Vector Linux Review
The installation of Vector was a relatively simple affair, using a non-graphical, but nevertheless easy-to-use, dialog driven installer. The kernel choice was simple (IDE or SCSI) and the installer even checks the base install file for errors, which is handy. One issue for a new Linux user would be the partitioning.
The user is given a choice of parted or cfdisk to sort out the partitioning. This could prove difficult for those without a knowledge of partitioning basics, although parted does allow partition resizing, which is a plus for those with one big Windows partition. For me, the process simply involved creating one partition in my unpartitioned space using cfdisk, as I already had a swap partition on the drive for Slackware.
Having selected ext3 for the file system type (the standard options were available : ext2, ext3 or ReiserFS), the installer proceeded to add the base package and then presented me with a simple yes/no dialog to see if I wanted X or not. I did; I clicked yes.
Once X had been installed, it asked if I wanted to perform some basic system configuration and I was amused by the dialog for this one - "select 'no' if you think this puppy will run ok without it (hint: it won't)."
It was at this point that I hit a problem - a Lilo configuration menu popped up (asking if I wanted to do automatic or expert installation of Lilo), but the keyboard stopped working. I tried unplugging and plugging in the USB connector again, but to no avail. Plugging in the PS/2 connector however, did work. I should point out this might not work on all machines - I have known some that need to be restarted to get them to register a PS/2 keyboard that wasn't there on boot up. Once the keyboard was functioning again, I installed Lilo to the super block of the root partition so that I could boot that from XOSL (a great boot loader).
