bigjohn

Ok since your last post, I decided to look in the mandrake control centre>rpmdrake>rpmdrake- both the kernel and the kernel sources where there. I'd downloaded them together, and for some reason, the kernel hadn't installed properly (well that's what I'm presuming anyway - given the missing stuff from the /boot. So I uninstalled them both, and then re-installed them, kernel first, followed by the sources. When I went into the kde boot manager, I could then see the 263-13 entry, so caution to the wind and rebooted. On the lilo prompt, I selected the 263-13 entry and things booted fine. I did uname -r which showed me to be in the 2.6.3-13mdk kernel, that go 1 :D So I did a reboot and selected "linux", and booted into that fine as well, again the uname -r showed me to be in the 2.6.3-13mdk kernel so that got a So I then looked at the lilo.conf as show by the kde boot manager, and it look's like this at the moment: # File generated by DrakX/drakboot # WARNING: do not forget to run lilo after modifying this file boot=/dev/hda map=/boot/map default="windows" keytable=/boot/uk.klt prompt nowarn timeout=100 message=/boot/message menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw image="/boot/vmlinuz" label="linux" root="/dev/hda5" initrd="/boot/initrd.img" append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda3 splash=silent" vga=788 read-only #image="/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.3-13mdk" #label="263-13" #root="/dev/hda5" #initrd="/boot/initrd-2.6.3-13mdk.img" #append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda3 splash=silent" #vga=788 #read-only image=/boot/vmlinuz label="linux-nonfb" root=/dev/hda5 initrd=/boot/initrd.img append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda3" read-only image=/boot/vmlinuz label="failsafe" root=/dev/hda5 initrd=/boot/initrd.img append="failsafe acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda3 devfs=nomount" read-only other=/dev/hda1 label="windows" table=/dev/hda other=/dev/fd0 label="floppy" unsafe image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.3-13mdk label=263-13 root=/dev/hda5 read-only optional vga=788 append=" devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda3 splash=silent" initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.3-13mdk.img You'll notice that there's still the space before devfs in the append line, and that the rest of it's still "arse about face", but it's booting, also all the stuff for the "linux" entry seems to be pointing to the right places, so I'm going to leave things as they are (but I'm still gonna have to sit and plough my way though the man page for lilo :() So as thing's seemed to be going well, I logged in as root, did the ctrl+alt+backspace trick to kill the xserver and just followed the instructions and re-installed the nvidia driver. Which mean's that with your help, I've managed to go from to :headbang: Brilliant. many many thanks for your help and assistance - hope your work wasn't too stressful (I'm not at work till about 10pm tonight :() regards John

And yes, there is the 2.6.3-13mdk in /usr/src. Actually there's a shortcut to /usr/src/linux-2.6.3-13mdk and the /usr/src/linux-2.6.3-13mdk directory itself, plus a directory call RPMS regards John

