Frustrated Windoze abuser seeks wisdom for newbie questions.

[Guest klinger2004]

Hi everyone, I have recently peeked my head into the Mandrake Linux world. This is my first visit not only to Linux, but my first post to the forum. I have done a little searching for my subject first without much sucess and I am hoping someone could help me out.

Yesterday I installed Mandrake 9.1. The installation went somewhat smooth (to my surprise) with the exception of the format section. I ultimitly ended up deleting my Windows XP partitions (actually 2 of them in dual boot config) because apparently I wasn't prepared enough for what I had taken on. Not a big deal as I have managed to make GHOST backups first :) . Ultimitely, I wish to setup my system in a triple boot configuration. I need two installations of Win XP - one for my Web Design and Graphics proggies (at least until I really get my hands dirty with MD Linux 9.1) and the second XP install because I also do multitrack audio recording and this requires very special attention, thus a 2nd install of XP. On my third, obviously, I want to install Mandrake 9.1. ALSO, I wish to obtain 2 fat32 partitions that would be accessible to both Win XP and MD 9.1. Now... I understand from reading materials on the web (and from this forum) that I also should create a minimum of three partitions for MD 9.1. A / partition, a /home partition, and a swap partition. So, here is what my initial thoughts are (please tell me what you would reccommend)...

Maxtor 40GB 7200rpm drive on ide 1

Partition 1 - Windows XP - graphics - 6GB

Partition 2 - Win XP - audio recording - 4GB

Partition 3 - MD 9.1 compatable for / - 2 GB

Partition 4 - Linux swap (size?)

Partition 5 - MD 9.1 compatable for /home - 3GB

Partition 6- FAT32 for files - 10+GB

Partition 7- FAT32 for Norton GHOST backups - 10GB

 

Does this configuration look ok? Or crazy?

 

OK - as I said earlier, I installed 9.1 last night (I'm am sending this post from within MD 9.1 now...how very exciting!!!). In reading the manuals, I read that I should plug all of my hardware in as to ease the detection process. OK, I did this, here is my current hardware...

 

Canon BJC 6000 - Parallel (installed no problem)

Canon CanoScan LIDE 30 scanner - USB (possibly a problem)

Dell AXIM Pocket PC on USB cradle - USB (I think this was a BIG problem)

 

and internal hardware...

Matrox G450 dual head video - 32MB DDR AGP (I think installed ok, but read on...)

Intel 845PE chipset

HighPoint 372 Raid chipset (I do not think it installed - but no drives attached at the present)

Realtek (onboard) NIC

Pentium 4 2.4GHZ

512 mb PC2700 Samsung

 

ok - again, as I said before, the install went pretty smooth. During the install, I setup my monitor and Matrox card. I set my resolution to 1024 x whatever the default is for that, it was all good. Finally after installation, on first boot, I got a black screen (Keyboard CAPS LOCK and SCROLL LOCK lights were blinking). I had to reset, then of course I got a ton of errors and I gave my root password for repairs to be made. Then I think I hit Ctrl+D for normal setup (?). The pc then booted ok. I got into MD 9.1 (WOW - it looks really cool 8) !!!) Configured my cable internet connection(using an auto dectect feature), setup my mail, surfed a bit. OK, then I decided I wanted that good ole 1600x1200 resolution. So, I changed it to that. I believe at that point I was told to reboot the pc (I think - forgive me if Im wrong), and when I did, again I got the black screen. Again, rebooted and went through the same steps as above. Got into MD again, checked my resolution to see what it was... it was at 1600x1200... looks great. After checking it out a bit, I logged off and shut down the system (using HALT of course). Everything at that point was fine. I thought that possibly my DELL AXIM hooked up to my cradle and connected via USB could cause me some problems, so I unhooked it. Then this morning, I started up the PC. It started fine, ran fine. Had to go to work so again I shut it down. This time before the HALT screen, I got the black screen with the blinking CAPS LOCKS lights again (on my keyboard). AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!! Does anyone have an idea or opinion about this? Any help would be REALLLLY appreciated. I would initially think it was a video card problem, but MD had all the options for me to install it correctly. Matrox has a beta driver available, should I check it out? My second thought was the DELL AXIM and now third is the scanner. Im going to check now to see if my scanner was installed, if not, I will just diconnect it.

