unix - windows network help please

Hi,

I am trying to set up a small home network using Linux and windows.
My problem is I cannot get drivers for linux (RH 9).
I have linux running on partitions on both a dell laptop and a PC but
am having trouble with getting drivers.
I have contacted the manufactors but have had no luck.

The drivers that are not working properly are: network card,
modem(winmodem), sound, display.

Can anyone suggest the best place to find these drivers?

Thanks in advance,
Ritchie

"ritchie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> Hi,
>
> I am trying to set up a small home network using Linux and windows.
> My problem is I cannot get drivers for linux (RH 9).
> I have linux running on partitions on both a dell laptop and a PC but
> am having trouble with getting drivers.
> I have contacted the manufactors but have had no luck.
>
> The drivers that are not working properly are: network card,
> modem(winmodem), sound, display.
>
> Can anyone suggest the best place to find these drivers?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Ritchie

You might try http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/ toi see if they havae
anything on your laptop.

In general Dell will tell you that they do not support linux. They use
propietary hardware and there may not be drivers.

On 27 Dec 2003 10:02:05 -0800, ritchie <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I am trying to set up a small home network using Linux and windows.
> My problem is I cannot get drivers for linux (RH 9).
> I have linux running on partitions on both a dell laptop and a PC but
> am having trouble with getting drivers.
> I have contacted the manufactors but have had no luck.
>
> The drivers that are not working properly are: network card,
> modem(winmodem), sound, display.
>
> Can anyone suggest the best place to find these drivers?

First you need to determine what network, modem, sound, and video hardware
you have, start with mfr/model that you can see on the hardware. Unless
you have old ISA hardware, 'lspci -v' will give some clues, since
sometimes the same model hardware will use different chips in different
versions.

Or check how Windows identifies the hardware and what it uses for drivers
for these devices (from the System list of Devices). Unless you have
bleeding edge (very new) hardware, there may already be support in Linux,
and you just need to figure out correct modules. It is possible that even
if kudzu (if still used) identifies hardware, there might be a better
module for that particular hardware. For example for one of my network
cards SuSE tried to use rtl8139 module (which did not work), instead of
8139too module which did work. In another case it tried to use the tulip
module which did not work for an old 10baseT DEC chip, instead of de4x5
module that did work.

Controllerless (Win) modems can be a problem, because they can hog
resources and interrupt things even if you do find support for them (even
in Windows). Real modems do not need any drivers, just standard serial
support.

--
David Efflandt - All spam ignored http://www.de-srv.com/