Kernel Version: - 2.4.0.test8
KDE Included: - No
KDE2 Included: - No
Gnome Included: - Yes
XF86 v4 Included: - Yes
Installation:
Icepack boots off the CD into the graphical installation and asks you to select the installation language – English or German. Before the graphical installation is started, Icepack detects your computer’s hardware. It detected my Video Card (A Creative Blaster Riva TNT2 Ultra), Mouse (PS2), Sound Card (A Creative AWE64). It also attempted to detect a PnP Monitor (mine wasn’t) and any SCSI devices (I didn’t have any).
All of the partitioning and formatting is done using Icepack’s own GUI. I noticed at this point that Icepack would not share a boot partition with another distribution as it insisted on mounting all other partitions (other than it’s own) in a directory off /mnt.
There are two levels of package selection. Either the default or the developer packages. Icepack then detects the CPU type and speed and selects the apporiate kernel for your system - I’ve not seen any other distro do this!.
The LILO configuration is relatively simple to configure and most of it is automatically set-up.
The network card is selected and then you are prompted for the networking options (IP address etc.). I discovered that Icepack didn’t seem to allow you to use a DHCP server to obtain the IP address.
Booting Up:
The system booted without any problems from the graphical LILO into the graphical login.
Software Content:
The software content of Icepack was very good (the whole installation is 962 Mb). The software selection includes Star Office 5.2.
Icepack uses Gnome as it’s primary window manager but also includes Window Maker and Enlightenment.
Conclusion:
Considering that Icepack is not yet finished it seems to be a very stable and complete distribution. This would be perfect for the home, desktop user rather than the power (or network) user as it appears to be more geared to the home user (with everything being graphical).
