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Paul Goelz

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  1. It was using the nv driver after installation. That was what it was using when it was freezing. After changing to the (direct download) nVidia driver, the freezing seems to have stopped. Thanks for the tip about dkms-nvidia.... I'll look into that. Probably would have been easier than the way I did it ;) Paul
  2. But but but.... wouldn't it be rather simple to write a routine that checked the "usual places" for boot files for other distros during Grub setup? It would seem to be an important point because unless the user has some system knowledge, installing a new distro will in effect kill any old ones unless you know how to edit the boot files. I know this is possible because I have seen Grub do it in PCLinuxOS. It detected ALL other distros as well as Windows just fine and set up menu.lst accordingly. The only problem was that it got the partition numbers wrong. Net effect was the same.... it killed Mandriva and Ubuntu. I learned a lot from that little episode ;) Mandriva is up and running fine but I was having random total lockups in both Mandriva and PCLOS that I put down to my nVidia 6200. Never did it before I installed that card (recently). Since it is a PCI card (previous card was AGP) I figured it might be a resource conflict since I have the BIOS set to PnP Aware OS = NO. So I installed the nVidia driver and PCLOS settled down. Mandriva was..... fun. Turns out that the default Mandriva install doesn't install several packages required to compile and install the nVidia driver. I had a fun time cycling though shutting down X, typing in the shell script run command, finding out that there was ANOTHER missing package, logging out, starting X, starting the software manager and installing the missing package, shutting down X, etc. until I got them all. But when it finally compiled and installed, it seems to have stopped the freezing. Wireless is still down, which is a pain because I only have four PCI slots and they are all occupied. There is no free slots for my PCI wired NIC. I have to pull my sound card and replace it with the NIC to get on the net and download updates and packages. But that I think is a subject for the hardware forum..... Thanks for the help. So far, Mandriva is looking good. Too bad it doesn't support my Ralink wireless NIC so far. Paul
  3. Interesting idea about the /boot directory. I'll remember that. Out of curiosity, why is it that Grub can't add other Linux installs but it can add Windows? In my experience, it ALWAYS gets Windows right. But it doesn't always get other Linux installs right. In this case, it missed PCLinuxOS totally. From PCLinuxOS, it got Mandriva but got the partition numbers wrong. When I would correct the partition numbers (using either hda1 format or hd1,0 format), it would "correct" my entry when it wrote it to the MBR.... and screw it up again. This only happens if I try to edit the partition numbers from the GUI. If I simply open the GUI and tell it to write the MBR, it doesn't change menu.lst. The only way I could get it right was to go back in and edit menu.lst like you described. Pretty lame for a GUI and probably very frustrating for newcomers. I save a lot of headaches by making sure I make a boot floppy so no matter what I can always boot into something ;) As for overwriting the the MBR...... I have Mandriva on hdb5. When the Mandriva install asked where to put the boot files, I selected "the first sector of hdb5". The next time I booted, I found that my previous boot menu (created from PCLinuxOS on hda1) had been replaced by the menu from Mandriva and PCLinuxOS was missing. Maybe I mis-understood, but I expected it to leave the original boot menu alone. This would allow me to boot to Windows and to PCLinuxOS but NOT mandriva until I modified menu.lst and re-wrote the MBR from PCLinuxOS, right? Paul
  4. OK, the upgrade didn't work out at all. Each time I tried, it would get well into the process and then throw an error about a package that "caused an error". When I told it to skip the package (a different one each time, and several hours into the process), it would continue and then eventually freeze. So I gave up and did a clean install. The clean install went smoothly with no errors. However, although I specifically told it to put the grub on the first sector of hdb5 (where Mandriva lives and the way the previous install of Mandriva was set up) it apparently overwrote the mbr of hda1 (Windows, and where I had grub previously installed via PCLinuxOS). In so doing it also missed the fact that PCLinuxOS was installed on hdb6 so all I could boot was Mandriva and Windows. Fortunately, I made a floppy a while back that allows me to boot PCLinuxOS as well as Windows so it was simple to start PCLinuxOS, add the Mandriva entries (copied from the Mandriva version of menu.lst) and re-write the hda1 mbr. Been there, done that..... many times. It is one of the things I would most like to see improved under Linux..... setting up a multiple boot scenario should NOT be as hard as it can be. In my experience, each flavor of Linux seems to do it a little differently and so far, none have gotten it entirely right. Bottom line is that Mandriva is up and running and my system boots correctly. Now on to my next hurdle..... getting my Ralink RT61 wireless card working. I know it can be done because it works under PCLinuxOS. No go yet in Mandriva. But that is for another thread...... Thanks for the help here. Paul
