[thelist] Tutorial - step-by-step Linux install to make server

[Hugh Blair]

> If you've got a nice fast net connection - it's worth going to
> distrowatch anyway and grabbing a few of the top rated ISOs - 
> fd images are included with most of them and diskwrite port for
> dos is included with most.
> 
> Big thing ... Really big thing - make sure you've got a NIC 
> which is as standard as possible available.

I already have RH 8.0 installed and can ping the system from one
of my Win computers. startx won't run - a weird old Compaq vid
card and I can't get any combination of setup parameters to work.
Red Hat tries to recognize it as a Matrox Millenium, but research
tells me that it's a Matrox MGA, a slightly different beast. 
Compaq calls it a Q2000+. So WTF, I'll just give up GUI.

So I just need to learn how to do stuff from the prompt. I'm 
downloading Mandrake 9.0 right now, so I'll have that burned
to look at. Of course I have to burn a boot-floppy, but if the
files are on the CD I'm sure I can figure that out.

I've found a bit of hand-holding help online but it all assumes
some GUI. For others reading this thread, here's some interesting 
help sites:
http://linux-newbie.sunsite.dk/
http://blizzards.info/

I'll be reading them front-to-back in the next few days. But
just to be clear, although I want to (eventually) learn quite
a bit about Linux, my goal is just to get this tool working.
Learning the finer details will come later.

> Let us know how it goes.
> If you're in the UK - can provide you a disk with Mandrake 9 if
> necessary

I will. Since I can't (so far) find a newbie guide specifically
for what I want, I'll take notes and write this up when successful.
Thanks for the CD offer - but I'm in Chicago and on a cable-modem
so download time isn't an issue. Since I'm not into tweaking
right now, I'll be going for distros that are as much plug
and play as possible.

Still looking for the magic bullet, but pushing on...
Thanks to all so far for the ideas and help.

Hugh