yossarian

So when you look at /etc/x11/xorg.conf, you see Driver "nvidia" (as opposed to Driver "nv")?

No, read carefully! I didn't update the kernel, I stayed with 2.6.17-13 as well. I just re-installed the drivers (or at least I think this is what I did).

Oh, so actually I did you a favor. No problem, mate, you owe me one.

Hey dude, I'm not sure it will be helpful, but I suggest you take a look at this topic. Good luck.

Checked it, the driver is 'nvidia'. When I reloaded the driver, I was asked if I want to use the proprietary driver, and I said yes. It's an important thing I forgot to mention, it's a good thing you reminded me.

I'm back, and everything is fine now. After the update I restarted the computer. Like I expected, the graphical interface didn't load. It happened to me before every time I updated the nvidia drivers. I got a message that X.org couldn't load and that there is some fatal error, and then I was asked if I want to try and solve it myself. Then I got the screen where you can choose the display settings. I went to the screen where one sets the driver and re-chose the same driver (nvidia Geforce 3-4 series for me). Then it uploaded the X environment, and here I am. Thanks for everyone, and see you next time. Ciao.

Fine, I'll give it a try. Thanks for the code/codebox clarification, and thanks to spiny too. Every day I learn something new, and every day I forget what I learned the day before.

And among the available options in the installation window I see: kernel-source-2.6.17.13mdv-1-1mdv2007.1.i586 and: kernel-source-stripped-2.6.17.13mdv-1-1mdv2007.1.i586 Am I in the right direction, or do I need something totally different?

Here it is: Linux localhost 2.6.17-13mdvlegacy #1 SMP Fri Mar 23 19:05:24 UTC 2007 i686 Intel® Celeron® CPU 2.80GHz GNU/Linux (A later comment: I don't understand why the code box is so big. Maybe I wrote there something important...)

Ian, there is a problem after all with ignoring the kernal question. After about an hour or so of updates I got this message: Problem during installation 4 installation transactions failed There was a problem during the installation: kernel-source is needed by dkms-2.0.16-1mdv2007.1.noarch dkms is needed by dkms-nvidia71xx-1.0-7184.10plf2007.1.i586 dkms is needed by dkms-nvidia71xx-1.0-7184.10plf2007.1.i586 dkms is needed by dkms-nvidia71xx-1.0-7184.10plf2007.1.i586 dkms is needed by dkms-nvidia96xx-1.0-9631.6plf2007.1.i586 dkms is needed by dkms-nvidia96xx-1.0-9631.6plf2007.1.i586 dkms is needed by dkms-nvidia96xx-1.0-9631.6plf2007.1.i586 dkms is needed by dkms-nvidia97xx-1.0-9755.2plf2007.1.i586 dkms is needed by dkms-nvidia97xx-1.0-9755.2plf2007.1.i586 dkms is needed by dkms-nvidia97xx-1.0-9755.2plf2007.1.i586 So what do I do next? I need to know what kernel version to choose when I'm asked.

Actually, I'd like to update my nvidia drivers, for two reasons: 1. I try to update whatever I can and work always with the most updated versions (besides the kernel). 2. I know it sounds somewhat childish, but I really don't like the red exclamation mark. It makes me feel I missed something, or did something wrong. So I have to update all the packages all the time for the (bad) red mark to go away. ;) One thing I didn't understand: Do I have to update the kernel for the new drivers to take effect?

Thanks Ian. So what is your bottom line? Do I have to upgrade the kernel for the new ati/nvidia drivers to work, or can I stay with my current kernel?

Ok, then I'm going just to ignore this question and click the X button to close this window. I don't have any problems with my current kernel. Thank you.

Hi everyone, I got today the red exclamation mark indicating that new updates are ready for me. When I clicked it, I got a window saying "one of following packages is needed", and then came a long list of kernel packages names from which I was supposed to choose. I am running with Mandriva 2007.1 (spring). If I ignore this message I see that the updates refer to ATI and nvidia drivers, some libraries for xine and mplayer, and an update for wengophone (of course, if the full list is required, let me know and I will paste it here). One package is called "kernel-legacy-latest-2.16.17-14mdv.i586, Metapackage for latest kernel-legacy", but by default it left unmarked, and I'm not sure if I need to mark it, as I believe Mandriva 2007.1 comes with kernel 2.16.17-13 (correct me if I'm wrong). So what kernel should I choose from the opening window? Thanks! [moved from Software by spinynorman]

Hi dude, I'm not sure what exactly you mean by 'acting up'. If you mean that the menus and windows are broken and scrambled, I had the same problem. I needed to reinstall the graphic card driver (Nvidia GeForce 3000-4000 series in my case), and it worked things out. As I plan to make the fresh installation tonight I will probably encounter this problem again, so If you want to know how to do it, hang around and I'll be back with all the details. And if it isn't the problem you meant, sorry for wasting your time. :) Hang still for one of the experts.

OK, sorry. I sent you an apology also in mail. I even looked in the 'Posting Guidelines' to see if I'm doing anything wrong... Anyway, thanks for the help of everybody.

