A few days ago I bought the parts for, and assembled, my new computer:
AMD Asus MSN Motherboard
AMD 64 X2 Dual Core Processor
Gigabyte Nvidia GeForce 8600 Graphics Card
SATA Hard Drive and DvD/CD Writable drives
etc.

A setup of relatively recent parts, and what I thought would be/should be a solid system. Because I wanted to spend the extra cash on better parts for the computer, I decided to give Linux a go on this new machine, and so I did. I started with Ubuntu, but after experiencing some serious problems there, I decided to come to Mandriva. I first tried the Live single CD edition, and that worked fairly well, except I experienced a few problems (that I'll outline later). These included restrictions that would not allow me to connect to the internet (Again, outlined later), and to remedy this, I decided to go for Mandriva Free.

This is where today starts:
I decided to try it following this guide to make things a bit easier.
My first 4 attempts at installing Mandriva were ruined by the fact that my 3r'd and 4th image CD's were corrupt (At no fault of mandriva). On my 5th attempt I managed to make it to the post-installation configuration setup. Here, the first major problem of mine arose: Mandriva was not detecting or recognizing my graphics card (Nvidia 8600) at all. My attempts at selecting something similar to it in the X server menu (Because the 8 series is not listed at all) resulted in nothing but errors. Selecting the default value that came up followed through with my monitor (19" WS Acer flatpanel) receiving no signal from the computer and going blank. There's another 2 install attempts.

Deciding to ignore this for the time being on the next install I tried, The next problem came up, the main reason I left Ubuntu.
My internet is delivered via a D-Link 824VUP+ AirPlus Wireless router connected to my cable modem. To connect my new computer to this, I am attempting to use the DWL-120 USB adapter that came with the router to connect to the wireless router.
This came with a set of drivers on a CD (Obviously without a Linux version). When prompted to install these with NDISWrapper, I was initially not able to insert this CD due to the installation CD's being in. Oh well, Once Mandriva was up and running (In all it's non-graphics carded glory) attempted to install the drivers (Both from the CD and copied onto the hard drive) using the wireless network setup tool in configuration. This got me absolutely nowhere, mostly due to the fact that Mandriva did not recognise that The USB adapter was there at all.
On top of this, the next time i restarted on this installed version of Mandriva, I was sent straight to a Konsole screen, and KDE (or any other desktop) did not boot at all.

I have not even attempted to try and work the motherboard drivers yet (god knows what wil happen there) or the DvD drivers (The DvD drive, though being able to boot the installation and LiveCD of Mandriva, was still not recognized).

Quite honestly, after over 7 hours of staring at the Mandriva Free install screen, and trying to find answers somewhere on the internet (To no avail), and especially after 4 days of trying to get linux to connect to the wireless network, or, hell, even recognise the hardware in the computer, I'm pretty fed up. I'm beginning to think that stepping away from Windows was a bad idea after all.

As something of a last chance, can anyone here help? Is there a chance that it will actually work? If need be, do I need to buy A wireless Ethernet card? If so, Which one would you recommend? What's up with Mandriva Not recognizing anything.

Today has really killed off most of the faith I had that Linux would be able to really compete with windows. I hope someone hwere can change that.

Welcome to the MUB

I think I would focus on trying to get the Live CD to work first. I am having trouble separating which of your problems are from the Live CD and which are from Mandriva Free. Please list for me your problems with the Live CD. Have you tried another live CD such as Knoppix?

If I read your post correctly you could not connect to the internet when using the Live CD? The use of USB here is likely to be problematic. There is nothing as good as ethernet.

Since you have a new build, you can't rule out the possibility that there is a hardware problem. A live CD (Mandriva or Knoppix or otherwise) can be used to diagnose hardware. But these are not as comprehensive as the Ultimate Boot CD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/)

A little research prior to your installation would have releived some of you anxiety! But hind-sight is always 20-20.

First, a note about drivers: "Linux" is built almost totally by volunteers. This means that without any big commercial bucks, hardware vendors do not have to cooperate with Linux at making drivers or even offering the sources for thier product. It is this way primarily so that folks like you, who do not know, will get upset and stick with windows. Pretty effective, isn't it?

