Leo

I am having difficulty downloading drivers from nvidia.

Every time I attempt to download the driver the download starts and then halts and goes no further.

I am using the firefox browser (and have turned off IPv6). I have tried different days and times.

I have tried pinging the server whilst downloading and also using wget (as suggested by arctic in response to a similar problem below)

However none of these work. I am using LE2005 and a 1Mb adsl connection

I get the menu problem intermittently, [..] Sometimes it updates, sometimes it doesn't unless I run menudrake and then save it, or log out/reboot.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sounds like mine now, although the only reason is because I have learnt never to attept to amend the menu using menudrake. RPMs seem to update the menu without any problem so I guess there must be a way to do it :D

Leo

Sounds like a good idea (yes you do have to pay for membership, I don't know how much). Let us know whether you getthe modem working in Ubuntu or not, I like to know. Plus the Other distributions forum has some good notes on Ubuntu (it's quite popular here as well) and help is often available in the forum for Ubuntu problems.

Leo

OK sorry for the delay in getting back but I cannot get it to compile either.

It would appear that the rpms are for club members only (a whole different topic) :D

I did a bit more serching and found this on www.LinuxQuestions.org the poster seems to be having a different problem but the solution seems to be to switch over to Ubuntu (Ubuntu if you haven't tried it is nice and friendly and may be worth a look) they will send a cd for installation if you are not able to download it yourself.

Failing that maybe someone else around here can assist.

Leo

I have reinstalled on a new machine and the mouse/graphics tablet problem has gone (on the second install, it would not work from boot on the first). The first install was very basic (only installed default setting apps). On the second install I selected and deselected a whole host of apps but also, and I have a feeling this is what actually solved it, I disconnected my ps2 mouse.

The menu problem is a pain in the arse, and still exists, when I try to adjust the menu using menudrake it will either not add entries or remove the entire menu and refuse to bring it back (if I reboot it returns) I also noticed the other day that the menu disappeared for apparently no reason - or more accurately I could not see the reason.

usb memory devices seem to get recognised sometimes but not others (again I do not know why).

All told, these are minor niggles and the general feel and look is nice, however this is the first release where the niggles have made me try a different distro.

Leo

That's a nuisance, as you may well have worked out the problem is that there is no Makefile in the directory so the compiler doesn't know what to do.

I am at work at the moment but will have a look at the version I downloaded the other day to see what we can try next.

As far as PPPoA is concerned I connect using this and it worked out of the box so I am guessing that the relevant modules are already available in MDK. If not we will need to recompile the kernel (don't worry it is not as hard as it sounds ;) ) to make them available.

Leo

edit: I have been doing a bit of googleing on this and it would appear that there are some MDK rpms available for this. Try searching for dkms-unicorn (or even unicorn) in your MCC/install packages and see if that turns anything up.

OK, the first part is about kernel sources (i.e. the code used to compile your kernel) on a standard install a pre compiled kernel is used however you can easily include the kernel source.

Go to Mandrake Control Centre and the Install Packages option and search for kernel source. This should give you a package which you can then install using the tool (please tell me if anything here is too basic for you or needs more explanation).

Kernel sources are usually found in /usr/src/linux (where linux is a symbolic link (a kind of shortcut)) if you list the files in /usr/src you should see the relevant files.

According to the documentation in the makefiles within each of the subdirectories it mentions, there should be a line along the lines of

KERNELDIR=[something]

you should make sure this reads

KERNELDIR=/usr/src/linux

assuming that is where your kernel sources are installed.

Does that make any more sense?

Leo

Mo,

Sorry it took so log to get back (hectic weekend). I had a look at the tar file and it does look like a pain. I reformatted the README instructiosn so I could follow them easier:

INTRODUCTION:

 

The software for the UNICORN ADSL PCI card consists of two loadable drivers,

the unicorn_atm.o

  and unicorn_pci.o.

 

The unicorn driver is a standard Linux ATM driver, that performs segmentation

and reassembly (SAR) and flow control.

 

The unicorn_pci driver contains the ADSL modem software and hardware related

functions. It has been tested with the Linux 2.4.x kernels.

 

Note

to use PPPoE, PPPoA or RFC2684 protocols, the kernel may need to be patched.

 

COMPILATION:

 

To compile the drivers,

unzip and untar the file.

In the unicorn directory you will find the two subdirectories

unicorn_atm

and

unicorn_bus.

 

You may compile the drivers based on

the include files in the kernel source

or

standard kernel include files.

 

If the first option is chosen Set the variable KERNELDIR in the Makefile's to

point to your kernel sources.

 

If you choose the latter, you may need to copy the contents of the kernel

source "include/net" directory into "/usr/include/net/".

