I've searched the forums and found some low Requirement linux Op's.

I have so far tried puppy, DSL (damn small linux), Kubuntu, and Vector.

Though Kubuntu is fairly large I tried it.

Here is what I am running and my issue.

Pentium 3 600 MHZ
DEll Inspiron 3800
68 MB of Ram

Had DSL, puppy, and Vector installed just fine.

They ran on the HDD BUT!

My wireless would not work. I need to have an airlink 101 PCMIA wireless card work. It works with linux but I can not get the CD to read or "auto open". I am not that familiar with linux I just now started using ubuntu on my pc not laptop.

The CD drive is MOUNTED, i just cant figure out how to open the CD and make it run.

Will I need wine? maybe for compatibility issues?????

So my question is are there any small linux Ops that will run a wireless card for a laptop easily? I seem to be having problems with these smaller linux ops not wanting to work with my wireless card which is linux compatible.

if the cd is a windows cd, its pretty much useless.
before goind any further,
can you get in a console
and type:
"dmesg"
without the quotes and post the output.
that will tell us if your card is seen.
and also, you tried a few distro, which one are you using right now?

mount -t auto /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
directory /mnt/cdrom needs to be there..If its not make dir with mkdir /mnt/cdrom
or if it has a exisiting directory use that instead of /mnt/cdrom..like /media/cdrom
If it doesnt work try
ls -l /dev/cdrom
to get device name of cdrom...example..heres mine.
strat@turtle:~$ ls -l /dev/cdrom
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 2009-01-19 21:59 /dev/cdrom -> hdc
as you can see /dev/cdrom is pointing to /dev/hdc
cdrom is just a link to /dev/hdc

It is a windows CD which loads and runs under Wine easily. But I used the RT8180 Driver and it seems to work with the airlink card I have an AWLC3028. The only problem I have is maintaining networks now keep locked on a signal.

Is there a way for me to have like the windows Icon and view my signal strength in the task bar and hover over it to see what network im connected too?

you should'nt have to use a windows cd to install hardware on linux...
but if it works.
for the icon on the task bar there is.
but it depends on what window manager you are using.
if its kde, try knetworkmanager
if its gnome, there is one too, i just dont know the name.
there is also command line tools which where the one i used a while back
iwlist, iwconfig
there is probably others, its been a while since i used wifi.

Can I just type in those commands or does it needs any other strings associated with it such as Sudo?

try it, you wont break anything...
for help on any command do the following:
$command --help (or -h)
for the manual:
man $command

Ok well this just happened randomly. Today I booted my laptop. I've changed ABSOLUTELY nothing first off!

It won't fully boot it goes through the load process the just gives me a

#_

symbol where I can type things in. What can I type to make it boot? Or is something shot?

I've tried the classic boot , and reboot, and start, and help gives me over 1500 commands to use.....


soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo I can see why I've used windows for 20 years sigh lol.

Gott learn this help!

Once I get it booted i'll try those commands.

ok, ... first, we need to know why it does not boot.
this means we need to know more about your system then what you said so far.
1. what distro are u on? (u tried a few, which one is it you play with now.)
2. Do you have a bootsplash (a logo at boot time ) like windows or do you have writing of whats going on?
if you have writin, post the message that happens before it crashes (last few lines).

if you have a logo, then it depends if you use grub or lilo as a bootloader (hopefully grub)
we will have to get rid of it.
if its grub, you can do the following:
when you are at your boot menu, select your distro (like you do usualy)
then press "e"
you will have the option to edit your boot option.
look for this word: "quiet" and change it for "verbose"
dont change anything else
then press "b"
this should get rid of the bootsplash
if you dont see "quiet" write down the boot string (looks like: "kernel:linux2.6.22 root=/dev/sda ... .. ..")
and post it so we can see how to get rid of the bootsplash

ps: sorry if my english not so clear....

I use the newest version of puppy.

No there is no boot splash its just the standard black screen with colored loading text

it is GRUB

I get to the screen where I select my distro I.E windows or puppy linux

I select the first option which used to boot and nothing has changed in the prompts for that screen

I run puppy

it begins to loads and says loading drives loading usb ports etc etc

it goes through the list and finishes but then give me

the #_

I'm not on a boot splash screen so that string does not work.

ok then if you cant post the loading message in question, look there is got to be something he is complaining about.
you can also boot a live cd and look at the log on your host system
they are in /var/log/{dmesg,syslog,kern.log}
they might be some pointer on why it stuck there.

im not complaining about anything and its not a leading question.

What do I look for in these logs?

isn't there just a boot command I can type?

sorry i did not mean you complaining, but the system.

any error...
post the dmesg log, there is probably something in there.

unless i know what the problem is, i can't help you.

Sorry, there is no such thing as a "magic" command that just fixes everything ...
and unless your start giving some info to work with other then:
and post actual message from ur system, i can't help.

When something goes wrong with linux, there is allways a log/message that is telling you about the problem.
Linux is not a quiet system, it talks a LOT!!
unless it is configured otherwise, EVERYTHING is log.
the first place to look is dmesg (which contain your boot message and sometime more)
this file is located in /var/log/dmesg

so why don't you just cut/paste the content of this file and post it.
will look through it and if a problem is found will explain how to fix
if none is found we move to the next step....

if you want a quick fix : REINSTALL.

its a seperate machine I can not screen shot it. I will work on posting a text of it.