Nvidia is absolutely the best graphics manufacturer out there. They have written drivers for Linux almost from the beginning. When using an Nvidia based card (All my cards are Nvidia) simply use the "vesa" driver to get started with a gui. Better yet, go to their sight and download their graphics driver for Linux. At the command line, go to the location where you placed the file and as root type
Follow the instructions, answer yes to everything, and startx X by typing

For Ndiswrapper, it is easier to get started in a gui, although I always do the process at the command line because I can see the results. All of the following is command line and should be done as root.


At this point you will geet a message which confirms that the driver you have selected will find your hardware. You may even get some lights working. From this point, you can go to the gui in the "Configure my Computer" and finish associate with the access point.

this is a lot for a beginner, but each of us here has started exactly like you. We will help you get through it.

BTW, I have a similar rig, but I use ethernet.

Aye, I realize this, and I agree, it's a nasty little cycle they have going.

As for the solutions you address, they both would work (no doubt) and I know how to do the NdisWrapper one, the problem being for both of those is that before I can even worry about drivers, the two hardware devices are not being recognized in my system at all. I.E; it's as if I had not installed a graphics card at all, and like my USB adapter was not plugged in. I think I'm going to have to buy an Ethernet card. Would this allow me to connect to a standard wireless network? What card should I Get? (I.E; what works well with linux/Mandriva?)



No, the problems I state here apply to both when i was using the LiveCD and with Free.
Free is my main concern. As long as that installs and works to my needs, what else matters, right? I'm just looking to get the devices recognized and running. I think getting an Ethernet card is where I need to go from here. Something I was hoping I wouldn't have to do.



Thanks. And sounds like a good rig

Really really brand new computers are generally not the best systems to run Linux on - something about three months behind the cutting edge is usually good.

The reason Mandriva doesn't detect your graphics card is boringly simple: the GeForce 8600 was not actually released when 2007 Spring came out (April), so the PCI IDs for the cards were not publicly available, so it was completely impossible . This is the kind of reason why it's not always a good idea to go with absolutely brand new hardware of the kind that was released since the last time the distro you're using had a release. 2007 Spring does correctly detect every single NVIDIA chip that was actually released at the time it came out, I know this because I spent three days picking through every NVIDIA reference available to make sure of it.

We should be doing official updates for 2007 Spring reasonably soon which will add auto-detection for newer NVIDIA cards and will update the NVIDIA driver to the newest version with support for these cards. I've actually got the updated detection database done and ready to go, but there's no point doing that update until we're ready to update the driver too.

Your wireless device sounds like a tougher problem, though. What exactly do you mean when you say 'it's as if it's not plugged in'? Does it show up in the hardware configuration wizard at all, even as an unknown device? Thanks!

edit - forgot to mention, installing the newest version of the NVIDIA driver manually would likely actually work, as if you do that, you bypass the Mandriva detection mechanism.

Thanks, that's a helpful reply.
I should probably explain this now, I do realize why I'm having these troubles. My graphics card problems are understandable (But a nightmare for first-time Linux user to deal with), as are my Wireless network ones.

The problem itself is that, yes, although it detects an unknown device, It's not letting me plug a driver into it to tell it what it is. In fact, it's acting, to a degree, as if I'd plugged something into a USB slot that had no relevance to anything at all. What I'm saying is: The computer simply doesn't recognise it as anything, but something that's there, and just accepts that and doesn't do anything further when I prod it.

I get why this is the case: Due to The way Linux is made (People's free time and hard work), and the incredibly small percentage of users worldwide that would actually use a wireless USB adapter (Especially one as old as mine), It just doesn't get done. It's fair enough, really.

Because of this, I think the way to go from here is to get a cheap but effective Wireless (Ethernet?) card and throw that in instead.

And speaking of which, If I could get one today it would be good. Does anyone have any suggestions on what works for them or others What's good for Mandriva in terms of ethernet cards? Basically, could someone point me in the right direction.



Sounds promising, but how will this work? Currently, it acts as if I have no graphics card at all, Will installing a driver force recognition?

