running in install.
  • LILO as bootloader.
  • The text install didn't set up X, it does have a utility called SaX2 to set up X, this is probably the best one I've ever seen for after-install configuration, graphical and straightforward.
  • Different startup file layout. (everything in one directory, /etc/rc.d)
  • Uses a utility called YaST2 for administration, it's got a better layout than the general linuxconf program, doesn't look like it does as much.
  • Apache/HTTP is on by default - used for the help system. There is a page where you can see all the packages installed on the system, which would be valuable information for a cracker. They most likely could have limited the default Apache to only respond to localhost.
  • Plenty of updates, not all security-based - Organized into groups like the install was, however the group's purpose is not apparent from it's name ('a1', 'adm1', etc.) Did not find a specific updating tool, the YaST2 program wanted me to have the first CDROM in the drive, so I couldn't explore that part.

• Debian 2.2
  • The Debian Project is a large group of over 1000 people that collaborate to put together a Linux distribution, no company is behind it. While it tends to be a very stable, well-organized, secure release, it's user- unfriendliness is legendary.
  • Did an NFS install. For someone who's familiar with their hardware, and already familiar with how Linux handles hardware, it's not a bad installation (always text based). It installs a kernel, and a base system containing the shell, some of the GNU utilities, and a C and C++ compiler. After that point, it reboots, and continues in to configure X and other hardware, then it runs 'dselect' so that you can get the rest of the packages you want.
  • Debian does not use RPMs, it uses Deb's, a different package system. It's superior to RPM in that it will automatically resolve, retrieve, and install dependant packages for you. It's also organized so that an occasional apt-get command will find updates to what you have installed and install them without any interaction. The only major failure of .deb and 'dselect' is that the interface itself is somewhat intimidating to new users, which compounds on the difficulty of installation.
  • LILO as bootloader.
  • It has good default security - by default, there are no services installed, to be precise. Installing the recommended packages after the installation reboot, inetd will be your only service, and it will have just the basic time/rshell daemons installed.
  • While it is updated very quickly for security and other bugfixes, actual stable releases take far longer, often up to a year. (Debian has been around for almost as long as RedHat, and they're up to 7.0 already). The developers of Debian only release when it's as close to being bug-free as they are confident being.
  • If you have some experience in Linux, and want a good server that's not filled up with a lot of user applications it will not use, give it a try. It would make a good desktop as well, if you are patient enough to find packages for or compile the applications that you want to have.