Linux help

Have you tried to use precompiled RPM packages. Usually much less hassle. If you cant find the package on redhats home page try www.rpmfind.org

Most applications, drivers etc for Linux are distributed primarily as source code. As Erik said, you can often find pre-compiled packages in rpm (for RedHat, Mandrake, Suse and so on) or .deb (for Debian based dists) and a couple of others.

But, I can almost guarantee you will, eventually, want something that is only available as source, so installing basic development tools is a good idea. IIRC, with RedHat you can run the package selection tools that are used during the installation - it's been a while since I've used RedHat in anger (I use Debian now), but if you can't find out how to do this in your documentation, let us know, I'm sure one of us can find it!

Generally, you should start by looking for packages with names starting "gcc". Depending on the version of RedHat you're using you might also look for "kgcc" (kernel gcc). The reason for this was RedHat "upgraded" their "main" compiler to an unstable version of gcc, and a lot of code couldn't be compiled, or compiled wrongly, particularly in the Linux kernel itself, hence their inclusion of a stable gcc named kgcc (can you guess one of the reasons I ditched RedHat?).

Anyway, last words: having said all of that, if you can, find another driver for your sound card. The reason is, Alsa is new, and still under heavy development and, from what I hear, can be a real pain in backside to get working - it does work well once it's working, though. It can be a serious challenge for experienced users, and might just scare off a newbie.

HTH, feel free to ask further questions,

Chris

Congrats on choosing to investigate Linux. Once you get to know how to use it confidently, you'll find using Windows increasingly irritating and frustrating by comparison...

The learning curve for Linux at first can be a bit steep if you're completely unfamiliar with UNIX systems, but once you get it, you'll start to see the power and flexibility and wonder how you could ever have lived without it!

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The reason is, Alsa is new,

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I would hardly call Alsa new -- it has been in development for several years now.

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It can be a serious challenge for experienced users, and might just scare off a newbie.

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I've built/installed ALSA from source several times now, and have never really had a problem getting it working fine...

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I did find a modem driver

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Is your modem an internal PCI modem? If so it is highly likely it is a "Winmodem". A Winmodem is basically an incomplete modem that does a whole load of its DSP processing in software (to make them even cheaper to manufacture), rather than on the modem circuitry itself. Consequently it requires special drivers, which usually aren't available for Linux, because the companies won't release the necessary specs for them.

Best option is to get an external serial hardware modem; works much better and dead easy to use under linux (the serial ports are under device nodes /dev/ttyS0 and /dev/ttyS1).

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So I ran it through a terminal. First of all, is that okay? Is that the same as the command line interface???

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Yep; Terminal == CLI

Did you know that if you press Ctl + Alt + F-key that you can switch to one of your virtual terminals? Can be useful.

Whilst you're running X that is normally on virtual terminal 7 (Ctl + Alt + F7).

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Do I need to add a compiler? I tried installing something from the Add/Remove option but there was an error. Should I re-install the whole thing?

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Your RedHat disc should come with a package management/software installation tool.

It sounds like you're entirely missing a development environment. Choose the option to install a complete X development enviroment (it'll save you time in the long run, trust me!); this will install gcc, make, all the other build tools and the necessary header files. Don't bother trying to manually install all the packages, as there are probably quite a few you will need to select as dependencies.


Having said that, RedHat should have setup your sound card during installation.

Sound card drivers under linux always take the form of kernel modules; you can either build them directly from source (from your ALSA tarballs), or (much easier and more sensible) install the suitable packages from your RedHat distribution.


John.

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Originally posted by J. A. Toon:
I would hardly call Alsa new -- it has been in development for several years now.

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Well, it's new compared to OSS, which was standard in the kernel up to the recent 2.6 release, I think Alsa became the favoured option with 2.6?

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I've built/installed ALSA from source several times now, and have never really had a problem getting it working fine...

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Maybe the folks I've spoke to were just unlucky. It's quite possible, for most of them the reason they were looking at Alsa was 'cause OSS didn't have support for the sound cards in question. Maybe it was more to do with the cards than drivers.

Chris

Thank you very much for the help. I'm not afraid to learn it, but it is daunting. I loved DOS but this is a whole different game and I have no previous UNIX experience. I'm just a newbie who's sick of Winblowze and Billy G.

Um, documention ... right. Well let's just say that I didn't actually buy Red Hat. We'll leave it at that.

Okay, I figured out the modem and found out about the superuser account in terminal (thanks for the virtual tip BTW). The sound issue, no matter how hard I try, is another matter. I might try another driver as Alsa clearly won't work. Oh and I added the development packages which certainly made life a lot easier. But now my Nvidia driver says I need to get out of X server to install the video driver. How do I do that???

Again thanks for helping me out with the basics. I do quite a bit of reading on the net regarding Linux but sometimes they either forget about the newbies or they oversimplify everything. I need to invest in a good book!

Any one point me to a guide/forum for Linux. I have a spare machine and would be interested in trying it out.
Thanks
Howard

Your RedHat documentation should be available either on your hard disk, if you installed it, or on the CD's (or ftp site) you installed from.

Most general useful and pertinent documentation is available from:
The Linux Documentation Project

I'd suggest anyone starting out look:
Linux Guides

there's lots of introductory material there, stuff about the organisation of the filesystem, general housekeeping and so on. There's also more advanced material, so don't be put off by some of the more daunting stuff (like 2.4 kernel internals and things like that).

Just remember, Linux isn't Windows, it doesn't work in the same way as Windows - if it did, why change?

As someone once observed: it's not that Unix isn't user friendly, it's just picky about its friends!

Chris

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Um, documention ... right. Well let's just say that I didn't actually buy Red Hat. We'll leave it at that.

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Unlike Windows it is perfectly legal and legitimate to make a CD-R copy of a Linux distribution. You do not have to buy Red Hat. In fact, you can perfectly legally buy CD-R copies online from retailers such as Linux Emporium. The open source, freely distributable nature of the system is yet one more reason why people should be encouraged to switch, so that we can start to break down the monopoly that Microsoft have in the domestic market.

Just about all of the software supplied with Linux is licensed under GPL, which basically means it is entirely free to use, distribute and copy.

Technically speaking Linux should be called GNU/Linux since so much of the basic Operating System functionality is provided by numerous GNU tools and built using the gcc compiler/build environment.

The software available to Linux has really matured over the last couple of years, and KDE in particular provides a superbly cohesive environment. GNOME is pretty decent too.

Never ever spend a single penny on software again -- legally!

John.