Linux noob questions

[Marklar]

Im wanting to start learning about linux so I want to install mandrake 10 on my laptop but I am unsure if it will support the hardware I have. Also will I be able to access my network shares from my windows boxes so I can listen to my mp3s and such? My laptop is a dell inspiron 4150 with a truemobil 1150 wifi card and radeon mobile 7500

 

[Tomahawk]

The truemobile 1150 _should_ be supported out-of-the-box. If I remember right, those are basically rebranded Orinoco Gold cards.

 

[Marklar]

what about the ac97 audio?

 

[DiZASTiX]

Im wanting to start learning about linux so I want to install mandrake 10 on my laptop but I am unsure if it will support the hardware I have.

http://www.protomatter.com/i4150/
http://www.ele.auckland.ac.nz/~swon074/laptop/dell4150.html
http://users.rcn.com/jdreyer/i4150/
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/dell4150.html

it seems like that laptop is pretty compatible with linux.

Also will I be able to access my network shares from my windows boxes so I can listen to my mp3s and such?

you can do this using samba, which I am pretty sure comes with mandrake. I use slackware 10 and after I setup the network, samba automatically recongized my shares from windows computers on my network. If you do get the network to work, if you have gnome window manager, you can go into nautilus file browser and your network will be there...

 

[Marklar]

1 more thing Im having trouble with right now Im istaliing well trying to install some programs but it says I dont have access how do I login as root? It only shows me my regular login at startup

 

[DiZASTiX]

1 more thing Im having trouble with right now Im istaliing well trying to install some programs but it says I dont have access how do I login as root? It only shows me my regular login at startup

you can logon regularly and then from the terminal you can type the command "su root" (no quoutes) and it will prompt for password, then type in the root password and you will be root.

what do you mean is only shows regular login? You can't choose what user to login as?

 

[starbuck8968]

Also will I be able to access my network shares from my windows boxes so I can listen to my mp3s and such?

# mount -t smbfs -o username="your username" //"COMPUTER_NAME"/"share" /"mount point"
don't need samba to access shares, just to create shares