Mel

Go to http://hpoj.sourceforge.net/ and download file "hpoj-0.91.tgz". This is the driver for most recent officejet and PSC "all in ones". Although HP is working with the Linux community to expand thier market .This is under the GNU liscence with no gauranties. I D/L'd and will try it with PSC 2210 and Officejet R60. The web page has a list of the printers , scanners and "allin ones" it will work for (or maybe not). At least it is a start. Please try it and leave your comments in this thread. Good Luck The magnificent ME

I use CDBurnerXP Pro to burn Linux iso's from WinXP It works great and is free . You can D/L it from any site that has freeware. Be sure you set your burning speed to 8x or less. I have only one non working disto but that's because I burned it 48x.( Way too fast.) Try going to linuxiso.org and D/L and burn MEPIS or ARK They both install with only 1 or 2 answers from you. Thier installers are pretty good at detecting hardware.javascript:emoticon(':D') javascript:emoticon(':D')

I'm just figuring out a few commands but at least Linux remembers what the commands are supposed to do and unlike that other OS doesn't keep trying to force you to reinstall programs you uninstalled because you have no use for them.

Well I'm also a newbe and at least as confused as you but if you will check out " http://www.oreillynet.com/linux/cmd/ " there is an A-Z list of linux commands that may help.By clicking on any command in the list ,you'll get information on that command. I printed the list and it helps a lot.

Hey , I see the site recognizes and set links. Didn't know that. Thanks again Mel

THANK YOU , Dapper Dan I followed your link to www.ss64.com/bash/ where I D/Ld Bash command and bash syntax.I then clicked on STUFF where there are about 15 very good links By clicking on 'Alphabetical Directory of Linux Commands' I arrived at www.oreillynet.com/linux/cmd/ where I found an A to Z list of Linux commands .By clicking on any command in the list you also get the syntax and switches for the command clicked on. Since I'm not sure how to create a link on linux ,I humbly request you post both links as "MUST SEE ' for noobees like myself.They straightened out a good sized portion of my learning curve. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Mel

This is for noobees. If your computing experience is mostly switch on,click and go, this may help especially if you don't know how to find IRQs I/O ranges driver types,etc. If you want to try linux but don't know where to start, I've tried a few distros in the last couple weeks. Here is a list to consider. . 1. If you ask which distro is best and 20 users answer,you may end up with a list of 20 distros. 2. What is best for an experienced user will probably be a total knightmare for a newbee with no programing experience. 3. Look for demos and/or distros that install easily. 4. Be sure you have 128m ram. - - Distros I've tried; - MEPIS ; Installs easily but seems to have a problem with printers on my hp. - Ark ; Installs itself with no problems on all 4 of my machines. I only had to select my printers from a list. - DEBIAN and REDHAT ; Lock up all hammers and all items harder than a pillow and give the key to someone who's leaving town. - LORMALinux : It may be me but the installer seems to be a little flaky. - SUSE ; Same as REDHAT and DEBIAN. - IcePack ; Not bad if you want to keep a windoz looking OS. - My 2 cent suggestion is ask for distros that are easy to install, get familiar with linux then try other distros to find what is best for you.I would suggest MEPIS or ARK.

What's the deal with RAM ? I've D/L and burned 6 different distros. All of them said they required a minimum of 128M ram but they all install and run fast and smooth on my old pavilion 4550 with 96M. I've come to the conclusion that the efficiency of the more recent distros is underrated. . My wife had the gall to ask if I know what I'm doing. Hey, trying figure out what I'm doing is 90% of the fun. If I knew what I'm doing I'd probably be bored. I told her to ask again in about 30 years and just maybe I'll have an answer.

Danleff is right. I just started visiting this site a few days ago and have found answers to a lot of questions just by cruising the forums.Kinda like FAQs. I would like to encourage all visitors to join and post thier questions and remarks. "questions only sound stupid to stupid people."

What is BETANAG and why do linux installers exit abnormally and leave the message " Could not import BETANAG" ?

Quote: Quote: As you grow with Linux, you will discover the wonders of editing files with vi... Not if you value your sanity... Are you insinuating there are actually sane computer owners ?

Oh yeh Mepis and Ark install ok on the 551w. Ark appears to work fine so far but printers appear to be invisable to Mepis. SUSE, Debian, Lormalinux, and Fedora have problems installing.Suse won't even boot.Debian loses the pav.mx70 monitor about halfway through setup.Fedora crashes just before the media test que.(gets the blue screen and freezes.) Lormalinux starts anaconda then gives import error "cannot import BETANAG" and shuts down. Thinking 'bout pulling that 700 mhz cpu from one of my junkboxes (and old Gateway I got from my daughter) and see it it'll work in the 551.Since my opinion of HP on a scale of 1 to 10 has gone to minus 300, any change would have to be an improvement. . Only time I ain't confused is when I'm sleeping and then I ain't too sure.

Well,lastnight I decided to take a close look inside the 551w. Althought the cpu is 1600 mhz, everything else appears to be 266 mhz.Now I know why my 466 mhz always seemed to run twice as fast as the 1.6 ghz.

It seems my problem isn't BETANAG after all. I tried my distros on 4 other machines and they all worked just fine. The problem is only with the pavilion 551w. May be the archetecture. I dunno. I still don't know whwt betanag is,though.