OH YES - one more thing...this evening when I started my pc, I couldn't get on the internet (comcast cable). I opened WELCOME>This Computer and tried to setup my internet connection again and it said there was not an ethernet card installed. But then 10 min later, I just opened Konqueror, and it was fine. ???

 

I apologize for this being so lengthy, I tried to cover all of my probs in one post. Thanks agin in advance for any help someone could offer.

 

Eric Klinger

[liquidzoo]

Well, I will comment on a couple of things about your post.

 

First off, why do you need 2 XP installs? Couldn't you do the same thing with 1 XP install and have all the programs installed there? Maybe I missed something.

 

Your partition setup looks good. I would recommend a swap size no larger than 512 MB (to match your RAM). I think on my systems (512 MB PC2100 RAM on both) My swap is about 400 MB. I don't think I have ever used more than 50 MB of that.

 

Some people recommend a separate partition for /usr as well. I have this, but I have the HD space for it (120 GB total 8) ). I think for a new setup, your partition layout looks great.

 

Now, onto your more pressing issue...the lockups that you are having. Is the Matrox card an Nvidia chipset? I know they used to make Nvidia cards, but maybe they don't anymore. The first thing I would suggest is finding out and making sure you have the right driver installed. There is an FAQ for installing Nvidia drivers in the FAQ forum.

 

I have had that lockup before. I can't remember what caused it, though. Unfortunately, I can't remember what I did to fix it either. It happened to me right after I installed a 40 GB USB HD for backups. I ended up reinstalling (was going to anyway to get rid of Windows on my desktop). The error hasn't come back since, just another strange error, but that is for another post.

 

I know there are others here that have had that exact error (with the lights flashing on the keyboard) so maybe they can shed some insight on what it is, what may have caused it, and some possible steps to fix it.

 

Welcome to Linux and welcome to our board. Hope you stick around to both learn and help others.

[Guest klinger2004]

Thanks for your response and welcome! To answer your question about 2 XP installs, when recording multitrack audio (such as in Steinberg's Cubase SX or Nuendo), the operating system has to be chopped down in order to run efficently enough to record audio. Alot of what Windows has to offer will interfere with resources. The biggest problem lies within background services and applications that could cause glitches in multitrack audio (32bit 44.1 or 48k per track - running 24 to 40 tracks simultaniously). Also, a professional multitrack recording PC should never have active internet, firewall or antivirus software as glitches and other known errors could occur. In my audio XP setup, I have 7 services running, my swap min and max set to the same number (512 mb - it's important that the pc does not think or optimize while recording), uninstalled Explorer and a ton of other MS crap (using XPlite). This was the easiesdt way for me to do it. I used to have a swap hdd system going - but it's a pain in the butt.

 

Anyway, as to your reply, again thanks so much. I do not have any knowledge of Matrox making cards with NVIDIA chips, but I will check out the section that you have reccommended. As far as a driver goes, I never really installed one... MD 9.1 asked me to pick my card from a list and it was on there, I ASSumed that meant that it was supported. And as for my partitions setup, I will set my swap to 512 as reccommended. Thanks much!!!!!

[Gowator]

OK,

For the linux stuff you need the Matrix Drivers (probably) and their powerdesk utility.

Matrox definately don't use the nvidia chipsets.

 

They even have a support forum for linux but Im sure it will work fine here.

 

The audio stuff is a pain....I have quite a few friends doing near prof recording and several people on here are really serious too. No one seems to have found the same functionality in linux YET!

 

Your matrox card will work fine...its very well supported in linux.

 

Matrox has a beta driver available, should I check it out?

Its only beta becuase they don't want to 'support' it if you have a weird problem of some linux distro they are unfamiliar with :D

It rocks and the accompanying powerdesk or whatever is the same as the Windows software.

 

Use this to change resolution and you should have no problems :D

 

I think you might want to consider a reinstall before you put your other stuff back.

The reason we use different partitions for /usr and /home is for UPGRADING one version to the next BUT since its your first time you'll probably do it different when you upgrade to say Mandrake 10.0 in 6 months :D

 

You can make partition backups from within linux but you casn use the same FAT32 partition anyway. but Id recommend merging your Mandrkae partitions just for NOW.