  5. Since I am still using Windows for all actual "work", I never bothered to put my home folder on a separate partition. There isn't anything in there that I don't want to lose. In fact, the only things I was trying to save were my Windows program installs that I got working under Wine, but I guess it is possible that they would work better after a clean install and upgrade of Wine to the latest version AFTER the clean install? I don't yet have a handle on how well Linux handles upgrades to programs during / after an OS upgrade. Paul
  6. For me, this whole experience is an experiment. I understand that an upgrade of an "older" installation might not go too well and I don't have a lot to lose if the upgrade goes bad. I might even do a clean install later "just because". My existing Mandriva install started out as 2007.0, and that is what it reports as it boots. I honestly can't remember if I ever upgraded it, but I don't think so. I did update it from the repositories though. Not sure if that makes it "spring" or not ;) As for cutting and pasting..... I have tried that in the past and it didn't seem to work. At least not cutting from a window and pasting to the command line using <ctl>C, <ctl>V shortcuts. ?? Please take what you see as "bitching" as what it really is..... feedback from the trenches. I am doing my best to understand and adapt, but there are several key areas where I think the "Linux experience" could be significantly improved. Any negative comments are of course not aimed at you..... just feedback to whoever might be reading. I had to leave for work with the PC still upgrading (second try).... let's see what awaits me when I return home this evening ;) If the second try isn't successful, I'll opt for a clean install. Paul
  7. At the risk of losing your support altogether...... what attitude? Ignoring what advice? I am upgrading now BECAUSE of your (and John's) advice. And I thank you for it. The only thing I really "ignored" was your advice to use the command line. That seemed overly difficult since the URL I would have to type was VERY long. Much easier to use something where I could type in the server and then navigate from there. That and I didn't have a whole lot extra HD space on my other Linux install. Easier in the long run to use Windows where I have plenty to spare. I would never have guessed that these days there are problems with >4GB files in Windows with current (as in IE) software. WS_FTP I can understand. Bitching? Perhaps. It was my apparently mistaken notion that Linux people cared about the difficulties people have using it. I will refrain in the future. I am trying to make the transition from Windows to Linux. I have no issues whatsoever with XP other than security (and that is major) but I like the concept of Linux. I have tried several flavors and Mandriva is my current second best choice. If I can get 2008 running it might become my first choice. Some of the problems could be called cockpit error. And some are not. I might add that so far the upgrade has not gone well. I woke up to find that it had stopped with an error on one package. I told it to skip that package and it continued for a while but it stopped again and appeared to be frozen. The install progress screen was blank with no response to any keyboard input but the mouse was still alive. I finally hit RESET, booted PCLinuxOS (which recovered some orphaned sections on the HD) and checked to make sure the HD wasn't full. It wasn't. So I decided to try the upgrade again. It is running now. If that fails, I'll do a clean install since I don't really have anything I truly have to save on that install. Not bitching..... just a report. THis is a learning experience for me. And user feedback to the devs if they read this forum. Go ahead and dismiss it as "oh, another dumbass user" if you wish. But this is feedback from the field from a somewhat computer savvy user who doesn't know Linux very well yet. And is trying. Respectfully, Paul
