Posts by deadleaves

I really liked Mepis. I think it's one of the better Debian-based distros next to Knoppix. I liked Knoppix, but it wouldn't boot on my laptop. In fact, I couldn't boot any live cd that was "knoppix-based". I know a lot of people have experienced that problem also. But that's not just Knoppix, there are other live-cd distros that I can't boot either.

I agree with you on Mepis hardware detection. It definitely does a great job at it. IMO, if you want debian, go with something debian-based, such as Mepis or Knoppix (if you can boot it).

I ran RH for a long time and in spite of how much I hated how bloated it was, I got APT, added some new apt sources, and stuck with it because it was what I had grown accustomed to. RH would install things in spite of what you deselected during the installation wizard. After every install, I'd spend large amounts of time stripping out services and apps I didn't want. I had to "open" my mind to other distros, and realize that they weren't evil; they were just different. And thankfully I did. I've booted just about every distro that this laptop could possibly boot and it's been a fun learning experience.

If I wasn't running Arch, I'd be running Mepis.

Anyone using Arch? I've been playing with it for a week now, and I have to say that after trying many other distros, this one is a winner for me. I got tired of bloated distros and I don't like wasting time on complex installations and configurations, and oh yeah, I needed good package management. APT was great, but it's also let me down alot. So far, nothing has broken during package management in Arch. I really enjoyed gentoo, but for someone that has to be productive most of the time, I wouldn't recommend it. Installation is not for the newbie and package management (in spite of how cool it may look) is not for the impatient. So for anyone that desires:

-quick base installation
-a quick booting system
-excellent package management
-latest KDE
-kernel 2.6

I would suggest giving arch a try. For the newbie, it may take a few installs to get it right, but once you get there, you'll have a great running system. So before this turns into a "my distro is better" thread, let me just say that I'm not trying to "threaten" anyone's favorite distro; I'm just sharing my two cents in an effort to build a better linux community, regardless of what distro you're running.

Look in /boot/grub for the file grub.conf. Open it in a text editor. Study it carefully so that you have some understanding of what you're looking at then delete the entry you don't want. Make sure you're logged in as root.

Just wanted to inject that I did purchase the dlink 650 (not the 650+) and there has been yet another revision in the chipset. (Rev M1)

It has a realtek chipset of some type, that without a lot of self punishment, will not work. If anyone has gotten it to work, please let me know. Otherwise, if you're planning to get a dlink 650 because the price is right, be sure to get one of the older ones that still has the prism based chipset.

I'm currently using my ambicom cf wireless card from my zaurus in my laptop to remedy my wireless needs, and it works great.

Log in as root and then edit this file: /etc/inittab.

Find this line: id:5:initdefault
change it to: id:3:initdefault

reboot

A friend of mine (mistakenly) bought the same card for his linux laptop and he told me that it used a Texas Instruments chipset and that it did not work. I later read and confirmed that the d link 650+ wireless card does use the TI ACX100 chipset for which their currently is little or no support.

The first card I tried to use with linux was an SMC 2435 which had a TI chipset and it did not work. TI will not release information on their chipset due to whatever reasons, and they obviously are not going to put out any linux drivers anytime soon. There is an ongoing project to help remedy this but that's an entirely different story and monster of it's own. Anyway, I tried the card on Suse and even though it detected the chipset, it could not get the card to work. Suse is great at detecting alot of hardware regardless of whether it's going to work or not.

Anyway, it's the 650 with the prism chipset that works, not the 650+. Unless you're up for the challenge (and headache), I would suggest finding a linux compatible card that works right off the bat.

The second card I got (on a tip that it worked with linux) was an SMC 2635W that I purchased from e-cost for like $16. It uses the admtek chipset and admtek did linux supply drivers; therefore it did work. I used it on red hat 9. …

Correction:

I said, "you'll probably still need to edit the config file located in /etc/pcmcia/config ".

Actually, you won't need to edit "that" config file because it's not a pcmcia card. However, you'll probably still need to edit some other file.

I mistakingly said that in my last post because it's what i had to do to get my wireless card working on my laptop.

Most NICs aren't an issue with linux unless you (1) have a very "new" or "odd" NIC or (2) you're installing a linux distro that has an older kernel. For instance, I was installing Debian on a laptop last week and although it was the "latest" release, the kernel did not have the driver/module built into it and it did not detect the Broadcom NIC. Luck for me, Broadcom does have linux drivers and it worked wonderfully.

For what it's worth, I am running RH9 on my laptop and installed the nvidia video drivers and it works quite well. So hopefully, you can get your video/nic to work.

Again,
Good Luck!

I'm currently running a RH9 box at home that serves as my web and mail servers along with some other things. It's not going to be easy to sum up how to accomplish everything you want to do with a few paragraphs, so I'll do the best I can while making it as short as I can.

In reponse to your first question, (a) webmin is an excellent app for managing your linux box. However, by default, by logging in remotely, you're transmitting your password without security. Once you get webmin installed, be sure to read the help files on how you can secure it. (b) You don't necessarily need webmin in order to reboot your linux box. You can also use ssh which is a lot more secure. And if you don't have apache installed, use the red hat sofware manager and install it. Check the apache documentation for the correct configuration.

When you say, "key in the login information and click to connect to the internet", are you implying that you're on dialup? If you're on a broadband connection, you shouldn't have to manually "connect" each time you reboot your box. Once your network settings are configured for your box, it will connect automatically whether you're logged in to your computer or not.

Suggestion: If you are on a broadband connection, I would suggest putting a firewall in front of your linux box, whether it's the RH firewall or a broadband router. You can NAT …