 

By the time you get your web development tools and everything running in Mandrake and your happy etc. you will probably not need XP for web deveopment anyway. Whch leaves you with your XP Music setup and linux setup.

 

If you can open a console and su - (enter root password) and type dmesg | more it will list all the startup problems. You might see how this relates to your devices.

One thing to consider is that linux/XP don't necessarily use the same IRQ's for the same PCI devices . Perhaps this is jst a HW conflict.

 

Try and find whatever is coming up in the dmesg and post back

 

Good luck

[Guest klinger2004]

Gowator - Thanks for the info. I couldn't find any clue as to a problem with startup. Not sure if this has anything to do with the fact that I have unplugged the USB scanner and USB Pocket PC docking cradle, but the PC has been running great since my original post. I would like to try to work the bugs out so that I can reinstall XP and then reinstall MD afterwards.

 

Everytime I start my PC, I loose my internet connection... I have Comcast internet cable connected directly to my Realtek lan (onboard) - usually after I try to have it detected - it will say not connected but then a few minutes later it will work as normal. Any ideas? Below were my results of the dmesg info (this was my first effort in console or shell!!)...

 

[eric@x1-6-00-50-8d-4a-0c-b9 eric]$ su

Password:

[root@x1-6-00-50-8d-4a-0c-b9 eric]# dmesg

Linux version 2.4.21-0.13mdk (flepied@bi.mandrakesoft.com) (gcc version 3.2.2 (Mandrake Linux 9.1 3.2.2-3mdk)) #1 Fri Mar 14 15:08:06 EST 2003

BIOS-provided physical RAM map:

BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)

BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)

BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)

BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000001fff0000 (usable)

BIOS-e820: 000000001fff0000 - 000000001fff3000 (ACPI NVS)

BIOS-e820: 000000001fff3000 - 0000000020000000 (ACPI data)

BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)

511MB LOWMEM available.

ACPI: have wakeup address 0xc0001000

found SMP MP-table at 000f5750

hm, page 000f5000 reserved twice.

hm, page 000f6000 reserved twice.

hm, page 000f1000 reserved twice.

hm, page 000f2000 reserved twice.

On node 0 totalpages: 131056

zone(0): 4096 pages.

zone(1): 126960 pages.

zone(2): 0 pages.

Intel MultiProcessor Specification v1.4

Virtual Wire compatibility mode.

OEM ID: OEM00000 Product ID: PROD00000000 APIC at: 0xFEE00000

Processor #0 Pentium 4 XEON APIC version 17

I/O APIC #2 Version 17 at 0xFEC00000.

Enabling APIC mode: Flat. Using 1 I/O APICs

Processors: 1

Kernel command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=linux ro root=301 devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off

ide_setup: hdc=ide-scsi

Initializing CPU#0

Detected 2402.985 MHz processor.

Console: colour VGA+ 80x25

Calibrating delay loop... 4797.23 BogoMIPS

Memory: 515088k/524224k available (1410k kernel code, 8748k reserved, 1118k data, 136k init, 0k highmem)

Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)

Inode cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)

Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)

Buffer-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)

Page-cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)

CPU: Trace cache: 12K uops, L1 D cache: 8K

CPU: L2 cache: 512K

Intel machine check architecture supported.

Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.

CPU: After generic, caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000

CPU: Common caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000

CPU: Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 2.40GHz stepping 07

Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.

Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.

Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.

POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX

enabled ExtINT on CPU#0

ESR value before enabling vector: 00000000

ESR value after enabling vector: 00000000

ENABLING IO-APIC IRQs

Setting 2 in the phys_id_present_map

...changing IO-APIC physical APIC ID to 2 ... ok.

init IO_APIC IRQs

IO-APIC (apicid-pin) 2-0, 2-3, 2-4, 2-5, 2-9, 2-10, 2-11, 2-20, 2-22 not connected.

..TIMER: vector=0x31 pin1=2 pin2=0

number of MP IRQ sources: 21.

number of IO-APIC #2 registers: 24.

testing the IO APIC.......................

 

IO APIC #2......

