My first day using LINUX
 

Hello everybody, its great to finally be apart of the linux community! (even as a newbie =P). Before I start with my problem, let me give you a little history of my prior linux experience:

Around 1 year ago I decided to try out linux. I read (at the time) that mandrake was the best option, so I downloaded the latest version I could find, installed it no problem, and booted it up. Things were going well untill I hit a speedbump; my internet connection was not working (I use a USB connected cable modem; SB4100). Without the internet (for the life of me I couldnt get it working, even after reading a comphresensive guide of which I understood nothing) productivity came to a standstill. I couldnt read any guides, and I gave up the next day.

So today was round 2 : KirbyFan101 VS Linux:

I started up with KNOPPIX, hearing it was a great starting point.. Ran it, looked fantastic, I was excited. The 1st thing I did was run the onboard internet explorer (lmao, WinXP boy at heart here ><) Konqueror and WOW, the internet was working! I literally made a roar of triumph. With the internet, I could finally get some work done. However, there was a problem. KNOPPIX cant be installed on your HDD, and I wasnt going to settle for that. So, I downloaded a newbie distro called Mepis.

I ran the live cd for it (which also includes the installed) to give it a test run. Aside from being substantially crapper looking than KNOPPIX, the internet DIDNT WORK! AAAAAAAAAH! I sat down, and went to the old guide that I couldnt understand once again.

From a bunch of jibberish that a windows user could never hope to understand, I managed to figure out I needed to run a command: lsmod and search for "CDCEther" - apparently some sort of Communication Device Interface or something? Anyway, low and behold, KNOPPIX had it listed under the lsmod command, and Mepis didnt.

Screwy.

So now to my question. I need linux distro that I can use my Motorola SB4100 cable modem on USB connection with. Mepis didnt, and my bandwidth isnt infinate, so Im not going to DL distros blindly. If theres a way to get KNOPPIX to run off my HDD, then tell me :D . If not, please direct me to a more suited distro. I know NOTHING about linux, but im confident in my skills, as long as I have access to the internet to work my way along at my own pace, and not have to run through an overly complexing guide in order to set that up.

Thanks!

boot knoppix back up and run (in a terminal):

lsmod

look to see what driver is listed that is not listed in the other distro(s).

Knoppix can be installed to a hard drive, look here for that.

I had a 3com cable modem that ran through USB that I never could get to work ( I have no idea how many hours I wasted trying), ended up breaking down and buying a NIC (realtek 8139 based card) off ebay for $5 and its been working great ever since.

On your Mepis box, as root, try the following:

If that doesn't work, try this:
If you find it with the above command, cd to that directory, and insmod it again......

Also, insure that you have the usbcore and usb-ohci drivers loaded.
These are usually found in /lib/modules/KERNEL_VERSION$/kernel/drivers/usb

While you can do a hard-drive install of Knoppix (a tutorial was mentioned earlier) a MUCH better alternative would be to buy a $10 NIC...
Your connection will be much ore stable, easier to configure, and probably faster than with USB.

Well, I can say that Knoppix CAN be installed on your hd. Here's a nice HOWTO on how to do that. It's really nice to know that a distro like that with an awesome hardware support and recognition, where atleast I got everything working (almost) can be installed on your hd too.

svinka

lsmod just gives a list of currently loaded kernel modules. for simplicity, you can think of a kernel module more/less like a driver in this case. any distro can use any module, its just a question of whether the module has been compiled and the kernel has been instructed to use it.

anyway, for a very good reference, I recommend reading the Rute Users Guide - see ch. 42 in this case:

http://www.gnoppix.org/pages/rute/rute.html

welcome to LQ

:cool:

... agreeing with Genesee ...

You will be more likely/unlikely to get a particular piece of hardware to work depending on what kernel you have, rather than which distro.

For windows users, I would recommend trying Suse 9.1 personal (or 9.2 pro if you have the means of acquiring it) which has very good hardware support, or Fedora Core wich is very good also. Besides that, both of them have a lot of online help, which you are already apparently not afraid of. There are many other distro's which are very good as well.

Good luck, and welcome to the club!

Yeah, i'm a newbie, and i can say, that SuSE 9.2 Pro is really user friendly. Don't know about any other distros, haven't tried that many, but you'll find installation and everything else pretty easy with YaST. YOU makes updating your linux the easiest thing to do. I can definitely say, that hardware support of the new 9.2 is MUCH better, and SuSEPlugger makes it easier to see your whole "SuSEBox".

Now I don't say that other distros are not as good, I'm just saying that I agree ksun on the SuSE part. And since you have broadband, you might wanna consider installation over FTP, or maybe download the DVD image from one of SuSE's mirrors. I did it, and i'm pretty happy. So, just an opinion...

svinka

P.S. And sorry for posting the same how-to twice here, i didn't see it the first time... :D