  8. OK, I'm finally upgrading. It was quite a struggle! 1. There does indeed seem to be some sort of issue with HTTP downloads of >4GB files from the mirrors under WinXP / IE7. 2. There is also an issue with older FTP clients like I was using (WS_FTP). It displayed the file size of the DVD ISO as about 200MB. 3. KTorrent in PCLinuxOS froze my PC twice trying to download from the torrent link on the MDV download page. I finally gave up. 4. I tried an FTP client in PCLinuxOS (don't remember which one) and couldn't figure out how to download with it. Can you say "non-intuitive"? 5. I finally downloaded a free FTP client in XP and successfully downloaded and burned a DVD. 6. The DVD would boot but froze with a blank screen after "loading Linux". Setting ACPI to OFF allowed it to boot and it is upgrading as I type. Estimated completion is "18:03". At the speed it is progressing, that looks to be 18 hours, not minutes. Egad! I'll let it run over night I guess. A clean install would have been a MUCH better idea I think. Too bad it didn't tell me that up front..... I hope we don't lose power overnight ;) Paul
  9. Now you tell me! Actually, that is something to try. I'm pretty sure I did use an FTP link last night but did it via IE7 and it stalled. Tonight I'll try it with an FTP client and see what happens. Do you by chance have a link to a mirror that has a properly working server? Since it stalls at the 3.99GB mark, it wastes the better part of a couple hours (average 600-700KB/s on Comcast) every time I try it. Or are you saying that this isn't an issue if I use an FTP client? Don't the admins realize things aren't working right? I didn't see any other posts on this...... Paul
  10. Sorry, that isn't it. I too thought the 3.99 mark was significant but I am saving in WinXP using IE7 to an NTFS 20GB partition that has maybe 12GB free. And I am pretty sure I have saved a DVD image before at least once. No I am not using a download manager. I am downloading in Windows using IE7. I suppose I could try it in PCLinuxOS using Firefox (I don't have wireless running in MDV yet). Can I assume that burning a DVD ISO is easy under Linux? I use Nero in Windows. BTW, what's up with the Mandriva mirrors on the MDV download page? They are identified by location and URL but there isn't enough information to figure out what you are actually downloading until the download begins.... it seems to be pot luck whether you get CD or DVD ISOs. The only place I found where you could actually choose was the link you get after the download starts: Your download should begin shortly. If you are experiencing problems, follow this link: ftp://mirrors.secsup.org/pub/linux/mandra...cial/iso/2008.0 I also thought it was odd that nowhere on the MDV site does it explain the differences between MDV One and MDV Free. I had to Google and found a Wiki that laid it out very well.... and pointed back to the MDV site for download. It is important because A) I want to do an upgrade and I don't think you can do that from One and B) One doesn't even boot on my system for some reason. I get "Loading Linux" and then a blank screen. EDIT: Needed to set ACPI=OFF. Then it boots OK. Thanks, Paul
  11. Happened twice from two different mirrors. Download goes great until 3.99 gigs and then it stops dead in its tracks with zero data flow. And I had a third download attempt that was about 200+ megs total (it finished) even though it said it was the 4.2GB DVD ISO. Is there a connection? Do I need to know a secret handshake? Maybe I won't upgrade my MDV 2007 after all. Paul
  12. My bad.... that was a typo. Sorry. Here's what really happened. I entered interactive startup like you said and did not allow HardDrake to start when it asked. That allowed the boot to continue past the "starting HAL daemon" point and it eventually dropped to command line. At that point I started XFdrake (not HardDrake) which detected my Nvidia card just fine. When I told it to load the driver, it opened the CD tray and asked for disk 1. I inserted disk 1 but it ejected it and asked for it again. I tried all four disks just in case, same results. Same as before. Unless I am missing something obvious, the problem seems to be that my installation disk 1 is not recognized as such by XFdrake or HardDrake but IS recognized during an actual installation. Paul
  13. Unfortunately, that didn't work. I was able to enter interactive mode and start HardDrake but no matter what I tried to set the video to (VESA, etc.) it kept asking for disk #1 and then rejecting it. That did the trick. I was able to set the video card to Geforce 6200 and it loaded the drivers from the same Mandriva "disk 1" that it was rejecting in all other attempts. Go figure. FWIW, if there are any dev's reading.... I would not have known that I could do a "dummy upgrade" or install over the top of an otherwise working system (as opposed to a clean install) from anything I read when simply booting from the install disk. It is one of my pet peaves that the Linux install / upgrade / bootloader install routines are very poorly documented and rarely if ever tell you up front (ie., before beginning any install / upgrade process) what your options will be within the install process. I never know, for example, whether it is going to overwrite my MBR without asking. I know from experience that Mandriva does not, but some do. And you have to complete much