Just a few general questions about Mandrake

[Guest Kenshinsama]

well Im going to be Honest. Im a complete newb to this scene and I mean NEWB. Ive been a windoze user for as long as I can remember. tonight was one of those nights I decided I wanted to try out my right to choice. so Im downloading a DVD image of the newest mandrake distro and as soon as its done Im gonna burn and set up 2 partitions on my HDD. one with XP and another with mandrake. now I know Im gonna have alot of trial and error to deal with. but I do have a few questions...

 

1: is there a way to see if Mandrake or any other distro is compatible with ALL my hardware? like how windows has a thing that checks your system to see if it can run stable or fine on it?

 

2Also I do alot of Emulationa nd I usually dont see alot of Linux versions of some of the emus I use. Like Epesxe or ChanKast. is there a way to use these Windows Emus in Linux?

 

3: last but not least I use a raid array and I wanna know if Im gonna have to break this thing down to get it running with Mandrake...I really dont want to...alot of my Files are there and I have ALOT of files. Id not like to lose them...I guess this questions goes with question 1.

 

Id really appreciate some info on this if anyone can help me. Im liking what Im reading about this OS and Ims eriously interested in checking it out.

[Gowator]

A live CD like PClinuxOS will show what works out of the box... most stuff can be made to work but some stuff is easier than others.

 

Emu's sorry don't know

RAID array...

Depends if its an el-cheapo software RAID or real hardware RAID.

 

Real HW raid is transparent but its also expensive (well not really if you consider :D) SW Raid is OS dependent if the manufactuerer has written it that way.

 

http://loudas.com/wiki/index.php/Paul/TipAndTricks

[theYinYeti]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

1: is there a way to see if Mandrake or any other distro is compatible with ALL my hardware? like how windows has a thing that checks your system to see if it can run stable or fine on it?

Always remember, that manufacturers are so tied to Windows, that they write drivers themselves!. Manufacturers don't behave so nicely with Linux.

But we're lucky enough (and numerous enough), that for most hardware, chances are, that someone wrote a Linux driver for us all. (Thank you Linux comunity). As this development effort is scattered, there's no single compatibility database.

That's why the best way to find if everything is working OK, is to try Linux for good, for example with a LiveCD (so that you don't actually install anything). The only drawback is that it uses memory instead of disk, hence it is slower (because remaining memory is smaller).

If you find, that something does not work, then your best friend is Google; enter "Linux <my hardware>" and read... sometimes, the driver just is not part of the LiveCD (or even any CD) yet, but can be installed afterwards, which is usually quite a lot more involved than everyday usage.

 

2: Also I do alot of Emulationa nd I usually dont see alot of Linux versions of some of the emus I use. Like Epesxe or ChanKast. is there a way to use these Windows Emus in Linux?

I used to run a Win32 Atari emulator (using Wine) on Linux. So it might be possible, but I advise against that: it is slower, and less stable. The best solution is to use a Linux equivalent. There are plenty emulators for Linux. I hope you'll like one of them. If my memory serves me well, there was a site called http://www.linux-games.ocm with lots of interesting stuff.

 

3: last but not least I use a raid array and I wanna know if Im gonna have to break this thing down to get it running with Mandrake...I really dont want to...alot of my Files are there and I have ALOT of files. Id not like to lose them...I guess this questions goes with question 1.

I can't answer that, but I can say one thing: before doing anything, it is much better to backup any personal data you have, all the more if it is sensitive/important data.

 

Yves.

[theYinYeti]

Either the site changed a lot, or my memory is not that good... the above site does not even have search feature. You may want to find other Linux sites for games (and emulators), or search Google for specific Linux emulators instead.

[Guest Kenshinsama]

Either the site changed a lot, or my memory is not that good... the above site does not even have search feature. You may want to find other Linux sites for games (and emulators), or search Google for specific Linux emulators instead.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Dont worry bout it to much. Im not to concerned witht he emulation thing. mostly because I plan on having a dual boot of XP and Mandrake.

 

I checked and I wont even have to rebuild my array when I install Linux. I just need the device drivers for it. I see that the site offers them for linux but Ims eeing that they support Red hat and Turbo linux...not seeing one for Mandrake. I use ata 133 High point Drivers...will any linux device driver work with this or no?

[adolfix]

Click on this link if you want to consult the mandrivalinux database for compatible hardware :

http://www1.mandrivalinux.com/en/hardware.php3

Hoping it will help

Bye

[Gowator]

if its the link i posted wait for paul who is an admin here, it's his site but he's in NZ so 12 hrs outa synch!

 

However generally a RH RPM will work with mandriva unless its KDe or something .. device drivers should be OK.... if its source then you should be definately OK cos you can compile it against your running kernel.

[adamw]

kenshin: epsxe has a Linux version that works fine, I use it for all my Playstation games. You'll need a working 3D video card, though, of course.