.... register #00: 02000000

....... : physical APIC id: 02

.... register #01: 00178020

....... : max redirection entries: 0017

....... : PRQ implemented: 1

....... : IO APIC version: 0020

.... register #02: 00000000

....... : arbitration: 00

.... IRQ redirection table:

NR Log Phy Mask Trig IRR Pol Stat Dest Deli Vect:

00 000 00 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 00

01 001 01 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 39

02 001 01 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 31

03 000 00 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 00

04 000 00 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 00

05 000 00 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 00

06 001 01 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 41

07 001 01 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 49

08 001 01 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 51

09 000 00 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 00

0a 000 00 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 00

0b 000 00 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 00

0c 001 01 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 59

0d 001 01 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 61

0e 001 01 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 69

0f 001 01 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 71

10 001 01 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 79

11 001 01 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 81

12 001 01 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 89

13 001 01 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 91

14 000 00 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 00

15 001 01 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 99

16 000 00 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 00

17 001 01 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 A1

IRQ to pin mappings:

IRQ0 -> 0:2

IRQ1 -> 0:1

IRQ6 -> 0:6

IRQ7 -> 0:7

IRQ8 -> 0:8

IRQ12 -> 0:12

IRQ13 -> 0:13

IRQ14 -> 0:14

IRQ15 -> 0:15

IRQ16 -> 0:16

IRQ17 -> 0:17

IRQ18 -> 0:18

IRQ19 -> 0:19

IRQ21 -> 0:21

IRQ23 -> 0:23

.................................... done.

Using local APIC timer interrupts.

calibrating APIC timer ...

..... CPU clock speed is 2402.8251 MHz.

..... host bus clock speed is 133.4900 MHz.

cpu: 0, clocks: 1334900, slice: 667450

CPU0<T0:1334896,T1:667440,D:6,S:667450,C:1334900>

mtrr: v1.40 (20010327) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)

mtrr: detected mtrr type: Intel

ACPI: Subsystem revision 20030122

ACPI: Disabled via command line (acpi=off)

PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfb240, last bus=2

PCI: Using configuration type 1

PCI: Probing PCI hardware

PCI: ACPI tables contain no PCI IRQ routing entries

PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)

PCI: Ignoring BAR0-3 of IDE controller 00:1f.1

Transparent bridge - Intel Corp. 82801BA/CA/DB PCI Bridge

PCI: Using IRQ router PIIX [8086/24c0] at 00:1f.0

PCI->APIC IRQ transform: (B0,I29,P0) -> 16

PCI->APIC IRQ transform: (B0,I29,P1) -> 19

PCI->APIC IRQ transform: (B0,I29,P2) -> 18

PCI->APIC IRQ transform: (B0,I29,P3) -> 23

PCI->APIC IRQ transform: (B0,I31,P0) -> 16

PCI->APIC IRQ transform: (B0,I31,P1) -> 17

PCI->APIC IRQ transform: (B0,I31,P1) -> 17

PCI->APIC IRQ transform: (B1,I0,P0) -> 16

PCI->APIC IRQ transform: (B2,I0,P0) -> 19

PCI->APIC IRQ transform: (B2,I5,P0) -> 21

PCI->APIC IRQ transform: (B2,I6,P0) -> 18

isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...

isapnp: No Plug & Play device found

Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4

Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039

Initializing RT netlink socket

apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x07 (Driver version 1.16)

Starting kswapd

VFS: Disk quotas vdquot_6.5.1

devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)

devfs: boot_options: 0x1

pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured

Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with HUB-6 MANY_PORTS MULTIPORT SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI ISAPNP enabled

RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 32000K size 1024 blocksize

Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta-2.4

ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx

ICH4: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:1f.1

ICH4: chipset revision 2

ICH4: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later

ide0: BM-DMA at 0xf000-0xf007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio

ide1: BM-DMA at 0xf008-0xf00f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio

HPT372: IDE controller at PCI slot 02:06.0

HPT372: chipset revision 5

HPT372: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later

HPT37X: using 33MHz PCI clock

ide2: BM-DMA at 0xa400-0xa407, BIOS settings: hde:pio, hdf:pio

ide3: BM-DMA at 0xa408-0xa40f, BIOS settings: hdg:pio, hdh:pio

hda: MAXTOR 6L040J2, ATA DISK drive

blk: queue c03cb420, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)

hdc: TDK DVDRW420N, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive

ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14

ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15

hda: host protected area => 1

hda: 78177792 sectors (40027 MB) w/1819KiB Cache, CHS=4866/255/63, UDMA(100)

Partition check:

/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1 p2 < p5 p6 p7 p8 p9 p10 >

md: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27

md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.

md: autorun ...

md: ... autorun DONE.

NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0

IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP

IP: routing cache hash table of 4096 buckets, 32Kbytes

TCP: Hash tables configured (established 32768 bind 65536)

Linux IP multicast router 0.06 plus PIM-SM

NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.

RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0

Freeing initrd memory: 108k freed

VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).

Mounted devfs on /dev

SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00

Mounted devfs on /dev

Freeing unused kernel memory: 136k freed

Real Time Clock Driver v1.10e

Adding Swap: 506008k swap-space (priority -1)

scsi0 : SCSI host adapter emulation for IDE ATAPI devices

Vendor: TDK Model: DVDRW420N Rev: 1.36

Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02

MSDOS FS: IO charset iso8859-1

MSDOS FS: Using codepage 850

MSDOS FS: IO charset iso8859-1

MSDOS FS: Using codepage 850

MSDOS FS: IO charset iso8859-1

MSDOS FS: Using codepage 850

inserting floppy driver for 2.4.21-0.13mdk

Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M

FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077

Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0

sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 40x/40x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray

Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12

parport0: PC-style at 0x378 [PCSPP,TRISTATE]

parport0: Printer, Canon BJC-6000

lp0: using parport0 (polling).

8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.26

eth0: RealTek RTL8139 Fast Ethernet at 0xe0adb000, 00:50:8d:4a:0c:b9, IRQ 19

eth0: Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8139C'

eth0: Setting half-duplex based on auto-negotiated partner ability 0000.

[root@x1-6-00-50-8d-4a-0c-b9 eric]#

 

 

Thanks much!

Eric

[Gowator]

Well, that pretty thourough.

I suggest you make a copy of this to a file.

 

to do this do (as root)

dmesg > /root/dmesg.05.10.03

or similar, the last bit is just the date. The > sign redirects output to this file rather than to stdout (your console).

 

Later, if you have problems after plugging something in you can compare the two files.

 

For now I can see your ethernet is done fine.

 

Next step is to check your internet connection.

 

Do all this from a root terminal for now.

 

type:

asdl status

(see what it ways)

then try

adsl stop or adsl start (depending if status tells you its up or down)

 

You can switch it on/off like this anytime....

But you can also set it to start automatically....

Well cover that once youve tested this part....

 

CONGRATULATIONS on your first CLI experience :D

[Guest klinger2004]

Well, I saved the dmesg. Thanks for the tip. But I think I am about ready to reinstall XP and Mandrake now. My system seems to be running rock solid since still my original post. First, Im gonna try the Matrox drivers and PDesk, see if there is an issue - although without them, everything is running great.

 

Now as far as my internet connection goes, I typed the following with results...

 

[eric@x1-6-00-50-8d-4a-0c-b9 eric]$ adsl status

bash: adsl: command not found

[eric@x1-6-00-50-8d-4a-0c-b9 eric]$ adsl-status

bash: adsl-status: command not found

[eric@x1-6-00-50-8d-4a-0c-b9 eric]$

 

 

 

then typing the following (read on a different post) and got this result...

 

[root@x1-6-00-50-8d-4a-0c-b9 eric]# ifup eth0

Determining IP information for eth0... done.

 

I have a cable modem connected to my ethernet card, so I'm not sure of the procedure...

 

It seems like this service, or whatever it is, by default is not running when I start Mandrake, then when I ask it to auto detect or configure, it works shortly thereafter (within a few min).

 

OK - thanks agin (and agin) for your help - hope to be able to return later as I have lots 'o work to do to set all of this up. Thanks

Eric

[pmpatrick]

eth0 may not be configured to start automatically at boot. Check this configuration file: /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0. Here's what mine looks like:

 

DEVICE=eth0

BOOTPROTO=dhcp

NETMASK=255.255.255.0

ONBOOT=yes

NEEDHOSTNAME=yes

 

The important line is "ONBOOT=yes". If it's set to "no" you can edit the file by opening a console and running:

 

$ su

<enter root password>

# kedit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

 

That will bring up ifcfg-eth0 in kedit, a simple text editor where you can edit the file by changing "no" to "yes".

