Network cards?

[Deposeni]

I just decided to install redhat linux 8.0 onto my 700mhz AMD, with a TNT2 64 pro, F5D 5000 PCI Card/ Desktop network PCI Card (Belkin), and creative sound blaster PCI128.... I was wondering, would it work on my system? I was looking through the supported hardware on their site, and they didn't list my network card... But a friend told me as long as it worked for windows it should work for redhat, is this true? Anyone have the same network card as me and running redhat?


Also, This is my 2nd time installing linux, and 3rd time formatting.... I haven't done either since redHat linux 6.1 (This was on my 100mhz so I doubt it would count as succesful), so I'm a bit scared of what might happend if I screw up..... I'm currently running Win98SE, and if I remember right thats fat 32, and linux requires the other parition type (Or is it vice versa?)

Thanks for help in advanced.

[paco]

Well...... Some searching on the net might help you.

If You've done that yourself your question would be not as hard.

Searching on the website of the producer of network card tells that it has support for linux.

See : http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=2018&pcount=&Product_Id=104937&Section.Section_Path=%2FRoot%2FNetworki%2E%2E%2End Cables%2FNetworkI%2E%2E%2EaceCards%2Fct_Id>

There is also a possibility that cards which are not mentioned still work under linux, when they are ne2k compatible, which most cards are. So I think you don't have to be scared about your NIC not working.

About the file system types your right.

Linux needs to run on another filesystem. Mostly ext2, ext3 or ReiserFS.

Linux has possibilities to read and write to fat32 partitions though, only that is at runtime. It can 'mount' fat32 systems. Maybe that is what made you doubt if it needed other partitions.

About you being scared that you would screw up your machine, you can of course make some backups. I don't know if you know 'ghost'? Software to make a total copy of a whole partition.
You could use that for example.

A second option is to use VMWare. If you know what it is? It is software which 'simulates' a new stand alone machine. It can make virtual hard disks which are stored on your fat32 under windows as 1 huge file. It gets the size you choose.

Futhermore I can say that the partitioning is not so scary. Of course it depends on how your hard disk is partitioned now. But about that I can give you no tips at this time, because you only mentioned running win98se, not how it is partitioned now.

[Deposeni]

Thanks, but just to clear something up... I DID look at their site, they only had windows drivers... Didn't think about looking in their FAQ though, and I'm not partition, er well... Its just going to be one main parition, its a 30gig HD, not very big or with paritioning for.


Edit: Oh and yes I know what ghost is, I backed up my HD a few hours ago...

[rickenbacherus]

If you've got a 30Gb hard drive then you've got PLENTY or room for two operating systems. In fact you could put 4 OS's on there no prob. For simplicity's sake you could split the drive in half, install windoze first, then Linux. Linux will allow you to easily choose which OS to boot AND if you can't make everything work in Linux you can still do everything in windoze which will allow you time to get things ironed out in Linux. There is mucho documentation on just this both here in these forums and on the web.

[paco]

indeed 30 GB could be enough.

It depends on your space required for normal operating of your box.

For example: if 20 GB works for you, it leaves you 10 GB linux ofcourse.

Keep in mind that when linux runs, you can access your windoze partitions, which saves some.

Documents created could be saved on the windoze partition. MP3's for example can be read.

So there is only some linux space requirered for the OS. Try to save some space by not installing all types of window managers.

If KDE(most used), is the window manager you're planning to use, and only that one, then don't install other..... It saves a lot of space.

That also counts for normal applications.... If you're not planning to use it as a full workstation environment.... then do not install 3 browers, 2 word processors etc.

About partitioning you could think of using 'Partition magic'. that's a tool to resize, create, remove, etc, your partitions. That way you could resize your windoze partition of 30 GB to, let's say: 22 GB.

Then, when installing linux. linux will probably come up with a configuration to create it's partitions in the empty space. The space you created by resizing the windoze partition.

My linux is installed even in 6 GB space.

That seems the best solution to me. 6 to 8 GB offers plenty of space to linux.

Good luck, with your choice !

Of course if there are more problems or questions you could always ask us :D