*BSD News Article 51434


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From: j@uriah.heep.sax.de (J Wunsch)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: File hierarchy (was Re: Linux or FreeBSD)
Date: 23 Sep 1995 11:33:33 +0200
Organization: Private FreeBSD site, Dresden.
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Damien Neil <damien@lugnut.stu.rpi.edu> wrote:

>>The last Linux distribution i've seen (some Slackware derivative) had
>>tons of binaries under /etc, and the tool to remount the root file
>>system read/write was well-hidden somewhere under /etc/remount/.  I
>
>I'm mildly familiar with most Linux distributions, and I have no clue
>as to which one you are talking about.  How long ago did you see this?

A couple of months, and the CD was from at most beginning of the year.
Blame the distributor (S.u.S.E.) if it's got it wrong, not me.  I was
only desperateley trying to get it onto a spare machine in the
company, just to have a Linux box around for comparisions.  Sorry, i
didn't purchase a CD of my own for this but took one from a colleague.

>...  (`mount -n -o remount -w /' is the correct
>command to remount the root filesystem read/write, if my memory serves.)

Unfortunately, it didn't there, and i ended up with a system i
couldn't use since i couldn't get it to mount its file systems
r/w. :-( (After several attempts, i finally gave up and deleted it.
Since i couldn't it mount r/w, i've even been unable to look at the
man pages.)

>>I admit that this is a simple snapshot observation, but unfortunately,
>>this inconsistency seems to be somewhat typical for several Linux
>>distributions.

><sigh>.  Isn't there enough room for Linux as well as FreeBSD in the
>world?

I didn't complain about Linux, but about just this distribution (and
potentially other ones that fail in the same way).  Please, don't
confuse this.  It's IMHO still the biggest problem that Linux is a
kernel only, not a complete system, so that everything else is up the
the one who's compiling the actual distribution.  Definately, the
Linux file system standard is a step into the right direction, but
only if really all systems follow it.  When i said "a CD from earlier
this year" i believe it's rather from summer than from January.  I
didn't love it too much that it's a German one, but my colleague isn't
that good in English and thus prefered this one.  Perhaps the people
making it did put more emphasize on Germanising everything and put a
cute installation tool on top (yes, it's really cool), but forgot to
update the underlying slackware to a modern version?  I've been rather
surprised to still find a 0.99.something kernel on it.  The CD
contained another (apparently more modern) Slackware distribution,
too, but the installation tool couldn't handle it (apparently the
necessary description files had not been created for the newer
version).
-- 
cheers, J"org

joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de -- http://www.sax.de/~joerg/
Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)