[hcflinux] Installation problem

[Leslie_Katz at agd.nsw.gov.au]

I have a problem regarding the installing of a Linuxant
modem driver. What little I know about Linux has been learnt in the last
few days only, so I apologise in advance for any errors and omissions I may
make in setting out my problem.

I bought a used computer with both the Windows 98 OS and a PCI modem called
a GVC F-1156IV+R9C installed. The computer works and I was able to get onto
the Internet with it, using the modem just mentioned. My intention was to
convert the computer to run under Linux instead of Windows 98 and then to
give it to a person I know who has no computer and cannot afford to buy
one.

I shrank the Windows partition, which had formerly occupied the whole of
the computer's (sole) hard drive, and installed in the space freed up a
Linux distribution called BeatrIX 2005.1. I chose it because it was both
small (180MB) and said to be easy to use. It was also said to be "based on
Debian/Knoppix/Ubuntu", according to a review of it when run from a liveCD.

Then I turned to the problem of getting a Linux modem driver for the
installed modem and discovered Linuxant. From various pages at the Linuxant
site I satisfied myself that the modem concerned would be recognised by the
Linuxant hcfpcimodem driver. (It's PCI ID 14F1:1033.) I also learnt of the
different installation methods available.

After reading the Linuxant pages about installation methods, I went to the
BeatrIX forums for further information. There I discovered a discussion
about a Linux driver for a WLAN card, in the course of which the forum
administrator
wrote, "The errors you are seeing are [the result of] the fact that
BeatrIX, because of its nature does NOT have any compiling capabilities.
You either have to get a pre-built driver, or compile one yourself
(different distro) and add it in to BeatrIX."

As I understand that statement, it excludes me from using in BeatrIX any of
the methods
of installing the hcfpcimodem driver mentioned at Linuxant. I can't use the
automatic installer,
because I don't yet have Internet access when operating in Linux. I can't
use the
distribution-specific binary packages, because BeatrIX isn't one of the
supported
distributions. I can't use a generic package with source, because that
requires compilation
capabilities that BeatrIX doesn't have.

That leads me to two questions.

1. Is it possible to compile the driver using a different distribution (on
the same computer,
I assume is meant)?

3. If so, I have a liveCD of SuSE 9.2. Could I perhaps use that to compile
the driver?

I'd be grateful for any assistance with my questions. Thank you.


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