On Fri, Jan 25, 2002 at 06:12:13PM +0000, Randy Orrison wrote:
| On Fri, 2002-01-25 at 17:12, Jason Majors wrote:
| > > Almost any (choose your expletive here) can install a Microsoft product
and
| > > almost any (same expletive here) can install Red Hat. Think people, don't
| > > just follow a fad.
|
| > Honestly, I think the debian install is just as easy as RedHat and easier
| > than win98.
I too think installing and configuring linux is far easier than win*.
Take networking, for example. I've installed several different cards
and dealt with static IP (ethernet) and dynamic IPs (ethernet and
PPP). I tried to put my (tulip) NIC into a friend's win98 box one
time. Ugh. We spend several hours rebooting and reinstalling the
driver before it finally worked. (admittedly dial-up is a bit more
involved in linux, but it *works* and never kicks you off for no
reason)
| Hmmm... I must have missed the easy way to set up my sound card in
| Debian.
I had trouble with my sound card at first too. Here's what you gotta
do :
o what's the chipset?
o what's the base IO address?
o what DMA channel should it use?
o what IRQ should it use?
then edit a file in /etc/modutils/ and run 'update-modules'. For my
sound card (well, the sound card I used to have in the other machine) :
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#
# ESS 1869 audio adapter
# (Sound Blaster)
#
alias sound sb
alias midi opl3
#
# sound card options (works!!)
# -- IO base 0x220, IRQ 5, DMA 1, MPU IO 0x330
#
options sb io=0x220 irq=5 dma=1 mpu_io=0x330
# Midi
options opl3 io=0x388
#
# Sound modules dependencies:
# sound : soundlow , soundcore
# sb : uart401
# uart401 : sound
# opl3 : sound
#
# dependencies are listed in by depmod /lib/modules/<kernel version>/modules.dep
# dependencies are loaded automagically by modprobe
#
# after loading the sound (sb) module, load the midi (opl3) module
post-install sound /sbin/insmod opl3
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FWIW I had RedHat on that machine and used 'snd-config' (or whatever
it was called) to generate the settings. Later I cleaned up the file
and added the comments for myself. The problem I had for the longest
time was I was using the wrong DMA channel. It was horrible. When I
finally sat down with some manuals and decided to figure it out, I had
no more problems.
The laptop I have at work has a sound card, and I didn't do nearly as
much work setting it up. Unfortunately I can't login to that machine
right now to send you the config.
| In Windows, it was automatically recognised and configured and just
| worked.
Sometimes windows will do that. If it doesn't, say your prayers!
| Is there really an easier way in Debian? Apparently (I
| haven't tried it) I have to actually either recompile my kernel, or at
| least a module,
No compilation necessary! That's what modules are for. Use
'modprobe' to load modules and specify the options.
| and choose which software to use...
Well, yeah, you have to specify which driver. You really don't want
to start randomly reading and writing bytes from the hardware if you
don't know how the hardware is going to react to it.
| I'll dive into it one day when I can allocate a few uninterruped hours.
Uninterrupted hours really does help!
| And then there's my CD burner
I don't have one.
| and my printer to set up,
Printers can either be easy or a pain; depends on how the printer was
made.
| Part of the problem with all these is that there are _too_many_ choices
| for software support
For printing just use CUPS. I agree, though, that getting started in
a new area can be difficult because you have to choose which system
you are going to try.
-D
--
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and
humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke
is easy and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:28-30