[Guest klinger2004]

OK - I finally got reinstalled! I have a triple boot going with 2 Win XPs now. After using MDL 9.1 now for a few days, I am beginning to dislike the look and feel of Windows (haha). AGAIN, on install, my computer got to the black screen, I suppose when it was starting up KDE for the first time (?). I don't know, but it only happened once-so Im a little happy about that, since then I've booted and shutdown several times. but more on that in a few minutes...

 

 

here is what my ifcfg-eth0 file said...

 

DEVICE=eth0

BOOTPROTO=dhcp

NETMASK=255.255.255.0

ONBOOT=yes

 

 

I apologize on being such a bogus N00B(!!!!), but if I change ONBOOT=yes to ONBOOT=no, how can I start it up once I am in KDE? I am ASSuming that I would need to log into root to do this, right?

 

BTW, pm patrick - Thanks for the tips, especially at the end of your post - I've been scratching my head for a few days on how to find and edit config files, I really have to lose the 'Windows' mentality. Do you, or anyone, know of a resourse that I can find to explain these types of things? I always see posts like "edit your XF86Config-4 file...", and I am always like "what? How in the heck do you do that?". And I am so afraid to ask a question that has probably been asked a million times that I search and browse the forum for hours before I ask!

 

So, now back to my video card... Im not sure how I can find out if my video card is causing some sort of problem, but I have been thinking of getting a new card anyways. So, today I purchased a 'PNY Verto GeForce FX 5200 AGP" card. My old card, a Matrox G450 dual (16mb sdram), was starting to act funney in Windows after 2 years of running it hard. This new card is a dual vga/1 svideo (which I will never use) and 128 mb of DDR. So, now I need to install this card. I know there has to be more to it than shutting down and replacing the card (I tried to do it already :lol: ). In restarting, I booted to localhost (is that the correct term?) and tried to configure it but I was never able to restart KDE afterwards. So, I replaced it with my old card again. I have read numerous posts on this, but again, I am a superN00B, so I am a little nervous about flying into editing important system files that could lead me to a reinstall!

 

Again, any help anyone could offer, I would greatly appreciate. Hopefully, I can become knowledgeable enough to help others in the future.

 

Eric

[pmpatrick]

I have the same card(FX 5200). You need to download the nvidia driver and install it. Here's a good tutorial on what you need to do to install the driver:

 

http://www.mandrakeusers.org/viewtopic.php?t=4567

 

You'll be in text mode so you won't be able to edit the config file with kedit which only runs in gui mode. Instead use vi which is pretty cryptic for newbs but if you follow the instructions you should be OK.

 

Don't be afraid to ask questions here. It's the only way to learn. This board is very tolerant and no one here will give you a hard time. Take you time and read through the above link. Post back if there is anything you don't understand.

[Guest klinger2004]

Thanks! OK - you talked me into it. (haha). Usually I just go for it in Windows, but I know how to get around pretty ok there - but eventually I have to do it. No time like the present I suppose... Gotta read up on vi - just heard about it today. Will post my results (hopefully from my MD linux box and my new graphics card :wink: ).

[chris z]

klinger2004 wrote:

Now as far as my internet connection goes, I typed the following with results... 

 

[eric@x1-6-00-50-8d-4a-0c-b9 eric]$ adsl status 

bash: adsl: command not found 

[eric@x1-6-00-50-8d-4a-0c-b9 eric]$ adsl-status 

bash: adsl-status: command not found 

[eric@x1-6-00-50-8d-4a-0c-b9 eric]$

 

the reason you're getting the "command not found" error when you do that is you need to be root. so, to manually start/stop your internet connections, log into terminal, su to root, then issue the following.......

 

to start connection:

adsl-start

 

to stop connection:

adsl-stop

 

for connection status:

adsl-status

 

those commands need to be issued as root.

 

Chris

[Guest klinger2004]

Right - of course... ROOT. I'm such a n00bie. OK - I will try.

 

To give an update on my current situation, I have posted in the Hardware section now that I have installed my new card and drivers, which by the way, are acting a little wierd. Please check it out at http://www.mandrakeusers.org/viewtopic.php?t=8515 and comment if you have any ideas! THANKS everyone for your help. (Why didn't I try Linux years ago? )

 

Eric