Dapper Dan

danleff, just two nights ago, I partitioned a hard drive that had an existing XP install, shrinking the NTFS partition by half with Partition Magic 8, and creating new Linux partitions in the empty space with the Fedora one partitioner. Is the problem we've been seeing caused by the Mandrake 10 partitioning utility, or with the 2.6 kernel? Seems like I remember there were similar problems with Fedora Core two. If iano200 (wisely ) decides to go with "9", he shouldn't encounter those problems with its partitioning utility should he?

Chances are Suse will recognize it, but whether or not it will have a "driver" specific to it is a gamble. I think the only way to know for sure is just to try it. Many of the hardware manufacturer's have gotten into the really sloppy habit of changing chipsets for a piece of hardware, and still giving the same model number in the sales information. So off you go, having done your homework, believing Bob's modem model A-1 will work with Linux. After all, everything you read on the Internet says it will work. Then when you get the card, and it's actually a Bob's modem A-1(v2) using a different chipset than what will work with Linux. If it won't work out and you have a little cash, I highly recommend the Actiontec external serial modem. It works out of the box, and the performance of it compared to most internal PCIs is noticeably better.

Could I talk you into using Mandrake 9.0 instead? With the updates, 9.0 is extremely stable, and it's hardware detection is VERY good. Whichever version you use, I would get a hold of Partition Magic and reduce the size of your NTFS partition enough to take the Mandrake install. I usually shrink Windows by half, leaving the other half for Linux. Once that is done, install Mandrake. Mandrake has an excellent partitioning tool that is very easy to figure out. Create three partitions, "/", "swap" and "home", in the blank space you created with Partition Magic. Your swap should be at least 3 times the size of your ram. I usually make my / and /home partitions approximately the same size. Be sure to use either ext3 or reiserfs for your file system. I personally prefer reiserfs. Then follow the directions for installation. Back up all valuable Windows files BEFORE doing any partitioning. There is never a guarantee it will work out. Also, be sure to create a boot floppy for Mandrake when the install gives you the opportunity. Make a boot floppy of Windows as well! That way, if anything goes wrong, you'll still have a bootable OS with which to fix problems. Be prepared to fail and have to try again! Hopefully, everything will go smoothly the first time. There is a good chance though that something may go wrong. After all, you are in uncharted territory and may have to try more than once to get it right. Learn from your mistakes, and try again until you get it right. Eventually you'll succeed, and will have learned a great deal in the process. I hope this helps.

I've never burned DVDs with it, but K3B is the best burner front end I've seen. You might want to give it a try.

Hello eBopBob, There comes that point to where you have to just dive in and see. Let us know what happens. Good luck.

This will be very useful to all who are interested in Gentoo! Thanks taeuler for all of your hard work!

Thanks SoulNothing and jimf43!

This is a great honor! Thanks Philipp!

Forgive me, but I'm not seeing an MA111 in this post. I see the NetGear MA311, and the NetGear 511. Which one, if either were you refering to? Or are you refering to the MA111 wireless USB? According to this, it's suppose to work.

Yes, taeuler, that would be a very welcome thread! I would love to find out a simplified way of installing Gentoo!

Congratulations Koba! It's a great feeling when you persist and conquer such problems in Linux!

Originally posted by jimf43: Quote: Originally posted by blackpage: Quote: Those won't be too much questions about Gentoo or Slackware, cause folks who do those distros usually know what they're gonna dance with. I don't know about that. There are a number of people working on script engine based source installation. At least in theory, this is a great concept and I think it may become the next hot item very similar to what has already happened with the Knoppix type distros. It may get 'interesting'. Jim43, I think Slack and especially Gentoo are very attractive to a lot of new users who bring more than just a cursory knowledge of computing with them when they begin exploring Linux. Of course Slackware has been around for a long time, and has always been popular. I tried and like Slack for it's simplicity and lack of bloat, but I don't have the patience necessary for compiling tarballs. Gentoo has kind of taken the Linux world by storm, and most “Gentoovians” I'm aware of, seem to have an almost religious reverence and loyalty to their distro. I've tried to understand the Gentoo install, but it just makes me more confused. The directions on Gentoo website make my brain hurt like a college calculus exam! I'm sure someone is working on a version of Gentoo that will make the install much simpler just as Mepis has for Debian. When that day comes, I'm definitely gonna give Gentoo a try.

Originally posted by deviant_prick: Quote: well excuse me i have to go and preach [censored] on a fundementalist christian message board Sounds to me you've come up with an appropriate name for yourself.

