This document is one of the most important for LDP, because by configuring hardware and software you can get your own Linux box. This HOWTO was born in the Golden Age of developers, mainly for the command line. As it became too big and old for the current distros, I rewrote it more simple as I could.
Fundamentally, to configure the system, Linux users have to write some configuration files. To do it easyer, today programs and wizards are avaliable to manage them. This programs may be quite different for the various distributions.
In this HOWTO, I will speak about Mandrake-Linux and about Red Hat.
This document is Copyright © 2006-03-16 Gilbert O'Sullivan. Permission is granted to copy and distribute this document under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License. This license is available from http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html. Please note that the LGPL terms don't allow any modifications except for the translations.
This document is provided "as is". I put great effort into writing it accurately, but you use contained informations at your own risk. In no event shall I be liable for any damages resulting from the use of this work.
Many thanks to all other HOWTO authors and man pages writers, from which I have got my knowledge, and to all people who provided me with feedback.
Even if the earlier versions of this document discussed about several distributions, I chose Mandrake-Linux and Red Hat, because they are the most representative, with kernels range from 2.4.3 to 2.6.11, of wich last release you can easily purchase. For more informations, or if you don't understand anything, you can refer to other HOWTOs, among which is available the source code of this document, at Linux Documentation Project site. The hardware we shall go to configure is for x86 architectures: modem, printer, scanner. A tablet is very common also.