I just installed Mandrake 8.1 on a second partion and have a boot-up choice of windows (98SE) and linux. Windows was setup on the primary part with everything working fine, then I installed the Linux.

During the install, I wasn't promped for drivers.....How does linux use drivers?

Basicly I have a Linksys router that assigns IP's at boot up.

My linux box will not pick up the IP address......

I know these are all dumb questions, but I've never used linux and no body I know does either.....so I'm trying to teach myself

I'm gonna pick up a book next payday.


Thanks so much

Driver are built in to the kernel or installed as modules, the Mandrake install process invisibly auto detects your hardware IIRC.

As for the networking, Mandrake probably has a config tool for it in drakconf, you probably want to configure DHCP

Yeah, I want to setup using DHCP, do I just type that in the command field?

You could try running linuxconf and then in networking tell your NIC to use DHCP, then restart the box.

linuxconf is no longer installed by default, buggy and unstable.

No typing DHCP at the command won't do anything. You may want to check out some online documentation at www.linuxdoc.org , maybe the ethernet howto . Not totally for sure or not but you could try using drakconf to configure your network like dorward suggested earlier, if you choose to use a gui interface instead of manually configuring your ethernet.

Thanks for all the suggestions....I'm at work now and will try them when I get home

That HowTo is a great help, thanks Tricky

Should be able to use the Mandrake Control Center to configure your internet connection. Should you have to re-install, be sure to use the expert instead of the recommended install.