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Guest Tabularosa
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Guest Tabularosa

to install Mandrake 10.1 Official onto my dell 700m. This is my first foray into the world of Linux and I am very excited.

 

Couple of questions:

 

I really want to ditch XP and just use 10.1 as my only os so I don't have to deal with dual booting. Would you guys not recommend this?

 

I don't have a wireless network but getting the intel pro 2100 to work is vital to me as I use it to hook up to the network at school and coffee shops etc. I hear that 10.1 is probably the most notebook friendly but I just need to know that I can get the wireless set up even though I am a noob. So will there be major obstacles to this?

 

At home I connect to the internet via my ethernet port and dsl. Will that be a problem?

 

I have dabbled with SimplyMepis and Xandros but neither could detect my dsl modem. Knoppix did but I figure if I am going to install onto the hdd Mandrake would be my best bet. Sorry so long, and I hope you guys can help a fist time Linux user out. Thanks :D

Edited by Tabularosa
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If this is your only computer and you know next to little about Linux I wouldn't recommend doing away with XP just yet.

 

Linux is different from MS and it takes a while for you to get used to it. (read different, not more difficult. In fact I find it easier :) ) All the quick shortcuts/tricks you use in XP you will have to learn again for Linux/Mandrake. It will take some time for you to feel comfartable with Mandrake. After that you get more (because everything just works and doesn't crash and does what you want) work done with your PC as with XP.

 

Anyway, internet connection should not be a problem. Mandrake should automaitcally configure it for you (during the install).

 

Have fun.

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as long as you do not try to connect to the net with a ethernet-router-connection, you won't have lots of problems. i got it installed at once on an nvidia-gfx-based lappy and everything worked very well, even the ac97 sound was painless. :)

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Depends on what you use your 'puta for.

 

If you need a workstation, able to surf and download, email blah de blah - then I wouldn't think you have too many problems with a straight swap. But it may bode you well to dual boot, install and see how it all works out. There can be some irritations that revolve around hardware - so this will depend on your set up check the database at mandrakelinux.

 

We had a couple of brick/doorstop PCs at home, running M$ 98 ME 2000

 

First to go was the 98/2000 dual boot - problem encountered - wouldn't load mdk9.2 until it had a BIOS flash upgrade. Problem easily resolved.

 

Next problem was modem related - had the awful speedtouch 330 - synonomous with mandrake pain for many :P Easily resolved (got rid of it) but iitially I held out determined I'd win it, but it got the touchdowm before I did :D Invested in a ethernet modem/router - sails set to sail from now as M$ and ME was completely abandoned.

 

For everyday stuff that I need it for - work/research/email its great. No more continuos system crashes and I don't have to worry almost daily about virus defence.

 

At work I have a dual boot with XP - and the only reason I ever need to go into XP anymore is hardware related - can't get the damn printer to work with mdk.

 

Manbe things will have improved with 10.1 ....uummmm

 

These of course though are workstations not lappys.

Edited by ChrisM
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Guest Tabularosa

Thanks for the replies guys. As far as hardware detection goes how would you rate 10.1. The only perspective I have is in relation with SimplyMepis=okay(couldn't connect to the internet), Xandros=same as SM, and Knoppix which I thought to be excellent.

Edited by Tabularosa
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hardware detection usually depends on the linux-kernel version, although almost every distro has its uniquely patched kernel. as 10.1 has a 2.6.7 kernel, hardware detection is quite good. the number of things that do not work out of the box is getting smaller every day and in these cases, you can download and install some modules by hand most of the time. but there are some things that will not work with linux as the source-code is locked by vendors and programing a module from scratch for a hardware-device (e.g winmodems) is a frustrating task that only few are willing to do.

i have used linux on six completely different machines till now and they are all working. the only hardware frustration was a eth-network-adsl combo card, two years back. not bad at all, eh? :)

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If this is your only computer and you know next to little about Linux I wouldn't recommend doing away with XP just yet.

