fc6 install questions

[vbdanl]

Hi. I am a newbie to linux, so I apologize in advance for what probably seem like stupid questions.. I am hoping this OS will do everything we used to do with Windows XP, without all the run around MS puts a guy through.. I had to replace my motherboard on this emachine, and in doing so, the windows xp restore cd's wouldn't load. The computer shop offered to load windows for me for a small fortune.. Thats why I opted to try FC6.
So far I am really excited about what I am seeing.
I was trying to follow the install help guide for fc6, but I couldn't get the ethernet port to recognize, so it wouldn't let me change the package selections. I finally got it to boot by adding a "mode" line to the xorg.conf file.

1. How should I get the options I originally wanted during install, ie. desktop environment, graphical internet, sound and video, development, server tools, windows file server, legacy software support, etc. ?

2. t now comes up to black login screen during bootup. I have to alt-f7 or f8 to get to the fedora user login screen. Do I need to change the runlevel to get it to come up to the user screen automatically?

3. Will I be able to read data CD's created with windows XP into folders in FC6 that all users can access, like pictures, music, documents ?

4. I have a 2wire SBC modem that has 1 ethernet, 1 usb, and 1 or more wireless connections. With the XP system, I was able to connect with any of the 3. With my windows 98 computer and now the linux computer, I have only been able to connect to the internet using the ethernet connection (so we can't get more than one computer on the internet at a time, and then only by manually connecting the ethernet cable to the desired computer). I expect linux can handle it, but so far I haven't been able to figure it out. any ideas?

5. The new motherboard came with a drivers and utilities CD for VIA chipset mainboard the guy at the store said I would need to install after installing windows. Do I still need to install it, and if so, how ? (it is not a bootable cd, but is a auto installation cd)

6. The icon in the upper right says there are 176 updates available. Should I install them all ? how do I know which to install or not install? should this feature be turned off?

finally, i know how to use vi, gedit, etc. don't know much about the kernal or OS stuff. If you point me to a link that explains how to do these things, I will be most grateful.
Thanks.

[scotta3234]

1. Well upon intalling FC6 it should have automatically installed the desktop environment and all that good stuff. Does it not boot into anything at all? you said you get the login screen, what happens after that?

2. One of the updates fixes this.

3.Yes. Along with jump drives which will be plug and play. You can also mount NTSF windows partitions and get read access.

4.Not exactly sure about this. Ethernet and wireless should be good though. Wireless might take a little bit of setting up.

5. Don't worry about it. Linux will handle it... like sound drivers, graphics, acpi all that stuff.

6. Yes, get the updates for now. This is a handy feature but can be turned off, as you can get updates in the terminal by doing a simple "yum update"

[DaveRun]

For number 4 I expect people need some more information about how you've got things set up to be able to help.

Does the FC6 system have both wireless and ethernet network connections? If wireless and that is how you want to connect seach the forum & google for the type of wireless card and you should be able to find instructions.

How were the other computers connecting to the internet? Through this one or ?

[vbdanl]

Regarding internet connections I used to have:
computer #1 - XP Home - connected to 2wire modem via usb cable
computer #2 - XP Pro - connected to 2wire modem via D-Link wireless connection (the D-link modem? was plugged into a usb port on the XP Pro computer.
computer #3 - windows 98 - connected to 2wire modem via ethernet cable.

The XP Pro machine (computer #2) was recently reloaded with FC6. It had plenty of issues trying to connect to internet (probably virus or malware, but never really figured out what all was causing the problem). This was a PC a friend of my daughter's sold to her, and did not come with XP Pro CD's. Since I could not reinstall XP, I decided to try FC6. So far I have only been able to connect to internet via ethernet cable. If I plug the usb cable into it, the machine does not recognize it (like Windows did). I don't know what needs to be done to make it work. SBC DSL support does not support linux. They try to help with Windows platforms, but won't really help you with linux questions.

Computer #1 is my newest computer (3 yrs old now). The mouse and keyboard kept going out. I tried different hardware, but nothing would keep working. Seemed to be a motherboard problem (its a emachine, and connections are wired to the motherboard). I had it replaced at a shop, and they said my old 250 watt PS would not bring up the new motherboard, so I had to buy a 350 watt PS. They gave me a CD with new drivers they said need to be loaded after I reinstalled Windows. I installed the 3 windows recovery CD's (seemed to load ok), but then when it finished and said to boot, it would never boot into windows. I think it requires the Windows install cd's instead of the recovery cd's, which of course, I don't have. Soo, decided to try FC6 on this machine before having the store reload windows for another $70. This computer I also have only been able to get connected via the ethernet cable. Right now I can only have one PC connected to internet at a time, via the one ethernet port on the 2wire SBC DSL 1000HW modem.

I never could get Windows 98 SE to come up with the wireless or usb ports either (computer #3).

One additional question I have been wondering about (could just try it, but just as well ask), is: Will the daughters Simm's DVD game work on the PC's loaded with FC6, or do they only work with Windows?

Thanks for all of you that have responded. Sorry I am so wordy..