clevedonal Posted January 25, 2006 Report Share Posted January 25, 2006 I got a good price (from Ebuyer.com) on a 1gb memory chip, and a GeForce 6200 graphic card. I have Mandriva2006 Powerpack installed. 2 Questions really: Mandriva will be happy with 1GB memory with no tweaking? (upgrading from 640mb (which will go into another machine). Do i have to do anything regarding drivers for the new video card (Inno64mb MX400 Nvidia currently). Best procedure prior to swapping cards? System: Athlon1700 / Jetway MB 2x 200gb h/ds (Win2000 and Mandriva dual boot) Creative audigy4 s/c Pioneer110 DVD RW. Any words of wit or wisdom gratefully received... (as always) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted January 25, 2006 Report Share Posted January 25, 2006 RAM is fine. I would be sure to change the xorg.conf file to use a generic vga driver prior to pulling the card, and then it will be a simple proceedure to install the nvidia driver from nvidia's site after installing the card. Do not use the nv driver, as there are issues with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquidzoo Posted January 25, 2006 Report Share Posted January 25, 2006 If you're comfortable in the command line, you could disable X at boot before you swap out the cards, then install the new nvidia drivers after you boot up. At that point, you could modprobe nvidia and startx and everything should work great. Ix's suggestion is a good one, and probably a bit easier to do. Just suggesting an alternative. Also, as Ix said, the RAM should not be an issue at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul Posted January 25, 2006 Report Share Posted January 25, 2006 you're replacing an nvidia card .. so drivers will be the same (already loaded) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 That is true. I have had both good and bad experiences with the driver and swapping another nvidia based card. I don't have an explanation but the driver does not always work. Safest bet is to reinstall. Maybe it's me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 Mandriva will only see 880 MB of your RAM and not 1GB, unless you use a high overhead 4GB kernel (not necessarily a bad thing, but not ideal either). The standard Con Kolivas kernel patchset includes a patch which allows just 1 GB of RAM with lowmem enabled in the kernel config, which is fine for most tasks. The only problem is that a few applications which need kernel-sources to compile modules will fail to build them against the CK patchset. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniewicz Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 scarecrow: I read your response but I don't understand it :unsure: I have 1GB of RAM on my 10.2 box. I added mem=1000M to my lilo.conf. Is this the incorrect way to approach things? image=/boot/vmlinuz label="linux" root=/dev/hda1 initrd=/boot/initrd.img append="resume=/dev/hda5 splash=silent mem=1000M" vga=788 read-only Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 I have 1GB RAM on my computer, but never had to add anything to LILO and/or use a 4GB kernel. The memory seems to be reported OK. I found that the mem= line wasn't really anything worth adding at bootup, it didn't really make any difference, be it LILO/GRUB. The only time I've ever used the MEM= line is when I've been booting from a linux boot disk on a Compaq system, although I think I needed to on a Dell as well. I had to limit it to 128M then. The best method for addressing the memory, that I have found is to use a kernel that allows addressable memory to 4GB, or 64GB. Mandy's 2006 kernels by default go to 64GB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 AFAIK Mandriva kernels do not use the 1gig RAM patch (which is part of CK, as well as other common kernel pachsets). Some other stock kernels (e.g. PCLinuxOS) come with that patch slotted in by default. Since both of you use the whole of it under the current Mandy, it's possibe that the current kernel is alrweady patched- an easy way to find out: Can you make VMware (plain, or just the free VMware player) run properly in your machine without any patching? If you can't, this means that the current Mandriva kernel already includes the 1gig RAM patch... BTW I also have 1 GB RAM in my main machine, and I do have to use tricks for VMWare, or some other progs that build modules out of kernel-sources. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 No, I have to run vmware-config.pl or something to get it working. This is because it tells me too :P So, I'm assuming I'm already patched for 1GB? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clevedonal Posted January 26, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 I've started a discussion here! Many thanks to everyone for your interest... I'll disable Nvidia, (switch to generic driver?? which?) then re-install Nvidia drivers after i insert the new card (it is due by 1Feb) and run it for a day or two, then swap out the memory and report back on my findings... I have nothing critical on the machine, so if i have to re-install from scratch, so be it... al (I got plenty of in the fridge if anyone wants to come over and watch it all go pear shaped!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonEberger Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 use the vesa driver. it should work fine in your disabling if you plan to boot to x. i don't know if you'll really HAVE to swap if you're command-line saavy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted January 26, 2006 Report Share Posted January 26, 2006 (edited) No, I have to run vmware-config.pl or something to get it working. This is because it tells me too :P So, I'm assuming I'm already patched for 1GB? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> No. If running vmware-config.pl works right out of the box, then you do not utilize fully your 1 GB of RAM- one eigth of it is reserved for himem and NOT used at all... check it out... loads of documentation about the issue, say that one. A VMware-specific patch (obviously not suitable for other apps that have this problem): here Edited January 26, 2006 by scarecrow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted January 27, 2006 Report Share Posted January 27, 2006 Ah OK. I'll have to check it out when I get home. Is using the command "free" an easy way to find out if you're using your full memory capability, or is there a much better way to check it out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 I 3 gig of ram .. but I also build kernel myself. enabled hi mem support in your kernl, then you don't have to patch any apps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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