 

Linux is different from MS and it takes a while for you to get used to it. (read different, not more difficult. In fact I find it easier :) ) All the quick shortcuts/tricks you use in XP you will have to learn again for Linux/Mandrake. It will take some time for you to feel comfartable with Mandrake. After that you get more (because everything just works and doesn't crash and does what you want) work done with your PC as with XP.

 

Anyway, internet connection should not be a problem. Mandrake should automaitcally configure it for you (during the install).

 

Have fun.

I couldn't disagree more! It is always a good time to ditch Windows. If you can't get something to work in Linux and you have Windows to fall back on, how will you ever learn? I only really started getting into Linux once I ditched Windows completely. Three years down the line and I haven't looked back once. So ditch it, now - and ignore people telling you otherwise.

 

As for detection, Mandrake is excellent at picking up your hardware and Ubuntu is supposed to be even better (although I do not have that much experience with Ubuntu). I always recommend compiling your own kernel for proper hardware functioning as well (no, it's not too early for that either).

 

What you have to remember is that a lot of Linux geeks tell you you're not ready for things just so that they seem more l33t (I hate that word). So ignore them, get your hands dirty and don't let anybody tell you what you're ready for.

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basically you are right, soulse, but there is ONE simply thing you might have to keep in mind: if this is his ONLY box for writing, email, etc and he needs it everyday, then a borked linux-installation might leave him in an unpleasant situation. apart from being unable to do his everyday work, he might not even be able to get to the web in order to download drivers of search some howtos in order to fix his linux-box. for a noob, it is good imho to stick to a dual boot until you really got your linux-box installed and stable. after that, it is always a good choice to ditch windows. ;)

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The ipw2100 wireless is advertised to be supported in Mandrake 10.1.

 

As for the networking, shouldnt be a problem.

 

as long as you do not try to connect to the net with a ethernet-router-connection, you won't have lots of problems. i got it installed at once on an nvidia-gfx-based lappy and everything worked very well, even the ac97 sound was painless. smile.gif

ethernet based routers make things easier, not harder.

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If you think you can live without windows for a while, I would suggest getting rid of windwos for now - you can always re-install it if you can't get on with Linux.

 

As Soulse says - you will learn more quickly if you have nothing else to fall back on.

 

Plus I always reckon it's worth sticking with some thing for at least a week (ideally two) regardless of your initial impression.

 

Of course - if you have work that you absolutely must be able to do over the next couple of weeks then you might want to reboot.

 

Good luck

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ethernet based routers make things easier, not harder.

yeah, they would make things easier, wouldn't there be that bloody ipv6 kernel bug in verion 2.6.0 to 2.6.7 kernels that constantly wreck router-connections. :P

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Guest Tabularosa

You guys are really helping me out a lot. One thing that someone mentioned was always falling back on M$ everytime I could not get something to work. I'm finding that to be the truth right now as far as the other distros I've messed with. As long as I can get on the internet I should be okay. How did we ever live w/o the internet, long live the internet :P

 

Someone mentioned compiling, what exactly does that mean?

 

Thanks

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ethernet based routers make things easier, not harder.

yeah, they would make things easier, wouldn't there be that bloody ipv6 kernel bug in verion 2.6.0 to 2.6.7 kernels that constantly wreck router-connections. :P

ipv6 routers aint that common.... my lappy has worked with every router i've tried, wireless and lan.

 

Compiling means translating the code someone has written into a machine readable language, a form the computer can understand.

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comiling procedure...

open a terminal, log in as root, if necessary. then run three commands:

./configure

make

make install

 

that's it.

ipv6 routers aint that common.... my lappy has worked with every router i've tried, wireless and lan.

then you are very lucky. as i am also registered at several other forums, i can tell you from experience that i have encountered at least fifty persons, asking for help due to ipv6. be it in mandrake, yoper, fedora, ubuntu, suse or debian.

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