Jeff wrote:
> Hi, everyone. I used Mandrake Linux on a PC about 5 years ago but had to
> give it up because I needed to use MS Office for work.
>
> Now I want to try Linux again, as a dual boot installation, on a Dell
> Inspiron 8100 laptop that already has XP Home SP-2 installed. I've not
> followed what is happening in the Linux world and am therefore not
> knowledgeable about the distributions available. Which would be a good
> distribution to use on this laptop?
>
> My needs are
> a) learning Linux
> b) useable software (MS Office replacements, gimp, dialup internet
> capability, support for networking with XP Pcs, etc.)
> c) Having easy configuration tools ("newbie style").
> d) Easy upgradeability as far as resolving dependencies automatically
>
> Thanks for any advice.
>
I've got Knoppix/Debian 3.8 Custom HDinstalled on my Inspiron 4100.
Pretty speedy on a 1.0 PIII with 384MB RAM. Everything works with
minimal configuration. Screen is up to 1152x864 after updating the
graphics driver (ATI Radeon Mobility 9700 64MB), YMMV on this as Dell do
love to change the graphics chips model on model (I know, I've got four
Dell laptops, they all use entirely different chips - one Radeon (on the
Inspiron), a GF4 MX440 (on a Latitude C840), an Intel Extreme (on a
Latitude C400) and a Rage 128 M3 (Latitude C610). Most of the time it's
even possible to activate the slave VGA connection so you can span
panels, clone, stretch or dualpane. Handy.

--
Cheers,

Jim

-begin sig-
http://www.dotware.co.uk |http://www.dotware-entertainment.co.uk
I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or
insanity, but they've always worked for me.
-end sig-

Thanks for replying.

Help me understand:

> I've got Knoppix/Debian 3.8 Custom HDinstalled on my Inspiron 4100.

Is this a flavor of Knoppix (I thought there was only one Knopix) or do you
mean you have 2 different distributions installated, Knoppix and also
Debian?

--

Jeff Stevens
Email address deliberately false to avoid spam
jeff@stevens.com



Jim wrote:
> Jeff wrote:
>> Hi, everyone. I used Mandrake Linux on a PC about 5 years ago but
>> had to give it up because I needed to use MS Office for work.
>>
>> Now I want to try Linux again, as a dual boot installation, on a Dell
>> Inspiron 8100 laptop that already has XP Home SP-2 installed. I've
>> not followed what is happening in the Linux world and am therefore
>> not knowledgeable about the distributions available. Which would be
>> a good distribution to use on this laptop?
>>
>> My needs are
>> a) learning Linux
>> b) useable software (MS Office replacements, gimp, dialup internet
>> capability, support for networking with XP Pcs, etc.)
>> c) Having easy configuration tools ("newbie style").
>> d) Easy upgradeability as far as resolving dependencies automatically
>>
>> Thanks for any advice.
>>
> I've got Knoppix/Debian 3.8 Custom HDinstalled on my Inspiron 4100.
> Pretty speedy on a 1.0 PIII with 384MB RAM. Everything works with
> minimal configuration. Screen is up to 1152x864 after updating the
> graphics driver (ATI Radeon Mobility 9700 64MB), YMMV on this as Dell
> do love to change the graphics chips model on model (I know, I've got
> four Dell laptops, they all use entirely different chips - one Radeon
> (on the Inspiron), a GF4 MX440 (on a Latitude C840), an Intel Extreme
> (on a Latitude C400) and a Rage 128 M3 (Latitude C610). Most of the
> time it's even possible to activate the slave VGA connection so you
> can span panels, clone, stretch or dualpane. Handy.

On Sat, 11 Jun 2005 12:37:46 -0400, Jeff wrote:

> Hi, everyone. I used Mandrake Linux on a PC about 5 years ago but had to
> give it up because I needed to use MS Office for work.
>
> Now I want to try Linux again, as a dual boot installation, on a Dell
> Inspiron 8100 laptop that already has XP Home SP-2 installed. I've not
> followed what is happening in the Linux world and am therefore not
> knowledgeable about the distributions available. Which would be a good
> distribution to use on this laptop?
>
> My needs are
> a) learning Linux
> b) useable software (MS Office replacements, gimp, dialup internet
> capability, support for networking with XP Pcs, etc.)
> c) Having easy configuration tools ("newbie style").
> d) Easy upgradeability as far as resolving dependencies automatically
>
> Thanks for any advice.