I just used PM 8.0 last night, and I believe you can boot from it to do a rescue. Try putting it in and booting it to see what happens. I may be wrong though. danleff is very knowledgable about this type of problem. I'm sure he can give you more help than I can. Sorry.

blackpage, all of your points are well taken, although a Slack or Gentoo user might disagree about new users not going with their distro. Originally posted by blackpage: Quote: I will of course gladly help out here if there is anything to contribute, just as I did in the few months that I -gladly- take the time to stop by here Please come by often, and help us answer Mandrake 10 quetions. Most of the time, I have to go from memory since I don't have "10" installed right now. Your expertise would be very welcome here.

Good review. The best of both worlds is using Win4lin on top of Mandrake 9.2. Then you have almost everything, including Frozen Bubble! We use Win4lin, (Windows 98 on top of Mandrake 9.0), on a daily basis at my radio station to run Quickbooks Pro 2000. Except for games, we can run almost any Windows program we want on Windows 98 and at native speeds and with far better stability.

Starcraft is also slowish when running under cedega/winex. There may be a way to tighten it up a little. Try a google search and see what you come up with. If you can find any remedies, could you post them back here? Thanks.

Is that the same thing as choosing Japanese as the language when you're at the KDM login? If not, try that and see what happens. Beyond this, I'm lost. Sorry.

blackpage, you are obviously a very experienced user, and as such, you know how to make Mandrake 10 work for you and your people. I have Mandrake 9 working for my people right now, because I know how to make it work for us. I think you have gotten the wrong idea here. This thread started by jim43 was targeted toward new users. It was pretty clear to me anyway. I think you're being a little unfair by suggesting that this forum somehow excludes Mandrake from it's (or our) attention. I can't speak for anyone else, but I can tell you I answer far more threads about Mandrake than any other distro. That was the case then and is the case now. If you have any doubts about whether Mandrake is being excluded from notice, do a search on Mandrake here and see how many times it comes up. I have used every edition of Mandrake since 8.2, and *in my opinion* Mandrake 10 is not nearly as user friendly to new users as were the others when they came out, and the 2.6 kernel accounts for many of the difficulties we've been seeing. If I thought I had half a chance of convincing them when they come here, I would suggest to every new user who is interested in Mandrake to start off with "9", even more so than Fedora. But new users aren't gonna listen to that, because they want something new. As you are using Mandrake 10 successfully, I hope you will continue to pitch in and help us out when a new user comes here looking for advice on "10." We sure could use the help.

Jim, your post hits the nail on the head! I am always reluctant to criticize anyone's choice of distro, but the fact is, Mandrake is not the easily installed and user friendly distro I once knew with Mandrake 9.0. 9.1 for me was a great disappointment, and 9.2 was even worse. I couldn't find screens with either, even though I've always used Nvidia cards! "10" seems to be much better in some ways, but is very disappointing in most others. Mandrake 10 is going to continue to disappoint a lot of Windows users who want to cross over and take the red pill. I'll be perfectly honest with new or potential users of Linux: Just because something is new, DOES NOT mean it is better! There are still issues that must be ironed out with the 2.6 kernel. If you want to go with Linux, go with something that at least has some history behind it. Then, once you have the basics down, you can start checking out distros and versions that are more cutting edge. I still use Fedora Core 1, and will continue to do so until it is clear to me that Core 2 is ready for prime time. Mandrake 9.0 was VERY stable and solid. I used Mandrake 9.0 for a long time. I am now using Fedora Core 1 because it became evident to me that MDK 9.1, 9.2 and 10 were just not as stable and user friendly. If you want to go with Debian, Mepis is very easy to install, and it's hardware detection is among the best there is. To any new user who is thinking about Linux: I would recommend staying away from Mandrake 10 for at least another few months until it is relatively "ironed out." Please consider going with Fedora Core one, Suse 9.0, or in Debian, go with Mepis or Knoppix.

You might want to also have a look at Actiontec's V92 external serial modem. I have used them many times under Linux. They work right out of the box.

LOL!

I assume you're using Linux?? Which distro are you using? What are you getting now? Anything? Is this the card you have? Tell us exactly what the problem is and what errors it's giving you if any, and we should have you up and running soon.

Hi metal69. I'm sure you were just joking! However, if you have any doubts, Linux is not causing your problem, it's something to do with hardware issues. Once you get that sorted out, you will have a very stable operating system.

...and in the Debian world, unstable truly means unstable!