 

Go into these subdirectories and do a "make" and a "make install".

If the compile option "USE_HW_TIMER" is set, the performance is increased,

but the CPU load increased.

 

Use the same compiler as you use when compiling the linux kernel. The driver has

been tested using gcc-2.96, gcc-2.95.2, gcc-2.91.66 and gcc 3.0.3.

 

 

INSTALLATION:

 

To start the ADSL software, do a "modprobe unicorn_pci".

Check in the syslog that the drivers are started OK.

The ADSL line should come up automatically.

The status can also be checked using the "proc" interface (/proc/net/atm/UNICORN\:0".

SHOWTIME in the log or in the status means that ADSL connction is up and ATM cells

may be transmitted and received.

Depending on your network setup, you will need additional software as with any other

ADSL ATM card.

For bridged ethernet (RFC2684), the br2684.o module and brctl is needed.

For PPPoE, any pppoe client over the bridged interface (nas0) should work

(Roaring Penguin pppoe client has been tested).

The scripts directory contains some example startup scripts.

 

Bridged (RFC2684) and PPP over Ethernet:

Depending on your kernel, you may need to patch the kernel and enable the option

"RFC1483/2684 Bridged protcols" under "Networking options".

Also ATM support needs to be enabled.

Also the user space daemon "brctl" is needed.

Instructions on how to apply the patch and the brctl and patch sources can be found

at http://www.zoftware.org/adsl-pppoe.

 

PPP over ATM:

For PPP over ATM, the module pppoatm.o is needed, together with the pppd plugin

pppoatm.so and a version of pppd that supports plugins.

Currently version ppp-2.4.0b2 supports PPPoATM plugins. A patched version ready for

PPPoATM can be found at http://www.sourceforge.net/.

 

PPPoATM specific pppd options:

llc-encaps: use LLC encapsulation for PPPoATM

vc-encaps: use VC multiplexing for PPPoATM (default)

I reckon we should start with just trying to compile the module first and then see where it takes us. Do you have both the subdirectories it mentions in the version you downloaded?

Leo

OK, the instructions are reasonably straight forward but do seem to have assumed a certain amount of knowledge. Lets see how we go.

We won't go into kernel recompilation just yet (it is actualy not as hard as it sounds just involves attention to detail and the confidence that pretty much everything is fixable if it doesn't work, backups are the key :D )

The makefile is essentialy a file that passes options to the compiler and ensures that everything compiles as it should. They can be edited using your preferred text editor. The makefile for each module should be found in the subdirectory concerned, however I downloaded the tar file myself and could not see the unicorn_bus subdirectory.

I have to go now but will have another look for you later.

Leo

A good source of help on most commands is to type

man [command]

in a shell which will display the help file for the command, this is really useful as it gives you descriptions of all options as well as a description of how to use the command and what it does.

When you enter the tar command in will unpack the files into the current directory you are in (type pwd to find out what that is if you do not know). There is probably an option to change the destination if required (see the man page for this (I cannot remember it)) alternately you could move to the directory you want it unpacked in and then do

$tar xvf /path/to/tar/file

.

There is no real need to unpack into any particular directory other than for ease of use when attempting to find stuff if you need it again.

(apologies if this was a bit too 'Janet and John' for you)

edit [didn't add about the floppy]: the floppy drive is probably /mnt/floppy so assuming your file is copied straight to the floppy

$tar xvf /mnt/floppy/bast-0.9.0.tar

ought to work.

Leo

The Bewan website has various drivers and utilities for Linux which may be worth having a go at installing, it would appear that there have been issues with the modem and 2.6 kernels which these claim to fix.

The message at startup suggests that maybe the device isn't recognised (or the wrong filename is being used.

Leo

what happens if as root you enter the commands:

# adsl-stop 
# adsl-stop 
#adsl-start

does it connect?

I had a similar problem with my adsl modem (eagle f@st 8000 (or something similar)) which would not connect at boot but would connect if stopped twice and then restarted.

It is now fixed in LE2005 as it runs a number of network replated scripts at boot before connecting the modem.

Leo

I have (IMO) a good idea for a cool theme, however I don't really know how to get started with it.

I would like to create a theme/apps that enable you to use your comp like it was a movie computer i.e. take things that the pcs always do in movies that don't actually happen and either make them happen (e.g. white window that pops up with a 'ping' saying 'you have mail' (a la 'You've Got Mail' and others) which I am fairly sure already exists somewhere, a special 'hacking' mode (doesn't really do anything but shows 3D blocks that the user can pick up and move around (where blocks have names like 'Reactor' etc.. so the user can be a cool hacker (a la 'Hackers')) maybe a skin for a web browser that only points to Wikipedia but looks like the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy... as well as other stuff.

