Linux OS for this hardware


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OK, i tried to install Mandrake (latest) using the hardware below, but the video card wanst supported and my mouse would not start up. what Linux will work without causing me to rip my hair out?

AMD Athlon XP 2200+

Shuttle MK35N Motherboard

768MB DDR PC2100 Memory

80GB 7200 RPM Main

40GB 5400 RPM Backup

Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB

SoundBlaster Audigy 2

16x DVD Drive

12x8x32 CD-RW

15? CRT Monitor

Windows XP Corporate Edition SP1

Microsoft Intellimouse Optical

PS: i want this linux to be pretty simple. and it has to work flawlessly with my XP Corporate install already on the HDD.

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Use slack.  Do not install Lilo during the install.  Just make sure you make a boot disk.  Then you can add Slack to yoru NT Loader by following the steps at www.j79zlr.com.

Might look into slack myself...tried almost every other linux distro (RH, Fedora1, SuSE8.2+9.0, Lindows, Mandrake 9.x) all have failed some way or another. Either they lock up during setup, or everything works fine until the first boot, when XWindows fails to initialise with my graphics card, or if it gets past that, none of my hardware works! meaning I cant use a mouse, or keyboard or anything.

Slack is the only distro/version I havent tried yet.

I'm curently running SUSE8.2 under VMWare with all net access disabled because it messes XP up too much.

Now, where to obtain slack...Google time! :D

I take it that its something to do with my hardware below:

.:Ati Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB

.:Nforce2 400

.:Misc USB hubs

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i had problems with mouse in linux, it should auto detect the mouse type during installation

actually, i think im gonna stick with windows... thanks for the help!

btw, thats only on this PC the

AMD Athlon XP 2200+

Shuttle MK35N Motherboard

768MB DDR PC2100 Memory

80GB 7200 RPM Main

40GB 5400 RPM Backup

Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB

SoundBlaster Audigy 2

16x DVD Drive

12x8x32 CD-RW

15? CRT Monitor

Windows XP Corporate Edition SP1

one. i have another one prepped for Linu:D:D

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If you have another computer that is LINUX-ONLY then I suggest installing Gentoo. Depending on how powerful that system is it can take up to 24hours (from stage 1) to a couple of days. In the end it's worth it though: a fast OS and the Portage system!

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actually, i think im gonna stick with windows... thanks for the help!

one. i have another one prepped for Linux :D

Download Knoppix and you can preview it on CD-ROM before you install it to the hard disk. That way you'll know if it supports your hardware before you invest a lot of time.

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If you have another computer that is LINUX-ONLY then I suggest installing Gentoo. Depending on how powerful that system is it can take up to 24hours (from stage 1) to a couple of days. In the end it's worth it though: a fast OS and the Portage system!

Yeah, Gentoo r0x!

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I've been having issues with Mandrake 9.2 and the problems are down to the 9800Pro and the (USB) Wireless Intellimouse Explorer on Rig1 (see sig) and I also had an issue on Rig2 until I used a PS/2 Intellimouse instead of a USB Optical mouse.

I'm a bit of a n00b when it comes to Linux but I just want the ability to run it (on my main system if possible - and not in VMWare as I want to play a couple of native Linux games) but I'm scratching my head over what to do. Can anybody suggest a better distro that has a bigger hardware compatibility list?

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In my opinion Gentoo is very over rated. The portage system is buggy from what I have seen. And Any OS that can take days to install is not good. You can make Slack run just as fast if not faster. YOu can also use add-on packages like swaret or slapt-get to do the same things that protage and emerge do.

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after having used several distros (suse, red hat, mandrake, debian, slackware) finally i stranded by making my own distro, a linux from scratch. belief me, it's worth the effort (at this time i owned a celeron333 with 92 mb of ram, running 2.4.19 kernel, took 4 weeks to install :wacko: )

so after i built my LFS-system i searched for a distro doing the same for me, with additional upgrade-capabilitys, and the only one to do the thing right was: oh wonder, gentoo. now running gentoo ~x86 always with latest and greatest releases, no problem at all, no rpm-dependency hell, everything highly optimized (use even prelinking). as a nice sideeffect, you come to know the internas of your system much closer than with some normal distro.

so if you have broadband internet access, give it a try (i personally prefer a stage1-install). you end up with a slick and shiny system, running the latest stable (unless you are a nerd like me and use the ~x86 - marked unstable packages - the heck, never had one instability or crash even with those!), and updating the whole system through emerge --update world. also the gentoo - community over there at http://forums.gentoo.org is one of the strongest and n00b-friendliest i ever found on the net.

as for the ati-cards: xfree86-4.3.99.903 (release candidate 3, newest as of date of writing) does only support radeon up to 9500 if brain serves me right. there might be a patch for those over there at the dri - project, but not sure about that one, google for it.

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