10.0 CE install nightmare

[Christoff]

Hello world of Linux from another total newbie...

I've been meaning for some time to have a good fiddle with Linux to see what all the fuss is about. I got Knoppix & fiddled a bit & now got a Mandrake 10.0 DVD from a magazine. I'm extremely keen to get it all running and start my new learning curve but I'm having problems that you may be able to help with.

 

System - Dell Inspiron 5800, 256Mb RAM, 30GB HDD, NVidia GeForce4 Go 64Mb, Pentium 4 2.0GHz M.

 

First prob was partitioning the drive as I wanted to keep the WinXP there for now(sorry!) but managed to eventually create a 7.5Gb space (should that be enough?).

 

Installation looks fine up until the 'summary' where you can configure the un-configured bits. If I try to set up the Graphical Interface to my card I get a sample screen that's too narrow. If I choose the 'no it's no good' option the screen goes haywire & although I'm sure there's still things going on you can't see anything other than lines & garbage - and I did wait a while... If I choose not to configure it, it tells me I've not configured 'X' do I really want it? Tried yes & no but still probs further down the line.

 

Then I wanted to set up my network card (Broadcom 440x 10/100 Integrated Controller) but my puny knowledge was highlighted when I seemed to get stuck in a loop of choosing a card, auto-detecting then choosing a card again.

 

ANYWAY, I would like just to get the OS working then worry about these things later BUT when I choose to march straight through the installer without mucking around with these things I do reach the 'Congratulations you did it' type screen and re-boot the system without the DVD. It all looks good until I get around half-way along the progress bar then the computer emits a deafening monotone high pitched sound that's akin to 38 rape alarms... I mean this is loud. 1st couple of times I switched of in sheer terror. Then I tried covering the holes on the laptop to see if it would work regardless but it didn't...

 

Please help if you can! If I've left out any vital info let me know...

Thanks in advance.

[aRTee]

Welcome! Both to this board and welcome to linux!

 

First thing: the tone you hear is likely because the mic is on and volumes are not muted... any special keys to reduce the volume? Plugging in earphones sometimes/usually switches off the built in speakers (not sure, have no laptop), give it a try. My brothers laptop had this problem...

 

 

7.5GB is ok for linux, hope you did make a separate /home next to the root ( / ) partition and swap partition.

 

It sounds like you will have some more questions to ask, just open a clear separate topic for each on and we'll help you through your issues.

[sitor]

Christoff,

 

There are others here on the board with a lot more of expertise than I have (I'm still a newbie myself). But in any case, when Mandrake boots and you get the progress bar, if you hit the escape button, it will tell you where it is in the boot process (it goes in verbose mode). I guess that for the real experts it might be helpfull if you can tell them what comes up there and where the boot process fails.

 

Ciao,

 

Sitor

[WilliamS]

To be rid of the nasty tone, on my machine I did star->multimedia->sound->kmix->input,and mute the plug symbol on the far right.

I've turned it on since, but the tone never came back.

Mdk10CE not perfect yet. :P

[Christoff]

Thanks to you all!

I got the thing going in the end. Still some small probs to iron out tho. The 'speaker jack' suggestion was a cracker aRTee, I won't be leaving home without it for a while... I switched sound drivers from the default it found to another & like WilliamS the sound didn't return. Verbose mode on boot-up is useful, thanks to sitor. Sound seems to come & go though at the moment.

 

Main prob at the mo is finding a driver for my graphics card - nVidia GeForce4200 Go since I have 2 big unused spaces either side of my desktop area... I did spend some time wondering where my taskbar was until I fiddled with the screen res. In windows I use 1280x800 but can't find that size option with my current Mdk10CE setup.

 

Also having probs finding my existing Win network, but I'll keep fiddling & get there in the end!

 

Thanks again for your assistance, I'm sure we'll be speaking again soon...

C.

[Christoff]

Ah - sorry just remembered a quick question...

