Dapper Dan

Originally posted by precisi0n: Quote: Problem 1: I installed Mandrake Linux 10.0 (Community) as a dual boot with Windows on my other PC and tried it with this one, didn't work, Windows is now dead (I did something I knew would hurt it, a revenge thing)... Both good and bad, but mainly bad as I can't access any files from the windows partition, or even see them and that is not good. Did you use the Mandrake partitioner? How did you set up your partitions? Did you resize your Windows partition before installing Mdk? Open konqueror file browser and click the up arrow until you can't go any farther. Then find a folder labeled "mnt" open it, and look for a folder labled, windows, or DOS or NT etc. If one is there, open it and look around. If you see your Windows file is in mnt, then you are having a bootloader issue. If not, then your renenge on Windows is permanent. Quote: Problem 2: is that I can't access files from the CD's, I can access the install CD's I used but not any other ones... I've got no idea what is causing this, i'd think a permissions problem or something but how can I see the install CD's? Are you using KDE? If so, Your cdrom drive should come up on your desktop when you put it in the tray and close it. If not, try this: Open a terminal, and become root by typing: su [enter] Then go: mount /mnt/cdrom [enter] then: cd /mnt/cdrom [enter] then: ls [enter] If you can see files there, your cdrom is accessing them. You can also open konqueror as super user, and see if you can access them that way. Quote: Problem 3: WINE! Not just me, the windows emulator thing. I am a newbie so I added it off the CD following the prompts, apparently it is now installed... so where do I go or what do I type to access it? You install and uninstall software by using the Mandrake Control Center. Look for an icon for software, then click on install new software. At the search windows type in wine. If it comes up, it is not installed. Install it. If it does not come up, it should be installed. You use wine by going into the directory where the window app is you want to run, right click, and tell it you want to try running the app with wine. What Windows app are you wanting to run with wine?

Run Starcraft with Winex, and you won't have that problem. There are many other games you can run with it as well..

You don't need disk four to get X, that is included in cd one. What errors are you getting if any? Tell us exactly what happens after you sign in and the errors, and there is a very good chance someone here can help. Have you tried running XFdrake ? It's a very good utility that has almost always straightened out X problems I've had over the years, and I've had many...

My two cents worth: Everyone has their preferences, but from my experience, GRUB on the first portion of the Linux / partition has given me far less trouble on newer machines from install to install than LILO on the MBR. On the other hand LILO on the MBR seems to give less trouble on older boxes. Whatever you do, STAY AWAY fron Boot Magic, part of Partition Magic. Though Partition Magic is a very useful tool, Boot Magic is absolute rubbish. I believe Mandrake's partitionimg tool can now partition NTFS without too much trouble, but I have always used Partition Magic to resize NTFS, and it has never failed me. Also, it's a good idea to put /home on it's own seperate partition. That way, when you do a new install, you can just leave your /home partition alone, not formatting it, and it will be there for whichever version/distro you may want to upgrade to, though still do backups before new installs. ReiserFS, in my opinion, is the best all around file system for Linux. During the partitioning process, Mandrake will give you the option of using it. Also make SURE, you create a boot floppy when it asks at the end of the install. If something doesn't go right, a boot floppy can be a life saver! Good Luck.

Deo Vindice!! I decided to try one last thing and I got it up and running! I just couldn't understand how every distro I tried the Netgear MA311 with all indicated that the card was functional, yet no connection. As a last resort, I asked a friend if I could borrow his D-Link 802.11b DI-614+ wireless router to check out my theory. I disconnected my Linksys Wireless G and hooked up the D-Link and now the NetGear cards are working! For whatever reason I don't understand, The Linksys Wireless G likes talking to the Orinoco Gold Card, but doesn't like talking to the MA311s. Weird huh?? That post I found must have been on to something. I feel so vidicated! It was the router not the Netgear cards! The bad news is, I now have to make a choice of buying an 802.11b only router which I know will work, or trying an Orinoco Gold Card, (which will work with the Wireless G) with a PCMCIA to PCI Adapter which may or may not work. I'm tempted to try the Gold Card with the adapter since my Linksys router's speed absolutely flies in comparrison to this D-Link. danleff, it could be a similar problem you are having. Try a different router and see what happens! If I can assist in some way, please let me know!