Mandrake is still a good choice but I prefer Fedora at the moment. FC4 is
due to be released on Monday, you might want to give that a try. The test
releases of FC4 look very promising, it feels noticeably quicker then FC3.

Jeff wrote:
> Thanks for replying.
>
> Help me understand:
>
>
>>I've got Knoppix/Debian 3.8 Custom HDinstalled on my Inspiron 4100.
>
>
> Is this a flavor of Knoppix (I thought there was only one Knopix) or do you
> mean you have 2 different distributions installated, Knoppix and also
> Debian?
>

Knoppix is a flavour of Debian. Knoppix/Debian is the state of Knoppix
being installed on the HD with a boot entry in the MBR. In this state,
Knoppix is fully capable of pulling packages from the Debian servers,
installing them... well, doing pretty much what a full Debian install
can do as regards the installation.

The wonderful thing about Knoppix in either CD boot or HD boot is that
it autodetects and autoconfigures /everything/ [on a Dell laptop {in my
experience}] so you shouldn't have any real issues with it.

--
Cheers,

Jim

-begin sig-
http://www.dotware.co.uk |http://www.dotware-entertainment.co.uk
I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or
insanity, but they've always worked for me.
-end sig-

Well, I have no answer but a question about dell inspiron 8100 and linux
mandrake 10. I really don't understand modem configuration. It seems
that the material is correctly plugin at boot but when I use the
configuration tool, it doesn't work ?

Thanks for any help,

Stéphane

On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 09:37:45 +0200, Stéphane Paris wrote:

> Well, I have no answer but a question about dell inspiron 8100 and linux
> mandrake 10. I really don't understand modem configuration. It seems
> that the material is correctly plugin at boot but when I use the
> configuration tool, it doesn't work ?
>
> Thanks for any help,
>
> Stéphane

Chances are that your modem is a Winmodem, all built in modems are
winmodems, and most winmodems don't work with Linux. If you still need to
use a modem get an external modem and make sure that it's a real modem.
Any serial port modem will work, I'm not sure if all USB modems are real
modems, you'll have to read the box. If your box doesn't have a serial
port then get a Keyspan USB to serial adapater (make sure it's a Keyspan,
the drivers for the Keyspans are built into the kernel, they are a very
Linux friendly company).

My Inspiron 8100 has a modem that does not seem to work under Linux. It is
a 3Com 56k V.90 Mini PCI Modem Any idea if there is a way to make these
work under a Debian based (Mepis) distribution?

Thanks.

--

Jeff Stevens
Email address deliberately false to avoid spam
jeff@stevens.com


"Dances With Crows" wrote in message
news:slrndb32h3.ifm.danSPANceswitTRAPhcrows@samant ha.crow202.dyndns.org...
> On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 08:03:57 -0400, General Schvantzkoph staggered into
> the Black Sun and said:
>> On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 09:37:45 +0200, Stéphane Paris wrote:
>>> Well, I have no answer but a question about dell inspiron 8100 and
>>> linux mandrake 10. I really don't understand modem configuration. It
>>> seems that the material is correctly plugin at boot but when I use
>>> the configuration tool, it doesn't work ?
>> Chances are that your modem is a Winmodem, all built in modems are
>> winmodems, and most winmodems don't work with Linux.
>
> A quick look at http://www.ironorchid.com/jjinux/inspiron_laptop/ says
> that the Insipron 8100 has a Lucent LoseModem. Those are supported.
> Check with "lspci | grep Lucent". Stéphane, go to
> http://www.linmodems.org/ and follow the directions for Lucent. There
> might even be a Mandrake 10 RPM for the 2 evil binary-only modules you
> have to install. Do that, then do:
>
> modprobe lt_modem
> modprobe lt_serial
>
> ...point your kppp or whatever at /dev/ttyLT0 or make a symlink from
> /dev/modem that points at /dev/ttyLT0 .
>
>> get an external modem and make sure that it's a real modem.
>
> External modems are A) expensive B) not nearly as portable. FWIW, the
> last 2 laptops I've owned (Thinkpad 600X, Thinkpad A22p) have had Lucent
> LoseModems, and I've never had any problems with them on the rare
> occasions when I'm somewhere without a real Net connection.
>
>> I'm not sure if all USB modems are real modems,
>
> Some are, some aren't. It's not worth it to use USB if there's already
> a Lucent LoseModem built into the laptop. HTH,
>
> --
> Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to
> see
> Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin / mail: TRAP + SPAN don't belong
> http://www.brainbench.com / Hire me!
> -----------------------------/ http://crow202.dyndns.org/~mhgraham/resume