Hi,

I really want to get stuck in and learn how to fully use linux to its full potential. I have tryed it before but drifted back to windows.

It will be the summer soon so i will be off from school, and will have more free time. What distro should i use first???

I have :
AMD64 3200+
512mb ram (soon to be 1gb)
256mb grahpis card
160gb hard drive

I have xp and Suse installed but i only use Xp. Any advice is welcome


Cheers

suse is fine. stick with that if you already have it.

First--SUSE 10 (because that is what you have... )
SECOND: For learning, I love Arch. Slackware, Gentoo....

If you can be a bit more specific, we can be more useful......

Hello Gflo n welcome to linux world...
Well for a newbie I recommend you PCLINUXOS its a great distrubution of linux and its i think ideal for newbies , even I use linux although i have used about 7 other [Redhat , Suse ,Arch , Mephis , Ubuntu , Gnoppix , Mandrake ] distrubutions , yet I still use this
heres the info about PClinux that u should need it know
its homepage is pclinuxos.com
It is a LIVE INSTALL CD (means u can use this operating system from cd without installing it on your harddisk ... SO u can get a kick of it ,... u can use this same cd to install pclinux os which surprisingly would result in more than 3 gb of isntalled software ranging from word related tools kinda microsoft office , graphics tools, audio tools , video tools (u can even play dvd out of the box which i remember I couldnot in suse9.2 or any other ..except may be MEPHIS)
HOW CAN U RUN LIVE CD :-
2 methods
1)put cd in cdroom and in bios make cdrom the 1st bootdevice and a screen will come when u press enter it would start loading from cdrom only
2)FASTER METHOD... u still DONOT CHANGE anything on ur harddisk .. copy all the contents of the LIVECD to harddisk (the to contents would be livecd.sqfs and a folder ) copy both of them to a partition like c:\ (dont do it like c:\linux\ just paste in c:
and then make cdrom the 1st boot device and when screen comes type this
livecd bootfrom=/dev/hda1 <<---if ur harddisk is PRIMARY MASTER
livecd bootfrom=/dev/hdb1 <<---if ur harddisk is PRIMARY SLAVE
livecd bootfrom=/dev/hdc1 <<---if ur harddisk is SECONDRY MASTER
livecd bootfrom=/dev/hdd1 <<---if ur harddisk is SECONDRY SLAVE


it would run faster
HOPE I RATHER DIDNOT SCARE U AWAY

Download:

ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/opensuse/di.../boot/boot.iso

Burn it to a CD. It is a bootable network install disk for SuSE 10.1.

use the same mirror for an install source, minus the /boot/boot.iso. When the cd first boots, a screen comes up with F2, F3, etc at the bottom of it. Hit F3 and then F4 to enter your install source. This gives you all the latest fixes of everything, and you only dl what you need. SuSE 10.1 is nice. You shouldn't have any trouble with it. I have been using it for a few days, maybe a week, and so far it is perfect. I do recommend turning off powersave with:

chkconfig powersaved off

chkconfig isn't in every distro, so I think it might be a SuSE thing. When you install 3rd party software in SuSE, unless they fixed this, you have to run:

ldconfig
SuSEconfig

pay attention to case in that SuSEconfig command.

I always keep /home as a separate partition so when I blow away the root for a reinstall, all user settings and files are preserved. You just make sure on a reinstall that you don't mess with /home partition. If I have a system I put a lot of work into, I install an identical HDD, and dd the entire disk to the other. This gives me an exact copy of my working disk in case I really mess up. I just boot from the exact copy, dd it over to the one I messed up, and try not to mess up again. You can really learn a lot about linux if you are free to trash the system, and then just boot off an exact copy. I do recommend against compiling your own kernel in SuSE as you need to manually remove all modules you didn't include in .config from /lib/modules or the whole things screws up.

If you want a system you can really customize, debian has awesome capabilities for customization. It has a whole toolset of kernel compiling tools called make-kpkg, or kernel-package.

Ubuntu is quite a nice distro. Actually the best distro that I have used in all honestly. They possess a live cd and the automatix script makes alife a lot easier considering the installation of multi-media packages.

Hey gflo,

Apart from the distros, I would suggest that you spend some time thinking why you ".. tried it before but drifted back to windows". This will probably give you some insight about what modules or packages you need to really "get stuck in and learn Linux".

All the best.

End

I went back to windows, because i couldnt get my wireless sorted on linux. Everyone told me that i shud use ndiswrapper but that always just messed up. I found that windows just did it for me. Maybe im just not cleevr enough to use linux. I have a Belkin summit summit based on the rt2560 chip it tells me in windows.

If you are smart enough to register here and post a question in intelligible english, then you are smart enough to use linux......
What you will need is patience.

I would start by doing some searches in Google using the name of your wireless card + "linux" or maybe the name of specific distros. Also, some distros have hardware compatibility databases.

try out this short rtest it may be of some help in decided on what distribution to use:

http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/

the rt2500 driver was removed from suse 10.1. SO you will need to install the driver first in order to get it to work. Alot of opther distributiosn include it already in it, ubuntu for example has it already built into the kernel so it shoudl work stright off. You wotn have to fiddle with ndis wrapper with your current wireless connection because thechipset will work with the rt2500 driver (should do).

here is a guide for installing the driver and setting up the connection on suse 10.1:

http://linux.wordpress.com/2006/05/1...-rt2500-wi-fi/

I have always fancied using Ubuntu, but yet again linux beat me, it just kept of failing once i downloaded it burnt it to disc tried to install and well it just messed up.

I will have another go again soon.
Im think of formatting my hard drive and having a fresh start.

Make sure you backup everything before you reformat.

That might not make any differences, btw.

One thing about learning/using Linux is just learning a new language and a new method of doign things differently.

After using Linux for a long time, I've tried to fix my friends computers (who run Windows) and found that I had forgotten everything, wishing I had my CLI tools. All in all, you do need to find a distro that suits you. I had auto-config tools, so I use Arch (I config it myself).

What exact problems are you having with NDISwrapper?

Ndiswrapper just never works it just fails. Hmm havent used linux in a while, i here good thinks about Ubuntu so i think im going to use that!!

Ndiswrapper can be a pain in the backside. The first time I attempted to use Wireless on Linux, I spent an entire day struggling with ndiswrapper. Anyway once I figured out how to get it to work, I've never had any problems. One thing you may want to do is get a card that already has Linux drivers e.g. kernel 2.6.17 will have support for some broadcom 43xx based wireless cards.

NDIS wrapper can be a god send if there are not native drivers in linux. I actually have the same card, and I found that http://rt2x00.serialmonkey.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page page has the best drivers for any distro i have tried. (fedora core 4/5, mandrake, debian, ubuntu, kubuntu, slackware, Suse 9/10 and some knoppix versions). It'll make things much smoother for you in linux once you figure out how the installation process works. Once you get that down. you will be doing well with just about everything else in linux. The fact that you got it installed in the first place, puts you above the majority of the computer user world. Linux is not that easy to install. Oh yeah Congrats on using linux.