Howdy,
I'm a real newbie to Linux and am going to try it for the first time. Here are my very basic questions, and assume I know nothing!!
i Have an older computer with a 27 Gig hard drive and a 600 MHz Pentium 3. Right now there is NOTHING on the hard drive as it has just been formatted. It will, I hope, connect to my home network via HomePortal 1100 with the 2wirePC adapters. The other 2 computers on the network are Windows XP and are 1.4 and 2.6 GHz Athlon units.

My Question:
Where would you begin with a basic Linux download remembering that this unit has to be connected through the HomePortal with the 2wire pc adapter which needs a driver?

I am on BellSouth (now AT&T) DSL home networking.
I could not find the specific problem of a 2wire PC adapter via HomePortal networking on this site.

Thanks,
Dick

This is going to be hard, you need to tell us how much memory you have. I'd recommend a live cd distro if you have 256 meg of memory. This would be the easiest and you wouldn't have to install if you didn't like the version or if it isn't compatable with your hardware.

Larry,
I do have 256 meg of memory. I also have a Windows 98se which I could install if it would help, but I had hoped to run this computer fully "Linux" if possible. But remember I'm a real newbie. I'm pretty savvy with Windows.
Thanks.
Dick

I'd recommend downloading the Suse LiveCD and see how that runs.

Installing Windows on the machine won't help as far as Linux is concerned (unless you need to install it to burn the Linux install CDs )

Thanks, I'll give it a shot. My other computers will burn cd's just fine, so I won't need to install 98 on the older one. But first, are you aware of a Linux driver for the 2wirepc adapter and HomePortal 1100??

Dick

Not in particular, but if it is supported in Linux then the drivers should already be included in the Linux kernel.

Hope it works out for you.

Another newbie question: The best site to download the Susie Livecd, please?

Thanks,
Dick

Take a look through here: http://iso.linuxquestions.org/distro.php?distro=20

I'd start with the OPENSUSE website:
http://en.opensuse.org/Welcome_to_openSUSE.org

Note: I have a 700MHz P3 with 192M RAM---I have installed many different Linuces on it with no trouble

Y'all,
Remember I know nothing about Linux other than I'd like to try it. Since I do not know whether or not my 2wire pc adapter and HomePortal 1100 will connect my computer to the net what exactly do I download from the OPENSUSE website and burn to a cd or cd's? Please be specific. I've heard so many good things about Linux, I'd really like to try it rather than re-install Windows 98 back on my older computer.
Thanks.
Dick

tlcmd remember all of us started in your shoes in the beginning. When burning those cds remember to do so as "image" or "iso image". Most of the distros have a network setup that will help you with your Home Portal, but you are going to need an operating system to set it up.

If your HomePortal has an Ethernet port, get a network card (assuming you don't already have one) and use that. The kernel supports lots of network cards.

Go here:
http://en.opensuse.org/Released_Version

You want to download an .iso file which is an image to be used for burning a CD. The file will be just under 700MB. This page helps you determine which version.

We had a 2wire pc adapter on one of our PCs and I never found a way of using it with Linux. Our primary PC was connected to the 2wire router/modem with an ethernet cable and was not a problem (never got it working through USB). Eventually I just fitted a wireless card to the PC and connected with that.

Thanks to all y'all for the advice and suggestions. It looks like the 2wire is going to necessitate the re-installation of Windows rather than Linux since this computer is a peripheral one on the home network. I had hoped to give Linux a try just to become familiar with it.

Thanks all.

Dick