Well, from what I have played around with in the past the only distros that I tested for myself were: RH, Knoppix, Linspire/Lindows, Mandrake, CL, FC. Out of all of these distros I seemed more interested in Mandrake, Knoppix, and RH which I hear now is FC. (AFAIK). So from your opinion and experience, what would be the best for a beginner. Another problem I have had is getting the drivers to work with my hardware. Im sure everyones had this problem :P. I just built a new computer, so hopefully you can lead me in a right direction.

 

MSI Neo4 Platinum SLi Dual Channel Motherboard

MSI GeForce NX 6600GT SLi

Kingston HyperX 512DDR Dual Channel

Maxtor 7500RPM 160GB

AMD 64 Athlon 2.0GHz (939)

Enermax 550W SLi PSU

Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu LED CPU Cooler

Logitech MX1000 Laser Mouse

 

I truly hope these specs help. :)

-uncle.b-

here's my pointers on distros (completely personal opinion)

 

mandrake - now called mandravia - in all honesty this isn't a good distro, lots use it but..

redhat - money money money, dont both paying for linux :)

fedora - this is the community release of redhat, its free and possibly the best for noobs

linspire/lindows - *yawn* its ok, but nothing special (based on debian)

knoppix - the one and ONLY cd distro imho, based on debian

gentoo - not really for noobs, but a great system with its powerful portage system

debian - a great system, with the single best package management util (apt).. apt is available in fc too

 

OK, so.. I'd say this, want a system with a complete noob friendly appeal go for fedora (fc), want a system with more of a power user feel chose debian, want a system with experience and power in mind gentoo.

 

Drivers where an issue before with linux, but recently more and more hardware is supported out of the box, I'll take a leap and say that your hardware will be supported..

 

also fedora+ati chipset has normally been a good combo from what i understand

 

btw amd64! woot

Heh yeah the AMD64 does me good, I love it. Its awsome. Ok so mainly just stick with FC. I sure hope this helps me. Sometime this week Im going to swap out the router with the adapter and begin installing FC. I appreciate the help. I'll be back here if I need any help :)

Well it is 7:30am and im burning each fedora cd hopefully i'll begin installation tonight or tomorrow. I may need your support, so i'll contact your from my laptop if I need anything :)

The install was a success, although I still cant get a connection, because of my wireless adapter. Its the linksys usb 2.6 adapter. So I just tried installing these drivers here [/url][url=http://atmelwlandriver.sourceforge.net/news.html]http://atmelwlandriver.sourceforge.net/news.html. And I dont understand one thing about installing anything in Linux. Now I could really use the support, especially for this task, because I would like to get connected using my adapter. :)

Quote:The install was a success, although I still cant get a connection, because of my wireless adapter. Its the linksys usb 2.6 adapter. So I just tried installing these drivers here [/url]http://atmelwlandriver.sourceforge.net/news.html. And I dont understand one thing about installing anything in Linux. Now I could really use the support, especially for this task, because I would like to get connected using my adapter.  :)

[url=<___base_url___>/topic/1680-custom-built-support/?do=findComment&comment=5888]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

hey, ok well to use that driver you will need to install and compile the kernel (can be a bit daunting to a noob)... First you will need to install the kernel source (Fedora will have an rpm) and then you will need to patch the kernel source with the new drivers. Then you will need to make and install the kernel.

 

an easier method for you might be to install ndiswrapper

Alright success on installing ndiswrapper, but then after installation it said, Must reinstall windows drivers, if driver were installed before. Dunno what this means. Also I still dont understand anything when you said installing the source from the rpm. :P

Quote:Alright success on installing ndiswrapper, but then after installation it said, Must reinstall windows drivers, if driver were installed before. Dunno what this means. Also I still dont understand anything when you said installing the source from the rpm.  :P

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

they have a documentation page there that explains the method:

install windows drivers

 

as for the source from an rpm.. well you wont need to if this works :)

 

This is the page for Fedora but its almost way to messy to read :(

Ok well I got the drivers from my system32\drivers folder and they said they get the inf and sys file. well the only files that are making it work is an .out and sys file, no inf. so it said load the driver: ndiswrapper -l ''filename.inf''. after execing this, it gave "Command not found" What I did before I installed this. the ndis folder is on my desktop, and I went to the terminal and directed my self to the desktop and installed the ndis from my desktop. im not even sure if i did this right. like putting the ndis in to a certain folder before i install it. Wow im so lost.