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capitalPI
12-11-2002, 11:57 PM
Yet another pathetic newbie screaming all of his problems into the darkness! Oh boy!

So, I just installed Mandrake 9.0. Yeah, it's cool. It'd be even cooler if it let me use my printer, CD burner, or wireless network adapter.

The printer is a Lexmark Z12. Now, it would figure that Mandrake had options during installation for a Lexmark Z11, Z13, even a Z22--but no Z12. {I tried all of the above, with varying degrees of failure.} Does anyone out there use a Z12, or know what I have to do to get mine to work?

The CD burner is a BACKPACK USB CD-RW, model no. 193200. Mandrake seems to recognize that something's plugged in the USB port, but it has no idea what it is. How do I clue it in?

The last problem is a Linksys Wireless USB network adapter, version 2.6. I already posted to the previous Linksys thread, but I figure it can't hurt to repeat the request here. Again, Mandrake knows there's something there {it even realizes it's a Linksys}, but it doesn't know what to do with it.

And um, the other thing is, I'm horribly confused by all this 'make' stuff. Yeah, yeah, I'm ignorant, I know. Every time I've tried {like with the driver posted at atmelwlandriver.sourceforge.net, for instance}, the terminal screen fills up with text, I get a bunch of error messages at the end, and everything still doesn't work. I don't know what I'm doing wrong; I type exactly what the readme says to type, but.... Anyway, my point is, if you can help me, a detailed, accurate walkthrough would be so, so appreciated.

Any and all help would be fantastic--the sooner I get this stuff up and running {well, the burner's not as important as the other two}, the sooner I can stop trudging through Windows! Thanks!

mdwatts
12-12-2002, 09:50 AM
A few members have posted 'wireless tutorials' (http://linuxnewbie.org/forum/search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=254203&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending) in the 'How I did it' forum that may help.

More can be found with Google for Linux searches.

Try Lexmark's site as they may have Linux info/drivers for their printers. Also www.linuxprinting.org may help.

I recently had to use our external Backpack at work to install W2K and Linux on a laptop that I bought from a friend (it didn't have a cdrom).

What I did was use the drivers and documentation at ?? www.micro-solutions.com or www.microsolutions.com (the Backpack site). The one I used was a parallel port Backpack, but I seem to remember seeing info on the USB models.

They should tell you what modules are required for the USB Backpack.