Newbie basic advice needed

I ran Knoppix from CD for a couple of days, then installed it to HD today. My USRobotics external faxmodem was detected from CD but not from HD.

I can't find any info about installing modems, scanner, NIC and other hardware anywhere, apart from obscure commands that baffle me. Where do I type them in anyway? Coming from Windows, it's all completely different, so I need some basic help to get me started. Where can I find it?

Also: Is there anyway to make the text in KDE keep inside the scroll bars instead of having to keep scrolling right and left?

OK, plenty have looked but no one has replied yet. I have read all the FAQs but I still haven't been able to solve my particular problems. I have found some good helpful guides, however, that other Linux or Debian newbies will find useful:

Linux basics at: http://www.aboutdebian.com/linux.htm
The Linux Documentation Project at: http://tldp.org/docs.html[/url]

Hi ellen, sorry my reply isn't going to be immediately very helpful---I generally stumble my way through using advice trawled off the web plus a few books.

If you plan on hanging in there with Knoppix/Debian, and Linux in general, I'm sure you won't be disappointed. You'll probably find 'The Linux Cookbook' by Michael Stutz a goldmine of info for every day tasks, but not very relevant for behind the scenes technical stuff. Be that as it may I would thoroughly reccomend it.

'The Debian GNU/Linux Bible' by Steve Hunger could do with a new addition but still has plenty of basic technical help, while something like 'Running Linux' by Welsh, Dalheimer, & Kaufman digs a bit deeper. I'm sorry you've not had any really useful replies so far to your post, generally folks are very helpful.

Your modem problem sounds a bit unusual if it's a serial modem. USB can be problematic. If you stick with it, keep asking around, experimenting... I'm sure you'll get something sorted.

Regards, almala :)

Thanks, Almala, I'll try and get hold of the Linux Cookbook especially as I've seen it recommended elsewhere.

My serial modem problem is still not sorted. There's a thread on the Debian forum if anyone's interested:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...3&goto=newpost

I've had nothing but problems with computers so am hoping Linux will provide me with a stable system so I can use it instead of fixing it all the time. Is this possible, I wonder?!