Installing drivers on mandrake 10.2

[servtex122]

I am a complete newbie to linux and am finding it difficult to install drivers for my printer and adsl modem.
I have managed to download them to xp, as I have a dual boot system ,and I am able to see the files in Linux but can not install them.

can any one tell on old dog a new trick.....

[crispibits]

Ok servtex122, we're going to need some help here...

1. Which printer do you have?
2. Which ADSL modem do you have?
3. What are the names of the files you have downloaded?
4. What have you done to try and install the files?

The printer shouldn't need any drivers downloaded for it if it is a reasonably well-known one. Linux printing support is generally a case of 'it works straight away, or it doesn't work at all'.

The ADSL modem may more tricky. I prefer to have a seperate modem/router and just connect to it using the network, as Linux networking support is officially 'really good', whereas it's ADSL modem support is officially 'patchy, with a rainy outlook' - but we may be able to do something...

[servtex122]

here we go then ....
firstly I have a lexmark X74 all-in-one printer

The modem is a tiscali sagem fast 800

The files I have down loaded are lxx74-cups-0.8.4.2.tar for the printer

and Fast8x0_3-0-6.tgz for the modem.

I have been trying to use the "configure system" part of linux and installing the files that way but It doesnt work.

As I said I am a "complete" newbie sorry.

[linuxgirlie]

With the tgz you will have to un-archive it first. So right-click and unarchive. Within this file there should be a readme.txt or a install.txt this will tell you how to install your driver. Its normally something along the lines of configure, make install.

[crispibits]

Don't apologise for being a newbie - we were all one once, and it looks like you have done a good bit of legwork by getting what appear to be the right files - I was scared that you might have downloaded the windows drivers for a moment!

Unfortunately I have never dealt with either bits of kit. The following link may of use to you though, looks like someone's had some success with mandy 10.1 and the modem you're talking about:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/archive/23/2004/12/3/202072

As for the printer, doing a search on www.google.com/linux for lxx74-cups returned some instructions, but my proxy server at work is acting weirdly, so I can't tell you how useful they are. Try these and let us know how far you get.

[ollie]

... to use the "configure system" part of linux and installing the files that way but It doesnt work.

Hi servtex122,

You don't mention which version of Linux you are using, I know there have been issues with CUPS on some versions of Linux (SUSE definitely because I have to do some cups.conf editing to add my printers). This effects the CUPS configuration tools available.

The "configure system" part of Linux is different on most distributions. However, the conf files are usually in /etc so this is where any "hand-editing" may be required.

[rant]
This is one of the points I keep trying to raise - Linux needs a graphical, single configuration tool that only needs X, no other desktop environments like Gnome, KDE, TWM, Fluxbox or any of the others you can think of. A single point to configure all of the installed components, unlike YaST that has everything or Red Hat's multitude of configuration tool.

Only when this happens will Linux really be ready for the home consumer.
[/rant]

[nelz]

How about Mandriva's harddrake? Not only does it handle all hardware configuration and detection, it doesn't even need X, which is handy if the hardware you are trying to setup is a graphics card.

[ollie]

Hi nelz,
It sounds like a start - but the harddrake web site is broken at the moment so I can't really assess without installing Mandriva (I'm running out of time and old systems). The hardware side is only part of the problem - the same tool should be able to configure software. Loop through /etc, load the *.conf files that are installed, any imported/linked files are loaded in sub-sections, edit the conf files, help & comments available, save the conf files, restart the service - bingo! Linux configuration becomes a transferable skill that works across all distros.

[nelz]

Like YaST, which you complained had everything?

I don't see the need for one tool that does everything. It's not the *nix way, which uses specialised tools for each task.

[crispibits]

Mmm, but I think that's the biggest hurdle unfortunately - the very fact that there's a specialised tool for everything. It's this that frustrates the newbie and (possibly) the seasoned hacker as well. Each tool is constructed a slightly different way, and has a different way of doing things. From the usability standpoint it's horrible, because it places an extra load on the user, having to remember each and every way of configuring stuff. The standpoint of having multiple ways of doing things is fine, have a whole disparate myriad of tools written in Python/Elvish/spaghetti if that's your bag. Also have one place/tool/menu where everything can be configured following a consistent methodology. One can choose which they'd rather use, and I know what I'd go for...

[nelz]

I don't (know what you'd go for), because on the one hand you say you want everything in one, yet you also complain that YaST has everything.

If you want all-in-one, what's wrong with YaST?

[crispibits]

No I don't (say I want everything yet complain about YaST), I'm crispibits, not Ollie!
To be quite honest I'm not sure that there is a great deal wrong with YaST, as far as I can remember. I always got the impression that it was rather Suse-centric though, so never really though about using it on Ubuntu. Although I must say that Ubuntu is generally auto-configured rather well ( or should I say Debian/Gnome is autoconfigured rather well).

It would just be handy to be able to say to anyone, regardless of distro, 'open the SuperConfigurator and go to hardware->sound and then do blah'

[nelz]

Sorry for the mistaken identity!

There was Linuxconf, which you don't hear anything about these day, probably because the distro-specific tools got better. Both MCC and YaST do a good job. They certainly used to fall back to a curses GUI if X wasn't available. If you want real independence, how about Webmin? It handles a lot of what has been asked for, and most of the rest could be added as it is totally modular.

[crispibits]

I did think about that, but for some reason I've never got on with webmin - I don't know why. It could be the clunky default theme (I know it's skinnable, but first impressions and all that). Also when I tried to use it on Ubuntu it did all kinds of weird stuff to the config files, and was never quite the same again. Of course, with the perfect config tool there's no need to touch the config files, so it shouldn't matter - but there's always *some* reason for a bit of vi, even for us numbskull Ubuntuists Furthermore, webmin doesn't tend to get installed by default in a lot of distros - perhaps if it did, and had a better defalut skin we'd all be using it?