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Installing drivers

Eugene

Installing drivers
« on: March 18, 2003, 10:15:42 AM »
Hi,

I have read numerous postings and howto's on installing a new driver and compiling the kernel etc etc. I am new to some linux "things" and experienced at others.

Is there someone willing to explain step by step what to do and importantly what I am doing and why. I will be so grateful as this is a big "gap" in my expertise. I think that I might not be the only person that has this problem as I am sure more and more people are moving from Windows to Linux.

I have been using the SME server for a while now and really enjoy it :-)

Sincerely
Eugene

Bill Talcott

Re: Installing drivers
« Reply #1 on: March 18, 2003, 09:45:31 PM »
In most cases you shouldn't have to do any of that stuff. That's why the development stuff is left out - you don't need it, and it's more secure if someone should break into it.

You should be able to find lots of information on compiling. SME is based on RedHat, so search for that. SME may require small changes from a default RH install, such as a different kernel version. I'm not too sure on all the details, as I'm not too involved in this side of things. Installing the devtools contrib will give you what you need for compiling stuff.

Do you understand what compiling is? You're just converting the source code into a program. This is "portable" in the fact that one piece of source code can be compiled for many different systems, rather than having a bunch of different downloadable programs for different hardware. The SME CD contains pre-compiled programs. If for some reason you need to change an option that's coded into the program, you may need to recompile the program with that option. You may need to create a driver for some obscure hardware that no other SME users have. Those are some reasons why you might do it...

http://razor.sourceforge.net/docs/install.html shows how to compile files for Razor. For the most part, you just tell the compiler to turn the source code into a program using certain configuration files. The specifics may vary... Again, searching should give you lots of info...

I'm not trying to be rude, but if you don't know how and why to recompile your kernel, it's probably not something you should do. You are totally rebuilding the core of the operating system, so you should read up and know exactly what's going on. Personally, I have no need for this, so I haven't bothered to learn much about it, so I just stay away from it. I'm sure I'll want to mess with it sometime, but for now I'm happy with the way it is.

Kelvin

Re: Installing drivers
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2003, 11:41:59 AM »
I suppose this is why a lot of people still prefer Windows, bugs, crashes and all. While I do know the reasoning and arguments behind why Linux things the way it does, it can sometimes (OK, OK, very often) be really frustrating.

Here's a simple example :-
If I come across a piece of software for Windows from say Download.com, I download it and unzip it if necessary, and most times just run setup or install and it's ready to run (unless the prog specifically does not run on that particular version of Windows, which does happen but not that often when compare with ....).Besides, it does not make you go out and buy your favourite compiler and compile it before you can even run it.

Under Linux, I come across a piece of software, great ! Download it, and most likely need to unzip / untar it. If it is an rpm (not always available) great ! rpm -ivh someprog.rpm. If you are lucky, it installs. If not, you can end up in dependency hell. someprog.rpm depends on somelibrary and somelibrary depends on yetanotherlib and so on. Try to install somelibrary, sorry, installing somelibrary conflicts with some item from someotherlib that's already installed but is not the right version to support someprog. If you remove someotherlib to try and install somelibrary you will break the dependencies from manyotherlibs.....If you don't have an rpm to work with and just end up with the source, even better ! You can play with the source ! Ahem ! If even experienced e-smithers like Bill will not play with compiling anything, newbies beware ! :-)

Sorry, Eugene. I know I'm not helping you understand how compiling works. Just thought you should know what you are in for (been there and done that). Yes, Linux *may* be more secure and stable, but it sure doesn't make it easy.

Kelvin

Eugene

Re: Installing drivers
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2003, 01:32:31 PM »
Thanks for all the input guys. I know that this is a very complicated thing cause it seems whenever I ask someone they give me an explanation as to why I shouldn't even bother as I am a newbie.

The thing is this. Up until six months ago I knew nothing about linux. I had never even worked on something like Linux. Today I have a working Linux firewall running IPtables, squid, squidguard. It has got a little more than this but my point is I am a very fast learner.

Could you perhaps steer me in the right direction with some resources etc.

Hugely appreciated