Re: for what it's worth (re: To the Debian Project...)
On Sun, 19 Sep 1999, John Miskinis wrote:
> I have only recently begun to "play" with linux, and have no
> knowledge of how other distributions are setup. I am also
> not familiar with the history or overall goals of debian.
>
> I read great things about debian, and chose it, not knowing what
> to expect. Perhaps the platform I am using (Thinkpad 560) is
> making things overly complex, and my recent frustrations are to
> be expected, and are warranted.
>
> If anybody is touting this as an "out of the box solution", then
> they must have installed it on a "more standard" PC or other platform,
> and thus achieved success without "hassles".
Laptops are anything but standard ... but the problem can be reduced to
1) compiling the kernel with the right options
2) tweak the files in /etc/modutils and run update-modules to get
for example sound modules loaded automaticaly
3) re-compiling the pcmcia-cs and configuring /etc/pcmcia/config.opts
4) finding the right XServer and settings, best search the WWW.
OK, and therefore you will need some knowlege, but you will find it on the
net. And it is independent of which distro you use.
> I thought it would be much easier to get linux up and running taking
> advantage of the hardware in my machine. I have been able to get
> it running in the last few weeks, with X Windows, and running quite
> well. As my CDROM (PCMCIA-based) could not be seen, it took a LOT
> of "mucking around" and I even trashed my system many times.
This might be tricky...
> Over the last few days I have taken on the challenge of trying to
> get APM, SOUND, and SCSI support, with nothing but troubles and
> confusion. As much as I hate to admit this, Windows 95 installed
> very easily. If nothing else, MS has done great in this area.
I guess, you have drivers for apm, sound and scsi, which are comming from
IBM and not M$. On my TP 770 I had special graphics driver form IBM,
spezial trackpoint driver from IBM, special sound driver from IBM, special
IDE driver form IBM...
> I think a program that could run under Win95/98 or even DOS, that
> would gather information about the hardware in a machine, and
> generate a file that linux could take advantage of during installation
> would be of great value. Perhaps one exists, but I am not aware.
>
> I am still determined to get debian linux running on this machine,
> and I realize a certain amount of learning and patience is required.
> I will only have the luxury of being a "linux newbie" for a short
> time, and while I have this perspective I am passing on my feelings.
> I have been using UNIX variants for many years, but have never needed
> to aquire the "sysadmin" skills until now.
In your case (laptop) you will need some sysadmin skills, but you will get
them...
And when once your system is running fine, you will love it, especially
debian (my opinion).
And then an related story: A friend of mine once tried to set up a simple
NE2000 compatible PCMCIA ethernet card up under WIN95. He had the driver
disk, handbook ... one, two firends of him and I tried for quite a time to
get the beast running, with no luck (and we all had not so bad sysadmin
skills) ... and then it suddenly worked (after many hours), but I realy
don't know why ... the problem under M$ in my opinion is, that if
something won't work out of the box, the problem, why it won't work can be
hiden somwhere under the GUI :-)
I have right now problems setting up my IBM Turbo 16/4 Tokenring card, but
I can locate (but not solve) the problem: I know, that the driver is
broken under the 2.2 Kernel and I have to wait, till the problem is
reported fixed. What I like under Linux, espeical Debian, is, that
problems can be locatet. You can say, there it is ... which is a step
further to 'I don't know why it is not working?'.
Keep on learning your system/linux and when you get more knowledge, you
won't be dissapointed ... and don't hesitate to ask :-)
Martin
--
If the box says 'Windows 95 or better', it should run on Linux, right?
- anonymous
For public PGP-key: finger mfluch@mathphys.fsk.uni-heidelberg.de
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