of the install before finding out. On booting from the CD I would like to see an opening screen telling me (in understandable language) what I will be able to do and what I will be able to configure and where I will be able to put the boot loader BEFORE the install begins. If that had been available here, I would have known as soon as I booted from the CD (which I did a couple times specifically to see if there was a repair option) that I could have done an "upgrade" as opposed to a fresh install. And it still doesn't answer why it kept rejecting disk 1. The "upgrade" process was far too fast for it to have changed much, if anything, and it never asked for disks 2-4. That tells me that the "disk 1" that I used was indeed the disk 1 from the original install. I am mystified why it would not accept it when it asked for "disk 1" during interactive boot. In any event it is solved. Thanks! Paul
  14. I'm a bit stuck here. I know what the problem is but I can't figure out how to solve it :( I changed my ATI Radeon 7000 AGP for an Nvidia eGeForce 6200 PCI and the Mandriva boot stalls at the "starting HAL" step and opens the CD drawer. Although there is no text to state as such, it seems to be asking for the install CD, looking for drivers.... if I boot in interactive mode, it starts hard drake and then asks for install CD #1. However, in either case, when I insert CD 1, it reads it and then spits it out and asks for CD #1. I am about 99.99% certain that the CD I have is in fact the very CD that I originally installed from. I even burned another from the repository. The boot text states I am running Mandriva 2007.0 and that is the image I burned. But for whatever reason, it doesn't recognize disk 1? Or disks 2-4 for that matter. Unless I can get past this, my Mandriva installation is dead. Note that I had a similar problem in PCLinuxOS after installing the card. However, in PCLinuxOS, it dropped to command line and I was able to log on as root and run XFdrake and it installed the required drivers just fine. Any ideas? I tried searching here but didn't get much. Paul
  15. OK in my case at least, my dead mouse issue has been solved. And the problem wasn’t any of the suggestions I have read about such as ACPI or setting “PnP aware OS” to NO in BIOS. The problem was how I was booting Linux. Perhaps this will help others who are still having trouble. I have been experimenting with various distros such as Mandriva Free, Mandriva One, Ubuntu, Xandros and PCLinuxOS in multiple boot scenarios with Windows XP. Each time I install a new distro it replaces the boot loader, sometimes without even asking. If I then let a preexisintg OS reinstall Grub, the result can be that Grub is misconfigured. In my case, Mandriva was the oldest installation, followed by PCLinuxOS and then Ubuntu. If I let each distro install its own boot loader one after the other, all seems to be OK. But if I then let one of the previously installed distros reinstall Grub (PCLinuxOS in this case), it breaks. During the Grub reinstall from PCLinuxOS, Grub looked to me like it was retrieving the image to boot when I pointed it to the root of each desired OS. But closer inspection showed that it was not….. it was entering the image filename for the current OS. For some reason, this actually boots the desired OS but since Grub used the wrong image filename the boot process seems to default to some folders that do not exist and among other things the mouse and USB drivers don’t load. The cure in my case was to copy menu.lst from the Grub folder on Ubuntu (which could correctly boot all OSs until I let PCLinuxOS reinstall Grub) over to the Grub folder of PCLinuxOS (which is currently responsible for Grub). There may be a simpler way to get everything configured correctly but that was what worked for me. I suspect that reinstalling any distro and allowing it to overwrite the MBR would also have fixed it, for the same reason. There needs to be a simple way to reinstall the boot loader if it gets hosed and have it correctly configured for all operating systems. I know it can be done because a new install seems to get it right. But I have not been successful doing it after the fact. Have I missed something simple? An additional issue I discovered is that the graphical version of Grub apparently cannot display as many options as the text version. Since I have three Linux installs and XP, the graphical version runs out of room and truncates the first several entries..... without warning. EDIT: Been reading up on Grub and I think I have discovered the problem. When configuring Grub from within PCLinuxOS (for example) I have been using what I thought was the Linux convention of (for example) hdb5 = the fifth partition on the second hard drive. But Grub does it differently? In Grub-speak, that would be hd1,4? So I was directing Grub to the wrong partition when I manually configured it within PCLOS via the GUI ?? Paul
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