Treebeard the Ent's Journal: My First Linux Install

Well, today, I am preparing to embark on a new journey. I have yet to install Linux on any of my boxes, but I have got a spare that I have nothing to do with right now, so I figured it would be time to install RedHat 9 and start learning all that I can about linux.

Here are my foreseeable problems. I don't know where to go to find drivers for my hardware. Do the ISO's I downloaded include drivers for a lot of products? Do I need to look around the net to find them?

Specifially I have an Intel EtherExpress PRO B thatI don't know that I can find drivers for. I'm concerned about the rest of the hardware, but I can deal with a generic video driver until I can find the right one, but I have to have network connectivity.

Any suggestions are appriciated. I figured, of all people, Slashdot readers could help me with this.

Same position

[robi2106]

I was in a similar position. My advice would be to write down all of the information possible about your hardware. Here are some examples:

Video card: How much ram? What refresh rates are possible (50-85Hz?). What resolutions are possible? Manufacturer? Chipset? The VGA part may be the most sensitive to hardware properties.

Do this for each PCI device. This was more important for the pre RedHat 8 world, when manual configuration was more common.

For your mainboard, go to the manufacturer's site and

Re:Same position

[Treebeard the Ent]

Well, I am hoping for the following:

1. Play with Linux (sounds fun/frustrating)
2. Play with development.

I'm a programmer, so whilst interested in server functionality, I really don't care, as long as it works. :)

I actually wish I would have posted this a week ago because I was trying to install RedHat 8 and already wiped any chance of being able to write down my hardware settings. I was unable to install 8 because the guy who gave me the disks has a bad disk for whatever reason. So all I could install wa

Re:Same position

[robi2106]

I would recomend a non-server setup in that case. You don't need the default server services installed (mail, telnet, ftp, etc). I would suggest an ssh server so you can get to the box from an outside box (telnet would also work). As long as this box isn't on the internet with out a firewall, then you should feel safe about playing with it.

I'd setup your router (if possible) so that this machine can make outgoing requests, but none can go in to it. This should keep a vanilla RedHat exploit kit from taki