new to linux

[alongside]

I've been reading about open source for a while and I've always wanted to try it out so I finally downloaded a fedora live cd. I really like the layout and everything but when I tried to connect to the internet I couldn't get any sort of internet connection wireless or direct. Also, when I tried to use any audio application like recording from a microphone through the mic input or playing audio, the program would crash. I wonder if this is some sort of driver issue? Like the cd didn't come with any specific drivers to run with my individual machine. If thats the case does that mean that I need to find or write drivers for these applications?

[jmadero]

welcome to the forums. First off, no you would not need to write drivers

Let's tackle one thing at a time. What kind of internet connection are you using? Through a router, direct connect to modem, dial up?

[alongside]

Thanks for the reply. Its just a modem with a wireless router or just direct through the modem with a cable; I tried both. When I tried to check for the connection, it wasn't visible to log onto.

[Dann]

As with my all my advice, you may want a more experienced linux user to confirm this, but as far as recording audio goes, it would seem to me that if you're using a live cd, the audio would have no where to record to (no hard drive/writable media), and that would be causing the trouble.

EDIT: but that wouldn't explain the crashing on just playing audio.

[jmadero]

oh I didn't realize you were using a live distro, this could also be causing the internet issue...typically connected direct works though. Is it cable or DSL?

[alongside]

yes its a live cd and a cable internet connection. it just doesn't seem to see any internet connection. I understand that it may be limited because its a live cd but I'd like to operate it before I try to partition the hard drive.

I guess the worry is that when I install it I won't be able to use any of the hardware like, web cam, speakers, wireless modem etc.

[jmadero]

well with a live distro you definitely will see some issues but internet typically isn't one of them. Open a terminal and post what comes with this:

ifconfig -a

also list,

lspci

lastly, what kind of webcam?

Wireless will most likely not work with a live distro unless you have an atheros card, broadcom chipset is pretty difficult to get working in a live distro, I'm yet to get mine to work, I'm close, but it requires a restart to function after installing the driver and of course, a restart clears the RAM which thus deletes the driver

[alongside]

Thanks jmadero for all your help. I've been moving so I haven't been able to follow this post as much as i'd like.

I guess my main question is if I install fedora on my machine do you think I'll still have some problems with the internet?

[reed9]

If it doesn't work with the Live CD, it will probably not work installed. But that doesn't mean you can't get it to work. In many cases there's proprietary firmware that can't (or won't because it isn't open source) be distributed by a distro, but you can easily download it yourself. Boot up the Live CD and follow the directions here for identifying your wireless card: http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/wir...tart-here.html

[jmadero]

I agree with reed, I'm sure you can get it installed and working, might take a little bit of patience but it'll come together with a little time. As for Fedora, you could experience the same problem or maybe not. Download unetbootin and then you can run distros off of a flash and try that way, a bit quicker. Try a few different ones and see what you get