Advise on putting together a LINUX box for home 1

[cyclone]

I'm ready to start putting together a LINUX box for home use. I went to a local PC store and<br>
asked them about a low end system for that purpose and they gave me a song about what<br>
a hard time they had with the last one they did and how hard it is to get drivers to work<br>
with LINUX. I noticed posts here about winmodems and wonder if there is some<br>
general advise about how to avoid hardware/OS related problems.<br>
<br>
The purpose of this box is primarily theological (I don't think Bill Gates is God) and all<br>
I really want to run on it for now is star office and be able to make internet connections -<br>
browser, mail reader etc.<br>
<br>
Any comments and suggestions appreciated.<br>
<br>
Cyclone

 

[fenris]

As some one who is a newbie myself. I would say to check out the list of compatible hardware and get the latest version of redhat or any of the other distributions like it. As far as hardware goes (from what I understand), if a hardrive is detected by a bios or scsi bios then linux should be able to use it, maybe with a change to the bios settings. Modems, in general for most unix systems that I know of use external. The reason they use external is that they are so much easier to configure. Stay away from winmodems, even if you plan to buy it for windows! They are just a bad idea. I think linux has excellant support for most standard type keyboards as wheel as serial mice. Although with mice you might want to get a three button mouse because X windows supports it. <br>
<br>
My biggest problem was with video cards. Look at the hardware compatibility list (I can't recall the site, but a search on your favorite engine should get you there) and get one that is listed on it. This will save you a lot of trouble. From there on it should be pretty simple to set up you linux box to do all kinds of things. I forgot to mention ram, as far as I can tell it doesn't matter as long as it is compatible with the rest of your hardware and it works then linux should have no problems.<br>
<br>
-Troy

 

[Octalman]

WinModems won't work with Linux. It is unlikely you can find any PCI or ISA/EISA/VLB modem that will work with Linux. To work, it must look and behave toward the drivers exactly like a 16550 UART COM port, interrupts, address and all. And it must recognize the Hayes "smartmodem" commands.<br>
My Amquest HCF56K uses the Rockwell smart modem chip, but it takes special software to disable the regular COM port and make it act like an ordinary smart modem. By the way, HCF="Host Controller Function"=WinModem; some vendors call them "DSP" or "digital signal processor" modems, which is misleading, at best. I bought a USR (now 3Com)Sportster and cable and hooked up to COM2; W98 is still happy and I hope to start work making Linux happy too.<br>
<br>
My box came with a SiS6326 AGP video board. It makes nice video for W98, but the X Window driver as of release 3.3.3.1-1.1 is still broken as far as SiS6326 is concerned, or at least mine (check the SiS6326 support page).<br>
<br>
Tried several others, both PCI and AGP, but none were compatible with my Aladdin V motherboard and 400 MHz K6-III (100 MHz system bus). One was too slow and locked the bus, the other two wouldn't let W98 shut down, but Linux was happy. If you plan to run a fast system bus, check out Aventec's specs (

http://www.aventec.com)

for their Aladdin V, VIA and other systems. Look at sunsite.unc.edu or metalab.unc.edu (same site) for HOWTO's and much more on Linux.<br>

 

[charlesy]

If you are going for Redhat don't get Redhat 6.0 wait for 6.1 or use 5.2. Also do not buy a Web Excel modem.

 

[AndyBo]

Just a quick note to disagree with Octalman on the modem issue. I've been running an internal PCI modem without any problem for about 18 months now. (Well, I say without any problems... When I was first setting it up I forgot to use hardware based flow control. Doh!)<br>
<br>
My choice of an internal modem was purely for financial reasons - it was on special in a local hardware store. Given the choice, I'd go for an external modem. Not any easier to configure, but it's much easier to see what's going with the status lights on the modem.<br>
<br>
On the video side of things, I've never had any problems. I've used PCI based cards (Cirrus Logic 5436, Matrox Mystique) and AGP (Riva TNT based) with the XFree SVGA driver. Never any issues. I've even had a 3DFx in there running OK. Useful for, erm, ... ah, yes, some pretty screensavers. ;^)<br>
<br>
If you want sound, make sure you go for SoundBlaster compatible and you should be OK.<br>
<br>
On a final note, being a newbie, for your X desktop go for KDE. This is simply for the fact that it comes with Kppp which makes setting up PPP internet connections a doddle.

 

[rycamor]

However, if you use the Soundblaster Live, you will have to rely on Creative Labs' beta driver for Linux, since they haven't released enough data for the Linux community to write a driver.

http://developer.soundblaster.com/linux/