Hello,

I downloaded Mandrake 8.1 from linuxiso.org, burned the CD, and installed it just fine. I noticed during the download process that there were iso images for a disk 2 and 3. I was told (by someone on another message board) to download and install disk 1, so that's what I did. During the install process I was promted to insert disk 2 (if I had it) or press cancel to continue the install of the current disk.

Everything is fine and Mandrake is up and running but now I'm curious; do I need to install disk 2 and 3? What is on them? How do they install? Will I have to manually configure a bunch of stuff, or will they install themselves? Normally I don't get to worried about this kind of stuff (in Wndows) but I'm new to Linux and don't fully understand it yet.

Also, is there anything you Linux gurus would recommend I install (in the form of utilities, etc.) that would make my Linux experience even better. I have noticed that my current install does not support my Microsoft trackball. The trackball works fine but the scrolling wheel does not. I also have a printer that is hooked up to a USB port that I can't get to work. This is not a USB printer -- I use a Belkin cord adapter to make it a USB printer because I have 2 printers. My other printer (serial) works just fine.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
freezinbutt

disc 2 generally contains developement pacakges and additional libraries. if you want to compile programs under linux (which you probably will, as many programs come as source code) then you're likely to need to install a number of these packages. cd 3 just contains other stuff really, additional apps, games etc... that you might want. just use the Software Manager to browse through all the applications on all the cd's, and install anything that looks nifty.

as for your mouse, you'll find the solution a thousand times over on many thread on this site.