On Tuesday, June 17, 2003 9:23 AM, Miles Beck wrote:

> I am hoping the new kernel will detect my lan and sound=20
> adapter. I have been wanting to move to Linux but am
> stopped cold by my hardware not being supported.=20

What kind of hardware do you have?  I would think that it would have to =
be
pretty esoteric or bleeding edge for it not to be supported by a recent
distribution of Linux.  Keep in mind that, unlike Windows, you will =
often
not find a driver for your specific NIC, sound card or video card.  =
Instead
there will be generic support for the card's chipset.  For example, it =
seems
that every El Cheapo=AE or on-board NIC I've run across recently uses =
the
NE2000 driver under Linux, even though the card might be a DLink or a
LinkSys.  The onboard sound card on one of my Linux boxes (a Dell
workstation) uses the ac97_codec driver, which supports 30 or 40 =
different
chipsets. =20

I hear that Knoppix is very good at detecting hardware.  You could =
always
boot off of a Knoppix CD, see how it detects your hardware and what =
drivers
it uses, and then use that information if your distribution of choice
doesn't automagically detect your hardware when you install. =20

If you already knew this, then just pretend I was never here.  :)

~Jeff