On Fri, Oct 19, 2007 at 10:54:51PM -0000, Ed wrote: > I am not really sure. This is an old computer, but years ago, it had > Redhat Linux 7 and Windows 95 dual boot running fine. As time went by, > this computer was replaces with newer ones and slowly became obsolete. > Now I want to revive it and probably make it a print server, and maybe > web browser only machine, only running linux. I have never used debian > before, but heard it was a good candidate for an old machine. On my > other machines I run fedora 6 or 7. (and yes, I run Windows 2000 or XP) > > Is there a way I can find out the network card and driver without taking > the machine apart. It is in kind of a hard place to get at right now.
Just do a minimal install from the netinst.iso. When you get to choosing a mirror, choose none. Let it try to contact security.debian.org, which will fail, but it will put a commented-out line in your sources.list file. When you get to task selector, deselect everything. You will then just get a base install minimal system. When you boot into the system and log in for the first time, you can type: # dmesg | less and look for what hardware was found. The dmesg is a ring-buffer that is filled by the kernel as hardware is found by the drivers. You should see everything. However, if this computer doesn't have a PCI bus but instead and ISA/EISA bus, then there may be some more work to do since the hardware set-up is different and not so automatic. What kind of computer is this: Processor: Memory: Hard drive space: System bus type: As long as you are able to install a base system, dmesg will tell you most of this. Doug. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
