[ILUG] Help Needed New to Linux

[Rory Browne]

Sorry - forgot to CC ILUG

On 22/01/2009, Rory Browne <rbmlist at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> On 22/01/2009, Sheila Flanagan <sflanagan at nra.ie> wrote:
>>
>> I recently bought the Lenovo S10 on laptops.ie (this may have been a bad
>> decision as now I have no one to speak to directly in relation to
>> software etc.) I specifically bought the laptop to use for internet
>> purposes and I was advised that it was one of this best for this
>> purpose. So I believed once I received I could go to a service provider
>> such as Vodafone, 3G etc and purchase a broadband stick and away we go.
>> Not as simple as that it turns out. As the laptop I purchased runs on
>> Linux I am coming up against a brick wall and no service provider
>> appears to be compatible unless its running on Windows. I am not tech
>> savy at all, therefore all the boards and websites I am visiting are
>> just throwing me for six. All I want to do is use the internet
>> wirelessly, on the go as soon as possible. Pease can you advise what it
>> is I should be doing to enable this - or
>> whether it is possible at all. I have no back up support from the seller
>> or the manufacturer. Otherwise I will be returning!
>
>
> Those Vodafone/O2/3 Dongles AFAIK work in certain later distribution of
> linux but not older ones.
>
> The first thing we need to establish is what distribution ( aka distro ) of
> Linux that you  have. There are many different companies / organisations
> that distribute Linux. Some examples would be Debian, RedHat, Ubuntu,
> Novell/Suse, Mandriva, or Xandros. Do you know if your laptop runs any of
> these, or if not what version of it you are running? Any version information
> you might have would also be useful.
>
> Do you know if you are running KDE or Gnome - KDE generally has a 'K',
> button on the bottom-left corner ( same as where the windows start menu
> would be ). GNOME would usually have a menu along the top of the screen. Not
> sure off-hand what the names are, but if you see something
> like, "Applications", "System", and "Places", along the top of the screen,
> chances are you're running GNOME.
>
> What would also be useful in determining the type of system you have is
> output from ` uname -a `. To get this, open a terminal ( or console ) - Look
> through the Applications menu ( K menu in KDE ), for either konsole or
> gnome-terminal. This should give you a window a bit like a DOS Prompt. Type
> in 'uname -a', and let us know what it says.
>
>
>
> Rory
>