Very Computer

I have a Lucent Win Modem - Does that mean I can't use it while I attempt to
install 'n learn Linux?
God I hope I didn't sound stupid with that question but since it is a
"Win"modem so it is an obvious question. I'll check the Lucent site in a
minit. I have only just started researching the "howto" aspects of all this?
I am downloading the free Corel linux 2.2 and wordperfect8 as I write this.
If someone would be so kind as to suggest other "necessary" software or
utils I should obtain before taking the plunge it would be greatly
appreciated. Links to where it is located too if ya got them handy. I
especially prefer the FREE stuff, duh.
If it matters I have a P2 Celeron with 128 Megs ram running NT 5 oops I mean
Win 2000 pro and a spare IDE 1.6 gig HD (NTFS formatted) which will be the
linux learning drive. I DO NOT have any repartioning or formatting software
such as partition magic. I have a sneaky feeling I'm going to need something
like that but I hope not.
What I want to be able to do right off the bat:
 1 - Access the internet ie: my news, mail, web, and ftp (Upload/Download)
servers so I'm not cut off from help incase I mess up my system really
badly.
 2 - Use my sound card (Creative Ensoniq PCI 64 - 1370) to play/record wav
files. Yes I will check their site for drivers. Hey, does linux even use
drivers? Ya, I would guess it does.
 3 - Access any files I create with Linux using Win 2000 and visa versa. All
drives are currently NTFS format so that may be a problem I'm not sure.

OK well that's enough stupid questions for now. Cheers!

Soundman Doug
http://music.sudbury.net

Congrats, I actually spent the weekend playing with RH 6.1 and trying
out all the configs.  So I know what you're feeling.  I'd recommend
getting a copy of O'Reilly's Running Linux, 3rd Edition.

I won't be able to address all your questions, but I may be helpful on
the sound card one, since I have an Ensoniq ES1370 too and getting it to
work took some extra effort and research.

Quote:> I have a Lucent Win Modem - Does that mean I can't use it while I
attempt to
> install 'n learn Linux?
> God I hope I didn't sound stupid with that question but since it is a
> "Win"modem so it is an obvious question. I'll check the Lucent site in
a
> minit. I have only just started researching the "howto" aspects of all
this?
> I am downloading the free Corel linux 2.2 and wordperfect8 as I write

this.

If you don't enjoy a long download on your analog modem, you might want
to consider buying a distribution from Cheapbytes (www.cheapbytes.com)
which is $1.99 per disc (plus $5.00 for s/h).  I get all my discs this
way, even though I have a DSL line now.

Quote:> If someone would be so kind as to suggest other "necessary" software
or
> utils I should obtain before taking the plunge it would be greatly
> appreciated. Links to where it is located too if ya got them handy. I
> especially prefer the FREE stuff, duh.
> If it matters I have a P2 Celeron with 128 Megs ram running NT 5 oops
I mean
> Win 2000 pro and a spare IDE 1.6 gig HD (NTFS formatted) which will be
the
> linux learning drive. I DO NOT have any repartioning or formatting
software
> such as partition magic. I have a sneaky feeling I'm going to need
something
> like that but I hope not.
> What I want to be able to do right off the bat:
>  1 - Access the internet ie: my news, mail, web, and ftp
(Upload/Download)
> servers so I'm not cut off from help incase I mess up my system really
> badly.
>  2 - Use my sound card (Creative Ensoniq PCI 64 - 1370) to play/record
wav
> files. Yes I will check their site for drivers. Hey, does linux even
use
> drivers? Ya, I would guess it does.

RH6.1 came with kernel 2.2.12-20, and it had sound card support (as a
loadable modules, es1370.o).  There are a couple of things I had to
modify to get the ES1370 working with RH6.1, this may or may not apply
to you:

1. in "/etc/conf.modules" add the entries "alias sound es1370" and
"alias midi es1370"
2. and if you are running KDE, in "/etc/sysconfig/" create a file named
"sound" with the contents "CARDTYPE=3Des1370"

The reason for #1 is RH loaded the "sound.o" module by default, which
didn't work with the ES1370.  But the system sounds in KDE still won't
work unless you also do #2 (this took me forever to figure out since KDE
actually looked worst after I finished with #1, with the Sound
information missing and no /proc/sound process.

