Re: [Sheflug] A potential Linux user needs help to get started

[José Luis Gómez Dans <nospam [at] sheffield.ac.uk>]

On Thu, Jul 06, 2000 at 06:55:55PM +0100, Matt Fairtlough wrote:
> Hello, I'm Matt and I intend to become a Linux user very shortly.  I am
> intending to buy a pc from a local shop, and I have got a list of components
> that they will assemble for me for < £2,000 including:

	Hi Matt, welcome to the wonderful world of Linux :)

> Abit KA-7 100 motherboard
> 256MB PC 133 memory
> Athlon 800MHz CPU

	That's tasty and fine. I run an Athlon 550 MHz here without any
problems. Beware of oldish distributions (older than a year), as they do
not have K7 support by default. I think Suse >=6.3 should be fine, as
RH>=6.1. If you decide to use Debian, you need debian 2.2.

> Diamond Viper 770 ULTRA graphics

	This should work as long as  you use the right chipset (as
someone pointed out in another message). I believe that the chipset is a
nvidia riva tnt2, and suggestions is that you choose riva 128 in your
set-up. Anyway, it should work :)

> IBM internal 45GB Deskstar 75GXP hard disk

	I don't know your use/budget, but isn't it wise to go for a SCSI
drive? I do have an IDE drive, but I couldn't fit an SCSI in my budget.
At any rate, you have to be careful with this (only slightly!), as the
bootloader (lilo) tends to like having the kernel it uses in the first 8
gigs of your hard drive. You can use an alternative bootloader (grub) or
the latest version of lilo, which supports large hard drives. 

> Yamaha 8824 internal CD-RW
> Pioneer 10x internal DVD
> IDE internal 250MB Zip

	Tasty, tasty...

> I also plan to buy a Lexmark Optra E312 b/w laser printer and to connect
> my US Robotics 56K external modem

	No problem with the modem, should work a charm. The printer
seems to be postscript capable or it can understand PCL, so it should
work fine.

> The shop tells me that a) the only motherboards available are now 100MHz
> and b) they think that Linux distributions may not work with them, or that
> a patch or new kernel must be downloaded for Linux to work.  Does anyone
> know if either a) or b) or both are true?  And if so, how to get hold of
> a Linux version that supports the 100MHz bus speed.

	This myth has already been de-bunked.

> I am thinking of buying Suze Linux by the way.

	Suse should be fine, even though Mandrake might be aonther
option to consider. It's a very clean installation (at least it was for
me). I don't know about Stormix, but I have heard good words from
friends about it. But any new distribution should work fine out of the
box with that impressive kit you plan to buy!

	Regards,
	José
-- 
José L Gómez Dans			PhD student
					Radar & Communications Group
					Department of Electronic Engineering
					University of Sheffield UK
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