And a last question, By the Nvidia Driver, you are referring to the Linux Graphics Driver on the Nvidia site, correct? Just download and install the latest version?

Thanks.

Edit: Just looking into wireless cards (Ethernet is not what I'm looking for apparently) from a local dealer and the cheapest decent one they have in stock is $50. This is pretty hefty considering I have something that should already do the job for me. Anyone here have any clever solutions? At the moment, it doesn't look like I have much of a choice...

Yes


Yes

I am afraid I can't help you with a wireless ethernet card suggestion. I run copper baby!

I thought it would also be appropriate to point out that you are getting some first rate information from adamw. He is a Mandriva employee and extremely knowledgeable.

Ah, excellent, thanks.



Hah, Yeah, after installing Ubuntu, then Mandriva, I can see Ethernet being a significantly less troublesome connection to deal with. I would do that, but due to my situation, wireless is really the only way to go.



I got that impression reading his post too, actually. I'm impressed at how many knowledgeable and helpful people there are willing to help in this community.


Still waiting on a last minute solution of suggestion on what I should do re. my wireless problem. I'm thinking of going out and buying one of these That tryfan reported worked with mandriva in this thread. I also have the option of getting an Asus wl-167g, for about $15 cheaper, which scarecrow reported worked on his system in that same thread.

If the both work the same way, then I'll naturally go the Asus (As it follows much of my other hardware), but considering that the actual network is being routed from a D link router, I might chose that. Honestly, I cant see either factor swaying it's performance at all really, but I'm leaning more towards the Asus given D-Link's pretty poor track record in my books.

Still, I'm wondering if it's just not going to be possible with what I already have

Any response would be useful. I plan to get it working today, if at all possible, So, If It's not going to work with what I already have, What would be your suggestion out of the two options I've noted above?
Thanks.

The annoying thing about wireless cards is that manufacturers will frequently bring out cards with the exact same model number that use completely different chipsets. if you're really lucky, there'll be a 'v2' or 'v3' stamped in microscopic text somewhere on the PCB (not visible through the packaging, natch) that tells you the difference.

This makes it really darn hard to advise people what wireless card to buy.

For your current adapter, my Googling indicates that it seems to use an Atmel chipset, and may be supported by this driver:

http://atmelwlandriver.sourceforge.net

which I think is in the Mandriva kernel as 'atmel' (it's hard to tell without having the hardware). Try running this, as root:

modprobe atmel

then you can run 'iwconfig' and see if a new wireless interface shows up. If it does, all we need to do then is configure it.

Thanks, I do appreciate the help, but unfortunatley, in my impatience I've gone out and bought a New Wireless PCI Card.

Unfortunately, I bought the version which does not have a linux driver listed on the Asus website. Something good about this new card is that mandriva actually recognizes that it's there.

On the downside, it appears that there's a significant (And extremely frustrating) bug in the NDISWrapper driver installation part of the wireless network setup. Whenever I select a driver to use (Even after copying it, along with the sys file into a separate folder on the hard drive) and hit yes, I get a popup error message saying "Ndiswrapper interface was not found!" (Something very similar to it, I can check the exact wording if you need) and it errors me out of it all. It's all fairly Icky, really. I'd hoped that replacing that old and useless adapter would solve my linux problems, but apparently it's going to take a little more than that. Oh well, I'm attempting to install the drivers using the technique mentioned here next, which I'm hoping will solve my problems.

Just for future reference, and possibly to save others like me some frustration and questioning of linux, is there anything I can do to help resolve the ndiswrapper GUI problems I've mentioned? So far they've proven rather debilitating.

Thanks all, I'll get back to you on how it goes.

Edit: Further looking around had revealed that there might be some native linux drivers compatible with this device. I'm really not sure what I'm looking for, and dont want to hurt my system, though this may be preferable to NDISWrapper drivers. It'd be a great help if someone knowledgeable could take a quick look for me, or point me in the right direction.

Many thanks.

Unfortunatley it was not successful. I have made a new thread regarding the issue as I felt this one did not really belong in the installation forums any longer. you can find it here.