Linux Driver Installation

[L0rd_M@dness]

I just installed Puppy Linux on one of my old PCs and fuck! I got stuck on the drivers like I always do!
On windows I just use a Driver Manager software cracked version to get all my stuff installed. On Linux, I dont know much, and this thing has been making me suffer till now! Thought EZ people could help...

[lucid]

We need more details if you want help.

[Kulverstukas]

suck 2 be u bro. Using driver manager? who the fuck use that... lazy people, that's who!
Usually linux doesn't need any drivers, and puppy sure as hell doesn't need them. But if you really do and can't find a linux version of those drivers, you can always use NDISWRAPPER provided with the puppy linux distro to install the windows drivers!

[lucid]

Ahhhh linux genius over here^^^. What network adapter do you have? That info would help greatly.

EDIT: Comparing Windows to Linux is useless so whatever it is that you do to configure drivers in windows doesnt matter. If you have something like broadcom then ndiswrapper will most definitely help you. I have never used puppy linux so I am not exactly sure. I use arch so I have to install and configure it all myself too. For example I have an intel card and am running a 64 bit system so I have to install my driver using pacman -S lib32-intel-dri.


But as I've said I have never used puppy linux. I assume you already have but if not then you might want to refer to their wiki

[L0rd_M@dness]

I dont understand why the hell would I NOT use a driver manager software when it determines, downloads and installs all the drivers automatically?
well, with puppy linux the problem is when I installed it, the network card was detected, but then I tried connecting to the router via ethernet and I couldn't. I just connected the wire and expected the OS to detect it automatically, so I tried browsing and ... well it didn't work.
So, looking for a connection manager or something like that (I'm a n0o0b with linux!)   I found pupDial Modern Internet Dialer and it said that "No Moden is Detected click on Probe button) and so did I! some messages appeared, an awkward moment when you're just thinking: "What did just happen?" then I opened up the same window again and SAME message!
So here I was with an undetected modem, and no driver manager...  I KNOW that the Dialer thing was not what I was supposed to use, but that's how I figured that the driver is not installed.
Sp what am I doing wrong?

[lucid]

Since I have no experience with puppy i would say RTFM! In my personal opinion it sounds as though you need to install your ethernet driver. Which should not be too hard at all as ling as you read the proper documentation

[L0rd_M@dness]

but in order to get the documentation I need to know what driver I need, or the name of my network card, or modem, etc.
The problem is that I don't know ANY of them! [size=78%] ... yeah ... I have a piece of junk, literally, that's why I used puppy cuz it had a light core...[/size]
so is there any way to figure that out on linux?

[lucid]

If you know your computer (which you should) you can easily google your computer type and find out which network card you are using. Or check in the control panel in windows if you use windows or have a dual boot. Also, you should very easily be able to take a look at your modem and find out which kind it is. I would imagine anyone in this field of work(or play) should know these things already. But, if you don't a simple google search should suffice....or maybe I am not understanding the question.

In any case, in order to find out your ethernet driver you can invoke:

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dmesg | grep 'Ethernet driver'

and 

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lspci | grep -i ethernet


[L0rd_M@dness]

well I'm a programmer, I work more on the software. Don't have much experience with the hardware, so sorry if I'm kinda stupid with these stuff!
and about the computer type, well this one is something one of my friends gave me, and it says Dell on the monitor and hp on the case, so I'm not sure what type of computer this is... and all I can say by looking at the stickers is that it's got a Pentium 4, and uses Windows (which obviously is not right anymore!)

but I DID already google different things and found these:
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=235365
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=508681#508681
and well none of them worked, and that's why I'm here on EZ!
about dmesg, well, there is NO ethernet driver! grep didn't return anything and I literally digged through all the output by dmesg, and all I found was eth0, and...
wait a minute...

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ifconfig eth0 upAN Icon appeared down there...

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ping google.com
nope, still not connected...
that's how far I've gotten so far! I don't even know if it's a driver problem...

[lucid]

If there is no ethernet driver than it is definitely a driver problem. I would suggest finding out more info about your pc to start. For example I have an Asus running win7 to start with(now its a dual boot with linux) and its got an i5 core. Taking a look at some of the stickers i can see that its a k53E series. If you dont have any identifying stickers then I would suggest google as your guide. Perhaps visit an online computer store like newegg and try and determine your specs from there.

[xzid]

You have eth0, somethings working.. otherwise when you:

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# ifconfig eth0 up
ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device

or some similar error, you likely got network problems bro. my guess, try:

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# dhcpcd eth0
now attempt to ping google.com

on puppy linux, the GUI connection manager should be on your desktop named
"connect"(phone icon) or at the shell:
   

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# connectwizard

[L0rd_M@dness]

You have eth0, somethings working.. otherwise when you:

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# ifconfig eth0 up
ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device

or some similar error, you likely got network problems bro. my guess, try:

Code: [Select]

# dhcpcd eth0
now attempt to ping google.com

on puppy linux, the GUI connection manager should be on your desktop named
"connect"(phone icon) or at the shell:
   

Code: [Select]

# connectwizard

THANKS! +1 For the tip! that was it dhcpcd did it!

[s3my0n]

Yes, I was about to say that your router didn't give you an IP address. Same thing happens with Backtrack, by default network is not started so you don't give away your presence on the network.