Dapper Dan

Ditto what danleff said. Anyone serious about switching to Linux from Windows should look in the mirror and say to themselves ten times: Linux IS NOT Windows! I run Half-Life and its mods with Transgaming's Cedega and they run great. In fact, as far as I can tell, as good as under Windows. Starcraft runs great. I understand Warcraft runs perfectly though I think there are still problems with Halo. Check out this list. Remember, Wine is not a magic program that will run Windows programs under Linux. Windows programs will run to varying degrees of satisfaction from, perfectly to not at all and everything in between. Linux can be very frustrating for new users. I know, I used to be one of them. Once you get past the brunt of the learning curve though, you'll never go back. It's kind of like taking the red pill...

Hi bungalowbob and welcome! Look either in the Mandrake Control Center or the KDE Control Center. I'm pretty sure either one or both of them have a utility to change font size. If your eyes are starting to fail, you are among contemporaries. More than a few of us here are past 40. I just turned 47 last November!

I've not used Linspire. If I were to recommend a Debian based distro, it would be Mepis. Crossover Office will run some games, but Cedega is gonna run a lot more of them for you, and all around do a better job in most cases.

I thought I'd share with y'all this editorial. This guy makes very good observations.

Actually I've been looking into upgrading from SuSE 9.1 Pro to 9.2 Pro myself. There may be a way to do it via FTP, but it may just be easier to buy the box. If I find out how to do it I'll let you know. SuSE 9.1 is really solid though, so don't feel like you're too out of date.

Hi GuitarJ and welcome! 4.2 huh? WOW! The earliest RH I've been able to find on the net is 6.2! Do you know where I can download a copy of 4.2? Anyway, I think Fedora Core 1 or 2 is gonna be your best choice, if for no other reason, familiarity. Once you get it installed, Fedora is a breeze to keep updated with apt-get RPM. And it makes installing RPM packages a snap. Hands down, I'd go with Fedora.

There may be an issue with ipv6 after all, take a look at this...

Did you try this solution? http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=189202 Try installing galeon and see if you get the same result: As root: urpmi galeon [enter] Or try Firefox It could *possibly* be an issue just with konqueror and Mozilla. If I did this and got the same result, my next step would be to set all router options back to its defaults and see what happens.

That should be more than enough for Slack to do its thing. I don't think ipv6 is an issue. Most websites still use ipv4 or a combination of the two. See if Slack has either links or lynx command line browser. These browsers have no pictures only text. Fire one of those up and see if you can detect a difference in speed surfing the net. Can you link me to those pages that you found that have potential fixes for this problem? Does Slack perform satisfactorily otherwise?

Welcome Linuxprobie! Ditto what zenarcher said. Anyone who wants to try Linux coming from a Windows environment should say this in the mirror ten times: Linux is not Windows! This should be obvious, but most new users coming from Windows seem to expect that Linux is just another version of Windows and then get very frustrated when it isn't. If however, you have patience, and realize your gonna make mistakes, Linux is fascinating, engaging, and as far as I'm concerned, superior to Windows in every way.

What is you RAM? It may be taking long because of that.

Find grub.conf likely in /boot/grub Open it in X with Gedit or from the command line using vi. Those "drivers" you downloaded, are they Windows drivers or Linux? Are you wanting to install the Nvidia 3d module? Once you've downloaded NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-5336-pkg1.mun, you'll have to install it outside of Xwindows. Here's how... You'll have to edit your /etc/inittab file. Become root and type "gedit", without the quoteations and press enter. click "open", and in the left hand pane, double click the "../ " 2 times. In the left hand pane, scroll down to /etc and double click it. look for "inittab" in the right pane, and double click it. gedit will then open the inittab file. look for the line.. id:5:initdefault: edit this line and change the "5" to a "3" save, exit and reboot the computer. This time, your "user manager thingie" will not come up for you to enter your name and password because you will now not be in X windows. You will have to enter your username and password at the command line. become root, "cd" to the directory where the Nvidia universal driver is installed and type: chmod 777 NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-5336-pkg1.mun Be sure you're online and go: ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-5336-pkg1.mun ...and follow the instructions. After completion, at the command prompt, type "startx" and press enter. This will start X and will put you back in runlevel 5. log in as usual, and return to gedit as above. Go back to /etc/inittab and change the "3" back to a "5". Also while in gedit, find and open /etc/X11/XF86Config-4, and look for a line under... Section "Device" and where you see "nv", change it to "nvidia" (this time only, with the quotes just as you see them) save this file, exit out of gedit, reboot, and everything should work as before except your new updated Nvidia module will be installed. It sounds complicated but as you'll see, it really isn't.