Thank you,nebulus Thank you,danleff First,I somehow missed 'distros' as in 'linux distros'.I'm not perfect (So close you can't tell the difference but not perfect.). I had that problem with 4 different distros.My questions are sometimes ambiguous to avoid receiving only distro specific answers. Danleff confirmed my suspicions with his reply.Also, I am sure I will find the links supplied by Nebulus very usefull. I suspect DL errors since I noticed each of these D/Ls started at a good pace then slowed way down and later picked up speed.I suspect due to other users entering and leaving the sites.Actually it could be traffic or noise anywhere along the route from my computer to the D/L URLs. My ignorance is slowly diminishing due to messages from users like you on this and other linux sites. The more I learn the more ignorant I realize I am. Thank you Mel

I'm running XP on 2 machines and tried Burn4free Worked ok for personal files but for ISOs you may as well just go ahead and throw the disk in the trash. Try downloading CDBurnerXP Pro. It's freeware and burns good ISOs even at 48x. You can step down to as slow as 8x. I burn mine at 20x though I would suggest between 8x and 16x since I did have a problem with SUSE at 20x. I've tried numerous burner programs with XP and CDBURNER XP PRO is the only one that works well for me on XP.AS soon as it loads ,you have 4 choices 1. data 2. audio 3. DVD 4. ISO I haven't tried DVD yet but the other 3 work great it is although it does give options. Good Luck Jus another confused puter freak.

I'm brand new to Linux so I'll start with a little background. I started with an ADAM,went to COMMODORE64 then AMIGA and finally to ibm clones.Everyone in my neighborhood think I'm the local guru (boy,are they confused? My wife says I'm more like the local nut.) so don't worry about terminology. My two newest computers came preloaded with "Spyware XP", the ultimate bandwidth eater. I spent a couple weeks searching the web for an alternative OS.I was impressed with the information I found on Linux systems so I downloaded and burned a LiveCD with which I was very impressed. So I pulled the plug on the HD in my hp pavilion 551w and stuck in an old 10gb hd and started looking for ISOs. I downloaded and burned DEBIAN,couldn't figure out the installion docs.So I downloaded and burned ARK,couldn't get the GUI to work with SIS.I burned SUSI,couldn't get it to boot. Finally found MEPIS and have an OS.Now I need help. 1. hp officejet R60 3in 1 (parrellel).Can't get MEPIS to recognize it. OR 2. hp psc 2210 4 in 1 (USB). Locks up OS. 3. How do I set up an Intel® pro/100 VE network connection so I can get on the internet with cable ? I am fully aware that you can't definitly solve my problems without being in the presence of my machine so I will greatly appreciate any advice from anyone.Even the newest novice may say something that will ring a bell. Thank you.

I think I have a broken module on my Mepis install disk.I can't get a printer to work with Mepis. I wiped Mepis and installed ARK and everything is working.Only problem is sound doesn't have much volumn.I should be able to fix that with powered speakers.(Mepis has good sound but no print)

Thanks to everyone I got my cable connection going in Mepis. While reading messages on this site I ran across a remark about plug and play. Checked my BIOS. Was set for P&P OS . Changed it and discovered Mepis is not a P & P OS. I'm up and running on web now with Linux. No protection ,though. A diskwipe and reload will give me a little moe exp. with Linux.

I only put the qoutation marks for emphasis. Years ago (not saying how many), when my oldest daughter came home upset because someone said a question she asked her teacher was stupid,I made 2 posters and had her give them to her teacher. You read one in my last post, the other said; "If you really believe your question will sound stupid then you have 2 choices; 1. You can SOUND stupid. or 2. You can BE stupid." That evening my daughter came home with a note from her school principal asking me to print 60 copies of each poster,which I did with a great amount of pride. None of my children were ever again too embarassed to ask questions.

I think most of my problems are due to my ignorance of Linux.I'm reminded of my old Adam & Commodore days. I switched printers to a hp deskjet 722c.After setting up everything I could find having to do with printers,everything looks great except it doesn't print.I even get the popup message "file has been successfully sent to yourhpdeskjet722c". Although Mepis is telling me the message has been sent to the printer,I think he keeps forgetting to tell the printer. I have made a little headway though.I can turn on the printer without crashing. My biggest problem is my ignorance of Linux.For that reason I have decided to stick with Mepis and post my problems and and anything I do that seems to help.Hopefully that, with replies from the Linux community will make this thread helpfull to future newbees interested in Mepis. Due to the apparant nature of Linux development,I'm assuming my best bet is to read all docs I find for any Linux release and put most of the info in a file titled "HEY!SOMETHING IN HERE MIGHT WORK WITH SOMETHING." As for all you other Mepis newbees,please post here.If you are afraid your question will sound stupid then remember this "There are only 2 things that can possibly be stupid about a question, one is not asking the question, the other is anyone whe thinks it was a stupid question."

Thanks ,I'll try a simple HP printer. I have cable internet connected to network card. I just need to figure out how to set up the nic. Mepis is easy to install so I am going to try reinstalling. I probably made a wrong decision during install. When I learn my way around linux, things may become a lot easier. I'll post another message if it doesn't work.I believe you solved my printer problem by stating what should have been obvious. Thank you for replying.

Did you try booting from the other CDs? I'm a noob but I DL'd and burned DEBIAN, found it wouldn't boot from CD1 but boots from CD's 2 and 3.