Xheralt

I'm totally new to Linux; I'm only trying it because I don't want to retire my old 500MHz i686, and Win98 has been desupported. I'm mostly familiar with Windows (3.1 through XP), other than brief flirtations with some oddball systems in my youth -- Apple ][, Amiga 500, AlphaMicro {which is really a minicomputer; both WD16 and 68000 versions}

I hunted around through a list of distros, settled on EasyLinux (alias ELX). Looking at things inside it, I now suspect it's a Fedora derivation, but it's still an "other" overall. However, after installing, I've discovered that the distributor doesn't even have their own website up in more than name only, so no help there.

The issues I'm having involve ELX is not recognizing the built-in soundcard or USB ports of the motherboard, which is a Syntax brand; I can't retreive the model number at the moment, I'll edit it in later if needed. I know absolutely nothing about how Linux handles drivers; I'm sure I'll pick it up quickly, if someone could at least get me pointed in the right direction.

techieMoe

If you've just installed this distribution, you shouldn't have any system-critical stuff on there, so why not just try and install a more mainstream (and well-supported) distribution like Fedora or Redhat Enterprise? SuSE, Mandriva, Debian or Ubuntu might also work for you.

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TechieMoe's Tech Rants

Xheralt

I suppose I wanted to give this one a fair try first. Since I'm d/l'ing free distros, I wasn't expecting a heck of a lot of support, anyway...which leaves me depending on the knowledge (or at least the tolerance of) of the Linux Community.

Other little yellow flags have popped up; there are certain config files that don't read out - either that I've managed to "find a bug in Konqueror", as the warning read. I doubt the latter is true.

I picked up "Linux for Dummies (6th ed)", which includes a DVDROM containing five common distros...but this system doesn't have an (IDE) DVD drive, and my USB combo drive is useless if I can't use the USB ports in the first place. I did see that USB-starting procedure in the HOWTO threads, haven't tried it yet.

techieMoe

Well you've certainly got the right kind of curious attitude that you'll need on the path to find a distro that works for you. I can't really help you with EasyLinux, but there's quite a bit of collected knowledge on the forum about the more mainstream ones should you need it. Best of luck.

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TechieMoe's Tech Rants

j-unplugged

the 'dummies' books i find don't get deep enough.

if you have a fast connection get some other distros iso's and start burning.

The reason i say that, is b/c i've downloaded a few and they really do have different drivers and set up different for each of my machines i'm trying them on.

i agree Moe to not spend much time on one distro when there are so many that definitely will see your hardware differently.

i have an old amd k6 2 500 and it loves some and others won't even boot, some just reboot, others i have to adjust the monitor type, etc, it's all different. i would say tho, keep notes. my memory isn't good enuf to remember 5 pcs a laptop and 10 distros.

i also have a dell p133, asus sempron 2400, celeron 400, and i'm testing the livecds and some installs to hdd so far: mandriva, mandriva one, old caldera, old redhad 5.2, dsl - damn small linux, minimax, slax 3 types, knoppix, pclinuxos - that was good on the amd k6-2, but the one i'm focusing in on is centos 4 b/c i want to set up a LAMP server to test out my web stuff w/out having to go live on my host's site.

gud luk, and don't mess too long on a less-than-great responding distro. - j.