KNOPPIX to the rescue

I got my cousin’s laptop working thanks to the power of KNOPPIX.

Win XP SP2 installed OK on Dell Inspiron 600m after reformatting the second partition. First is occupied by Dell Diagnostics. Everything is fine, but where is the Internet. There was an ugly yellow question mark next to the Ethernet device. Tried to reinstall one from XP disk. Nothing happened. Now what? Obviously, I did not have the original Dell CD shipped with the laptop. This would be to easy. I am also too old to play the Microsoft driver charade. They want me to connect to the Internet to get the driver that will fix the broken Internet. It looks like a paradox. Not if you have the KNOPPIX CD and know some Linux.

Here is the solution.

Boot with the KNOPPIX CD. Open terminal window. Execute “lspci” to get the list of all adaptor model numbers and manufacturers (in my case Ethernet adaptor was Broadcom Tigon3). Open the browser (the Internet works in Linux without any hunting for stinking drivers). Go to Dell.com, search for Inspiron 600m driver downloads. Download the correct driver. Reboot to WinXP. Install the downloaded driver. Done. Not yet.

Next we have to go trough the mandatory agony of the Windows Update. Even when set to automatic update, after all automatic updates have been installed, there are more updates to be installed.

After two days of of work, I am glad that I do not have to do that often. I do not feel sorry for the people that put up with this nonsense, they deserve it. If you want my advice, there is an easier way – buy Mac. But, you say – all of my friends are using MS Windows. I say – get new, smarter friends.