null Posted October 22, 2005 Report Share Posted October 22, 2005 (edited) this is the first I have used mandriva in a couple of years, I've been using RH & FC for quite a while. Anyway, i bought a DVD powerpack and installed it. Went fine. After the post-install first reboot, i got some error messages about "could not load kde panel applet" or something like that. Well, so I just had a blank panel at the bottom. I played a couple games, played OK, however they were extremely slow on my lcd monitor... i mean like slow and jerky sometimes, but sometimes pretty smooth... Another prob is I have no internet. This is the ONLY linux install i've ever done where i did not have a working internet connection after install... (i am connected to a dhcp router, and have DSL). Prior installs (mdk 8.1, 9.0, RH9, FC 1,2,3,4) all had working internet after installs... I did a "install" over my existing FC4 install, i did not choose upgrade. I chose to reformat root, but left home alone. Well, now when I click on an existing OO file (spreadsheet or whatever) nothing happens. Seems like open office should open the file... guess not. Not even a message or anything. Just.... nothing. I have to get the panel working, its usless without a working panel... obviously. Also, i need working internet... (note, during package installation, i also marked gnome, did this mess up kde...?). any help appreciated, since its been quite a while for me & mandriva, and me & kde also... heh - been using gnome forever... Edited October 22, 2005 by null Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted October 22, 2005 Report Share Posted October 22, 2005 Umm... I trashed my 2006 box because I found it too buggy for my everyday work. But let's address one thing at a time. I also use a router and the connection worked instantly on my box. Have you used already the wizard in the MCC for setting up your connection? Do you get any error messages in the terminal if you run "ifconfig" as root? is your network-card up and running? Check those things for now. Installing KDE and Gnome should not mess up things. As you say, you kept the /home partition. Did you create a new user or did you use the old account? If it's the latter case, than delete the hidden config files in your /home/username account. That could fix the problem with OOo and the KDE panel. Just give it a try. If you play games, try to log into IceWM or another lightweight solution, maybe that helps. Good luck :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
null Posted October 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2005 (edited) ok, I'll try those things. I expected my internet connetion to work out of the box, but let me play around in MCC as you say. Maybe on the internet connection.... when i installed, i had a usb wireless internet gizmo plugged in, in the hope that it MIGHT work out of the box. But no it didn't. So post-install, I just plugged the eth cable to the machine and the router, and expected that to work right away... but no. So I'll try the MCC setup. I've got my files backed up on a few DVD-RWs, and also some moved to my win2k box, so I can install and re-install various distros without worry about trashing anything.... edit: oh yeah, I did use the same user name and password as I had with my existing FC4 distro... Edited October 22, 2005 by null Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
null Posted October 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2005 (edited) Went through the MCC setup for LAN/eth. Worked fine, very easy. Internet works great. One prob solved... thanks arctic ! Every time I boot, I get a KDE error message about "could not run /usr/bin/autorun", I guess this is why the Panel is not working. Don't have any idea what this means and what causes it, in my linux experience, I've never had it happen. Tried Gnome for the next session, pretty ugly - plain white screen... blech... but everything looks like its there... panel is there, and no error messages... However, OO files still won't open, or I get error messages when I double-click them. I also logged in with IceWM and tried a simple "arcade" game. Even slower than same game under KDE and Gnome... sheesh, its like using a 286 computer from the late 80s. Guess I'll mess around for a few days, see what happens... thanks... Edited October 22, 2005 by null Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted October 22, 2005 Report Share Posted October 22, 2005 About the panel: Ian has the same problem on his box. https://mandrivausers.org/index.php?showtop...18entry211318 Maybe a bug report would be an option. Null, do you have anything against 80's computing? Just kidding. Don't know what Mandriva did but it seems that they messed more things up than is acceptable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