I can't seem to get a clean 'shut-down'. When I log out & choose 'switch off computer' it flips out a little to a messy screen where I can see movement for a few seconds (progress bar?) but the screen ends up freezing in this state & I have to power down with the button...

Any advice appreciated.

C.

[Pzatch]

The driver for the Nvidia card whould be at the Nvidia site. They just love linux. Seriously, they do.

 

Try for a text shut down and see if you can find out what is hanging up. Normally its something simple.

[Cannonfodder]

Regarding the NVIDIA driver. Here's what you do..

 

1. Go to NVIDIA and get the linux files, plus get the readme instructions. If you can print this out, would be helpful to yourself.

 

2. Boot up and when you get to the graphic screen, look in your menu bar for a Applications/System/Terminal option. Pick a terminal and open it. This is like a DOS command line interface.

 

3. Type

 

init 1

 

This will go about shutting down your X Server and graph8ical interface. It will also shutdown a number of other services, making things much more simplier.

 

4. Follow the instructions for updating the NVIDIA drivers. GO line by line and stop and make sure you are doing it correctly. NO rush.

 

5. You may have to use vi to edit your XF86Config-4 file. Type

 

cd /etc/X11

vi XF86Config-4

 

At this point, go to the line you hae to edit and position the cursor. Hit the letter i key for insert and make your changes (normal type hit delete or backspace so on). Now when you are ready, changes are all done, hit the ESC key. This pops you out of insert mode. If you screwed up the line, try hitting the letter u to undo and try again.

 

When ready, type a colon (shift key and hit colon). A colon will appear in bottom left corner of screen. Type

 

wq

 

and press enter. wq for write-quit.

 

At this point you should be done with vi text editor.

 

6. When you are done, you can give it a shot..

 

Type init 5 to return to the X server run level. Will come up or screw up ;)

 

Let us know how you made out..

[Christoff]

Hello again.

Well, I got the nVidia driver (seems it's fairly generic suiting most cards). I got the terminal up & did the 'init 1' to shut down X & co BUT this caused the fault that I experience when I power down (lots of screwed up output on screen, mainly lines etc.). I'm sure there's still stuff going on there as I can see movement (lines of the console processes?).

 

I'm guessing the power down prob is related to my X environment settings. I'm off now to investigate ways to start MDK without a GUI, then will try the driver installation... Fingers crossed.

 

Any suggestions welcomed.

 

Incidentally, should I be starting a new thread for this? Not used to using forums so do let me know if I'm not behaving!

[bvc]

nvidia is the reason for the mess on the screen at shutdown. I get it to when using framebuffer. So out with the pretty boot :P The 'stuff' going on is probably normal, you just can't tell becasue the font is 100x larger than it's suppose to be. Some things can easily be down in mcc (the Mandrake Control Center)>Boot and System>Services. I do not know how to do this in mcc>Boot because for a long time this rarely worked right, especially if you used grub like I do so I can't even tell you how or if it works but here's the manual way...The trick is in what's in your (assuming lilo) bootloader config file (/etc/lilo.conf). I use grub, so you'll have to adjust for lilo. Look for;

splash=silent

and change it to;

splash=quiet

 

Somewhere near the top of lilo.conf you'll see vga=xxx (probably 788 or 791). Change it to normal;

vga=normal

 

Oh, and anytime you edit lilo.conf you have to run the command;

lilo -v

(another reason I use grub...ain't necessary. Which is helpful when, well....nevermind)

 

mcc>Boot>Autologin and uncheck 'Launch the graphical environment blablabla...

to confirm it did all it's suppose to do, then go to

mcc>System>Services and make sure dm on boot isn't checked.

 

Now, after a reboot you'll be able to shutdown/reboot/go to init 1 or 3 or whatever and read what is on the screen :D ...which is a good thing in linux :unsure:

Edited April 26, 2004 by bvc