Early morning Linux frustration

I've been getting up early every day -- 6:15 to 6:30-ish -- to work on Linux in The Back Room on This Old PC.

Briefly, here's how it went:

Damn Small Linux -- no wireless. Tried to get the driver off the CD-ROM. I had trouble transferring the file. I'll have to try again with the file moved off the CD and onto the hard drive or USB flash drive. Can't remember if I checked Ethernet. I tried to get printing going. The config seemed to go OK. The "test" print printed out the test page and then proceeded to feed through the rest of the 30 or so pieces of paper in the printer. Then nothing would print. I did manage to mount all the drives (HD, two CD drives, USB) -- and easily, too. I found out how to easily change between the Fluxbox and JWM window managers. Fluxbox looks better in this case (although I love JWM -- which stands for Joe's Window Manager -- in Puppy).

In Puppy Linux, all I tried to do was get the printer working. Did I mention that it's a parallel printer? Again, nothing.

Xubuntu 6.10, for the second day, wouldn't load at all. But Ubuntu 6.06 did. It's slow on the Pentium II 333, but it does work. And just about everything was autodetected. Ethernet, perfect. It saw my printer but wouldn't print. I have to look at the configuration again. Ubuntu is so slow, though, on this old machine. I'd love to be working with Xubuntu or Fluxbuntu instead. I'll have to burn a couple of new Xubuntu discs SLOWLY (6.06 and 6.10) and try again. If it can run Ubuntu, it damn sure should be able to run Xubuntu.

Wireless was also detected in Ubuntu. I could even see all the local routers in my neighborhood, including my own. But I couldn't get anything in Firefox. Something is a bit fishy, and I suspect that it can be easily solved -- for both wireless and parallel printing, but it'll take a little more doing. Still, I am not underestimating the power of automatic detection of my Airlink 101 wireless PCI card and parallel printer. If they only worked the whole way.