null Posted October 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2005 I tried ian's ctl-alt-backspace workaround, but that doesn't fix it on my box. I tried running ppracer (aka tuxracer) to see if my nvidia 3-d works out of the box... game does not even load.... screen just blanks for a couple seconds, and then... back to desktop... I've been using FC so long, that I've gotten tired of "fixing" everything (mp3 capability, 3-d accel, blah blah blah...) every time I install a new release of FC. But, and this is a big but, at least everything worked properly. Programs run when you click on them, OO docs open up fine, and everything else. I wanted to try a new distro where, supposedly, all that stuff just works out of the box. I'm highly dissapointed in mandriva so far, though. Luckily I only paid $10.95 for the powerpak DVD. I mean, my computer is basically unusable. All my docs in my home will not even open (even though I have the same user name & password), KDE does not have a panel, which makes it worthless, 3-d opengl games don't even load up, regular old 2-d arcade games are so slow as to be completely unplayable. I have a decent system (see box 1 below) and not a junky old 15-year old box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted October 22, 2005 Report Share Posted October 22, 2005 You know, the thing I see in common is we both have nvidia cards, and I've not installed the drivers yet. Although I don't expect this has anything to do with the problem, but will install them tomorrow and find out..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted October 22, 2005 Report Share Posted October 22, 2005 An old saying: If it ain't broken, don't fix it. That is why I have settled on Fedora and why I will keep it. It doesn't give me headaches. Once installed and configured its stable as a rock and does everthing it is supposed to do. I think Mandy got worse during the last couple of months... just my impression. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJohn Posted October 22, 2005 Report Share Posted October 22, 2005 I think all your problems stem from the fact that you expected Mandriva to accept your settings in your account from RedHat and then blaming Mandriva for what ensued. If you had been doing an install into a previous Mandriva account and had the same problems then I think you might have been justified in your criticism but in this case I do not think your criticism justified at all. It does not matter how much in theory that it should work, the reality is that it is urealistic and unfair to Mandriva. Since you are going to all the trouble to install Mandriva, go the little extra to set up a fresh account and make new settings ???. If that is awkward then perhaps you should stick to RedHat, after all you had it working for you didn't you ?. I have 2006-Official and it is running perfectly with NO problems and I am using a 19" Samsung LCD Monitor. I have even done a couple of package updates from cooker ( am prepared for any possible glitches) and even with these my system is still solid. It will take a hell of a lot to ever convince me that 2006-Official isn't very stable. I previously ran 2005-LE and that never ever had a single problem either, it was always rock solid. Admittedly I am not running games and never will, but if the Open GL screensavers are any guide then that speed aspect of the monitor is not a problem. Just my 5c. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
null Posted October 23, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2005 I wasn't really jumping up and down & screaming about mandriva. I know most of this is fixable, its just that I expected at least this simple stuff to work right off. I didn't know arctic used FC, I knew cybr did. Seems weird that some of the main contributors on a mandriva board use something else.... I did not choose to "upgrade existing FC4 install" as the mandriva defaulted to during installation. I chose "install" instead. I thought that would give me a fresh install of mandriva. I'm not a gamer either. Just because I clicked on a couple games that all linux distros come with, doesn't make me a gamer. Alot of people try ppracer (tuxracer) to check if their 3-d accelleration is working... Mine NEVER worked after a fresh install of FC, but after installing the nvidia drivers, it worked fine. My complaint with mandriva was that I've always read that the 3-d stuff, mp3 playback, and so on works "out of the box" with mandriva. I wanted to try a distro where "everthing works right off" for a change, instead of having to "fix" all the multimedia stuff myself... However, so far at least, I see no difference between mandriva and FC, except that I admit that mandriva plays mp3s right off... 1) does 3-D nvidia accelleration work after install? FC - no. Mandriva - no. 2) does mp3 playback work after install? FC - no. Mandriva - yes. 3) does KDE work after install? FC - unknown. Mandriva - no - panel doesn't work. And another thing, what the hell is the point of having a separate /home directory if your next distro install CAN'T OPEN any of your files... a valid complaint I would say. This isn't a FC vs Mandriva thread. I'm just disappointed that mandriva apparantly has to be "fixed" almost as much as distros where you have to "fix" everything, such as FC. My problem now is that I know how to fix stuff in FC, but not in mandriva. But I'll give it a chance