Linux Dummies 9th

36
Part I: Getting Your Feet Wet
The current distributions of Linux do very well
on relatively new notebooks and laptops. (See
www.linux-laptop.net for an excellent
research site on how Linux gets along with
various makes and models.) If your laptop is a
common brand, you shouldn’t encounter any
problems installing Linux. However, laptops
often contain WinModems. (Hardware labeled
with the Win prefix is only for Windows, so it
can’t figure out what to do with Linux.)
If you plan to purchase a laptop for Linux, check
out its modem and other hardware (such as
network cards) to make sure they’re not Winbranded.
If the built-in or default hardware for
Laptop considerations
the laptop is Win-labeled (or you discover, while
researching the machine, that it contains a Win
product, even one that isn’t properly labeled),
you might be able to switch the offending
hardware for a PCMCIA (Personal Computer
Memory Card International Association) card.
This is a standard for laptops, and provides a
way to plug in additional feature cards. Most
current laptops contain at least one PCMCIA
card slot to give you a place to slip in a PCMCIA
card modem, network card, or combo modemnetwork
card. As long as you stick with a
common brand of PCMCIA card, it should work
well with Linux.
If you need to find out exactly what hardware is in your machine, you have
the following options:
✓ Use an existing operating system to document your hardware. If your
computer is already running Windows, you can collect a lot of information
from the Windows environment. Use one of the following methods,
depending on your system:
• In Windows 98: Choose Start➪Settings➪Control Panel➪System➪
Device Manager to access the dialog box shown in Figure 2-9.
• In Windows XP: Right-click the My Computer desktop icon, and
select Manage to open the Computer Management dialog box.
Then choose the Device Manager menu to access the list of hardware
installed on your machine (as shown in Figure 2-10).
You can double-click each item within the Device Manager to
display the corresponding details.
• In Windows Vista: Choose Start➪Control Panel➪Device Manager to
browse your hardware. A warning dialog box will appear; when it
does, click Continue.
✓ Download a hardware-detection tool. If you don’t have any diagnostic
tools, you can download various hardware-detection tools, such as
Dr. Hardware, from the Internet. The Dr. Hardware tool contains lots
of information about what’s inside your machine. This tool is shareware,
and the usage and fee information is available from the Gebhard
Software Web site at www.dr-hardware.com.