newcommer's questions (moved)

[tumapo]

I just installed (today) the fedora 1. it's my first Linux and... I don't know where to start. where to find drivers for my hardware and what to do about them etc, etc.
config: mb epox rda3i, vid daytona geforce4mx440 64MBddr, monitor fujitsu-siemens mcm17p2.
oh, and the modem (an intel ambient 5628) is seen as an ethernet adapter. and I don't know what to do to get connectedto the internet (I had to use windows for this).
HEEEELLPPPPP!

[saturnotaku]

AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!


http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=27

[ragejg]

/moved

[sc3252]

Sorry to tell you to do this but you may want to start out with mandrake 10.0 In my opinion its alot better than fedora core 1. found it to be alot easyer to use and work with in games and work in general. Also drivers for some of the things in fedora dont even work.

[oldsk00l]

Yeah man, ditch fedora, start with Mandrake.

Suse is also an EXCELLENT alternative too.

[LordMorgul]

Sorry to rain on these guys advice... but ditching any of the three distros mentioned here due to 'some' driver issues--without knowing they are solved by another--is poor advice. Can you guys verify that his issue will be corrected with either distro or are you advising a noob to reinstall a system just to find out?

My advice is to begin learning the basics, you will get nowhere if you just avoid them. Modems are unfortunately not the simplest of hardware to configure in linux (some work, some just don't).

The modem in question (Ambient chipset 5628D - Intel chipset 536ep?) is a partial DSP modem.. a linmodem, meaning that you need software drivers to support the chipset. There are partial open-sourced drivers supplied by Intel, but they are not fully open, and therefore will not be present in Fedora (ever)... probably not in the others either. There may better fully open-source alternatives.. but I haven't been able to locate them in my quick searches of the likely places. You may be stuck using Intel's driver to use your modem.

This page describes the chipset and links to Intel's driver download page. There are 'beta' drivers available here. I personally would compile this tarball for Fedora and see how that works but you may want to start with the actual Intel driver.

If the chipset description above is incorrect or I have identified the wrong modem information for you please specify more precisely what the modem IS. The page linked below can help you do that.

For more information on modems in linux see this page.

[oldsk00l]

Well, the advice is because those distro's are better supported, and have better tools for n00bs to work with. Not because of technical merit. I don't blame you for being biased. However, based on your logic, we should tell him to go try Gentoo, maybe that'll fix his problem too...?

[LordMorgul]

Biased I am not, interested in the modem actually working I am => if Gentoo includes and will identify/setup the driver I would suggest it, until I know it will I wouldn't.