Hey Gert-Jan! Welcome! The problem with hardware compatibility is that most hardware is supported through the linux-kernel. These are more groups of hardware (parallel printers, USB adapters, etc). For some hardware you may need to do some research, but most modules and user-space apps are all in woody/sid. Dont be afraid to use google or make xconfig :) handling tarballs (tar.gz) is only needed if you want to do strange things to your system, but a simple tar zxvf <package.tar.gz> is enough to unpack the archive. Debian supports all 386 arch's, as does Redhat (not sure for 6.0 though, but it ought to).
Hope that answers some of your Q's... mzzlz, Alex (AdeL) de Landgraaf Ps. and some hardware is supported in linux that isnt even avalible (IA-64) :P On Tue, 2001-10-23 at 20:49, Gert-Jan wrote: > Hello, I'm Gert-Jan Schouten from The Netherlands and I'm a beginning Debian > user. I'm wondering where I can find a list of hardware that is compatibel > with the latest Debian 2.2.r3. I don't see it anywhere on the site.... And if > I put a brand new piece of hardware in my computer that is not yet supported > by Debian, > will there be any packages for it?? And if so, will you be able to download > it from the debian site just like all the other packages?? It is of course > also possible that the linux-drivers for new hardware will not be released in > debian packages (*.deb) but in common linux archives (*.tar.gz). How should I > install them in that case? On your site, you explain how to use the different > tools to handle and install debian packages, but I can't find anything about > handling and installing *.tar.gz files. I tried Redhat 6.0 a few months ago, > and it didn't support my celeron 500 processor. Does Debian? I hope you can > answer my questions and I must say, your FAQ is so large, you can almost call > it a user's guide :) Keep up the good work! > > mzzl (Dutch for byebye) > > Gert-Jan Schouten
