Hi, please be patient with me. NO SE NADA stands for I KNOW NOTHING (it is Spanish since someone has taken the english version of this user already).

I am somehow an exerpt in Microsoft but do not use this against me. I am trying to change.

Have many times tried Linux (Red Hat 8.2 and 9 and also Mandrake 9 and 9.1 and 9.2) The latest one version 10 that came from Dutschland (Germany) on the Linux magazine DVD.

I have 7 machines at home including 2 WIN 2003 servers, routers, swithces and wireless access on 2.4Ghz and 5 Ghz. On funny Bill Gates all works brilliantly but I want a change.

I need to know what reading/s books are good to get to FULLY know how this Linux Frankenstein works.

Mandrake 10 looks FANTASTIC and in the machine I put it in woks like a charm but DLINK DWL G520 wireless card is not supported at all.

Unlike the windows environment once you get the driver all is easy.
I did find a driver but needs to be compiled and then what????

I know what compile is but how all of this is done and after that what the hell needs to be done, where to put this, how the chipset via kernell and operating system gets to work, etc,etc.

In other words I am lost in how all of these is achieved under Linux.

Any suggestions for this poor know nothing guy?

Thanks

The wonderful people at D-Link, Netgear (maybe others) have a nasty habit of releasing wireless cards with almost identical names but quite different hardware, some of which works with linux and some not.

If you are unlucky enough to have the version with the Texas Instruments chip, maybe you are trying to install the acx100 driver? If you are trying to learn about linux I don't think this is the place to start. Can you swap wireless cards with one of your window boxes to get one with a less experimental linux driver?

Thanks mate! I am Sydney based too. Ok, unfortunately all wireless cards are exactly the same.
I whished I did not buy them but not because of drivers but the sad antenna design. I am en electronic engineer and RF is one of my specialities.

Anyway just not to beat around the bush and change subejcts, I think I need to LEARN and UNDERSTAND this operating system.
Texas Instruments semiconductors, I used to work for them in Talavera Road, North Ryde after leaving AWA accross the road in 1986.
I need to have a look and see what chip this DLINK has got. Theyare A1 hardware revisions.

WHERE WOULD BE A PLACE to start UNDERSTANDING the works of Linux. I know what compiler/assembler/linkers are but what I cannot get is a DECENT book that starts from scratch to give me the idea of what goes on.

Cheers

Books? Pretty much everything you need is online. If you want hard copy consider one of the latest boxed distros with manuals. Last I used was SuSE, some years ago, but others may be as good. If you are lucky that will sort out most configuration problems. But new hardware, like wireless cards, can still cause problems if the manufacturers do not provide support and publish interfaces. Anyway, if you buy a book make sure it matches the distro you are using.

For more techie stuff you need to know about basic unix utilities, shells and so on. e.g.

http://espc22.murdoch.edu.au/~stewart/guide/guide.html

looks quite good. Most of the popular stuff is gathered together at

http://www.tldp.org/

which has HOWTOs and guides on pretty much everything.

And don't forget to ask your mates at TI what happened to the linux driver for their wireless chip

Thanks. Well it depends who is alive in TI after all these years. I am off to USA this weekend for the NAB show ( I am in digital TV and Digital Radio industry now) and TI will have a stand there pushing DSP's for MPEG 4. If I recognize some old faces I will ask some questions.

Cheers

If it does not work. Just get a normal PCI nic. Then get a wireless to wired bridge.

IMO, wireless network creates a huge security risk. If you are not careful with it, people can easily get into your system to change files or corrupt files.

You do not have to get a book that is only for your distribution because LINUX from distribution is the same as the other. However, a few distributions uses different files to setup devices.

Have a nice time! Incidentally there is a lot of interesting digital TV activity in linux. See especially http://www.linuxtv.org and (more locally) the digital TV card forum at http://www.dba.org.au .