[Wylug-help] extreme novice-chaos!!!

[Mike]

Whilst agreeing absolutely with Dave's comments, if problems are
persisting prior to the stage of configuring the modem, I would be very
tempted to suspect my hardware - but only if that is the case. As an
instance, although it is rare these days to receive faulty new
components, I have had two duff hard drives, one from a little-known and
the other from a well-known and very reliable manufacturer, in the past
fifteen months. Not recognising the root partition (was it failing to
recognise the monitor or just failing to load GUI software?) would lead
me to have my hard drive, memory strip and IDE cable checked as first
steps. A faulty new hard drive would help to explain the breadth of the
problems experienced, too.

So, as a not-much-olderbie than you as far as Linux is concerned, and
having experienced similar problems in the past, if all of those
problems are still with you, check the hardware, *then* follow Dave's
advice, to the letter!

Good luck,

Mike Goodman