For the first time in a long time with Linux, I'm just gonna give up. I have spent countless hours with many distros, and all to no avail. In Mandrake 9.1, lspci returns that it is indeed a Harris wavelan Prism2 chipset. The configurator loads it with orinoco_pci, which is built into the kernel. modprobe orinoco_pci returns no errors. My router's WEP encryption is turned off. The light on the card goes from blinking to a steady amber when I do: ifconfig eth0 up The Orinoco gold card in the wife's Toshiba laptop runs perfectly recieving from the same router as it always has. Every indication that Mdk 9.1 gives, is that the card is using the orinoco_pci driver, (which almost everything I've found on line says is the best driver to use with the Prism2 chipset), and it just won't work. This is also frustrating in that I didn't even have to crack a terminal with the Orinoco, it conversely worked perfectly right out of the box. I'm going to do what I should have done in the first place and go with the gold card since I know it works. I hate it when I am utterly defeated by something like this with Linux, but after a week of frustration I'm just gonna cut my losses and be done with it.

By the way, now would be a great time to update to Fedora Core 1. I've used RH 9 extensively, and Fedora is much better and more bug free.

I would just re-install. Quicker, and the path of least resistance. You did install /home to it's own partition?

What router are you using? I'm using a Linksys Wireless "G" which is backward compatible to 802.11b. Is it possible that this card, for whatever reason, doesn't like this router? It doesn't seem likely since our Orinoco Gold card, which is also 802.11b only, works perfectly with it. While I was doing research on the Gold card and the Linksys router, I did run across a post of a guy saying his notebook card, which was "b" only wouldn't connect with a Linksys wireless g router when others cards would. His post went unanswered. I'm gonna see if I can track that post down again. I can work Fedora and Mandrake 9 into having every indication that the card is functional, but it won't let me connect to the internet, ping other boxes or ssh. Mind numbingly frustrating.. ;(

I've given the better part of over a week trying to get this #@#$^%& card to work under ANY Linux distro, and no matter what, it simply won't work!!! How is it that I read about so many users on line getting this card to work, yet I've spent countless hours toiling away into the wee hours of every morning for over a week, only to never get this card connected!! God! It makes you just want to give up and go back to Windows!! My most recent attempt was to get it working under Mdk 9. There was no orinoco_pci driver in 9, so I dusted off my old 9.1 cds and installed them. I go into the Mdk Control Center/Network Configuration and it finds and installs orinico_pci, then congratulates me on a job well done! The light is shining steadily without blinking on the back of the card, there are no errors from: modprobe orinoco_pci No errors anywhere! In fact, it says the card is up and running but it also says it is not connected!! I've run across some major ball busters with Linux, but this one has just about made me want to put a .45 slug in my brain! I've tried to get this card working under, (count 'em) 5 distros without success! Yet Linux-Wlan says it is compatible, and then there are those infuriating posts where users purport to have this card up and running in a matter of minutes without much configuration! I'm no Linux guru, but I've been at the console for over two years now, and have always been able to figure out how to make things work. No matter what I try, this one just will not work, and I think I've tried every thing on line that can be found to try!! God, this is just damned ridiculous!!

There will always be a risk of data loss anytime you try to resize partitions. Having said that, QTparted is preety good.

I can't seem to find it right now but danleff wrote a very detailed step by step on how to install the Nvidia "drivers." Here something that will help, but is more abbreviated.. http://www.linuxcompatible.org/thread.php?id=1418 If I may ask, why are you running RH 7.3? 8 and 9 are so much better than 7.3, and I've run all of them. For the best RH type distro yet, Fedora Core 1 beats the pants off of all of them by a mile in my opinion.

