superpenguin79 Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 so I finally get ready to install Mandrake on my box this weekend, I have researched this site and others extensively, even took a course on setup, installation, and config. through my work for free, and had the boot disc ready to do a network install... and I discover that the box does not have a network card installed.... so I do happen to have a spare network card laying around un-opened, but realize that it came with a cd to install the drivers... hence forth my whole initiative to install linux on this box via network anyways caus I don't have a working cdrom drive on the machine.... I am begining to think that it would be easier to throw this box out of a 10 story building and let it smash into a dumpster and go look in other peoples dumpsters or something and find a new box that is a 466mhz or something like that which has a working cdrom and network card already... the main issue is that I could even install the network card if I could find out what to copy off the cd's onto floppy..etc.. but what a pain this is for a machine that I believe only has 64mb of ram to begin with.... :blink: anyways..... bottom line is that the forces are against me and don't want me to be able to setup my Linux box at this point and time.... :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 so I do happen to have a spare network card laying around un-opened, but realize that it came with a cd to install the drivers... hence forth my whole initiative to install linux on this box via network anyways caus I don't have a working cdrom drive on the machine.... have you tried just putting the card into the system? it's quite likely that linux will detect it and use the proper module (aka driver) for it, without you needing the cd... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 The CDs that come with network cards usually only have the drivers for Windows. Linux automatically detects most networking cards, as tyme pointed out. On a Windows-system, the drivers are usually not included by default. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniewicz Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 what a pain this is for a machine that I believe only has 64mb of ram If you do resolve your network card problem, this 64MB of RAM is going to make your linux life difficult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 If he uses IceWM as Windowmanager, it should be acceptable imho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 You'd be WAY better off with some i486 tuned distro instead, e.g. Vector Linux ( it's an easy to handle Slackware clone) and IceWM as desktop (the default now for Vector is XFCE4). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superpenguin79 Posted March 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 Thanks for the advice guys, however did I fail to mention that the machine currently has a distro of Win. 98 on it which is not the easiest to get to jive with newer network cards and drivers anyhow.... :D Yeah, could go with a i486 distro, but I think honestly I rather chuck this machine and get one that can handle 2006 from the get go and not cause so many headaches.. I am telling you... this machine has been almost as much grief as my upstairs neighbors that have flooded my livingroom like 10 times since august just to give y'all a comparison... :D :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthur Posted March 21, 2006 Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 well, i bought a TFT, DVD burner, 2 network cards, and a Microsoft Wireless Desktop keyboard and mouse - the first thing i did upon opening them was chuck the driver CDs into the far corner of my closet. All of them worked without me using ANY of the drivers. That's linux although some stuff like webcams are an absolute headache to get to work... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superpenguin79 Posted March 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 nice, good to know for when I finally get a linux box up and running atleast... :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superpenguin79 Posted March 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2006 Hmm... was just perusing latest distro's and found a couple distro's that you can install via flash drive... interesting. I even found a few you can fit on a floppy. I am thinking I may be able to either use the box, or destroy it with one of those distro's... :D if there is a will, there is a way... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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