HD install of knoppix 3.3 debian style. Been at this for over a month. And am unable to conquer compiling progams against this kernel. I have repeatedly tried compiling programs only to fail miserably because they a) can't find source headers b) don't like the ones they find.

My most notable failures are alsa and now lm sensors. Nvidia was in there until I got kano's script. Alsa was responsible for just about every reinstall of knoppix the first couple of weeks. Lm sensors is runnerup and closing fast

winmodem drivers didn't like the mismatches that knoppix kernel provided - as noob as I am, I used -f and cried like a baby when I tainted my kernel. You have any idea how traumatic it is for a noob to be told her kernel is tainted?

So, I got an external modem, I reinstalled knoppix, gave up on alsa and went on with my linux noob life. I have sound, I have music, I even have midi. I don't need alsa. I luv my knoppix
But, lm sensors I need. I have to monitor the temp of the XP, hot little griddle it is. I am sick and tired of rebooting to check it in the bios or windows. But the lm sensor install has totally defeated me. Modules/adapters will not be inserted because of my kernel source (why are these programs always picking on my poor kernel!) They recommend a vanilla source if using a patched kernel (is there any distro that doesn't have a patched kernel for goodness sake?). <sigh> and of course nvidia had a fit and it wanted the 'real thing" aaaaaaaaaaargh I don't want a choice of 50 different flavors of kernels to boot from - I boot with good ol 2.4.24-xfs and don't you forget it. Works a treat and I am not tainting it for nothing ever again. However. It would be nice to have some kernel source for these whinging programs that don't want this, don't want that. Nvidia brought along its own and still griped.

Sorry. Venting (obvious, huh? ). Pardon me.

My choice is now to look into another distro, maybe? Because linux I do love. I can hop on down to the local CompUSEless and pick up SUSE. I have mandrake community 10 but it is not for a newbie and I very noob. I had started the download of man 9.2 but 10 came out after I had dled CD1 and all my download soures went poof to jump on 10 bandwagon. I am on dialup - this probably is too much for me. Ten years in IT, I admitted defeated and refused to do XP migrations after 1,500 w2k migrations. I can't believe linux is defeating me but who wants to reinstall all the time because you have to bludgeon your custom kernel for the whim of every program out there? In all honesty, is there such a thing as a distro without a patched kernel? I think not. Which leads me to believe this is hopeless. Some things I can compromise on for love of linux, hardware failure is not one of them. And the warning on some of these things about firmware damage is kind of scary, too, besides wondering if my chip is cooking (AMD really should have forced the board mfrs to put in protection and shutdown like Intel).

Thanks for listening. I really liked this knoppix and linux and wanted to stick with for the long run. Maybe I am just too old