How exactly does Linux work with drivers are opposed to windows XP. I'm going to be getting a new computer soon and want to start exploring linux, I have a few books including Linux for dummies, I want it to be hands on as well, I'll probably sit down at the computer with the book and see everything as I do.
Anyway, I was wondering with regards to it and drivers how do you load them, I'm really confused with windows (I have windows 98) as to how I'd load a driver, my HP PSC's scanner doesn't work and I tried using device manager to fix it, I thought it would be a simple matter of putting in the PSC (print scan copy) and having device manager search for it on it, apparently not, it didn't find it. I was wondering what was wrong with the config.sys file isn't that a lot simpler and easier, just type in the location of the driver and it loads it, how does linux do it? I really hate the windows registry as well.
Linux and drivers
Moderator: Edi
You install the kernel module (driver) and edit modules.conf or something. The winmodem driver I use automatically configures that with a shell script though. For scanners, look up SANE on the internet. I don't use a scanner, so ask wong or some other person who uses this.
By the way, I'm getting a new P450 computer w/ 20GB HDD in May. How should I partition. My cousin is giving it to me, since my computer sucks.
Some partitioning schemes-
5GB Win98 FAT32 or 2k or NT4 NTFS, 5GB Linux, 10GB blank FAT32- loopback files can be added to the third partition as necessary if I need more space for an FS w/ file permissions for linux to store programs. NTFS driver quality might improve in June w/ Kernel 2.6, however I don't trust Linux NTFS drivers for writing.
-Disadvantage cannot access 2nd partition under Linux- Windows partition will be second if using NT system- though I've installed windows 98 before dual booting 2k with 98 being on the second partition, working. I've heard that Win98 is too stupid to do this though- maybe the NT boot loader helps it do this.
5GB linux EXT3, 15GB Win98 or 2k FAT32- loopback files can be added to the second partition as necessary if I need more space for an FS w/ file permissions for linux, to store programs and such.
-Disadvantages- Worse performance if using 2k, can't nuke Windows as easily if want to clean windows rot- I nuke windows ~ every 3 months.
Should I get Debian on the new computer since bloat isn't much of an issue anymore? Or just continue with LFS/LSB-SI? So far switching from Coredistro to LFS hasn't really been successful, since after nuking an installation due to a screwup, it takes 2 days to recompile everything (with nALFS), vs 10 minutes for the precompiled Coredistro. The only reason I did this was Pinfo didn't work, which really doesn't justify nuking... but whatever.
By the way, I'm getting a new P450 computer w/ 20GB HDD in May. How should I partition. My cousin is giving it to me, since my computer sucks.
Some partitioning schemes-
5GB Win98 FAT32 or 2k or NT4 NTFS, 5GB Linux, 10GB blank FAT32- loopback files can be added to the third partition as necessary if I need more space for an FS w/ file permissions for linux to store programs. NTFS driver quality might improve in June w/ Kernel 2.6, however I don't trust Linux NTFS drivers for writing.
-Disadvantage cannot access 2nd partition under Linux- Windows partition will be second if using NT system- though I've installed windows 98 before dual booting 2k with 98 being on the second partition, working. I've heard that Win98 is too stupid to do this though- maybe the NT boot loader helps it do this.
5GB linux EXT3, 15GB Win98 or 2k FAT32- loopback files can be added to the second partition as necessary if I need more space for an FS w/ file permissions for linux, to store programs and such.
-Disadvantages- Worse performance if using 2k, can't nuke Windows as easily if want to clean windows rot- I nuke windows ~ every 3 months.
Should I get Debian on the new computer since bloat isn't much of an issue anymore? Or just continue with LFS/LSB-SI? So far switching from Coredistro to LFS hasn't really been successful, since after nuking an installation due to a screwup, it takes 2 days to recompile everything (with nALFS), vs 10 minutes for the precompiled Coredistro. The only reason I did this was Pinfo didn't work, which really doesn't justify nuking... but whatever.
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Pu-239 wrote:You install the kernel module (driver) and edit modules.conf or something. The winmodem driver I use automatically configures that with a shell script though. For scanners, look up SANE on the internet. I don't use a scanner, so ask wong or some other person who uses this.
By the way, I'm getting a new P450 computer w/ 20GB HDD in May. How should I partition. My cousin is giving it to me, since my computer sucks.
Join the club, I've got a 350Mhz 8 gig system. I'm gonna be getting a dell with a 120GB hard drive, and a gig of RAM, I figure I'll probably make a 20 GB partition for linux, probably red hat, mostly for curiousity, I want to know what linux is about and how I can use it.
Some partitioning schemes-
5GB Win98 FAT32 or 2k or NT4 NTFS, 5GB Linux, 10GB blank FAT32- loopback files can be added to the third partition as necessary if I need more space for an FS w/ file permissions for linux to store programs. NTFS driver quality might improve in June w/ Kernel 2.6, however I don't trust Linux NTFS drivers for writing.
I was thinking about using maybe windows NT of one of the 2000 version, one of them has HPFS for a file system, doesn't that only take the amount of sectors it needs to store the file, perhaps 1 sector clusters, or close to it, so I don't get any slack space, problem is you'd need a bigger FAT to keep track of those clusters, by the way where it is you can go on windows system to view the FAT, see how much hard drive space the FAT itself takes up on the hard drive?
You can't look at the file allocation table in Windows/DOS.Shrykull wrote:I was thinking about using maybe windows NT of one of the 2000 version, one of them has HPFS for a file system, doesn't that only take the amount of sectors it needs to store the file, perhaps 1 sector clusters, or close to it, so I don't get any slack space, problem is you'd need a bigger FAT to keep track of those clusters, by the way where it is you can go on windows system to view the FAT, see how much hard drive space the FAT itself takes up on the hard drive?
It's not worth using HPFS on Windows NT/2K/XP, just use NTFS. Slack space wastage is much less of an issue because very small files are often stored in the Master File Table itself.