I guess my big question is this.... WHO HAS THIS KIND OF TIME!?....Ever since install I have spent more hours then I care to talk about just trying to get online with gOS via dialup.
You install the OS only to hear ...."well you need to install xyz then you will need qrs to run that but you will need to compile it with abc...."..."oh that didn't work? well you must have lmnop that runs with knopix and you need to run pppxyz to make that happen..." GET REAL. For all of my hatred of Windoze.. and trust me I HATE windoze...at least it works out of the box. I have spent over a year researching a distro of linux that would run on my laptop and now I have spent days just trying to install it and getting it to do the simplest thing like dial into the internet.
Any REAL help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Indy

Perhaps you'd get more "REAL help", if you didn't rant about what you don't like, and said what your problem is. You don't say what distro you're using, on what hardware, and what error(s) you're getting.

FWIW, I've used Linux on laptops for about 5 years, and (aside from WiFi three years ago), have never had problems with anything being recognized or getting things set up.

Most problems come into two categories:

1. You expect things to work like in windows, and you hope to get the same stuff you used in windows. So, you blame Linux for other's fault: faulty plugins (blame adobe), crappy games (blame game producers), and so on.
2. You bought hardware that will work under windows, but you took exactly zero effort to check if it's compatible with linux. It's like if you buy a printer for MacOS and then you complain because it will not work attached to your PS3, absurd? Yes. So, if you plan to use Linux, first research and buy compatible hardware.

The rest of the so-called "problems" are just the natural learning curve. There's no reason why Linux should work like Windows, just like there's no reason why Windows should work like Linux.

Specific help requests tend to get specific help replies. Rants about one's inability and/or inexperience with getting a machine running tend to only get snarky replies. If you actually want help, ask specific questions instead of just whining.

Sorry for the rant just completely frustrated at this point.
Actually I did my research. I have an Everex laptop. I Researched for over a year. I looked into ubuntu, Suse, Fedora, mandrake....I found that Everex computers were being sold through wal-mart with linux gOS installed...I did mention that I was using gOS in my post...I unfortunately bought my everex with Vista installed. I do not expect Linux to work like Windows In fact just the opposite is true... I have some very limited experience with Unix and knew that Linux would be alot of command line work and that is fine as I have dealt with OS's from DOS 3.3 forward. The issue is each distro of Linux is vastly different and you have to spend an inordinate amount of time fixing rthings to get it to work. I need to figure out what gOS uses for dialup.
I am assuming that pppd is the tool for dialing in. and when I run it it gives me alot of ascii characters as if it trying to connect then it dumps me out. I do not mind a bit of a learning curve but to spend days upon days trying to dial in to the internet is a bit much.
I have posted a number of times in this forum trying to get some answers and maybe it's just that my os is so obscure.
I just need some help.
One question you can answer maybe is I downloaded Minicom from my XP computer as a .gz and now i need to install it onto the Linux machine how do you do it?
Indy

I hardly believe that: "Windows works out of the box". So you never needed to install a driver for your modem or graphics card? Right

One year and you ended up with gOS. Interesting...

I think I've missed your question. Maybe you want to rephrase that with less rant and with a more human-readable punctuation? That would be a REAL start.

I am assuming you mean you downloaded it as a tar.gz file?

I am not familiar with the Google Linux (gOS) distro so have no clue about it's package management, but assuming you downloaded a source tar file you, and the required tools for compiling are installed, you would first untar the file

and then chdir into the new directory. If there is a configuration script you would issue the command for that

then (or if no configure script)


To be perfectly honest I think you'd probably do better with a more popular and mainstream distro.

As for dialup, check out wvdial as I've found it to be a pretty easy dialer to work with.

Your distro should have some sort of package manager. It would be best to install packages using that when at all possible.

Masonm
Thanks for the info.
The problem I was encountering with other distros is they did not want to run my screen at the proper resolution. Usually tried to run it at 800x600.
I do have a package manager I will try that instead.
Is there any particular distro that you like better than any of the rest?
Thanks

Screen rez is just a matter of having the correct video driver installed. What video card does the machine use? If it's ATI or NVidia you just need to download and install the proper driver from the manufacturer's website and then make sure xorg.conf is properly configured for that. Piece of cake.



As for "which distro", I am a long time Slackware user but honestly most any well maintained/supported distro will do the job for you. I prefer the simplicity and ease of configuration of Slackware, along with the fact that the bulk of the Slack packages are as close to their original upstream form as possible.

Per wikipedia, gOS 3.0 is based on Ubuntu 8.04, so The Ubuntu documentation would probably help..

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Di...to/SetUpDialer


so is that the gBook you have ?

Hi,

Maybe you haven't been looking in the right places. 'Linux is Not Windows' is a good read.

You could use a LiveCD from 'The LiveCD List' to see what would fit you best.

I like Slackware and prefer it's simple approach that Patrick Volkerding has kept. The "KISS' approach of Slackware has a stable reputation.

The 'Slackware-Links' wiki has a lot of links that may help you now and in the future. More than just Slackware® links!

If you have the Live CD for gOS installed, you need to find out what version of linux is undelying
at the command line type $ cat /etc/issue or do uname -a that should tell you whether you have ubuntu 7.19 or 8.04 ( I am guessing Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron)

There is a support forum over on Google for GOS which might be better targeted to support you.
In any event your issue is a dialup modem driver for your modem to get it going in ubuntu.


Good luck with it!

What sort of dial-out are you attempting?

Are you using a built-in "software modem" or an external dial-up modem?

If you're using an internal modem, we have to identify the type of modem etc. and find out if you can install a driver for it. Software modems are a plague.

Looks like the tide is turning in your favor, but just in case: \http://groups.google.com/group/goslinux?hl=en&lnk=

To answer the previous posters question you are going to need to do something like:
or
one of those might reveal the dialup modem type and model

Whilst wiping the large blotches of egg from my face I must apologize for starting a firestorm.
After reading the posts from you guys I decided to give my Ubuntu 7.01 live CD another shot. I was able to play around and get my screen resolution workable.
I have installed ubuntu and am now running it.
I will try the hwinfo thing to see if I can determine my modem.
gOS is definately not for the faint of heart, too many missing pieces.
Ubuntu works much easier even the terminal window is easier to use.
You folks are very gracious and I appreciate it.
Indy