martouf

the 2.6 kernel itself can't be the culprit, per se, as it does not write to a disk unless some process makes a write request. the MDK 10 culprit must be a portion of the installation process where a partitioning utility is invoked to create and new partition table and filesystem layout. using a known good (plays well with others) partition tool like Partition Magic is a valid strategy to avoid letting the bad partition tool muck things up. may I also suggest Drive Image 7 and external storage media to ensure you can "go back" if something goes badly wrong during your first MDK installation experiments?

how about right-click on the clock -> Show Timezones -> Configure Timezones ? make sure the system timezone is set right. then go back to Show Timezones and make sure "Local timezone" is selected. I don't recall if you can just logout and log back in again to reset your session's idea of the system timezone or if you must restart the whole system.

oh, ok, I understand now. You can customize your special mouse (the stylus) as you wish, and you'll need to use 'xev' to figure out which stylus button equals which button number X Windows receives. In short, you're going to set up more than one "InputDevice" and one of those InputDevices has an Option set to identify the device as type stylus. After that, it's a matter of button mapping. However, I realize one of the buttons serves as the stylus tip contact report and one end of the rocker switch. You'll see this with 'xev'. You might not have enough buttons to do exactly what you want, but you can mess around with ZAxisMapping and ChordMiddle. You may want to be certain to have a second non-tablet mouse connected in case your experimental subject goes wacky.

it should be in /sbin along with cfdisk and fdisk so long as you have the util-linux package installed

not sure if you've got a distro with "alsaconf" or not, but the sound 'card' you need to select is "Crystal CS423x". does your distro offer a GUI for system configuration? a "Control Panel"? please provide the command output of "uname -a". Your laptop should work extremely well with just about any current distro - the reason being IBM was supporting the use of Red Hat 6.0 at the time it was manufactured. I say this because I found this document from IBM dated 2001-05-29. Don't think you need to do all of the stuff it talks about since most everything it talks about has been updated/upgraded many times since then.. If the Microsoft wlan adaptor is Model MN-520 (802.11b not 11g), then you're in luck. It uses the Prism2/2.5/3 chipset.

If you're also interested in burning DVDs with video, you should read this linuxcompatible thread.

what I mean about adding an IDE controller is if your motherboard only has SATA controllers onboard, then you'll need to add an IDE interface card to hook up your plain-jane ATA HDD. "mkinitrd" is documented in distros, and reading up on it will start to tell you how to go about making your own custom initrd. You may need a custom initrd to provide your booting kernel the SATA driver it needs to use the SATA HDDs, otherwise you must provide a HDD interface the kernel 'knows' without an extra driver (hence the possibility you may need to add a plain ATA HDD).

if you haven't already set up the mouse protocol to IMPS/2 with XFConf, then that's the first step to getting the wheel working. Next, you'll need to add (or uncomment) the 'ZAxisMapping' and possibly reverse the order of the axis indexes if you find your wheel spinning backwards. Note: you need to log out of your session so that X is restarted for your changes to take effect.

grub stopped where it did because it couldn't find the /boot/grub directory on the indicated hd partition. The new partition you created means hd{N} is now hd{N+1}. the grub command line will permit you to specify hd{N+1} and from there you'll be able to fix your configuration.

first off, don't burn those ISOs at the fastest speed offered by your burner. Whoa! Slow down, there. 4x or 2x burn rate is best to ensure a low error rate burn. You need the closest you can get to a bit-for-bit copy of the ISOs. secondly, SATA is close to the technologic edge. It has support from server vendors, but it's still a new kid on the block. You are brave and ambitious to attempt an install. You may very well succeed, but your success is not assured. Are you prepared for a contingency of having to create your own custom initial ram disk (initrd)? Additional contingency planning: would you be able to add an IDE controller (if not provided by the motherboard) and IDE drive for boot-up?

In a word: No. sorry, but it doesn't work like that. Drivers (for the most part) are OS-specific. More information about the laptop (Model number, most importantly) and about the "Linux" (which distro?) is needed.

mod parent 'Funny' not 'Interesting', please. Well done, in the style of a bloggy rheumy reviewer, no less. Anyone who's anyone just knows Mandrake wins overall because it has Frozen Bubble!

System boot is OK, text-mode is OK, but no GUI (X Windows) .. do I have that right? or do you mean: System boot is OK, screen flickers for a bit, then the GUI login appears? ??

Has anyone noticed SoulNothing's "Posts:" counter is stuck at 191? SoulNothing - has anyone with medical training ever told you your speech/typing seems pressured? Have your friends ever told you that you seem hyper? Unless you're the unluckiest person alive, you need to start off with a system which has been assembled and tested by a professional so that you may be assured whichever OS or distro you load will run reliably. The symptoms you have described can be caused by hardware, software or operator - or by some combination of all three. May I suggest you purchase one of the under $800 "Education Workstation" systems from Monarch Computer? Don't get an Athlon 64, for goodness sake! Buy/think uncomplicated and nowhere near the leading/bleeding technologic edge. The "Monarch 2400+" for $370 looks like a good place to start - heck, have them preload the distro of your choice, too.