I stared at it hard and suddenly though it could be because there where no "" round the entry parameters, (your p's and q's/crossing t's and dotting i's comment), and moved the 2.6.3-13 entry under the "normal" one, but it didn't like that at all. So as you can see # File generated by DrakX/drakboot # WARNING: do not forget to run lilo after modifying this file boot=/dev/hda map=/boot/map default="windows" keytable=/boot/uk.klt prompt nowarn timeout=100 message=/boot/message menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw image="/boot/vmlinuz" label="linux" root="/dev/hda5" initrd="/boot/initrd.img" append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda3 splash=silent" vga=788 read-only #image="/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.3-13mdk" #label="263-13" #root="/dev/hda5" #initrd="/boot/initrd-2.6.3-13mdk.img" #append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda3 splash=silent" #vga=788 #read-only image=/boot/vmlinuz label="linux-nonfb" root=/dev/hda5 initrd=/boot/initrd.img append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda3" read-only image=/boot/vmlinuz label="failsafe" root=/dev/hda5 initrd=/boot/initrd.img append="failsafe acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda3 devfs=nomount" read-only other=/dev/hda1 label="windows" table=/dev/hda other=/dev/fd0 label="floppy" unsafe for the time being, it's commented out, but I still think that it looks correct i.e. exactly the same as the entry above with seems to boot. It's as if somethings missing. So here's the content's of my /boot [root@johnspc john]# ls -l /boot total 6928 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 1 May 14 17:35 boot -> ./ -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 Jun 7 12:58 boot.0300 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 54087 Mar 17 14:58 config-2.6.3-7mdk -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5032 Feb 19 17:03 diag1.img -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16796 Feb 19 17:03 diag2.img drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jun 11 11:28 grub/ -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 174166 Jun 15 14:03 initrd-2.6.3-13mdk.img -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 174419 Jun 7 12:58 initrd-2.6.3-7mdk.img -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1323821 May 14 18:12 initrd-2.6.5-gentoo-r1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 Jun 11 11:50 initrd.img -> initrd-2.6.3-7mdk.img -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1969598 May 14 18:03 kernel-2.6.5-gentoo-r1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 29 Jun 11 11:28 kernel.h -> /boot/kernel.h-2.6.3-7mdkBOOT -rw------- 1 root root 517632 Jun 15 15:23 map lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Jun 11 11:54 message -> message-graphic -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 442273 Jun 15 14:03 message-graphic -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 116 Jun 11 11:54 message-text -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 898908 Mar 17 14:58 System.map-2.6.3-7mdk -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 256 Jun 11 11:50 uk.klt lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 Jun 11 11:50 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.3-7mdk -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1440198 Mar 17 14:58 vmlinuz-2.6.3-7mdk [root@johnspc john]# Now as far as I can see, the system is saying that the 2.6.3-13 was installed correctly (both the kernel and kernel sources), but I can't see any config-2.6.3-13 and the kernel.h is pointing to the wrong kernel version, there's no indication of /boot/kernel.h-2.6.3-13mdkBOOT etc etc (system.map, vmlinuz-2.6.3-13) does this mean that it's ended up somewhere else when I did the install (if I try urpmi kernel it say's which one 3-7 and 3-13, I say 3-13 and it replies that everythin is installed) ????? regards John

Ho hum!:) the little bugger. Now the kde boot manager is showing it like this image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.3-13mdk label=263-13 root=/dev/hda5 initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.3-13mdk.img append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda3 splash=silent" read-only optional vga=788 i.e. with the changes made, but running lilo is still showing this (after a reboot, just in case) bash-2.05b$ su Password: [root@johnspc john]# mount /dev/hda2 [root@johnspc john]# /sbin/lilo -v LILO version 22.5.8, Copyright (C) 1992-1998 Werner Almesberger Development beyond version 21 Copyright (C) 1999-2003 John Coffman Released 10-Oct-2003, and compiled at 18:03:01 on Feb 19 2004 Reading boot sector from /dev/hda Using GRAPHIC secondary loader Calling map_insert_data Mapping message file /boot/message -> message-graphic Calling map_insert_file Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.3-7mdk Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd.img -> initrd-2.6.3-7mdk.img Added linux Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.3-7mdk Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd.img -> initrd-2.6.3-7mdk.img Added linux-nonfb Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.3-7mdk Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd.img -> initrd-2.6.3-7mdk.img Added failsafe Boot other: /dev/hda1, on /dev/hda, loader CHAIN Added windows * Boot other: /dev/fd0, loader CHAIN Pseudo partition start: 0 Added floppy Skipping /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.3-13mdk Writing boot sector. /boot/boot.0300 exists - no boot sector backup copy made. [root@johnspc john]# Erm I don't suppose it matters or not where on the list it is? regards John

Righto! regards John

the kde boot manager is still showing the 2.6.3-13 entry like this image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.3-13mdk label=263-13 root=/dev/hda5 read-only optional vga=788 append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda3 splash=silent" initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.3-13mdk.img i.e. with the space taken out, but /sbin/lilo -v still seems to be doing this Skipping /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.3-13mdk Writing boot sector. /boot/boot.0300 exists - no boot sector backup copy made. [root@johnspc john]# Now I'm really confused. Should I delete the /boot/boot.0300 file maybe ?? regards John

OK i'll go and try that. Thank Heaven for you guy's who know what you're doing :D, maybe I'll get there one day (in about 100 year's :)) regards John

