Hi,

I'm looking for a bit of inspiration here.

As a long time Windows 98 user I have been looking for an alternative to Windows for a long time, and i thought that Suse 9.0 would be the answer.

However, since my only familiarity with Unix systems is basic commands like pwd, ls, su i am having a hard time of it to say the least.

First, Linux will *NOT* detect my sound card. I know the problem. It's looking for a PnP device, but my card is ISA. I know there is a tick box to disable PnP detection, but i can't find it again. The Control centre menu is too complicated, and all i get from Suse is 'Give us your registration number'. Well, i got the CD's from a friend so i'm not registered, therefore no help!

Second, 3D support for my graphics card is not enabled. It tells me to visit Nvidias web site, which i've done, and down loaded the readme's, and the .run file, but the readme might as well be in Martian.

Example from readme :

The nvidia installer does not work as long as a Xserver is still
running and the nvidia kernel module is still loaded. Therefore
please boot into runlevel 3 by specifying "3" as kernel boot
option or switch to runlevel 3 ("init 3") and unload the kernel
module ("rmmod nvidia") before running the nvidia installer.

To a 'normal' windows user this is a big *huh?*

Third, Linux will *NOT* detect my DSL modem. I found an article on this on this site, but again the installation instructions are impossible to follow. Some things need root privilages, the x86config file needs to be edited manually etc, etc. What the hell is an X86config file, where do i find it, and why does it need to be edited?

The list goes on and on, but the basic point is Linux is *NOT* an 'Out of the Box', 'Run first time' package yet.

I have spent a week trying to get it installed. I would love to use it instead of Windows, but to the average Windows User it is impossible to setup.

I do not want to give up however. If anyone can point me at a very, very, very, very basic guide to linux i would appreciate it. Just understanding the file system has been a challenge :

/usr /etc /media - all *huh?* what does it mean?

So, final word - **** HHHHEEEEELLLLLPPPPP *****

Cheers,

Greebo

I don't have as much experience with SuSE as I do Red Hat. But its a pay-for support service, so you are stuck there. I would strongly recommend that you download the ISO images for Fedora and try that, it seems to be better for Windows users, it has better support for devices, but if you are still using ISA hardware you are making a rod for your own back. But there is tons of help for Fedora in the newsgroups.

I apreciate that it loses you a week of work on the SuSE, but that distro is really aimed at the enterprise who will pay for support, especially since Novell bought it.

Hope this helps

I agree with what you say about the ISA device. However, i did get it working at one time (when i found this tick box), but had to re-install and since then i can't find the tick box again!

But the problems with the DSL modem are really hacking me off. Also, I have an USB camera, and a digital Canon camera, that it won't detect either.

So much fun!

So, to summarise :

DSL USB Modem - Will not detect.
ISA Sound Card - There is a tick box to disable PnP detect, but i can't find it.
USB Web Cam - Not detected.
Canon Digital Camera - Not detected.
Suse support (supposed to be free for basic questions) - Useless.

Thanks for the comments. I'll have a look at Fedora as well.

Cheers,

Greebo

Can it be detected through cat?

This will isolate it whether its hardware or just a driver kind of thing.

have you thought about lwindows (linux running inside windows)?

if you're still having problems with installing your nvidia drivers, there's a HOWTO for SuSE users here. Basically, you need to run the command (in a terminal) 'init 3' as root ('su' then your root password) to shut down the X server in order to install the drivers. I remember using SuSE and I don't think you need to install the kernel thingy, the program downloads it for you, but I could be wrong.

Personally, I cannot offer help. Although, I would like to say: Keep at it, man! Have you thought about trying Mandrake? Easiest distro to setup, since virtually everything is setup for you. :>

Don't give up!

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." -- Winston Churchill

I started using linux about a month ago. I tried over 10 distros and finally settled with Mandrake because it's easier to use for newbies than any other distro I've ever seen. (I'm not telling you to Mandrake here.) I had to install three times before I got everything working right. I did do some really really stupid things as I didn't know what I suppose to do. The point is once you get it working you can't live without it.

Kill the x server, su to root and run 'sh NVIDA....bin' so that you type the right file name for the gpu driver and it will load up and handle everything for you. Its very easy.

if ya want my advise, just get a bare distro that only has a terminal, that way u can compile xfree86 yourself and learn about what it all means (btw xfree86 is the free verson of the x server (xserver) for unix, its what givs you a grafical interfase,

/etc this is were most config files go, altho sometimes they go to /lib
/lib these are were a bunch of librarys are, programs can call these and share it between programs making file sizes smaller
/bin these are were all of your systems programs go /usr/bin /usr/local/bin and such are also alternatives (look at the PATH varable to see)
/sbin like /bin only this one usualy is only acessable by user 0, or at elast not alowed to be opened by regualr usuers, it has progrmas that help run a system (fiel system stuff, modules loading, shutdown ,etc)
/media i guess its ere u put ur files
/share a munch of mostly ussless garbage (altho some stuff in it is needed) , its usualy used to store config/extended files for programs, basicly whatever a programs wnats to put in here goes in here)
/var usualy keeps a munch of system logs and some other stuff that u dont need to wory about (just logs, and logs, and logs of all kinds of varities)

and that isa thing, just recompile a kernel with the alsa sound drivers, and remeber to have isa pnp suport under isa suport, thats what i did(actualy i had to comp0ile my own kernel cuse my distro dont come with one, lol) and it works fine it says

If you need ( or would appreciate ) excellent documentation that will have you running Linux in no time, take a look at Gentoo. Not only does the install doc help you every step of the way, you will know much more than you did once the install is complete. Just a thought.

www.gentoo.org

Don't give up. That is exactly what some larger companies want you to do for thier benefit, not yours.

Did you try Knoppix? http://knoppix.org

Knoppix would be too simple to somone who want to use a desktop in regular basis. Who would want to run off RAM while it is completely possible to install a much better high tech distro on the hard drive. If you are really really stuck and tired of trying to install stuff on the hard drive, may be you can look for a live distro to run off the ram like "Mandrake Move". I suggest Mandrake Move because unlike Damn Small, and Knoppix, Mandrake Move is a complete live distro, that gives you almost all the possibilities of real Mandrake Linux. Also you dont have to configure a thing. In my opinion, it detects and configure your hardware better than Windows.
Everything would be so easy. No editing configuration files and easy easy easy. But in the other hand, you won't learn a thing, and no fun messing with configuration files and stuff. Therefore I don't recoment it to you if you really want to learn more about linux .

whoa majorly disagree on the gentoo


thats a linux distro that takes timeee and takes linux expierence, at least in my case i :heart: gentoo, but wouldn't recomend it to a n00b

what i would recomend is libranet, its a simple install, just toss the cd in and 20 minutes later you got yourself a linux distro to mess with... download it free at libranet.org

Actually you can load Knoppix to your harddrive.