Put mandrake on a old computer

[ghost2003]

Dont laugh...ive NEVER use any other OS than windows, not even mac, only time I even see one is at the office at the dentist. Thats why i want to try a other one. Mac is expencive and I dont have the $ for it but mandrake linux is free so I thought it would be a good idea to try it out. I have a old computer that needs to be re-formated so why not put linux on it? But since I dont know the first thing about linux where can I find some good begineres info for mandrake?

www.mandrakelinux.com

[bigandy]

Mandrake Users is a good one.

Linux Questions is also good.

The best place to download the install discs is LinuxISO. They have just about any free distro you could want.

Don't worry, Mandrake isn't all that difficult, but it does take a little bit of getting used to. I played around with it for awhile as a second OS on this machine, but decided to stick with XP.

[Karnevil9]

Also www.justlinux.org is another.

[ghost2003]

Before waisting lots of time and CD's D/L ing and installing mandrake for a OS i might not even like I decided to get knoppix first. I got it and made the burnt image on a CD. All the files seem fine on the CD(although I havent run them yet, dont want to screwup my PC). I take it to my old PC and put it in the cd-rom...nothing. I go in DOS and try too see the contents...drive not ready...I tried putting in my old norton CD in and it works fine, shows all files and boots from it. Whats wrong?

[Karnevil9]

If you have the old PC set up to boot from CD first, then you may have a bad download. Since knoppix does not install anything to the hard drive unless you want it to, I would try the CD on another computer to see if it works there. I have Knoppix and when it is in the CD player it just comes up fine. No keys to hit or anything. You didn't say how old your old PC is. Did you check the specs for knoppix to make sure it can run on that computer?

go here to find out. www.knoppix.org.

[ghost2003]

Tried it again and works fine, dont know what hapened. Anyways its really cool. im sure to get mandrake now! Got some questions about the console though. First...why is it such a big deal? Isint it just like command prompt in windows? Also, even though I have a list of commands I cant get on the HDD. Ive tried all I can think of. Fist DOS-style (C: enter) then cd c, cd hda1, hda1, mount hda1 (not sure what mount is, wasnt on my list but ive seen it used, looks to me like it is ude to get on a drive). Why does every one say its hard to use? it works just like windows...well, almost. Also, cant get on the internet even with network card config.

[Karnevil9]

The Commands are reminiscent of dos but not the same. I believe the boot help section, F2 key when booting I think, gives the cmmand to install on hard drive. By the way, Knoppix is a complete system for the most ppart, and is able to use debian packages, so once it is installed, you may have no reason to go to mandrake, other than to try another system. I've noticed that many people leave mandrake and redhat systems after a while and opt for a Debian system because they get tired of the RPM package system.
Never did this part myself yet, but here is what I have o hard driev install. I beleive this during the boot process. Type "knxhdinstall" without the quote marks. Then type alt - f2, and do the install off a virtual terminal, otherwise it will be slow.

www.knoppix.net has a knoppix cheatcodes section. Also check
http://download.linuxtag.org/knoppix...cheatcodes.txt

I hope I got that right.

[kilgoretrout]

Knoppix should put a bunch of icons on your desktop, one for each partition. If you click on the icon, it will open up the file manager called konqueror and display the contents of that partition but it is set to read only by default.

Re your nic problems what type of nic do you have? Old isa ones will be trouble. Also, what type of internet connection are you using, dsl, cable, etc?

[ghost2003]

i got cable. Found out how to mount the HDD. But that install command wont work, in linux and on boot prompt.