Distro and Nforce 2 Help

[Emma]

Hi,

After many years of using Windows for business, I am now thinking of learning Linux for a more secure OS.

I have read the forum and the general feeling I get is that Linux is rediculously hard to master. I would like to start of with one of the easier distros but have the following questions:

1. Which is better for Nforce1 and 2 mobos: Suse 8.2, Red Hat 9, or Mandrake 9.1 (retail or download is there a difference?)

2. I heard there's a problem with Mandrake 9.1 and Nforce2 onboard Lan. Do the other distros have the same problem? Network access is essential and I will also need to network to one Win XP machine.

3. I am a newbie and I will need rpms for nforce1 and 2 chipset drivers. Nvidia don't list drivers for ANY of the distros I am interested in (older versions only). Does the Mandrake 9 driver work with 9.1, suse 8.1 work with 8.2 etc etc?

4. Will my DVD writer (Panasonic DVD-r) be supported under any Linux distro? It's a -r and Ram type that is used for daily backups.

I am very keen to learn Linux and enjoy the advantages over win xp. Is it a good time for a newbie or should i wait. Is there another distro that might suit me better?

So many questions and so much help needed. All from a blonde (but not just dumb one - just wary of the change to Linux)

All help will be most appreciated

thanks

Emma

[galaxor]

Hi,

Ad 1.: There is no significant difference in NForce1/2 support between the Linux
distros. All of them will need a Kernel upgrade for UltraDMA IDE (for
hard disks, CDROM/DVD, ...) and probably none of them includes the
drivers for the NVIDIA onboard LAN.

So feel free to choose the distro which appeals you most. If you are not
sure in investing your money into a retail-version (or in your Linux
ambitions at all) try a downloaded/copied CD-set first (perhaps together
with a good book on linux).

I personally prefer Debian (non-commercial, very secure and sophisticated,
consider switching to it once you feel fit enough)

Ad 2.: There is no problem with the NForce2-NIC - as long as you manage to
compile/install the "nvnet" Kernel module. Again, there is no
significant difference between the Linux distros.

Ad 3.: Perhaps someone in this forum puts together an RPM containing a recent
Kernel and modules for sound, network, AGP (and maybe also the ATI
fglrx-module).

Ad 4.: Your DVD-writer probably works. But you won't know for sure until you
tried it :D
The software you need is called "CDRtools"; the program is called
cdrecord (download from ftp://ftp.berlios.de/). cdrecord is very
powerful and a pure command-line tool. You probably want to use
one of the graphical frontends (google for them).

If You are completely new to Linux and you don't know if it's right for You
have a look at "Knoppix" (http://www.knoppix.org/). You don't have to install
anything on your computer (anything comes from a compressed 700MB-CDROM).
It's based on a Debian Linux but ideal to get a first impression!

good luck :)

[leibold]

As far as distro choices/differences are concerned I agree with galaxor (my personal favorite is SuSE). I'm using the older DVD-RAM only version of that Panasonic drive for backup purposes under Linux. I haven't tried the DVD-R/DVD-RAM combo drive yet, but expect that it will work just as well.