Other than that, having someone hold your hand the first time is always a good idea. You would have done the same the first time you installed Windows (if you ever have even).
My .00002c worth.
Cheers
Jason
Ralph Stoker wrote:
Hi Mike,
I'm one and a half steps ahead of you in terms of being a newbie to Linux. I've just installed Mandrake 9.1 onto my Acer desknote 2.66Ghz, 80GB, 1GB ram Intel4 chip PC.
It wasn't the 'breeze' I thought it would be as the distro seemed to have some problems identifying components and kept hanging up ('lost interrupt')when first installing. I had to get Geoff Palmer from PC World (who sold me the 3 CD distro for $25) to come up with the command line 'noapi' or similar after hitting F1 on bootup... (no idea what it did!) - things started to load OK then. After following the GUI install instructions I came to the partitioning part. The Drake partitioning tool worked perfectly for my NTFS hard drive and it was simply a case of useing the spare disc space in my windows partition (default option) and shrinking the windows partition down to a more manageable size. NOTE: Backup any important data first and carry out a hard drive scan and de-frag prior to installing Mandrake.
My 'half' step is installing a modem driver. Typically my modem is a 'half-breed' and a pukka driver is not due out till 'fall' this year. I've downladed a possible driver but so far been unable to load it. This has really put the kaibosh on the Linux for me at the moment. I went (for the first time) to the CLUG last Monday in the hope of meeting people who might 'have a clue' as to how to fix things. The overview of Linux was very intersting but it would seem i really need an 'installfest' - my advice would be that if you are about to jump into Linux for the first time perhaps it would be a good idea to hold back till the guys and girls at CLUG hold their next 'installfest'...I've found that it makes a BIG difference being able to talk to someone when trying to learn something totally new...
I've no idea when the next 'fest' will be...soon I hope...does anyone out there know?
Ralph
----- Original Message ----- From: "michael - (mike) brooker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2003 1:14 PM Subject: LINUX QUESTIONS
Hi, As yet I am not a LINUX user. First I want to find out the best (read easiest) format to use, eg. REDHAT, X, or whatever.
So, will someone please point me in the right direction? Where do I download the free Linux? Is there a site with an internet download? Or do I need to download set-up discs? I'm running win98 on a celeron chip. I have a 40 gig HDD, and 128 RAM - and limited computer intelligence. Well, not too low!
Thanks for any help.
mike brooker
