--- In LINUX_Newbies@yahoogroups.com, Phillip Nichols <scotchmandr@...> wrote:
>
> I remember these woes. I have kids and different laptops, Asus EeePC,
> Dell, HP.....
>
> It became a mater of chosing a distro. My IRLP/VOIP runs CentOS 4.8
> (that is fixed)
>
> However, all the various wifi cards etc (Dell gave the most grief here)
> made me try various live-cds.
>
> I settled on PCLinuxOS (we use Gnome & XFCE)
> and on Debian 6 as a secondary.
>
> PCLinuxOS was the only distro that had enough drivers to work on
> Everything. Linux Mint came in second. Debian 6 joined second place when
> it finally made 6. but Debian is more for long term stable use and I do
> just that.
>
> Test different LiveCDs. I had a very old Dell that the only thing it
> could work with was PCLinuxOS ZEN edition which is a minimal gnome
> desktop and it was the only distro which would fully boot and recognize
> evrything on this old desktop.
>
> My understanding is that much of this all rides on which kernel version
> a distro uses.
>
> Anyway, dont be afraid to experiment and try them. Try the Magazine
> Linux Format. A but pricy but it is great to learn form and stay
> up-to-date plus you get a DVD every month with distros and programs to try.
>
> What do I know? I never had this much fun in Windows ;-)
>
What you don't know is what we're here for. Now to get Debian to have as much hardware support as any other Linux distribution do this:
edit /etc/apt/sources.list and add:
non-free contrib
behind the word main in your repository listings, save and exit. Run:
$ man sources.list
for the official explanation of what that does.
run:
# aptitude update
run:
$ aptitude search firmware
If you see something interesting displayed then run:
$ aptitude show firmware-intelwimax
replacing firmware-intelwimax with whatever strikes you. If it looks really interesting then run:
# aptitude install firmware-intelwimax
Replacing firmware-intelwimax with whatever else you think may make the hardware you wish to use work.
The reason that stuff isn't installed by default isn't because it'd hurt your system, it is more just Debian keeping Linux fun! It'd be no fun if stuff just worked.
I hope that helps. Have fun!
P.S. I run Debian, because it's so much fun! Well, really because it is the lesser of all evils but that is another story.
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