Hullo,
I am new to Linux but would really like to use it for everything that I
need. However, I have attempted various Linux installations but have always
had something "left out" or not working properly. Please help so that I can
make the most of the Linux experience.
I have a Zenith Pentium II MMX @350Mhz with 98 MB ram. The monitor is a TVM
14" LR4DC monitor capable of going up to 1024x768. The machine has an SiS
6326 AGP graphics card. The mouse is a 2-button PS2 mouse. An HP Deskjet 600
printer is connected to LPT1. The machine has two hard disks - one with
Win98 and the other (20 GB for linux). It also has a sound card whose
settings are reported as follows by Win98 under sound video and game
controllers (device manager):
Essolo 1 Dos Emulation
Essolo 1 PCI Audio Drive
Gameport Joystick
Gameport Joystick
Yamaha Opl-3Sax WDM driver
Wave device for Voice Modem.
I have an internal modem card (winmodem) US Robotics 56K Voice win. This
does not work with Linux. However, I also have a Multi-tech MT2834ZDX
external modem fitted on COM2.
I am describing below various experiences:
1. The only linux version which has given me complete functionality and has
remained stable is Caldera Open Linux 2.4 eDesktop (bundled with a book). I
installed it in VESA mode for minimum trouble. This has been able to detect
my sound card at setup. It has also been able to configure my external modem
without a hitch and get me internet connectivity. The printer works fine.
X-windows needed some adjustment particularly for the video display, but
having done that, it gives me no trouble now. I have installed the alsa
driver and sound problems (whatever there were) seem to have got settled.
However, the problem is that Col2.4 comes with KDE, which is an older
version of the K-desktop. As a result several applications such as K0ffice
etc. are ruled out.
2. The other linux version I have tried is Caldera open Linux 3.1
workstation which came on a PCQuest CD last year. This has KDE-2. However,
this creates fundamental instabilities with the graphical UI. Standard
installations did not work out. Everything would suddenly freeze in the
middle of working. Nothing would move, the machine became completely immune
to any input. Realising that this could be due to acceleration problems
caused by the graphics card, I tried setting the "noaccel" option in
XF86Config. It did not work. So I did a VESA install (upgrading over Col2.4)
and copied my Caldera Open Linux2.4 XF86Config settings complete wirh
options "noaccel" etc. For a while Col3.1 worked fine but then it froze
again.
Nor was it able to detect my external modem (multi-tech). I could see the
lights on the modem come on but Col reported that there was no modem.
Manually configuring one did not lead to any results either. Sound will not
play, although essolo1 was detected during setup. I tried setting up by
disabling PnP aware OS settings in Bios but failed.
How can I work around this problem?
3. I installed Red Hat Linux 7.1 which I got along with a book. This is the
only linux distribution which gave me no trouble with setting up the
graphics display. However, RH dial-up networking was unable to detect my
external modem. It did probe around, modem lights blinked but to no avail. I
set the modem up manually but failed. The funny thing is that the KsaferPPP
app was able to detect my modem and report the correct settings etc.but was
unable to dial up.
Finally sound was detected by RHL as Opl-3Sax sound board. The sound was
muted to say the least. No amount of sndconfig yielded any results (even
though I copied all the win98 dma, irq settings etc.)
Is there a way out which can hel me take advantage of the latest and the
best that linux has to offer?
I would really appreciate answers to all these questions.
Regards
Pramathesh Ambasta
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