Hi Marcus, Be patient and all will start to make sense. RPM is a binary package you install on your computer, sort of like a Windows .exe. Look in your menu and find the Fedora package manager. This is the way to install files from your disk. When I was using Core 1 I thought apt-get RPM was the best way to install packages and keep my system up-to-date. Apt-get RPM will make life with Linux a lot easier. See this "HOW TO" for apt for FC 2 here. If you get stuck just let me know...

If it's like "9" which is the last version of Mdk I bought, you only get 3 free ISOs, and get the additional 2 CDs when you purchase.

Originally posted by mjwebb007: Quote: I would love to get to a point one day when I am purely using the Windows computer to play Windows only games and using my Linux box as my main computer but for now that it a long way off. That's gonna come sooner than you think! You think Windows XP install is easy? Wait till you see how easy the SuSE install is! If this box is dedicated to SuSE 9.1 only, then I'd do three things for sure: 1. Just let SuSE figure out your partitions for you. 2. Install everything if you have the drive space. 3. Clear out your Windows box, and get ready to replace it with your new SuSE box

I'm unfamiliar with your keyboard. It would be a simple matter to just run down to the Thrift shop and buy a used ps2 keyboard for a few dollars. You might want to try that to help make a determination if the trouble is actually your keyboard. I think the best money you could spend right now would be on RAM. Also, did you create a swap space? What size?

Originally posted by mjwebb007: Quote: One quick hardware question...I like to use wireless desktops (Microsoft preferred but Logitech too). Is there one that is "more" compatible or should I stick to PS2 wired keyboard and mouse? I don't use wireless so I'd be afraid to advise you. Anyone else? You can always have them installed at OS installation. If SuSE sees and configures them, then you should be OK. If not, try wired to get going.

Originally posted by mjwebb007: Quote: I am really just interested in delving into Linux from a curiosity standpoint - I use WinXP almost exclusively due to compatability but want to see what all the fuss about Linux is about. Please just keep in mind that the difference between Windows and Linux is the difference between a new Cadillac and a New Hummer! If you are patient and spend the same amount of time learning Linux that you did when you first learned Windows, you'll be all right. Take your time with the partitioning, the install and running SuSE 9.1. Expect to probably fail at all three at some point, and to have to try again! You are in new territory and will make mistakes. Learn from them rather than allowing your mistakes to deter you! BE PATIENT! Impatience is your worst enemy when learning Linux. Quote: I remember seeing an article one time about a guy who had over 30 O/S partitions on a computer and used every single one of them...even DOS 3.0. Was his name danleff by chance? Quote: Anyway, if i run into any problems I will be sure to post them here. As I run SuSE 9.1 and the Netgear MA311, I'll be able to help. Just ask! Quote: Thanks for all the help so far. You're quite Welcome!

I just don't know anything about ATIs and Linux anymore. It's just too easy to configure an Nvidia. I'd keep the ATI, and see if SuSE detects and configures it as SuSE has real good hardware detection. If it doesn't work correctly for you then I'd consider an Nvidia. No sense spending money unless you have to. I've not used Linksys wireless cards but do use their routers. Seems like I remember danleff was running a wireless Linksys card at one time. I use the Netgear MA311 which works very well with my Linksys wireless "B" router. I know "G" is faster, but "B" is faster than I'll ever really need. The advantage with the MA311 is it works very well and is reasonably priced!

With RH 9 I had a problem that just couldn't be solved by me or anyone on any of the Linux forums I then visited. In IceWM, all terminals the delete key wouldn't delete but would deliver a tilde (~) instead. I would also get a bunch of wierd characters when using the backspace key. As it turned out, this was a problem left over from the early stages of Unix to Minix to Linux development that was somehow always worked around but never solved by most distros. SuSE on the other hand, DID take time to solve it. So, I downloaded the SuSE version of Aterm, installed it on RH9, and that solved the problem! I'd like to see the Mandrake menu editing utility operational on Fedora. I tried to get it running with RH 9 once, but ran into too many complaints...