I posted a question in Installing Mandriva forum. I lost hope, I just want to know if there is anything I can do in order to avoid it next time (besides buying a UPS). I think I'll do the fresh installation tomorrow.

arcrtic, thanks a lot for all your help. I think before I re-install I'll try to ask the guys at the installation forum. Not that they are going to tell me anything else, but I want to make sure (as much as possible) that it happened due to the power outage, and not because I wasn't careful enough.

You see, now I fell reprimanded . But the teacher, I didn't do anything! Seriously: What did I do wrong? I'm afraid I'll repeat the same mistakes. All I did was installing a few programs (Thunderbird, Lyx) through the mcc, mounting my windows partition through the fstab, and getting the automatic updates after synchronizing through the urpmi. what will prevent it from happening next time? Anyway, arctic - I'd like to thank you for your time and advice. I really appreciate it. The community here is very supportive and warm, and it is a pleasure to get your help. dude - from the correspondence up till now you have probably understood it by yourself that I'm not an expert. If I were you, I would hand around until someone would help me. There are some terrific people here. BTW - is there a point asking in other forums?

OK, hereby attached the two files. I had to add a .txt suffix so the site will allow me to upload the file, so please rename them back before you open them. The power outage occurred on Wednesday the 30th, in the afternoon, and on the evening I first saw the problem (the computer was shut down until I came back home). I'm aware that the chance are not so high. Anyway, I appreciate your help very much. If I need to start thinking about re-installation, I have a few questions. I know that if one installs from the DVD he has an option of upgrading from prior releases. Is there a chance that such an installation can fix the problem without deleting the whole configuration? and is the DV version complete? for example, I know that the full CD's installation didn't contain proprietary drivers, so I couldn't run the 3-D effects (I'm a very shallow person, I'm aware to that). Is the DVD version the same? messages.txt dmesg.txt

So you think the power outage caused all this mess? Up until now I was sure it was the X.org update. I looked at the var/log/messages file. I didn't understand a thing of it, for me those are thousands of technical messages. I tried to focus on the times I did a login and had this problem, and couldn't find anything exceptional, though, again, I'm only a newbie. Would it be rude if I uploaded this file to the site and asked you to take a look at it? I will totally understand if you tell me I ask a too much, so I will appreciate it if you pointed me to a forum where they wouldn't mind. And if you wouldn't mind, it's even better. I really don't want to re-install Mandriva. It took me a long time to get to the configuration I like. I install from the live CD, so the configuration is going to be lost in the installation. Besides, if it was caused by the package update, I'm afraid it's going to happen again.

Boy oh boy... nothing worked. :sad: I defined a new user - same problem appeared. I did what you said about the startx, and it didn't help either. I didn't get any messages, just the system still doesn't work. Any more ideas? Do I have any hope, or will I have to reinstall Mandriva? I really hope to avoid it, I put a lot of time and effort to get to the configuration I like.

Thanks. I must go to work now, but I'm going to try it all when I come back at night and report back. Regarding the user, I don't believe it will help, because exactly the same thing happens when I try to log in as root or as another user I defined on my computer. Still, I'm going to try it. And about the broken windows, it is just an example: I can't close windows, I can't shutdown or log out, and in short, nothing works right. I'll come back later (about very long 11 hours) to report.

When I tried the chown command I got the message: chown: 'user:user': invalid group where 'user' stands for my username, of course. As far as I remember, my group's name is the same as my user name. Is there a way to check it out? After that, when I ran XFdrake, I got a screen where I could choose the driver and set some settings for the display, but there was no command line where I could type startx, so I guess I didn't understand you correctly; I will be grateful if you can provide some more detailed instructions. Anyway, I chose again the driver, and also disabled the composite function. So now I can pass the login screen, but again I get stuck with the menu and the Gnome loading screen, and nothing works right (for example, the windows have no borders). So what do I do next?

Hi everyone, First of all, I'm not sure this topic belongs to this forum, so if this subject is irrelevant to the forum, I will appreciate it if you can point me to a place where I can get help, and I apologize in advance. I've been running Mandirva on my PC for about three months now. Lately I upgraded to Mandriva 2007.1. I also update automatically every auto-update notification. After a power supply break yesterday, I restarted my computer after about a week it ran with no interference. To my surprise, the OS didn't fully load. It was stuck in the presentation of the Gnome loading screen. After a few trials, it stopped loading at all: after typing the username and the password I get a black screen, and then back to the username screen again. I tried to think what I did on the last days that could cause such a crash, and two things came to my mind: 1. I enabled the system sounds from the System->Preferences menu (I'm a bit skeptical about the relevancy of this issue, but I try to share as much information as I can, I'm no expert and I want to give you as full picture as I can). 2. I downloaded some updates and installed them. After realizing that I can't log in, I came to this site, having a good experience with some of the people here. I saw this message on the board, so I followed Adam's instructions and tried to update from safe mode: When I updated through urpmi I got a message that version 1.2.0-9.2mdv2007.1 is already installed. After reboot I saw the problem hasn't been solved. Does anyone have an idea what I did wrong, and how I can fix it? I will appreciate your help very much, you are my only hope!