distro decision....
 

Hi. I own a 'generic laptop' with a smartlink dialup modem and a usb rt73 wireless dongle that I'd like to use. which distro will run all multimedia codecs, plus flash 9 and as well, run the above devices.. big order I know, but I'm up to my ninth linux distro and not one of them does all of the above successfully with minimum hassle. suggestions anyone?

Thanks, Al.

Probably nothing will work with a laptop winmodem, and "rt73" http://wwwu.uni-klu.ac.at/agebhard/WUSB54GC
for Debian drivers. Try Debian Etch, You'll need the entire DVD. When you boot into Debian, launch a terminal, such as gnome terminal, and in the directory with the drivers for you usb dongles, which I gave you the link to above, type:

dpkg -i <package-name>.deb, and install both packages. You can also install the dongle drivers from a CD. If you do it from a CD, you need to mount the CD. With the CD in the drive:

su
root-password
mkdir /media/cdrom1
mount /dev/hdc /media/cdrom1
cd /media/cdrom1
dpkg -i <package-name>.deb

Edit:

/etc/network/interfaces

With:

nano /etc/network/interfaces

and add:

iface eth0 inet dhcp

Save the file with:

ctrl+o
ctrl+x

Then, do:

ifup eth0

and you should be networked.

did u tried PCLinuOS?
it plays most of the multimedia codecs out of the box.

but the smartlink modem driver is in doubt.
check in linmodems.org

flash 9? still in question.

u can try ubuntu too.

Dont frustate if linux wont work out of the box.
it is made by people.
made by only public.

The hardware vendors now only starting to give linux drivers.
So we have to wait until some public write drivers or the company provides the drivers.



keep hacking.
T.Shrinivasan.

I'd try Ubuntu, its the one distro I've gotten all my hardware to work. Go buy some blank DVD's/CD's, depending on the laptops capabilities and start downloading some ISOs. I'd personally stay away from the "retail" versions of Linux, but thats just my opinion. Mandriva, Susesoft(;)), and especially Linspire (I personally wouldn't use Freespire either, its SLOW). Xandros is a halfway decent retail version, if you want to go that route.

I'd probably try Ubuntu 6.10 and Fedora Core 6 as my first two. Both have worked quite well for me, but I'd give the edge to Ubuntu. The good thing about Ubuntu, is you can run it as a Live version(from the CD/DVD, w/o installing). This will enable you to test your hardware, etc. Lots of Ubuntu wiki's, instructional pages, packages available, etc. Just makes Ubuntu easy to use. I have flash 9 and have no problems. If you follow the installation wiki, installing w32codecs and DVD playback is easy as can be. Or you can use Automatix, which will install quite a few different programs with just one click(media/dvd codecs among them)

Automatix
http://getautomatix.com/wiki/index.p...e=Installation

Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy wiki
http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Edgy

Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy
http://www.ubuntu.com/products/GetUb...currentrelease

I'd stick with the 32bit i386 version if I were you.

IGF