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cross
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The Linux item
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Sep 16 19:00 UTC 2006 |
This item is for discussion of the GNU/Linux system originally written by
Finnish (then) student Linus Torvalds. Linux has since grown to be the
premier open source project, running on a huge number of machines with
thousands of contributers and perhaps millions of users. Many distributions
of the basic Linux kernel and GNU utilities exist, and Linux is unique in that
"Linux" refers to the system's kernel which is maintained separate from any
specific distribution. The Linux kernel is available free (with source code)
under the GNU Public License, and is often bundled with GNU utilities leading
the distributions to be frequently referred to as "GNU/Linux."
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| 79 responses total. |
ball
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response 1 of 79:
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Jan 16 00:41 UTC 2007 |
Does Linux support external Firewire devices such as hard
disks, DVD-RAM drives and camcorders? Does it support IP
networking over Firewire?
Can today's Linux connect to an 802.11g LAN that uses WPA
with a private shared key?
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cross
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response 2 of 79:
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Jan 16 01:12 UTC 2007 |
I imagine it depends on the exact distribution used, but I have a hard time
believing that the answer to all of those questions is not `yes' for the major
distributions.
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mcnally
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response 3 of 79:
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Jan 16 02:37 UTC 2007 |
Linux has had firewire disk support for quite some time. PC BIOSes may
not support (in fact, usually do not support) booting from Firewire,
however.
CD and DVD burners are a little more complicated, because it depends on
the application software. My understanding (which is limited) is that
handling of Firewire peripherals is done through a sort of SCSI emulation
layer and that handling of CD and DVD burners is *also* done through a
sort of SCSI emulation layer, so I would recommend testing first or asking
someone who has a configuration similar to the one you have.
As far as video cameras are concerned, I don't know.
The laptop I'm typing this on currently is connected to my 802.11g WAP,
which uses a WEP key (I know it's not secure.) The version of Ubuntu
which I am using has a nice little GUI configuration widget to enter
the key and everything (though of course I'm sure there are also command
line equivalents..) And my Ubuntu distro is more than a year old
(I'm running 5.10, I believe) and things have probably been refined
further since then. Nowadays, for example, I believe there are native
drivers for the Broadcom chipset my Dell laptop uses, which eliminate the
need to use the awkward (but better-than-nothing) ndiswrapper utility
to load the Windows drivers.
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ball
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response 4 of 79:
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Jan 16 03:30 UTC 2007 |
I can see DVD-R, DVD-R/W, DVD+R, DVD+R/W, CD-R and CD-R/W
being dependent on application software, but DVD-RAM seems
to present itself to the host system as though it were a
hard disk with 2K sectors. I don't anticipate using any
'burning' software with that, although I suppose I would
need it when using DVD-R media in the same drive.
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mcnally
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response 5 of 79:
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Jan 16 20:34 UTC 2007 |
OK, I haven't used a DVD-RAM device. If that's the way they work you'd
probably be able to use them under Linux fairly easily. A 5-second Google
search could probably give you a real answer, though, rather than a guess.
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keesan
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response 6 of 79:
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Jan 16 20:36 UTC 2007 |
So far the only thing I have needed Windows for is to run Win32 modem upgrade
programs from USR. Linux could probably do it with Windows emulation.
I write CDs and play DVDs but have never seen a DVD-RAM.
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ball
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response 7 of 79:
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Jan 17 00:08 UTC 2007 |
I would be surprised if Linux granted that kind of hardware
access to an emulated environment, although if it were an
external serial modem it might still work. I have three DVD
-RAM disks and a borrowed DVD-RAM drive. It doesn't work
with NetBSD, probably because of the 2K sectors. It might
work with -current. I'll test it if I can get -current to
build.
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twenex
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response 8 of 79:
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Jan 17 02:51 UTC 2007 |
As far as wireless goes, I recommend staying away from Linksys, and doing the
same with Broadcom (or supplementing inbuilt laptop broadcom with something
that works (for Linux/BSD values of "works"). (I never had any joy with
NDISwrapper.))
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ball
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response 9 of 79:
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Jan 17 03:41 UTC 2007 |
I shudder at the thought of NDISwrapper. Native binary
drivers are bad enough without resorting to that kind of
evil. I suppose binary drivers are a fact of life in Linux
though. :-/
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keesan
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response 10 of 79:
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Jan 17 04:30 UTC 2007 |
Linksys WPC11 ver. 3 works with hermes and orinoco drivers, and kernel 2.4.
Cisco aironet 340 works with kernel 2.4 or 2.2 and has better range.
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maus
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response 11 of 79:
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Jan 17 04:52 UTC 2007 |
Ignoring the moral rhetoric of evil, you will find a much easier time by
using a wireless board that is known to work natively in your
environment. I believe Orinoco wireless boards are known to work well,
as are older Aeronet boards (though the Cisco webpage will lead you
around in circles when you go to look for the Aeronet drivers for
Linux).
You may want to look on your vendor's webpage to see if there is a list
of wireless boards known to work well.
- SuSE Linux Enterprise:
http://en.opensuse.org/HCL/Network_Adapters_(Wireless)
- CentOS (If there's a Y at the end of the line, the driver is compiled
into the kernel itself, if there is an M at the the end of it, the
driver is available as a module.):
http://wiki.centos.org/HardwareList/centos4-config?action=AttachFile&do=g
et&target=config-2.6.9-42.0.2.plus.c4
- Slackware refers you to a generic Linux Hardware Compatibility
booklet: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO/
- Debian refers you to the same document that Slackware does.
- RedHat's webpage is currently down for maintanance
- Mandriva maintains a searchable Hardware Compatibility database for
its Mandrake Linux product: http://www.mandriva.com/en/hardware
- I can't seem to find any useful information on TurboLinux's webpage
- Ubuntu (Intel):
https://help.ubuntu.com/6.10/ubuntu/installation-guide/i386/hardware-supp
orted.html
If you use a different version of Linux, you will need to search the
vendor's site for more informaiton
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gull
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response 12 of 79:
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Jan 17 20:44 UTC 2007 |
You really have to be careful with wireless cards. Manufacturers
frequently change the chipsets inside them without changing the model
number. I still find them to be pretty hit-or-miss in Linux.
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naftee
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response 13 of 79:
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Jan 22 03:17 UTC 2007 |
unlucky
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fudge
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response 14 of 79:
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Feb 13 18:50 UTC 2007 |
don't use firewire but WPA/PSK works for me with a netgear card and madwifi
drivers + wpa_supplicant. also had it working with some intel/broadcomm
chipsets.
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