The basic idea is to pull all these things that movies show computers doing into a single environment that would be both useful and entertaining (OK so the entertaining bit might wear thin after a couple of days.

What do you think? Any other ideas? Any pointers/offers as to how to realise this?

Thanks

Leo

I liked the installer (it has become even simpler and it looks nice too) getting a working system from fresh install was also easy. However menu problems and usb device (graphics tablet/mouse) have really pissed me off. This is the first release that has made me want to try something else (I never bothered with 9.2 so it didn't bother me).

It is a shame really becasuse I agree with everything that has been said above, the look and feel are much improved (and it was pretty good to start with) I even quite like the starry-eyed tux but these little irritations ruin the experience.

Leo

I'd just like to add a 'me too' to this. I'm using an eagle f@st 800 adsl modem connected by usb. It was working fine but for some reason today it is refusing to complete downloads (I was attempting the latest Nvidia driver) it will downlaod partially and then just halts.

Don't know if you have this figured out yet but I just installed and it does look very similar to Gimp however the tools have been renamed (sometimes very subtly) however the layout is much the same as it was before. All the menu entries and filenames are the same as well (I uninstalled and reinstalled before I figured this out...) if you check the project site (your GIMPshop link below) it gives you a comparison of the old gimp names against the new gimpshop names.

I must admit this is not really what I was expecting but I will swee if it makes it any easier to use before I replace it.

Leo

You didn't like Ubuntu? How come?

The reason I ask is that I have just installed it after hearing it was really good (mainly from here). I haven't really played with it yet so have yet to find out what the fuss is about (although a few choice words were uttered during the install process :D )

You could adjust the permissions on files you want other users to see (look up chmod for details).

If you wanted to create an almost-root type account, you could do this using sudo (look up sudo in the man pages).

sudo is a really useful tool as you just prefix the command you want to run with sudo. I am not sure if this would work in a gui environment though.

I guess another way you could do it would be to add the almost-root account to the user group of the other account

e.g.

user arthur_dent is a member of the group arthur_dent

user ford_prefect is a member of the groups ford_prefect and arthur_dent

any good?

Thank you both for your help (nice to see you back bvc).

update-menus had no visible effect (my guess is that something had been overwriten at some point that stoipped thsi working as I wanted).

I had a look at the list of files to remove but agani this had no effect (I reckon this is probably the same reason as why update-menus didn't have the desired effect).

I did have another play with menudrake and changed the style of the menu then saved and logged off/on

the menu had changed to something usable but I still cannot get the menu I want (despite it being the one shown in menudrake).

I have marked this as solved (because it is working if not as I would like it) but if either of you know where menudrake picks up the menu it shows from it would be useful as it may help get this fixed properly.

Thanks

Leo

Tahnks for this. Am I right to assume that the aim is to remove the local version of the menu and replace it on restart with the root version?

Wouldn't this also remove a whole load of data that doesn't relate to the menu? Is there any way to identify only files relating to the menu?

Leo

Thanks Adriano, unfortunately this did not work for me, however I have started a new topic for this as it is rather off topic

Leo

I installed 2005LE and everything seemed fine (with the exception of my graphics tablet but that is another issue...) however my menu has changed from one that works to what looks like a standard menu where most of the appas it lists do not exist and half the apps I have installed are not listed. This happened after I ran the update tool following installation.

When I go into menudrake (both system and root menus) it looks the way I want it (all the correct groupings, all the correct apps) but when I save it it makes no difference to the menu being used.

I am using Gnome 2.8 (as comes with 2005LE) I tried restarting Gnome but it made no difference (it looks as though this setting has been saved and will not be replaced).

I need to know firstly how to effect changes to the Gnome menu (I am guessing this will be without using menudrake (yet another gui that doesn't work right).

I would also like to know why this has happened and how to avoid it in the future

Leo

I'm currently running 2005LE and am thoroughly pissed off with it.

I do admit that for the main part it works and feels nicer than 10.1 (can't quantify or qualify this, it just does) also my adsl modem now starts from boot (after a bit of buggering about) however my usb graphics tablet just will not work (unless I restart X) whereas it did before and my menus keep disappearing to be replaced by a menu that does not work. I have searched for answers but cannot seem to get either working right and these bugs (for me) out weigh the positives.

I am so fed up with this that I am about to try a different distro.

I think what irks most is that I know I am not a power user by any stretch of the imagination, my requirements are very modest, neither do I think of myself as stupid (merely average :D ) but that is how this version has made me feel.

Leo

It is also possible to create a bootable cd with grub on it that you can then use to boot whatever you like (providing it is installed :P )

In previous versions I have resolved this problem by recompiling the kernel and including all APM modules and leaving out ACPI in the build.

Maybe this will work...