New 9.1 install acting buggy

[Guest crh0831]

Hello all,

 

Anyone have any advice for my specific setup? (See specs below). I've installed Mandrake and even managed to get my DSL working! I'm currently fighting with XWindows. When I installed I picked a generic monitor that apparently wasn't supported. Since then I've found my monitors specs and have run XF86Setup a bunch of times. It keeps creating an XF86Config file that I have to rename to XF86Config-4 in order to get working. I say that I've done it a bunch of times because on random reboots (sometimes a whole day goes by - sometimes not) X doesn't come up (the monitor blinks a few times and dumps me into a terminal login screen) When this happens I run XF86Setup again and rename the file again and all works for awhile. Any Ideas? Something's not getting saved.

 

I've tried DrakConf from the terminal but I don't think it's working properly. I go into it and change my monitor to my supported monitor (from my default selection that was incorrect) and then it returns me to a terminal screen. Never askes me to save or gives me any indication that it made any change - and of course it doesn't make any difference. X still won't work unless I do the above XF86Setup procedure.

 

 

Beyond the X problem - I've been dabbling in KDE and Gnome desktops and I've found that quite a few apps don't work. I click on the app and it looks like it's loading...loading...loading... then just disappears. Am I missing something here? Sometimes I reboot and am able to get the app running - sometimes not (sorry I don't have a specific app name - I've been trying out everything and can't remember which ones this happens with) All browser seems to work fine and I've gotten into the Mandrake Control Panel, but some apps...I don't know.

 

Lastly - Xmms? What is the secret? On the times I get it working - it skips and pops and speeds up and generally sounds horrible. Other times it just hangs there and does nothing. (At least in XP I can bring up the task list and kill a hung app - how do I do that here?) BTW, system sounds appear to work fine - I think it's a problem with my sound card settings - but I'm not sure.

 

This is the furthest I've ever gotten with any distro of Linux and am excited about finally getting something done with it. (Previous attempts have been hi-jacked by old distros, incompatible hardware or insufficient disk space) But, of course, no one I know uses Linux and my only recourse for support is on-line...hoping someone can help me out here... thanks.

 

- Chuck

 

System:

 

AMD 1.0G Duron

Riva TNT2 Video

RIC DH-1764 Monitor

ECS K7SEM Mobo (Built in audio / video (disabled) - I'm using the TNT2 AGP Video card)

HP 712C Inkjet Printer

Liteon CDRW

Mandrake installed on 2.5G HD Slaved to CDRW - Seperate HD for WinXP

ADSL connected through on board NIC to external DSL Modem (single machine - no router)

[Cannonfodder]

What version of XFree did you install during installation? Did you pick one that was not the default?

[Ixthusdan]

First, go to here and download the nvidia drivers for your video card. Download both rpm's.

 

Then, go tohere and follow the instructions to install the rpm's.

 

When you boot into x, the video problems should be corrected. Let's do this first, and then tackle the other issues.

[Guest crh0831]

OK... Thanks for the replies.

 

After a couple hours I was finally able to install the nvidia driver for my TNT2 card. The instructions given weren't exact but I was able to muddle through. (I downloaded two .rpm's, but the instructions given said I should only have one .rmp.run file - I downloaded that and installed it like three times before it seemed to stick. Then I was left messing with my XFree Config...)

 

I also might have fixed Xmms. Once I got into X and started the Drake Control Center I found the setting for my sound card and told it to use the other driver it had installed for me - seems much smoother now...

 

I'm still plagued by random bugs however. Sometimes clicking on a link in Galeon will kill the browser and if I try to open it again I get nothing. Time to reboot. Same thing with a couple other apps - but things are getting a little more stable.

 

Any advice on getting my mouse wheel to work? I've got a Logitech Optical mouse and after messing with my XF86Config I lost the use of the wheel. No big loss right now - I just happy most everything else is up - but I know I'm gonna want this to work sooner or later.

 

I gonna do some more reading and learning to see if I can find the logs for the browser issue and see what's hanging it up occassionally.

 

Thanks for the help and any further advice is always welcome!

 

Chuck

 

P.S. oh - one more thing. While messing with X I originally had it set up to boot into X. Once it came up with the old driver I needed a way to get out of X to test the nex XF86Config. I read that <ctrl><alt><backspace> will get you out of X. Unfortunately for me, that key combination turns my PC completely and suddenly off. *shrug* Of course rebooting was lots of fun after I did it twice and had to repair everything. Is there a better way to get out of X in that case? (I've since switched it so I have to type 'startx' to start X and when I log out I returned to the terminal screen - but that was really wierd. )

[tyme]

for the mouse wheel take a look at the mouse section of XF86Config-4

 

it should look similar to this:

Section "InputDevice"

Identifier "Mouse1"

Driver "mouse"

Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"

Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"

Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

 

note the IMPS/2 and the ZAxisMapping line.

 

as for exiting out of X, you could open a terminal, su to root and type in

init 3

which will take you to run level 3.

 

if you want to have X start on boot there is an option in MCC -> Boot -> Boot Options I believe to turn it back on. however, going to terminal, logging in as a regular user and then starting X from there (like you're doing) is a much safer and more secure way of doing it :).

[Cannonfodder]

I still don't get why your XF86Config file is being updated. That's why I asked what version of the XFree you selected on startup. The older file is used by older XFree. The -4 version is used by the latest.. SO if you are running the config and updating the older file, its something to double-check..

[Guest crh0831]

I am using the newest Xfree. I don't know why either. When I run XF86Setup and answer all the questions it writes an 'XF86Config' file. I then modified it with my nvidia updates and saved it. Then cp'd it over the top of the 'XF86Config-4' file. It works for me and now I have a backup - just in case I screw it up real bad.

 

I'd mentioned that I tried the DrakTools (DrakConf...etc) and they didn't work, but last night I discovered 'urmpi' and started updating some things. The tools work now - at least from within X - but the problem had been fixed. I'm still trying to understand 'urpmi' cause I do get the occasional 'missing lib' error message with different commands and apps so I'm hoping to discover a way to repair my installation.

 

It's getting better though. I've made some changes to the desktop and created my mount points to access my WinXP HD's, I think I fixed my sound card...etc. Reinstalling Mandrake now isn't an option unless there's no other way - I've started customizing and don't want to lose those changes.

 

Thanks for all the help.

[tyme]

a lot of linux distro's still use XF86Config and don't bother with the -4. maybe XF86Setup is made to work this way, instead of the manner that Mandrake and a few others use. Although Mandrake probably should have changed this....

 

then again i could just be pulling things out my hind end.