I installed linux.. but I don't know how to use it :(

[theplanb]

I can't figure out how to configure the sound.
Soundcard is already detected, and when I tried to configure it, the control cetre says it's already up and running..
Ok.. then why there is no sound..
When I open the sound panel, (is that how it's called? don't know..) I see no device configured for midi.. or any other sound devices..or rather.. no driver is installed for it, so I'm missing something..

The other thing is..
I don't know how to install a program. I have this client software for my cable internet connection. But.. how do I install it??

And finally..
It's really slow.. especially the disk access/read is very slow..
When I installed slackware it was so fast, I installed mandrake 7.0, it's disk performance is really lagging..
Is there anything I can do about it? (is there defragmenting utility in linux??)

Help me plz..

 

[Kadesh]

What is your sound card? What does "lsmod" show? Have you looked at your mixer settings? Does it work with root? What have you tried to play sounds with?

What specifically did this software do? If it made your cable modem go *vrooom* and it was only available for Windows ¥pretty damn likely¤, it will be useless in Linux© You probably don't need it anyway© If it was a diagnostic util, then it was most likely a wrapper around "traceroute"©

Speed©©© People run Linux on 486's and old Pentium's© What's slow is probably the desktop environment you're using© You won't lose any functionality by switching from KDE to something lighter© It will just look different©

Linux does not need to be defragmented© You can run it for a year and still be only <1% fragmented© It's a result of the way Linux uses file space© To run a speed test, run &quot;hdparm -tT&quot;© hdparm can also be used to enable DMA, which probably a good idea© If you chose &quot;Enable disk optimzations&quot; at install, DMA is already on©