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20000525: Dell laptop for McIDAS workstation; dual boot

>From: "Jennie L. Moody" <address@hidden>
>Organization: UVa
>Keywords: 200005252000.e4PK0GT16150 McIDAS-X platform Dell laptop

Jennie,

>As I mentioned before, I am getting a new system to run McIDAS
>in the field this summer.  I am pretty much set to get a Dell
>Inspiron 650MHz system.  I was going to upgrade the memory to
>256MB.

This should be a super machine!

>They (Dell) will install (and support) Linux (RedHat 6.1)
>and we will make any mods needed to the installation here,
>and then configure it for an alternate boot of Windows.

One thing to ask Dell on this.  Since you can't shrink file systems in
Linux, you should make sure that the Dell installation doesn't use all
of the disk for Linux.  A good partitioning would be for 8 GB for Linux
and the rest for Windows.  50-50 would be good as well, but Linux has
had an 8 GB partition limit on IDE drives for some time (but check to
make sure that this is still true).

>I have 
>looked at a lot of the info regarding running Linux on this type of
>machine by reading links from www.linux.org.  Also, the computer
>support person here (Shayne Brandon) has spoken to the folks
>at Dell (he asked about getting two internal drives
>versus one, looks like I will go with one drive, partitioned
>for the two operating systems, its a pretty big drive,
>25GB!, so that shouldn't be a problem).

Lots of disk; lots of RAM; and a fast processor.  This should be a
super machine.

>Dell says that they
>have no problems with RedHat 6.1 and their video card and
>network card, but I was wondering if there is any performance 
>difference between getting a 15.4" Super XGA versus a 15" XGA display 
>when it comes to using this system for McIDAS.

Not that I know of.

>Did you say you ran a system with the 15.4" Super XGA?

We have an Inspiron 7000 with a 15" XGA screen and McIDAS works nicely.

>Finally, the Unidata pages
>are a little out of date regarding what version of operating system
>is supported (just an observation, not a complaint),

Oops.  You are correct.  I should update the page to reflect the
successful use of 6.1 with all of our packages.

>but I read through
>the e-mail archives and see you mention RedHat Linux version 6.x,
>and you note having upgraded from some previous version to 6.1 without
>any problems.

Right, it all went pretty smoothly.

>So, I expect I am not the first person to try 
>running McIDAS under this version of of the OS?  

Right.  In fact, most Linux users are now at 6.1.  By the way, 6.2 is
now out, but I havn't had the chance to get and install it on my system
at home.  I don't anticipate any problems with 6.2.

>We are going to try to get this ordered tomorrow with the
>hope of getting McIDAS installed by the first week of June.

OK, I hope that the above comments are enough.

>I appreciate your input.  Hope the Madison meeting went well.

The meeting was good, and the stay after the meeting was very
productive.  We now have CIMSS products flowing to Unidata in a test of
my PNG compressor/uncompressor routines.  I have to make a couple more
tweaks and then cut a new ldm-mcidas distribution before I can switch
the products from the EXP feed over to MCIDAS.

On another note, I just got McIDAS-X 7.7 today.  Now, the fun begins!

Tom