User Feedback :: Request For an FAQ (or IRC channel)



After using this distro for a couple of days and having to come to this forum with problems and having to wait till I get a response form one of the users before I can move on has been inconvenient.

I was told that this forum forums search too was the best help (and it does help much) but am still having some problems.

I am extremely new to Linux and need to spend an insane amount of time getting things to work right, and I was wondering if a FAQ could be started that would have easy and well explained answers to common problems.

Q. Can DSL Play DVDs?
Q. How do you eject the cd rom from while booting from the live CD?
Q. How do you capture a screen shot?
Q. Why doesn’t DSL detect my modem.
Q. How do I install other programs that don’t come with DSL or that cant be found in .dsl packages?
Q. Why doesn’t my sound card work?


And dozens more I could think of would be an excellent resource in one document rather than having to search the forums. And I think it would save time.

I know I am a real knob at this but I hope others think its a good Idea?
the question has never been "do we need an FAQ?"

the question has always been "who has time to write an extensive FAQ that will cover all of the rediculously common questions that newbs ask?"

writing a good FAQ takes time, and since DSL goes through frequent, dramatic changes, no one has been willing, or maybe, more like able to keep up with it to make a good FAQ.

i might try to draw up an FAQ over spring break, but it greatly depends on how evil my professors are about vacation homework...

-J.P.
SaidinUnleashed
Quote (jerome2 @ Aug. 26 2004,23:17)
Q. Can DSL Play DVDs?
Q. How do you eject the cd rom from while booting from the live CD?
Q. How do you capture a screen shot?
Q. Why doesn’t DSL detect my modem.
Q. How do I install other programs that don’t come with DSL or that cant be found in .dsl packages?
Q. Why doesn’t my sound card work?

I'm in no position to make any kind of FAQ, but I'll try to answer your questions. (I'm a noob, so bear with me)

A. Try a DVD for yourself. You will probably need to download a program (i believe mplayer should work). then just try sticking the dvd in the dvd drive, mount it using the mounting app, and check it out. I haven't tried it yet.
A. If you use the "dsl toram" option when the boot screen opens, you should be able to eject the disk.
A. I havent tried capturing a screenshot. It may be as simple as pressing the Print Scrn button on the keyboard, or you may need a program such as the Gimp.
A. Your modem is probably a winmodem. It's microsoft's fault.
A. You need to enable apt-get. Then you should be able to use .deb files using the dpkg command or dselect.
A. My sound card doesnt work either.  :(  It's something about the chipset. If you have a faster computer, you may want to try downloading and burning Knoppix, which is another liveCD, which is what DSL is based off. See if that can give you any help. When you boot Knoppix, type "knoppix alsa" on the boot screen. I have been told that may help support the sound drivers, but it didnt help me.
So ff I started on an faq with simple questions and anwsers like this and ask others to contribute stuff that I dont know does that sound reasonable?
There is a good bit of info in the "getting started" screen that
comes up when you first open the desktop..
For now, that is a "faq" of sorts, which helps explain new features.

The challenge is that, while your particular computer has issues we will call
A, B, and C,  another person with a different computer has issues
X,Y, and Z , and also issues A,B, and C, with different hardware.
Your solutions won't fix his problems, and his solutions don't help you at all.
Multiply this by how many different hardware configurations there are,
Multiply again by how often DSL releases new builds, with new packages,
and new methods of accomplishing tasks, and you can see
how a "faq" would be useful to only a few, and will quickly be
"out-of-date" ..

Short of a WinDVD distributed package,
which is the only "licensed" DVD player for linux
that I know of, there are not any "DVD players" that can be offered
for distribution by a linux distro...
The WinDVD package alone is larger than all of this 50 meg DSL distro.
Obviously, it will NEVER be included with DSL..
I am not aware of ANY distro offering DVD support in their package.
The libs for DVD playback can be found thruout the web, and can be
added to either MPlayer, Xine, or any number of other players, which will
allow them to decode DeCSS from comercial DVD's

XPaint will easily make screenshots.. So will gimp..
Search the forums for these packages to learn how to use them..

Once you've installed the dsl-dpkg.dsl file, you will have the
"apt-get" utilities..  All of the debian repository, except for the
XF86 files and a few others, can easily be installed to your computer..

As far as your modem and sound card, this will be specific to your
computer.. What kind of Modem and Sound card do you have.?
Is there any info in the forums on those 2 hardware names ?

And obviously, if your booting and running from the CD,
you can't take it out.. If your have 128+ ram, you can use the
toram option when you boot, which will load all of the CD image
to your ramspace.. Then the CD can be removed and the CD Drive used
for playback of Audio CD's , etc...

The 0.8 is now available...
More hardware support is offered with this new kernel..
Perhaps it will help you with your particular computer configuration.

Hope this helps,
73
ke4nt
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