Can i save drivers and software for my hardware so i can put it in my new linux cd?
 

Hello,

I hope i can copy those settings and software. They are on a cd that i think was made using Clonezilla. I think that because it has a file named "Clonezilla-Live-Version" on it. ECafe support tells me it is a image of my hard drive. I can also restore my hard drive and copy what i want then, if it is easier than extracting from the image.

History of problem...
I buyed an eCafe 900 last month. It had a custom mandriva linux on it. I couldn't make many things work, not even with the help of some online forums so i just formatted and installed xp. Nlited it and tried to make it better some other ways, it isn't enough. Now i want to try another linux version, not sure witch, and i want the original software for my hardware from the old (2008) mandriva i first had. Every hardware part was working fine with the original software and isn't working fine with xp and latest drivers from intel, ralink, bla bla bla. This pc only has 512 ram so windows 7 isn't my option (it runs, but many other things ask for more memory). I better learn to work with linux.

linux usually does not need drivers
most things should "just work"
the only things that need configuring is mouse/keyboard (easy) and display
if you want better resoultions

As long as you run a fairly recent version of a distribution of Linux you should not have problems with hardware except maybe for a wireless ethernet card.

Nevertheless, it is wise to buy an external hard-drive and to back-up what is on the system now so that you can get it back should the need arise.

yes but i need the original software for everything... wifi, lan, webcam, vga, soundcard, chipst(this maybe not...), keyboard, it has features that are not available in the normal drivers

It is not Windows and I doubt it is so special...

As a rule, linux does not use separate drivers. The linux kernel has driver modules integrated within it, and the linux installation, once it is configured or configures itself, will then load the correct modules for the hardware when linux boots. This is why linux also boots as a live-cd.

If you can restore your linux installation from your cloned copy, you might see what driver modules are installed with the command "lsmod" and "lshw", but this should not be a necessity.

If you want Mandriva or any other linux, you should be able to download and burn a copy of its latest version and install it. There is no guarantee that any particular linux will configure all of your devices out of the box, but if there was a linux installation on your system, it should not be very hard to install one of the linux distributions again. Some wifi chips need a Windows driver with a wrapper, but that should only mean a little more work.

Clonezilla will let you restore the image to your hard drive. That should not be a problem.

From what I can find on the web, the ECafe900 appears to be a standard Intel Atom-based netbook. If this is indeed the case, then any popular Linux distro should run just fine on it. I'd try booting a current live CD or USB version of either Fedora or Ubuntu (or Mandriva). All have excellent support for standard netbook hardware.

This might be of interest...

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...istros-761185/

There may be even more linuxs for netbooks out there; you might google your model and linux.

Ubuntu A is not easy to use
and B does not detect most of my hardware

Ok, I'll bite.
1. In your opinion, what operating systems are easy to use?
2. What's your hardware?

Not trying to incite a flamewar here; just recognizing that what's easy to me might not seem easy to someone else and vice versa. Also, hardware compatibility isn't always 100%, efven if hardware is correctly detected. For example, the current development version of Fedora detects my nvidia graphics card just fine. However, the default nouveau driver does not work with X.

so then i can copy the modules?
i dont like the mandriva distribution that came with the netbook, some things simply dont work, for example the messenger is never connecting on any networks yahoo, live...
so i just want another linux and put the software made by the hercules company

Not exactly...

When you boot a correct linux installation, linux will load those modules necessary for your hardware. They are in the linux kernel. When you install a linux distribution, you do not then install the modules. linux is not Windows and the modules are not driver programs

I thought that, if you restored the cloned copy of Mandriva, you could run it and use the command "lsmod" (list modules) to see what modules mandriva was loading. This being a netbook, it is alway possible there is something special about the Mandriva that was installed on it.

However, since one linux was installed, another linux should be installable; that is to say, there are no devices or their chips that cannot be made to function under linux.

It does though seem to me that you might not know how to set up your linux installation to do what you want it to do. That is a question of learning and patience. Try looking at this.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Linux_F...ow_Linux_Works

You might try to install one of the Ubuntu based netbook distributions in the link I gave you in a previous post. Ubuntu has many user and very active forums, with lots of chances to get help.