DefRef time again: the directory structure is the actual data structure describing your files. What you refer to is the file list which is a representation of the directory structure generated by the 'ls' utility. (oh, and columns are numbered left to right with whitespace chars separating them - if you're to use 'awk' or 'cut' or 'sort', you must know this well). pedantically, then, you're wondering what the second column in the long or verbose 'ls' output means? The column in between the file permission bits (column 1) and the file owner (column 3)? It's the value of the "link count". A file is 'deleted' when the link count reaches 0, at which point the zones used by the file are all marked 'free'. Quick tutorial experiment to be performed in a directory where you have write/create permission (say, for instance, your home/login dir): [size:3][tt]touch test.fil ls -l test.fil cat >> test.fil Here is the contents of my test file. I have put content here so I can identify this file as being the very one I created. The full reason for doing this will soon be apparent. CTRL-D ( <-- you type the Control-plus-'D' keys together) ls -l test.fil ( <-- if you count up all the keystrokes including the Enter key..) ln test.fil test2.fil ls -l test*.fil ( <-- are you seeing double?) ln -s test.fil test3.fil ls -l test*.fil ( <-- hmm, symbolic links don't increase link count) rm test3.fil ls -l test*.fil rm test.fil ( <-- remember, this was the name of the original file) ls -l test*.fil cat test2.fil ( <-- same old content, but now a different name) [/tt][/color]

you mean, without the Audigy card you're still getting the same kind of apparent firewire port symptoms? can you disable the onboard firewire ports in the BIOS? you realize the chances of running any OS or any distro with your problematic hardware are rapidly diminishing?

I thought the trouble with late-model Mandrake is when a new user encounters the bright shiny packaging on a store shelf it's found with the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover. This, in turn, encourages an unfounded confidence. But seriously, no one ought to experiment (and believe me, a first try is an experiment!) with a new OS without either using a 'test dummy' system (must not contain any data you wish to preserve) or a system where you've imaged the whole disk (disaster protection). The failure in any distro marketed for the newbie is to not make it clear enough what the newbie should do for themselves to create a 'safe zone' for experimentation. One should also keep in mind the financial condition of a company-backed distro - the Mandrake bankruptcy was not likely to have a positive effect on their distro. Adding new features or improved features apparently was not kept high on the priority list.

There are two alternatives for your overall system design, as I see it. One is to have the SMB server be the holder of the authentication and identification database ("user DB" will be the shorthand I'll use for this). Typically, in Windows fashion, this is the Domain Controller. However, whether or not the SMB server is itself Windows-based, it may be a Great Pain to have to maintain the user DB on the SMB server. That's where the LDAP server enteres the picture. The LDAP server would be consulted by all the systems on all matters "user DB". And now you can adjust and maintain the user DB in the way you think best for the kind of maintenance job you have at hand. Otherwise, you may be forever making both user account and Samba account changes here there and everywhere...

I guess you're right about the modem chipset. Do the product docs call it "K56flex"? My old Toshiba 445CDT had a real non-software modem in it, but it was only a 33.6kbps modem. So I bought a 3com combo card (ethernet and 56k modem) and never had even the slighest difficulty using it with Red Hat 7.3. Have you visited Toshiba's Linux Support Portal? There is an implementation memo about the Satellite A15. The Lucent/Agere chipset in your modem might be supported. Take a look at the Linmodems site.

if the modem is Conexant based, there are drivers available. need more information

it's important there be nothing connected until well after the installation program starts and the graphical part of it has started before plugging the mouse in. You don't want the auto-detection to get confused, as it seems it already is. Try precisely what I described. would you happen to have on hand a plain serial mouse (PS/2 connector or DB-9)? if the thing to try above doesn't work out, it would seem now your optical mouse isn't going to work without some post-installation twiddling. First goal is successful installation with some set of hardware.

what happens if you start the installation up with only the mouse connected from a cold (power off) condition? what happens if you start cold with nothing connected and then plug the mouse in after the graphical system starts up?

can you boot the system from the install disc? that is, get to the very beginning of the install process.. don't actually do another install yet, just test your system by booting from the CD.

did you by any chance install RH9 and walk away from your system for two days while leaving it connected directly to DSL or a cable modem? have you tried booting the install CD just to check the system?

let's see, I've encountered your question on the Rage3d.org Linux board and the linuxforums.org Peripherals/Hardware board. You get around, eh? Best I can tell, the X300 has the RV370 VPU and it probably going to work with the radeon Xorg driver, being how it is still part of the Radeon family - documentation here You may need to 'trick' the driver by providing the ChipID for the RV360 VPU, however. (see the documentation) Install your distro, and come on back here if there's any trouble.