So after asking a few boot related questions, and reading some other thread's (about booting and about installing a network printer) It appear's that one of the most straight forward thing's would be to upgrade my kernel from 2.6.3-7 to the latest 2.6.3-13. previously (when I had the CE version of mandrake 10) I just installed the new kernel, upgraded the kernel sources and then re-installed the nvidia driver. So I've used the installer in the MCC but I can't get the 2.6.3-13 kernel booting. I've tried the kde>system>Boot Manager (LILO) facility kindly suggested by chris z in this thread but when I look at the lilo.conf it shows this:- # File generated by DrakX/drakboot # WARNING: do not forget to run lilo after modifying this file boot=/dev/hda map=/boot/map default="windows" keytable=/boot/uk.klt prompt nowarn timeout=100 message=/boot/message menu-scheme=wb:bw:wb:bw image="/boot/vmlinuz" label="linux" root="/dev/hda5" initrd="/boot/initrd.img" append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda3 splash=silent" vga=788 read-only image=/boot/vmlinuz label="linux-nonfb" root=/dev/hda5 initrd=/boot/initrd.img append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda3" read-only image=/boot/vmlinuz label="failsafe" root=/dev/hda5 initrd=/boot/initrd.img append="failsafe acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda3 devfs=nomount" read-only other=/dev/hda1 label="windows" table=/dev/hda other=/dev/fd0 label="floppy" unsafe image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.3-13mdk label=263-13 root=/dev/hda5 read-only optional vga=788 append=" devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda3 splash=silent" initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.3-13mdk.img Now as you can see, it's there, but if I try to run lilo, I get this [root@johnspc john]# /sbin/lilo -v LILO version 22.5.8, Copyright (C) 1992-1998 Werner Almesberger Development beyond version 21 Copyright (C) 1999-2003 John Coffman Released 10-Oct-2003, and compiled at 18:03:01 on Feb 19 2004 Reading boot sector from /dev/hda Using GRAPHIC secondary loader Calling map_insert_data Mapping message file /boot/message -> message-graphic Calling map_insert_file Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.3-7mdk Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd.img -> initrd-2.6.3-7mdk.img Added linux Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.3-7mdk Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd.img -> initrd-2.6.3-7mdk.img Added linux-nonfb Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.3-7mdk Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd.img -> initrd-2.6.3-7mdk.img Added failsafe Boot other: /dev/hda1, on /dev/hda, loader CHAIN Added windows * Boot other: /dev/fd0, loader CHAIN Pseudo partition start: 0 Added floppy Skipping /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.3-13mdk Writing boot sector. /boot/boot.0300 exists - no boot sector backup copy made. [root@johnspc john]# Hence on boot up, the 2.6.3-13 version doesn't show up as an option, and I can't try to install my network printer or config/reinstall the nvidia drivers for it Perhap's someone could advise me as to what I need to do next? regards John

Wow, now that I find rather curious chris z, just looked at your suggestion and it look like how drakboot used to work, except now I can't make it (drakboot) view all the installed OS's like it did in previous mandrake versions. As I say, while I prefer to do the mod's graphically, I can do them manually with VI or kate or something, so it's not a problem "per se", but it seems rather strange that kde is doing what drakboot used to do (and of course it could also be my current config?) - a bit "retro" if you ask me, still I don't really care if it's kde or mandrake's offerings that mean I can accomplish something quickly, efficiently and with a full understanding of what I'm doing. But still a little weird. Does anyone have a decent link as to where I can find an understandable list of definitions of "append" line options? regards John

Hum! I suppose that mean's that I'd have to modify it there, as "they" seem to have changed thing's, so that the drakboot facility only offers the options of windows and floppy when you start it, it doesn't seem to show the whole of the current boot options like it used to in earlier versions. Maybe it's the way that I've got things configure, but I can't see that. Curious regards John

Well, I just tried to see where the files/links point to and got this bash-2.05b$ file /boot/vmlinuz /boot/vmlinuz: cannot open (/boot/vmlinuz) bash-2.05b$ file /boot/initrd /boot/initrd: cannot open (/boot/initrd) bash-2.05b$ su Password: [root@johnspc john]# file /boot/vmlinuz /boot/vmlinuz: cannot open (/boot/vmlinuz) [root@johnspc john]# file /boot/initrd /boot/initrd: cannot open (/boot/initrd) [root@johnspc john]# As you can see, my system won't let me see where or what the links go to. Whats the likelyhood that this is to do with having a separate /boot partition ? because with gentoo, it would not let you access the boot partition for "safety reason's" i.e. you had to mount it first, but I've no way of telling whether mandrake uses this technique. If I look at my /etc/fstab I get this /dev/hda5 / reiserfs notail 0 0 # NOTE: If your BOOT partition is ReiserFS, add the notail option to opts. /dev/hda2 /boot ext3 noauto 1 1 none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0 /dev/hda6 /home reiserfs notail 0 0 /dev/hdb /mnt/cdrom auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec 0 0 /dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom2 auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec 0 0 none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=ext2:vfat,--,umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-15,sync,codepage=850 0 0 /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows ntfs umask=0,nls=iso8859-15,ro 0 0 none /proc proc defaults 0 0 /dev/hda3 swap swap sw 0 0 Now I can see that my boot partition has the "noauto" option, but at the moment, I haven't managed to find anywhere that explain's the differing boot options (when I had gentoo installed - before I screwed it up irrepairably, I had the options "noauto, noatime" but again, no way of decyphering them). Hence does anyone know the decrypt of these terms or have a link so I can read up myself (or even know whether these/this option means that I have to mount the partition before I can do anything with it?) regards John