You aren't getting a username prompt? If not, try pressing Ctrl-Alt-c, and see if you get a $. If you are getting a prompt, sign in and become root.. su [enter] password [enter] Did you change "nv" to "nvidia" in you XF86Config? If so, and you aren't getting a screen, change it back to "nv", and you should get X again. If you can post the exact errors you are getting, I feel certain someone here can help troubleshoot it with you. Probably getting the "cannot find a usable screen" error. Knowing the distro you are running will help too. Edit: If you used Gedit or Kedit to change your XF86Config you'll now have to edit it from the command line. After becoming root go.. vi /etc/X11/XF86Config [enter] Use the up and down arrows to get where you need to be. Be sure to press the "insert" key before editing or it won't take. Also, after editing and making sure it is correct, pree Esc then :x and enter to close and save it. Now reboot, and you should have your old "nv" screen back. Edit 2: The face above is written the same way as the write and quite command in vi which is a : followed by a x without a space.. [Edited by Dapper Dan on 2004-05-08 00:41:38]

Danleff, here's a script and some info which might help with your card to with Mepis. The script doesn't work well with Fedora, it appears to be written for Debian based distros. I'm going to Hard Drive install Kanotix, (also Debian-Knoppix) and see if I can get anywhere with it. I finally had to give up trying to install the Netgear Ma311 on Fedora core1, it was turning into a nightmare..

Yes, thanks danleff. I used that post to configure, but it's not working for me! We use WEP, but I disable it when trying to get the card working. I should have just sprang for the Orinoco Gold PCMCIA PCI card and I would have been done with it! I may still yet. It drives me crazy that all these posts on line, you read about folks getting this card working in a matter of minutes, yet I can't get it to work no matter how hard I try! ;( Good luck with yours. Which distro are you trying to get it working under?

Yes, thanks danleff. I used that post to configure, but it's not working for me! We use WEP, but I disable it when trying to get the card working. I should have just sprang for the Orinoco Gold PCMCIA PCI card and I would have been done with it! I may still yet. It drives me crazy that all these posts on line, you read about folks getting this card working in a matter of minutes, yet I can't get it to work no matter how hard I try! ;( Good luck with yours. Which distro are you trying to get it working under?

Mdk 10 is pretty smokin'. I'd stay with it.

This also happens a lot in RedHats 8, 9 and Fedora. Save yourself some grief by opening a terminal and as root go: rpm -ivh bobs_widget_set.rh.i386.rpm [enter] or if upgrading.. rpm -Uvh bobs_widget_set.rh.i386.rpm [enter] And it should install without incident.

Again, if you can post the exact error, I can probably help you with this. What you mention can be caused by any number of things.

I may be able to help you with this, but I need you to post the exact error. Try running it again from the kde terminal, "konsole", then copy and paste it here in a post.

Maybe a friend has a NIC, (Network Interface Card) lying around you could use? Most of them will work with Linux. If not, and there is a way to do it, I would take danleff's advice and just spring the $10.00 for the card. This will save you a world of aggravation in the long run. On the other hand, if you're really interested in learning Linux, getting your present set up working will teach you an awful lot.. if you have the patience.

Talk about feeling stupid, the first time I tried Gnome, I accidently fixed it to where clicking any of the desktop icons opened the same application!

Did everything go accordingly up to that point? Did you go: mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usbstick before trying to mount it with.. mount /mnt/usbstick ? I added this to my .bash_profile which is in the home directory.. #!/bin/bash /sbin/modprobe usb-storage mount /mnt/usbstick That way it mounts every time I reboot. If it's not there, it doesn't matter.

Danleff, this is mainly for you since you are the Lilo Guru around here.. but I welcome anyone elses input as well. I've had a hell of a time configuring my new Netgear Ma311 wireless PCI under Mandrake 10 Community, but Morphix found and configured my Orinoco gold card on our Toshiba laptop without cracking a terminal. My thought was, since Knoppix/Morphix finds and configures the prism 2/orinoco type cards so well, which both are, I'll just install Morphix on the box that had Mandrake 10 and try to configure it that way. When I installed Mdk 10, I installed Lilo to the MBR. When I installed Morphix, I again attempted to install Lilo to the MBR. I'm now getting Lilo coming up, but with the Mandrake splash screen and shortly after that, I'm getting kernel panic. It seems evident that Morphix did not install Lilo to the MBR over the Mandrake version which is ok with me, although I want Morphix to boot. I can use the Morphix live CD to edit the files on the hard drive, but I'm unsure of how to do it. What do I need to do to edit the lilo.conf on the HD to boot Morphix? Would it be the file at /etc/lilo.conf? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Yes, you can mount the HD from the Morphix live cd. I will give this a try today. Thanks!