2006-02-02, 03:09 PM
Hello:
I am going to install CentOS at home today on an old IBM Thinkpad 570E. I am a Windows user so please do not pounce on my very basic questions below. Just had a few questions for gurus here:
1. The installation *.iso files -- do I just copy the file as is to a CD, or should I unzip (or un-rar) this file first, and copy the files inside?
2. During install, will my wireless card be detected automatically? It did get recognized when I had Windows XP before, but it failed on FreeBSD. (I was trying to be cool, installing FreeBSD, but the system is for engineering dweebs with thick glasses!)
3. If I install KDE during the installation, can I skip X-Windows (X.org)? I wonder if it will install some useful things, or can I leave it out?
4. I want to use my computer ONLY for CentOS. Given this, how should I partition the system. There doesn't seem to be any screenshot which shows an options for noobs like me, something like, "Use recommended default partitions to use whole machine for Linux". Would appreciate some recommended partition guide. I am new to this.
5. Will the default CentOS firewall be enough, or will I need something like SmoothWall -- [/url][url=http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=5897]http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=5897 ?
6. I want to use my CentOS laptop as a webserver with Apache, PHP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, sendmail, and such. And I want to access it from my Windows XP machine to develop stuff. I use a DSL and I already have a NAT-type setup (accessing 192.x.x. domains). I would appreciate any ideas of how I can connect the two machines, wirelessly. Thanks!
.ep
Also, one additional question: how do I see CDs in CentOS? Will they show up in a file explorer type format?