Well, below is the edited extract of my lilo.conf showing both of the entries:- image=/boot/vmlinuz label="linux" root=/dev/hda5 initrd=/boot/initrd.img append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda3 splash=silent" vga=788 read-only image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.3-7mdk label="263-7" root=/dev/hda5 initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.3-7mdk.img append="devfs=mount acpi=ht resume=/dev/hda3 splash=silent" read-only and as you can see, the only difference is the initrd. There's 2 confusing thing's, that the initrd's appear to be different, but they seem to do the same thing, and also in the append line, I can't work out what the "resume=/dev/hda3" bit is, because I can't work out what the resume bit does, or why it should be pointing to my /dev/hda3, which is my swap partition? I've looked at the lilo mini howto, but that doesn't elaborate. regards John

Nope, that just seem's to offer a check box for "clean /tmp at every boot" and a dialogue input for the precise ram and then tell's me it's found 768 meg's. I'm still at a loss, would there be a lilo.conf on the hda2 /boot partition? regards John

My mandrake 10 official install offers me linux linux non-fb 263-7 failsafe windows floppy on booting. Now I follow that linux non-fb is non frame buffer (text start up), and failsafe, windows and floppy. But what's the difference between linux and 263-7? The both seem to start up the same, they both seem to start the same services, I installed the system with the 2.6.3-7 kernel (and didn't select LSB at the package selection point so there shouldn't be anything 2.4 related), So what's the difference? regards John p.s. This install is the first one that I've had my hard drive configured with /boot, /swap, /root and /home partitions - I don't suppose anyone know's if it's got anything to do with that ??

In all other versions of mandrake that I've used (8.2, 9.0, 9.1, etc etc), I've been able to fire up the mandrake control centre, go into the /boot section and modify the entries in the bootloader. It now appear's that if I do that, I just get a sort of default offering that only seem's to have windows and floppy in it - as if it's like trying to run drakboot as a wizard, and that I'm supposed to add my own entries. Now this install is also the first time I've had mandrake configured to it has /boot, /swap, /root and /home partitions. Would this be anything to do with it? I appreciate that I can do this using VI or something, by just modifying the /etc/lilo.conf, but I prefer to use the excellent graphical tool's as provided by mandrake, so how would I do that ? regards John

don't bother trying to upgrade, I've tried it a couple of times and it's never worked properly. You've got separate /root and /home partitions so just go for an install, when it get's to the part about partitions, just select the "use existing partitions" offering, then it should then ask you which partition you want to format, just tell it to format the /root partition. Finish the install, then log in as normal. Any of you're own selections (app's and/or shortcut's) that don't work, then that's telling you that you'll need to install that facility as an additional i.e. it wasn't installed by default. done it twice today and it's worked fine. regards John

Yup, I'd vote for 10 as well. No major problem's at all. In fact, the only problem that I can recall is, of my 2 printers (one a parallel inkjet, and one networked laser), I'll be buggered if I can remember how to add the laser network one , the inkjet connected parallel, is spot on. regards John

excellent. Thank's regards John

Well, my mandrake 10 official powerpack dvd arrived this morning :D which is great. I got it installed over the top of the gentoo install that I couldn't manage to repair, again, great. Now one of the odd thing's that I can't sus out is that during the install, it's configured my monitor brilliantly, but I can't fathom how to stop the screen virtual size thing, I'd like it so it fill's the screen, and not so I have to chase stuff all over the place to see it they're being displayed. The monitor is a philip brilliance 201B business 21 inch model, which in theory at least, is supposed to be capable of displaying at 1600x1200. I've set it via the gui so it's set at 1280x1024, but it insist's on having a larger virtual size - that's what I'd like to modify. Now I know it's a setting in the XF86Config, but can't recall which one, so could anyone tell me where to look "graphically" to stop that please? regards John (finally posting from mandrake 10 official, and happy :D)

