You might want to check the PCMCiA howto (www.linuxdoc.org) to make sure that your laptop has cards which are supported. I was installing Debian on a friend's laptop, and while it detected the floppy and cd drives without problems, it didn't detect the PCMCIA modem and NIC. It's also possible that I missed something in the install. Chris On Tue, 17 Oct 2000, Kirk Wood wrote: > I will attempt to address a number of issues you have brought up: > > 1. Hardware detection: Nearly every distribution can detect > hardware. The differences come down to configuration methods and placement > of files. The other difference is installation of pre-packaged > bianaries. (One other note, I would recomend not I repeat not going with > RedHat 7 as there could be some compatibility problems with libraries and > why invite such potential problems starting out?) > > 2. Booting from CD, or dealing with posible floppy, CD swap problems. If > you have access to a CDROM burner, you can make your own bootable CD that > uses the correct kernel. If this isn't an option, then you will want to > select either Debian or Slackware. Debian allows downloading most of the > files. Slackware is laid out in such a manner that installing most things > from floppy is doable. (Though it will mean a lot of floppys going through > the drive.) > > 3. Selecting a distribution because your ISP uses it makes no > sense. Having said that, I think Debian can give you all the benifits of > RedHat and a whole lot more. First, you can install a version of RPM that > will install RPMs without problem (though it is not the recomended means > as that doesn't update the dpkg database). Second, you can install > linuxconf the main program for administering your machine. This is a great > program and I highly recomend it. You can add users, setup your network, > and a whole lot more. For ease of administration I haven't found anything > that beats Linuxconf. While RedHat came out with it, thanks to GPL you can > easily add it to Debian. (And the package is ready to go.) > > The latest Debian will allow you to accept a default install that sets up > most things needed. It finds PCMCIA if you have it (and removes it if you > don't). You can easily install it using a PPP acount if you can't bot a > floppy then mount a CD. > > > ======= > Kirk Wood > Cpt.Kirk at 1tree.net > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >
