Ixthusdan

A change like this should not render the system bootless! Yes, an upgrade install can be used to reinstall a boot loader, but I am interested in why it happened. Which was your primary install from which GRUB operated, SuSE or Mandriva?

Is it a shared resource or a true network printer?

Greetings!

Did you check the md5sum after you downloaded the file to verify its integrity? Did you burn at a slower speed, say 12X? These are the best ways to insure the burn is correct.

When you see the black screen, press ctrl-alt-F1 (or F2 Or F3, they are all virtual consoles). You should get a login prompt. log in. Then, type "su", enter, enter your root password, enter, and type "mc." Navigate to /etc/X11/xorg.conf . Go down to the "Device" section, and change the driver to "vesa." Save and Exit (F2, F10 twice) Go back to the blank console (either F7 or F8) and hit ctrl-alt-bkspc.

Your video card is not configured correctly. Since you are probably more comfortable in the graphic user interface, let's get there first and then fix the video. What is your video card?

Initiate with root or clear the temp files. It seems that the same files are used but for some mystery the user ID is different for Gnome. Do you have more than one user? The same user can launch any desktop.

KDE and Gnome are different desktops, but not different operating systems. If a driver is installed in Linux, it will work regardless of the desktop. Something else is wrong.

Nope, it wasn't a Partition Magic problem and the hard drive is fine. Something (I am not sure what) got too corrupted to allow access.

 

At any rate, I wiped the hard drive clean and reinstalled xp. I have made sure it is all running okay.

It's your data, but partition tables are corrupted by specific problems. Get the hard drive manufacturer utility and check the drive. It has nothing to do with the age of the drive; it is a mini computer that can fail. New drives fail because of defects, and old drives fail because of defects. A drive simply does not "get corrupt" without reason. The choice is simple: either something was done to it or it did something. ;)

Welcome to Mandrivausers.org!

Make sure your internet connection is live. If you have dsl or cable, it is live all of the time.

At the top of this page is a link called "Easy Urpmi." Click on it.

Read and follow the instructions. You are probably using "2008" and "i586." Don't worry about understanding these terms, just select them and click "Proceed to step 1."

The next choice is servers from which you will get files and updates. Pick a server near you geographically. Your profile is blank, but your local time is 6 hours later than me, so you are in Eastern Europe or Africa, maybe the Middle East. When is doubt, nluug is always a speedy server. (Even for me!) Select "main," "contrib," and "updates." Also select a "plf-free" and a "plf-nonfree" repo. Proceed to step 3.

Open a terminal. In the terminal, type "su" and press enter. Enter your root user password and press enter. Type "urpmi.removemedia -a" and press enter. Copy and paste the entire text that was generated on the urpmi web sight for you. It will do stuff! When it stops seeming to do stuff, press enter one more time.

In a few minutes, the little orange ball will tell you that you have updates (probably a lot of updates) Install all of them, and then we'll tackle the sound problem.

Open a browser and enter "localhost:631" . This is the CUPS print manager.

Is the printer listed as active?

Is it listed at all?

Can you print a test from there?

bookie has requested that this thread remain open in order to allow discussion to continue. Great efforts discover things that no one knew needed discovery. But without exploration, only the mundane is known.

I would check for any updates in the sources and I would be sure that any pdates have been ran on the system. Then try again.

Administrative note: the original poster of this thread has asked that it be closed. We apologize for not "catching it" but closing a thread is generally done for more serious matters than loss of interest in the topic. If you pm a mod/admin, things happen a bit faster. I agree with Yves that posting a topic really requires time for people to see it. Anyone wishing to start a new discussion on this subject is free to do so, as the closing is not the result of any management decision.

What is your graphics card? Most controls are found in the utility program of the card.

The most common explanation for this event, that is, everything fine and suddenly a bad partition table, is:

1) You used Partition Magic in windows to "fix" the partition table. If this is the case, you just lost everything!

2) The hard drive is failing or has failed. Try to boot until you get it up and back up your data in a hurry. Replace the drive.

Sorry, none of this is particularly good news.

An iso file is an image of a cdrom. So, it must be burned as an image. Do not copy the file, and do not unpack it. Most burning software burns images if you tell it to do so, including Nero. But the defaults are generally copy.

Your computer should be fine. Be sure to use the Nvidia proprietary drivers for youre video card.

Programs are different in different systems. Windows executables are not going to work in Linux, and Linux binaries do not work in windows. Games tha are good write binaries for Linux. Go to the game sight and find the Linux files.

GRUB reads:

"Windows" is your first partition, which according to your previous posts should be the recovery partition.

"Windows1" is the second partition, which I think ought to be the windows installation.

Linux is a little odd because it claims to be looking at sda6 {(hd0,5)}but finds root on sda7, with the swap on sda8. My guess is either root is on sda6 or the GRUB identification should read (hd0,6), which I think is where the error is.

Welcome to Mandrivausers.org!

What is your video card? It sounds like a video driver issue and using proprietary drivers will fix it. Knowing which card will get better instructions. You will have to work on the command line at first, but the gui will follow.

Yes. Use a newer version of Mandriva!! :D

A couple of things:

dkms is the way to go. I used to have trouble with them, but no longer.

Wasn't there a kernel-source problem with the release kernel? It seems like the update kernel came rather quickly to correct some errors. Update your kernel.

Ahh... I also forgot about that. It it was a common problem. :P

I would make sure the file that you burned was good. Did you md5sum the iso prior to burning? Another thing I do is always burn at a slow speed- cd at 16x and dvd at 4x. If you did not burn the disk and acquired the disk elsewhere, then the disk may be bad. The Mandriva installer has had trouble in the past with bad partitioning, perhaps around Mandrake 9 or 10, but I even managed to work with that. Another possible long shot is that the drive may be in early stages of failing. The manufacturer of the drive usually has a test program to talk to it. (Not Toshiba, but the actual drive manufacturer)

Clarification: GRUB will boot any operating system which you install. It will also boot as many as you wish to install. Simply install it to the MBR. I have booted Linux and windows with GRUB for years (and lilo as well) by placing GRUB in the MBR. People that claim this hoses windows have usually done something else to do it.In other words, they do not understand and they hosed windows themselves, not GRUB. B)

Yes. In windows, Acer retains the button press, but in Linux, it reverts back to the neutral state, at least my Acer does this.

With GRUB, you do not need to copy anything from the Mandrake /boot. All you need to do is list the correct kernel and image with the correct drive/partition. I have as many as 5 operating systems at any time and I use just one GRUB record to run it all. I do not chainload any of them, except windows, of course. B) The last install you did is the GRUB that is controlling the boot, in this case the rescue with 2008. Just edit that one.

The syntax of the line is:

{GRUB instruction} (drive, partition) {kernel location on that partition} {graphic image location} {system location} {swap location} {boot splash} {screen resolution}

Note that GRUB starts its numbering with 0, rather than 1. So the location of the boot is the GRUB numbering, but the location in the line is standard /dev numbering. That is why the first partition is 0 at the beginning {hd0, 0}, but 1 in the line {/dev/hda1}.

Was it last year or the year before that Gael Duval was dismissed from the organization? That is what I call "intrigue." :P