Dabbling with Linux.

[Maragato]

Here comes my piece of advice, Ive been using linux for a while and so far ive tested: Slackware, Debian, Ubuntu and Gentoo (that im using right now). I wouldnt give gentoo as a first option to someone that is new to linux, since it has no installer thing can becoem very messy and confuse. Ive expent 2 days to set gentoo up here ans usre it wasnt hard but also far from trivial. if you want a great distro to start I would recommned you Ubuntu -> www.ubuntulinux.org It is a debian based distro, based on sudo, so it keeps you without a root account but with a user who is able to perfom root actions, it will avoid you a lot of trouble. Also worth to mention that it uses apt-get with IMHO is one of the best package managers around. Anyway welcome to linux world and in case of trouble msg me / post at the board linux is about a community and people helping people to obtain knowledge, or at least should be this way.

[Hunter2]

Thanks

Well, about half an hour ago I just gave Knoppix my first attempt. I ended up sticking it to my laptop anyway (since it's a live CD, little risk of messing anything up). I got it booted into KDE ok, but for some odd reason, although it seemed to detect my soundcard OK, the sound wouldn't work and also it wouldn't detect my keyboard. Any ideas? (I'll go google in a sec too, I think I remember seeing someone else having a similar problem..)

[Kleid-0]

USB keyboards can be a problem if you're using a USB keyboard.

[Hunter2]

No, I'm using the laptop's built-in keyboard. Frustrating, since it means I can't do anything on the system without fixing it, and I can't figure out how to fix it without doing anything Well, I'll just wait until I get a chance to do a real install of another distro on my other computer, see how things go. I'll also try getting an older version of Knoppix, I noticed a lot of comments floating around that the latest version (the one I have) is really bad for compatibility.

**EDIT**
@Maragato: I already visited Ubuntu, and I ordered a CD from their shipit thing since I don't feel like downloading any more ISO's. It'll probably get here in a few months...

**EDIT2, off topic**
Cheers, for the 2001st thread in Tech

**EDIT3**
Hmm, well the comments weren't about compatibility problems.. they just complained that the latest Knoppix is really unstable and crashes like mad. Well, I'll give 3.7 a whirl anyway.

[major_small]

I got it booted into KDE ok, but for some odd reason, although it seemed to detect my soundcard OK, the sound wouldn't work...

did you check your sound levels? some cards are muted by default and need to be unmuted (as is the case with the embedded sound on some intel motherboards)

I wouldnt give gentoo as a first option to someone that is new to linux, since it has no installer thing can becoem very messy and confuse.

if you follow the instructions and use genkernel, it's easy as pie--even I figured it out, and I'm a *nix newb

[Hunter2]

I don't think the problem is with muting, because when it boots it says "Sound card: unknown (something)/generic (something)", and then in KDE the mixer thing has an error icon, and has no volume sliders or anything - just a menu bar with no useful items, and and a "Mixer" or "Choose Mixer" combobox (something to that effect) with no list items. I'll poke around a bit though, maybe I can uncover something more useful.

On a brighter note, using Knoppix 3.7 instead of 3.8.1 has fixed my keyboard problem Although I still can't use the internet, since I haven't figured out how to set up wireless yet, I'm quite impressed with the neat stuff you can do in KDE (slideshow background, or running a program to control the background?? And creating your own menus 'n stuff? Cool! ). Looking forward to having more fun with it today.

[Hunter2]

Ok, I'm typing this up on Knoppix 3.8.1 on an older computer. Didn't have to do anything, it just works on this comp. Heck, it detected my exact soundcard, video card, DVD, and even got the name of my monitor right. And it works fine when I'm not trying to use wireless (no wi-fi on this comp). I guess my laptop's stuff just isn't well enough established to have drivers for it on Knoppix.

Anyway, a more precise description of the soundcard message is:

Sound Card: Unknown device | Generic device / Driver: unknown.

Too bad. I hope the other distros work better.

**EDIT**
More Knoppix woes: After running Knoppix, things in Windows have randomly stopped working.. i.e. it took 2 reboots to get my wireless working again, and on the second reboot it switched my default browser to IE over FF... The other distros BETTER be better...