Well after I posted the question, I searched for upgrade (which I stupidly forgot to do before posting ) and ended up with the conclusion that you'd suggest waiting. So thanks for taking your time to reply (bloody shame that according to the parcel courier site, that my copy has got as far as Birmingham - which mean's Monday, at the earliest before it get's here). Curious really, thinking about it, I'd still like to have gentoo as well, but with the luxury of Mandrake to fall back on. I get mega frustrated when stuff goes wrong and I can't fix it immediately (yes, I must be the most impatient person I know of as well! :lol:). It seem's such a waste though, I've got this bloody great hard drive (well it's pretty big too me @ 120gig's), and a 40 gig spare in the drawer, that's calling me. I can hear it now "install me, install me". But to go with my impatience, I also suffer from indecisiveness. I know that with a little learning, linux in general can do SOOOO much, but what do I want to do with it, apart from meddle, get frustrated, change distro's, etc etc. All those different app's that can do so much About the only thing I have decided on, is that I want to build a website, and I'm sure that any really knowledgable types who read this, will say, "ha, all I need is a text editor", but when I started looking into it/reading the tutorial's at w3schools, I found this which was the 2003 personal website award winner. I also found that Joel Veitch who run's/manages/design's this also got the webby for best weird site. And while I don't expect to attain those kind of standard's, I suspect that I'll need more than just a text editor, especially if I want to use a little bit of flash. Ha, it ain't gonna be cheap. I mean, have you seen the price of studio MX 2004, even the student/teacher license is a shade under £200 ($300/$350):deal:. Maybe that's what I should focus on? Hell, I don't know! I suppose at least I've finally decided to use mandrake for my main linux requirements. Ok, that's enough day dreaming. Thanks for the advice/suggestions, I'm gonna run with it, and instead of getting anxious waiting for the disc to arrive, I'm gonna invade France and Belgium later today on the trail of those evil sellers of cheap booze and cig's! regards John

A while ago, I wanted to have a go at making one of the so called "power distro's" my main distro. To cut a long story short, I installed gentoo, got it running and then managed to screw it up. Now I've experimented before, but that's the first time I've concentrated on the one distro. I'm now getting pretty tired of re-learning the linux wheel, so I'm reverting to what I know (well, a little bit anyway), Mandrake. So, I've ordered the powerpack version of 10 official on dvd. The question is, would it be best to install the 9.1 that I've still got (a powerpack dvd) and then do an upgrade to 10 official, when the disc arrives (which doesn't look likely over this next weekend) or would it be better for me to wait until I get the 10 official and just do a total fresh install ??? Idea's and suggestions much appreciated regards John p.s. I've only got windows XP available/usable at the moment.

Thanks for the reply Kjel Oslund, That explains thing's nicely. I suspect that I'll have a little clean up, even though space isn't really a concern, though during the updates yesterday, I still seem to have 2.6.3-1mdk, -4mdk, -7mdk, as well as the -8mdk version that's now the "current" one. Hence the question in the first place. I'd imagine that my worst case scenario would be that I'd have to find out about getting 2.6.5 from kernel.org and compiling that - though I suspect I'll probably have to work out how to back up my info first (maybe just re-format my hard drive so I've got a seperate /home as well). At least I now know that I can get rid of the two earlier -1mdk and -4mdk versions as the -7mdk was running excellently, with no problems at all. Again, many thanks for your reply. regards John

And yes, I also had to re-install the nvidia driver for the new kernel version. Didn't think of that one, but it soon became apparent when I re-booted into the new kernel version - i.e. the generic "nv" driver works, but with strange scanning lines across my monitor. So, the question gets slightly more complicated. If I then uninstall the previous kernel versions and any out dated kernel sources (just retaining the kernel/sources for the latest with it's associated nvidia kernel module), will the multiple instances of the nvidia kernel module just disappear with the uninstall and is it likely to affect the current running version??? regards John

Since installing version 10 CE, I've been pretty conscientious in making sure my system is kept updated (with, yes, you've guessed it, updates). So I've just had a look and notice that there's a new kernel source called 2.6.3-8mdk which tells me that there's a new kernel version (though why the kernel sources arrive as updates and the actual kernel in the install section, god alone knows). Anyway, I've done the install of the kernel and am about to do the update of the kernel sources. So what do I do with the older versions, leave them in place or uninstall them so the system only uses the latest one? Erm, sorry if this seems like an idiot question, but it never occured to me last time I did the kernel and sources update. regards John

OK cool, I'll leave it for a while longer then, and not be so impatient. Thanks for the reply's both. regards John