Linux

Yeah, the ADMTek chipset was a little difficult to deal with getting installed under Mandrake. However, it was nowhere near the nightmare of the Lexmark printer. I never got the "working" driver to talk to the thing, nor could I find the tools to recompile the source (and I didn't know if I should use alternatives), nor did the PPD work under Mandrake 10.1.

I bought 2 more wireless cards. They are Encore 802.11g 54Mb/s PCI cards. They are based on the RaLink RT2500 chipset, which I have read is easier to implement. So, I'm hoping that now I have switched to one under XP, that swapping the drives to Linux only means that it will get detected. I might have to load a driver, but that's not an issue.

BTW, I guess Prism is still Intersil or did it get sold off or spun off? I remember when "Prism" was the name for the chipset developed at Harris Semiconductor on Palm Bay Road in Palm Bay, FL. I worked at GCSD across the road. Later became Intersil after the company sold it off and Lanier off.

I'm really not up to date with who owns what in wireless card technology, right now. I'll just take your post as an indication that, should it become important to know about it, I should definitely not rely on my own out-of-date information.

by any means. Oz and the other have proved me growing up in rural Oklahoma set me back years.

I just say...Google it.

In spades even. LOL!

I used to have that kind of ambition once. Good luck with it. Any more I find I just never have the time for everything I want to do.

I like the drive tray idea. Use it myself. That and external hard drive enclosures. In fact they're starting to clutter my desk like floppys and CD's used to. Very handy to be able to have several different OS's on tap for sure.

with removable drives with different OSes is just knowing that new hardware you put into the box is compatible with all your OSes.

Otherwise, it is really nice. I've got the XP working with my new 54Mb wireless card, so all I have to do now is load up the Linux drive and configure it to use the new card as well and I'm off to the races :)

My understanding is that SYS ADMIN is actually for administrators of unix systems in general, as opposed to being for Linux administrators in particular. I've been thinking about getting my hands on a couple issues to evaluate it myself, at some point, actually, so I don't really have any room to criticize you on your choice of magazine. I haven't seen it personally, however, so I can't really comment on its quality.

For Linux-specific magazines, the two that really seem to stand out as quality mags out of what I've seen so far are Linux Journal and Linux Magazine. There's also TUX Magazine, a brand new (and FREE) publication "for the new Linux user". I haven't checked it out yet, though I intend to.

I imagine that print issues (if such exist) would cost money, but you can "subscribe" for free at the website and download the entire first issue without being charged, apparently. In fact, I think I'll go do that very shortly. I'd like to see how good the mag is. The webiste for it is, predictably:
http://www.tuxmagazine.com

Thanks for the info again. I'll download that tonite and check the others out off the newsstand.

I'd recommend installing with the wireless card installed and try to use that to establish initial network connectivity while installing Debian. Also, if it's not detecting the wireless card automatically during installation, try using aptitude during the installation process (when it starts asking what kind of software you'll want installed) to find anything related to ndiswrapper. I don't know if it'll be there, but it's worth a try.

I haven't worked with wireless drivers on Linux at all yet. I'll be doing so very soon, I suspect, but in the meantime the above are the recommendations that come immediately to my mind for things to try out during a Debian install to get wireless support working on your machine.