Which Distro for auto internet setup etc.

rjd

rjd

rjd

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Hi

I try various flavours of Linux from time to time as I really want to consider Linux as a replacement for Windows but so far I am not impressed.

For example, am I the only one that finds it frustrating that when trying a live cd my network connection (ADSL Modem/Router) is not automatically detected and setup so that I can use Firefox, or another available Browser, straight away.

I would also like to see my Windows drives/folders mounted and ready for use or at least a simple wizard to guide me through the process.

Help in setting up my printer would also be most welcome.

Can anyone recommend a Windows user friendly disto I should try.

Thanks for your help.
 
if your using an adsl router the router should include dhcp, therefore automatically assign an ip address to your linux install and go from there,

erm i would personally reccomend any red hat based distro, mainly fedora and centos, very stable and easy to use, i beleive you can mount your hard disks on there and printer setup shouldnt be a problem, but really any distro works nicely along side windows as the bootloader mainly grub will just go and boot of the windows partition, sorry if it sounds confusing, i deal with linux servers every day
 
Thanks for your reply uk_viper

I am sure I could make it all work ok eventually, but it would give me more confidence in Linux if it at least setup/helped me setup the 'basics' so that I could start to use it and build from there.
 
Hi BillytheImpaler

In no particular order, so far I have tried live cd's:

SUSELinux 10.1 (installed, worked slowly but could not get mouse settings to my liking/comfort, made my wrist ache! ).

Simply Mepis 6.0

Simply Mepis 3.4.3

Puppy Linux 2.12

Xubuntu 6.10

Ubuntu 6.06

Ubuntu 6.10

Kubuntu 6.06

Which of these do you recommend persevering with?

Any tips?

Thanks
 
I would definitely pursue Ubuntu 6.10. What exactly is your networking setup? As uk_viper said, most people use automatic DHCP to take care of IP address assignment. It should just be a matter of handshaking between the computer and router just as it would do in Windows.
 
Thanks BillytheImpaler.

I'll spend some more time with Ubuntu 6.10.

Hi RadoX.

Why DSL?
 
suse is a very good one but you want to try get hold of version 9.1, bit outdated now, but ran very very smoothly, ubuntu is best for new users, but stil would go with centos or fedora :p
 
As you still appear to be finding your feet, I'd suggest Ubuntu. It's a good distro for users making the switch over from the dark side, and the official Ubuntu user forums are an impressive source of info. Some of the forums for other distros can be a bit daunting, and not too friendly for newcomers to Linux, but you definitely don't get that at the Ubuntu forum.

I've got to say that none of the distros I've used have ever had a problem connecting to the internet, so I'm kinda surprised that you've had so many problems with all the distros you've tried. The good news is that it should work, there's absolutely no reason why it won't work, so I'm sure that amongst us, we can help you get this fixed.

One question that does spring to mind... are you connecting to your ADSL modem via USB or via an ethernet cable? Also, are you trying to connect to a wireless router? Using USB or wireless can make it more of a challenge, but it's definitely not unsurmountable.

Maybe you can give us some details of your hardware, and any error messages you're getting, plus the output of the ifconfig command... that should be enough to start with.

As for mounting your Windows drives, I'm not aware of any tool that does it automatically (I'm sure there is one, but I've never looked) but you don't really need one as it's easy to do it manually.

Just open a shell, then either 'su' into root, or use 'sudo' if you're using Ubuntu. Create a new directory called /media/Windows using the command mkdir /media/Windows.

Next, edit the file /etc/fstab and add the following line to the bottom of the file:

/dev/hda1 /media/Windows ntfs-fuse auto,user_xattr,umask=000 1 1

Change the partition name if your Windows partition isn't on hda1, e.g. if you're using a Sata drive then it'd be sda1 instead. Then when you next reboot you should find that your Windows
 
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I'm in the same boat as the OP. I WILL NOT be buying Vista and am therefore taking the oppertunuity to make good on migrating to linux.

I've tried many distros: Suse, Redhat, Fedora, 1 stable gentoo install and Kubuntu (current).
I think Kubuntu is by far the best Windows to Linux conversion distro. It took me less than 30 mins to get it up and running on a little Celeron 667. Okay wireless is far more difficult to set up than in windows, but Kubuntu/Ubuntu has implemented the first WLan manager with a GUI.
I'm shortly to attempt migration of my PC and Laptop to (dualboot initially :p).

I reccommend sticking with Kubuntu until you're familiar with how linux works. Then you can move on to more advanced distros like Gentoo.

Oh, forgot to mention: The Ubuntu lot are based on debian which is renowned for its security and stability! W00T!
 
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