Quote:>  3 - Access any files I create with Linux using Win 2000 and visa
versa. All
> drives are currently NTFS format so that may be a problem I'm not

sure.

You might need to reformat a partition or two to have native Linux
partitions (a / and a SWAP partition).

Quote:

> OK well that's enough stupid questions for now. Cheers!

The Running Linux book is great for answer a lot of my stupid
questions.  I highly recommended.

Quote:> Soundman Doug
> http://music.sudbury.net

Regards,

Jimmy

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

It depends. Check out the "LinModem" site at
http://www.o2.net/~gromitkc/winmodem.html

Quote:> God I hope I didn't sound stupid with that question

Not stupid. It's a good question to ask _before_ getting to far into
an install. <g>

Quote:> but since it is a
> "Win"modem so it is an obvious question.

If it's a "Win" anything, it's likely not to work in Linux (because
the manufacturer has deliberately chosen _not_ to support Linux with
their software drivers).

Quote:> I'll check the Lucent site in a
> minit. I have only just started researching the "howto" aspects of all this?

As I said, chech the LinModem site.

Quote:> I am downloading the free Corel linux 2.2 and wordperfect8 as I write this.
> If someone would be so kind as to suggest other "necessary" software or
> utils I should obtain before taking the plunge it would be greatly
> appreciated. Links to where it is located too if ya got them handy. I
> especially prefer the FREE stuff, duh.

Corel Linux should come with most of the usefull packages.
You can check out Freshmeat (http://www.freshmeat.net/) for software,
as well as the Free Software Foundation, and Tucows.

Quote:> If it matters I have a P2 Celeron with 128 Megs ram running NT 5 oops I mean
> Win 2000 pro and a spare IDE 1.6 gig HD (NTFS formatted) which will be the
> linux learning drive. I DO NOT have any repartioning or formatting software
> such as partition magic. I have a sneaky feeling I'm going to need something
> like that but I hope not.

If you have a whole drive to dedicate to Linux, then the tools that
come with Linux should be adequate to the setup task.

Quote:> What I want to be able to do right off the bat:
>  1 - Access the internet ie: my news, mail, web, and ftp (Upload/Download)
> servers so I'm not cut off from help incase I mess up my system really
> badly.

Easy.

Quote:>  2 - Use my sound card (Creative Ensoniq PCI 64 - 1370) to play/record wav
> files. Yes I will check their site for drivers. Hey, does linux even use
> drivers? Ya, I would guess it does.

Might be harder. Sound cards are like WinModems; most drivers are
MSWindows only, although Creative Labs has embraced Linux recently and
there are probably drivers for most of the Creative products.

Quote:>  3 - Access any files I create with Linux using Win 2000 and visa versa. All
> drives are currently NTFS format so that may be a problem I'm not sure.

Harder still.
NTFS support in Linux is experimental, which means that if it erases
your NTFS filesystem then that's life. NT (OTOH) doesn't have native
support for the Linux partitiontype, but there are 'Explorer'-like
tools around that provide some window. If exchanging files is your
goal, break a bit of your harddisk space off, and make it into a MSDOS
or FAT partition; both Linux and Win2K can access files on such a
partition.

Quote:> OK well that's enough stupid questions for now. Cheers!

Skoal!

Quote:> Soundman Doug
> http://music.sudbury.net

--
Lew Pitcher

Master Codewright and JOAT-in-training

If I format the drive I am devoting solely to linux in fat ot fat32 then I
can install linux on that? Linux will run of FAT?
--
Soundman Doug
http://music.sudbury.net

Quote:> If I format the drive I am devoting solely to linux in fat ot fat32 then I
> can install linux on that? Linux will run of FAT?

Theoretically, yes. Practically, it's an ugly crutch that just slows you
down. And there's no reason: Linux comes with its own filesystem that's
much better than FAT. Of course, you can also read and write FAT
filesystems with it, but for the actual Linux system use the default ext2.

--
Michael "Brazil" Borgwardt --- Member of #WASHU# and Her would-be guinea-pig.
        Untiring defender of Washu-chan, Asuka-chan and Elektra-chan.
   A Homepage for Elektra: http://www.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/~borgward/
     ANT - Animeclub fuer Deutschland: http://www.anime.no.tomodachi.de/
--------------- Let`s shake the dew off this lily, shall we ? ---------------