knoppix

[Soviet_Genius]

I downloaded a Knoppix 4.0 distribution thats supposed to work off the CD but when I put it in a laptop the thing shows the usual first screen (with all the BIOS and muse drivers loaded and CD-ROM initialized messages) and then it sits there for a minute or so with the CD\HDD light on (not binking) and then the light goes out......and comes back on...... goes out again.....and nothing seems to be happening :-/

[GX1_Man]

Is this the laptop with 16 meg RAM? It will never work.

[Soviet_Genius]

yeah I just realized that. I'm using it right now on my good computer! it's aweome! Can you give me some tips for it? i never used it before but i want to try it. also when i boot up into windows, while it's booting theres a fan spinning but when it fininshes loading the fan turns off and it didnt when it finished loading linux. should I be alarmed about this?

[GX1_Man]

No. What are your questions about Knoppix? The spinning may be from the CDROM as it runs from there, unless you do a hard disk install.

[Soviet_Genius]

well I don't really know yet. I'll ask if something happens.

[Soviet_Genius]

How do I go about installing drivers for my printer? When I try to print nothing happens.Would the CD with the drivers work in knoppix? Also how do you shut down?

[GX1_Man]

To shut down, use the start menu like Windows. You will get an option to shiut down or restart.

Adding a printer in Linux is done in the System Menu, but since it runs from a CDROM and does not save data, you will have to do this every time. Also, what printer do you have? Lexmarks, for instance, can be troublesome. All those wIndows driver disks are of no need here.

[Soviet_Genius]

It's an HP PSC 1210. I did the wizard thing but it still won't work.

[GX1_Man]

I don't know about a wizard thing.  There is a way to Add Printer, and that model is in the database.

[Soviet_Genius]

There's a "save configuration" option but it only lets you save it to a floppy. Is there a way to save it to the hard drive? It can't save to the floppy cause theres not enough space or something.

[GX1_Man]

Unsure. I have never used that option.

[Rob Pomeroy]

Just a thought: this would be a good time to check out a full (hard drive installation) distribution.  Perhaps an older Red Hat distro would be suitable - say RH 6 or 7, if you can find a copy.  Older distros are more likely to be geared towards lower spec laptops, that's my thinking.