3 Major Issues

[Guest muzza]

So I am completely new to Mandriva (or any linux based system) so hello to the community, I plan on learning a lot here.

 

I have just installed Mandriva Spring 2008 and I am having some issues that I could really use help with on a level I could understand.

 

Currently I have setup my hard drives as follows:

 

250GB - Vista

80GB - Mandriva

 

Issue 1.

 

After I installed Mandriva I was no longer able to boot back into Windows Vista. I tried changing the boot options from the bios which had no effect. I also unplugged my Mandriva harddrive which didnt work either and their was a GRUB error. My question is, how can I initiate a dual boot of both Vista and Mandriva from the boot menu, so I have a selection.

 

Issue 2.

 

I have been trying to install Pidgin on Mandriva, after collecting the source code from the official website. I gather I have to compile the source but I dont know how even after reading the instructions. Bit of a noob ^_^.

 

Issue 3.

 

There are 3 graphics menu options in the new Mandriva: No GFX, GFX (1), GFX (2). I want to change to the second graphics option but I cant find out how to!

 

Anyway I would greatly appreciate any help you could give me.

 

Thanks very much

 

muzza.

[dexter11]

For problem one: please post your /boot/grub/device.map and /boot/grub/menu.lst file here.

 

For problem two: you don't have to install it from source. I'm sure Pidgin is in the Mandriva repositories. Visit http://easyurpmi.zarb.org Follow the steps there and then use your software installer utility to install software.

[yossarian]

Issue 2: Another way to install programs on Mandriva is using the MCC - Mandriva control Center (if you are using Gnome, go to Applications -> Tools -> System Tools -> Configure your computer). Then in the SW management tab, configure media sources and then install program. The GUI is quite intuitive, if something is not understood, feel free to ask.

 

And welcome aboard! :)

Edited June 8, 2008 by yossarian

[medo3891]

Issue 1: by all means do what dexter11 said. From what you said, that you unplugged the Mandriva HDD and still got a GRUB error, this means that GRUB installed itself on the MBR of the 250GB HD (which was the logical thing since the 250GB HD was the first boot device), you must have been prompted as to where to install GRUB while installing Mandriva, right? so try this open the Mandriva control centre>boot>set up boot system>Next>Add>Other OS (windows). Give it a label (any label you want), then in Root choose the C:\ partition of the 250GB HDD, that's is the first partition on the 250GB HDD, so it's either going to be sda1 or hda1 or sdb1 or hdb1. You can find out which partition is the windows partition (which you need to put in the Root box above) by opening the Mandriva control centre>local disks>manage disk partitions.