new to Linux help required

James Wilkinson james at westexe.demon.co.uk
Tue Nov 23 17:56:29 UTC 2004


Sunny P. Sachanandani wrote:
> I am a very seasoned windows user right from 95 to xp but it is the
> first time i am trying out linux.

Welcome to Fedora!

> i have and AMD 64 PC with 512 MB ram
> a Gigabyte GA K8S760M motherboard with
> 964 southbridge 180 SATA 760 graphics (chipsets from SIS)
> dual IDE channels PCI IDE controller from SiS
> NVidia geforce FX 5200
> I wish to use Fedora core 3 x86x64 but does anyone know where i can
> find rpm drivers for nvidia and others(even generic drivers for other
> devices will do) If no rpms are available please help me to install
> from command line

I think you've got a misconception here.

Most Linux drivers are incorporated into the operating system. The
system should just identify the device, choose the right driver,
configure it, and go. (They're not usually provided as separate RPMs for
technical reasons).

I'd suggest just installing and seeing what happens. If you're unlucky
enough to have something not work properly, ask and we'll see what we
can do.

You'll need the proprietary Nvidia drivers for 3D support. But for
normal 2D usage, the built-in drivers should Just Work.

You know when you've got slightly older hardware and a brand new Windows
release? And Windows just detects your hardware and loads the right
drivers without you having to put in driver disks? That's what should
happen, but Fedora is better at it than Windows.

> And I had one simple question :Can I use 32 bit
> Linux drivers (same kernel or 2.4+) in Fedora core 3 x86x64?

No. For what it's worth, *when* XP for x86-64 comes out, you won't be
able to use 32 bit Windows drivers there, and for the same reasons. And
it's mainly those drivers that are delaying the release, as I understand
it.

James.

-- 
E-mail address: james | 'In a serial interface, the data bits move down a
@westexe.demon.co.uk  | single channel one after the other, like railway
                      | trains. This is different from the parallel interface
                      | in which groups of bits arrive together, like London
                      | buses.'  -- 'The Computer Dictionary', Jon Wedge




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