daniewicz

If you want to run glxgears, install the mesa and mesa-demos packages.

Fair enough. You are not the first person to be unhappy with KDE4. Hopefully in time KDE4 will mature. Meanwhile, I am staying with Mandriva 2008.1 and KDE 3.5.9........

Any errors or problems reported in /var/log/Xorg.0.log?

I used a GeForce4 card very recently with the 96.43.11 driver without problem on Mandriva 2008.1.

I think there is more going on here than simply the wrong video driver. However, you could always try using a older driver from the NVidia website.

Well John in firefox-speak you have three different profiles. You can access the different profiles by running:

firefox --profilemanager

John:

Have a look here:

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.ph...p;sk=t&sd=a

Welcome to the MUB B)

There are GUI tools to help you configure Mandriva. I assume you are using KDE 4? I have an older KDE 3.5.9 so my menus will look different than yours, but you should have a menu item such as "Configure Your Computer" which will open the Mandriva Control Center.

Now, I'm not sure if I should be installing the version from the repos.....

No reason to install the repo version if you have already installed firefox from the tar file.

I have Open Office 3.01 on Mandriva 2008.1, and I am able to open docx files with no problem. :unsure:

If you launch Open Office from a terminal and attempt to open a docx file, are there any error messages reported in the terminal screen?

I think you need Open Office 3 to do docx files.

So you have seen the same slowness and heavy swap usage with GNOME, KDE3, and KDE4 when running

knoppix, mandriva, and ubuntu?

Makes me think you have a hardware problem. Are there any warnings or error messages in /var/log/messages?

I am just grasping here, but I think I would try clearing the CMOS on my motherboard.

And is my graphic memory of 256 MB used at all isnt that what the basic GUI rely on?

I don't know.

Also I sum up the values "top" cmd gives and the net values don't match with the current processes sum of memory usage. by it does for System monitor.

I don't have an answer for this either.

Mem: 967780k total, 915256k used, 52524k free, 128888k buffers

Swap: 979924k total, 335456k used, 644468k free, 366588k cached

Well your slowness is probably due to the fact that your system is using its swap file so heavily (335456k used). This is because nearly all your RAM is used up (915256k used). 1 GB is apparently not enough for your OS/DE to function properly. I assume the DE you are using is the new KDE? You may need to think about using a DE that is less RAM hungry like XFCE.

How much time elapsed between the fan replacement and the poor performance?

Maybe the card was not properly re-inserted into the motherboard?

Yes, UDMA6 is the current mode, that is good.

Do you know how to see what services are active on your system?

What kind of video card do you have? Have you installed the proper driver?

I have downloaded the OOo_3.1.0_LinuxIntel_install_wJRE_en-US.tar.gz, but Im not sure how to install it correctly.

From the KDE gui, If you double-click on this file, ark should offer to extract the contents to a location of your choice. In those contents will be a readme file with instructions for installation.

OK B)

I have two of them (both AGP 8X) sitting idle, and I won't mind giving away one of them at just the cost of the mail expenses.

I would be interested in getting that card from you, but I am not comfortable just taking it at no charge. Could we do a swap? I have a fair collection of older hardware. Do you have any legacy hardware needs?

Mandriva "One" will have the latest or almost latest video drivers.

If you are using compiz, try installing and using "emerald" instead of "gtk-window-decorator" under Window Decoration--> Command from within the CompizConfig Settings Manager.

Welcome to the MUB B)

Have a look here for a detailed answer to your question:

https://mandrivausers.org/index.php?showtopic=43824

I would recommend Mandriva "One" for an easier installation.

Make sure DMA has been activated in your BIOS.

To check the status of DMA on drive hda, as root run:

# hdparm -iv /dev/hda

I would like to update this thread.

I was seeking to update compiz as a possible solution to a window decorator problem I was having as discussed here link

I am not sure if the compiz update would resolve my problem, but I felt this option was worth pursuing initially. I have since decided that an easier path would be to try emerald rather than KDE for my window decorator. So far, so good! I have seen no decorator problems and emerald offers more ability for customization. :D

I know it is vain and silly, but I like the eye-candy B)

Thanks Greg.

I am running Mandriva 2008.1 with KDE and compiz 0.7.6 (0.7.6-1mdv2008.1). I would like to update compiz to the 0.8.2 version.

I have found a 2009.1 rpm (0.8.2-1mdv2009.1.i586.rpm). Will this package work under Mandriva 2008.1, or am I just asking for trouble?

Herein lies a fundamental problem with linux. I don't want to update my entire OS, but the repositories eventually limit the versions of software available for installation. I have made the jump and installed the newest versions of Openoffice using their rpms. Firefox and Thunderbird are easy to update, just download and drop the folder in the correct location. But when it comes to compiz I worry that things may be more complicated.

No problems to report (yet). Mandriva 2008.1 with compiz and a GeForce 7300 GT.