Hard Drive Install of Knoppix 5.0.1 on a Dell Inspiron 8200

[tripwire45]

I had been considering Ubuntu 6.01, OpenSUSE 10.1, or FC 5 in terms of moving my laptop from Windows to Linux but a friend of mine suggested Knoppix 5.0.1 as the best choice. What are my chances...especially in terms of burning CDs and utilizing wireless?

BTW, greetings. I know I'm a newbie here and am not trying to be too forward. :)

[Harry Kuhman]

Knoppix is a great Live CD for getting an introduction to Linux. It's not so great of a choice for a new user to try to "install" to a hard disk, you would be much better off going with one of the choices that you mentioned. Wireless support in particular is not as good in Knoppix as it is in many other distros.

I'm not very inpressed with the Ubuntu or Kubuntu CDs as live CDs, but people who install it seem happy with it and it is said to have better wireless support than many other distros. But in the end you should make your own choice on a hard disk install, just avoid Live CDs that are more focused on being Live CDs that hard disk install distros. Two other distros that I would suggest you might add to your list for consideration and maybe even trial installs would be Mandirva and Debian etch, but I'm sure others have their own choices too.

Burning CDs should not be a problem with most distros, but, of course, a Live CD that requires the CD to stay in the drive can cause issues.

[tripwire45]

Thanks for the "heads up", Harry. :)

-Trip

[jm47048]

I have gotten my wireless to work with Knoppix but it was a bit of a chore. What you would need is to download (hardwired to a router or cable modem) the wireless drivers for WINDOWS that your card uses. From there, you use the NDISWRAPPER software to utilize that driver. Basically what it does is simply emulate the driver as though your hardware were running on windows. It is transparent to you as a user and you don't take any serious performance boost. Sadly, because knoppix is a live CD, you have to create yourself a little shell script that will start the wireless.

From command type 'su'

then create your shell script.

I do not have my script in front of me at the moment, but when I get home tonight, I can give you a more detailed look as to how this works. But it seems to work pretty well. Sadly, Harry Kuhman is right: Knoppix does not have the best wireless support but it can be worked around. Actually, IMHO, Linux in general needs work in the area of wireless.

[tripwire45]

I appreciate the reply, jm47048. :)