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I decided tonight to install Redhat 9 on my new laptop knowing NOTHING about it. I installed it okay so now I can dual boot along with Win XP but since my laptop is new, it did not find any hardware I have in it. My question is simple I think. I downloaded drivers (I think) and I want to install them, but I have NO IDEA how to do it. I am I right to think that the only way to install this is from the command line or shell? If so, how do I get to the shell? Please help me. Thanks!!!!!
If you can boot into Linux with a graphical interface, just open a terminal window. You should have at least one to chose from by default. If you are using Gnome, just click on the foot in your panel and look for a terminal icon. If you are using KDE, click on the icon that looks like a letter K with gears around it and again look for a terminal icon.
A terminal window gives you an interface similar to what you would see if you booted without loading the X window system.
okay, I am running the default settings, so I am not sure what that means.
When I click on the red hat where a typical "Start" button would be, I go to "Run Program" and then check "Run in Terminal". I guess that is how I install a driver, etc. Here is my problem. I have a few files and I think they are the network driver (I am still not even sure if they are). At this point, I am not sure what to do. What is a typical driver extension? I am not sure what to look for. Thanks again!!!!!!
hmm well first you should try reading the instructions for the files you downloaded. Double click on your home folder (it should be on the desktop whether you are or kde or gnome) and then go to where the files are. Usually the files you download are either .tar.gz or .bin which are compressed files or .rpm which are packages., there can be more but I think you should specify which one you have so I can tell you more accurately what to do.
well, it would be more useful if you provided more specifics - ie, exact filenames you're trying to install, device name/model, hardware specs, etc.
secondly, did you run a search on this board (click upper right of page) - there have been hundreds of threads on installing various apps, a pretty good bet is that you're not the first to have tried this.
The names of the files are bcm4400-3.0.7-1.src and bcm4400-3.0.7.tar. They are for the network card on my Dell 8600. I looked, but I could not find anything about installing drivers. Maybe I am looking in the correct place
okay, popped the cd into the drive and it displayed the contents of my cd where the drivers we. I double clicked onto the driver file (rpm) and it asked for the root password, which I supplied. After that, it did nothing. I went into the network section in system settings and under hardware, it is not showing up. I installed the drivers for the Broadcomm 4400. Any ideas? Thanks again!!!!
THERE has been a lot of work done on running linux on Laptops
I am very suprised that your RED HAT distros install program did not find the hardware ??
Go to KDE.org and search on that and linked sites for info and HOWTO files giving the make oand MODEL of your laptop in the search wording .
I saw screeds and screeds there for LAPTOPS when I was searching for something else
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