for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJohn Posted October 23, 2005 Report Share Posted October 23, 2005 Being a gamer is fine. I just said I don't play games and never will. It is funny that you say that you expected Mandriva to work out of the box but that is precisely what Mandriva does for me nearly every time and when it doesn't it is usually because I used a community or beta version to install instead of the Official versions. I use KDE totally. I don't even have most of Gnome installed, only the rpms required for some Gnome applications like Grip and Gqview. Am I some hotshot Computer expert???. I don't think so, but I often wonder if I am using the same Mandrivas that some are quick to say doesn't work properly. I am sure you know by now that rpms for Mandriva cannot be assumed to be okay for use in Fedora even though some might make it okay. I think it logical that the same would apply vice-versa. When you had Fedora installed it created lots of hidden files and folders containing the settings and so on for the applications you had installed and used. Those hidden files and folders were designed to work with Fedora, not with Mandriva or any other Linux OS . Yet you expect Mandriva to work with them. When you installed Mandriva, it has tried to install the hidden files and folders it needs and these are in obvious conflict with the ones already there from Fedora. If you think Mandriva is to blame for the incompatability then I feel you are not being realistic. Over these past years, I too have noticed how many of the active Members seem to no longer use Mandriva but I think all have at sometime so they can still solve a lot off problems. As I have said to others in the past , a reinstall is often a good sorting out. In this case I think you should save any important data in your /home account and do a reformat of /home as well as / . Then if you have troubles we can properly sort them out. Trying to clean up the present install is really a waste of time in my opinion. Remember I said it is only my opinion. The final choices are always yours and that is the way it should be. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadowchaser Posted October 23, 2005 Report Share Posted October 23, 2005 sorry to hear you are having so many problems with Mandy 2006, I had a problem with my KDE in the beginning, i fix it by changing my .kde to .bakupkde then i restarted xserver and that took care of the problems.. Also turn off Kat!!!!it's a program with problems. (system hog) Then try running your games.. 3d might be no nvidia drivers or Ati drivers installed.. (try installing the drivers , if the drivers are installed run glxgears and post the output) did you reinstall OOo? if not try reinstalling it it may help. i hope that at the very least i point you a the right direction. I presently have 2006 powerpack on a dell xps400 with 19 Lcd and it runs like a bat out of hell and as solid as a chuck of granet. -SC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
null Posted October 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2005 I guess I will do a reinstall, just to see what happens. This time I will not add so much stuff during custom package selection, and just basically go with the default "workstation" choices. This time I will also have my eth cable attached (the first install, the cable was not connected) and see if internet works right away... Also, as aussiejohn mentioned, I'll reformat /home this time. I already have my stuff backed up on some DVD-RWs, so no problem there. Was I wrong in assuming that nvidia 3-d acceleration works right off with mandriva? I know it does NOT in an FC install, but I thought it was supposed to with mandriva. What CD ripper does mandriva use? I noticed on my first install that grip was not chosen by default... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
null Posted October 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2005 after re-install: the freebie games are faster. KDE works correctly (the panel is there). I copied some of my backed-up /home docs into home, and they opened up. the bad news is no internet connection. even after going through the LAN connection set-up like the first time, still no internet. At least the first install, I had a connection after going through the LAN setup wizard. hmmm.... every install of linux I've done had a working internet connection afterwards. at least a step in the right direction... most probs fixed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
null Posted October 25, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2005 well, I now have internet, after going through the setup wizard again. I'm pretty pleased that nvidia 3-d and mp3 playback both work out of the box. On the reinstall, I now wish I would have also selected gnome besides just kde. However, I kind of like IceWM, nice, clean & simple. So far, everything seems to be fine - wireless mouse, wireless kb, and lcd monitor I'm looking forward to learning all about easy urpmi, which I have never used Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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