SuSE has pretty good hardware detection. Answer daleff's questions and chances are we'll have you straightened out in no time!

I'd go with Suse 9.1 or 9.2 Professional. Try it and see if your ATI works OK. If not, I'd get a reasonably priced Nvidia which are also really good for gaming.

ATI makes great cards... for Windows. There is some ATI support for Linux but not nearly to the degree we get support from Nvidia. I have nine Linux boxes I administer. All use Nvidia except my old first computer which uses an old Mach64, (under SuSE 9.1). This may be some help... My advice is generally to always go with Nvidia unless you just enjoy the challenge of getting newer ATIs working. Oh, and welcome! [Edited by Dapper Dan on 2004-12-08 09:20:39] [Edited by Dapper Dan on 2004-12-08 09:21:43]

Originally posted by tony starks: Quote: lets say like photoshop pagemaker bryce 5. Also can I play my mp3s on mandrake and how can I see my other HDs I have one external along with an enternal both was with XP. There are Linux equivalents to photoshop. Have a look in the "graphics" section of your menu. You can easily play your mp3s. Look in the mulit-media section for mp3 player, or it might be labled as Xmms. There is an mp3 plugin you'll probably have to install before it will work though for patent reasons. I'm not sure which one will work with Mdk 10.1 I'm pretty sure Mandrake by default mounts automatically existing Windows partitions. Open konqueror and go into /mnt. see if there is a folder in there called "Windows" or "XP" or some such thing. If so just continue on into it for your Windows files. On the external drive install of Windows, I would imagine it would be a simple matter to just mount it. In fact, Mandrake may have auto mounted it too. Again, look in /mnt and see if you see anything in there that may be your external drive.

You can delete them but it's not going to hurt anything for them to be there. I always thinks it's best for new users to avoid deleting anything until they are certain they, (a) know exactly what they are doing, and ( are certain they aren't deleting something they may need later on. If it just bugs you to have them there on the boot screen, do what we call, "comment them out." That is, you put a '#' in front of the entry so it is not read. here's an example of my grub.conf, before and after commenting out certain entries... Code: # grub.conf generated by anaconda## Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.# root (hd0,0)# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda5# initrd /initrd-version.img#boot=/dev/hdadefault=1timeout=10splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gztitle Gentoo (2.4.20-gentoo_r6) root (hd0,0) kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-gentoo_r6 ro root=/dev/hda5 hdd=ide-scsititle SuSE 9.1 kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrdtitle Mandrake 9.1 kernel (hd0,8)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda9 quiet devs=mount hdd=ide-scsi acpi=off vga=788 initrd (hd0,8)/boot/initrd.img# added by NeTraverse - DO NOT REMOVE THIS LINE, it's used for uninstalltitle Win4Lin kernel (hd0,8)/boot/win4lin root=/dev/hda9 hdd=ide-scsi acpi=off vga=788 initrd (hd0,8)/boot/initrd.img# end added by NeTraverse - DO NOT REMOVE THIS LINE, it's used for uninstall If I wanted to eleminate, say Mandrake 9.1 from my grub boot screen, I could go something like... Code: # grub.conf generated by anaconda## Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.# root (hd0,0)# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda5# initrd /initrd-version.img#boot=/dev/hdadefault=1timeout=10splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gztitle Gentoo (2.4.20-gentoo_r6) root (hd0,0) kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-gentoo_r6 ro root=/dev/hda5 hdd=ide-scsititle SuSE 9.1 kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd# title Mandrake 9.1# kernel (hd0,8)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda9 quiet # devs=mount hdd=ide-scsi acpi=off vga=788# initrd (hd0,8)/boot/initrd.img# added by NeTraverse - DO NOT REMOVE THIS LINE, it's used for uninstalltitle Win4Lin kernel (hd0,8)/boot/win4lin root=/dev/hda9 hdd=ide-scsi acpi=off vga=788 initrd (hd0,8)/boot/initrd.img# end added by NeTraverse - DO NOT REMOVE THIS LINE, it's used for uninstall That way, it just doesn't even show up as a boot choice, but is easily restored if I ever need it again. What other programs besides AOL are you wanting to run? I'm not aware that AOL makes a port for Linux, or even if you can use their services without Windows. Maybe someone else knows... [