SoulNothing 0 Posted March 1, 2004 Alright finally got a distro installed on my hp. AnywaY now i need to configure some things with EvilE one soundcard: Audigy OEM from gateway 2 Network onboard from nforce2 mobo those are my main issues as of now but im still confused as to a few things like in the screenshots evile showed there was a side bar how do you get that to come up one last thing when i right click and i get that bar to come up that allows access to apps only two work as of now openoffice and the terminal the other nothing happens thanks in advance Share this post Link to post
danleff 0 Posted March 1, 2004 Ok no one has taken a bite, so I will try. This distro is one that I am not knowledgable about. I think that I spoke of this before, but you will need to install the NVIDIA nForce chipset drivers to get the LAN to work. Most distros have not caught up with these chipsets yet. By the way, at least you got a distro installed! The sound card...the OEM soundblasters are an issue. Look for the configuration/control panel information menu (KDE?) and see if the cad is recognized at all. Or,; Do you have aumix, or kmix on this distro? Is there a speaker icon on the bottom right? Right click on it and open the mixer window and see if it states what your card is, or if it is there at all. I assume no sound at all? Share this post Link to post
SoulNothing 0 Posted March 2, 2004 thanks danleff no sound whatsoever and all that is on the screen without clickcing is the background and the various 4backgrounds ill check out the chipset and driver but isnt there a special way to install that the drivers etc. if so what do i need to run in the shell terminal Share this post Link to post
danleff 0 Posted March 2, 2004 I looked at distrowatch and the package components listed for this distro. The GUI/desktop is Enlightenment, this is what you get. You need to right click on the desktop to seee the menu options. This is how this distro is designed. It does not offer an easy KDE desktop with cooresponding packages, a start button and other amenities like other distros that you may have seen. Not a really good distro fro newbies who are used to a KDE or windows like environment. This is by design, fast and simple. I also wonder about the development packages that are available to install drivers and packages. Take a look at the home page and documentation. If you are looking for a Mandrake/RedHat like interface, then these are the distros that you need to look at. One with a KDE or Gnome desktop environment. Share this post Link to post
SoulNothing 0 Posted March 2, 2004 all right tme to switch distros then um out of these which would you recomend and if i say they messed maybe you can help me boot it up Live cd Beernix Boots fine in failsafe otherthat no go Morhpix wont boot after pressing enter Knoppix. Shows main screen then goes to black screen Debian Mandrake 9.1 EvilE (just listing) Ill give mandrake a go again now see if that works. Share this post Link to post
Dapper Dan 0 Posted March 3, 2004 SoulNothing did you already try Fedora? If not, that's what I'm using and really like it. Besides, it will install on some machines I have when others won't. Share this post Link to post
SoulNothing 0 Posted March 3, 2004 dapper dan ive tried getting fedora through the link in the previous threaad and anywhere else i can find to no avail. Currently i have to go with the distros listed because those are what i have and cannot download anymore at this time ive heard mixed baggage about red hat and just dontknow but it i really liked knopppix ran it offmy friends pc ran beernix on my laptop loved it now if i could get knoppix on my hp im talkin of the ones listed because i dont feel like downloading any more distros as of now and im fully aware of that withlinux than dapper dan Share this post Link to post
danleff 0 Posted March 3, 2004 What version of Knoppix are you using? Try this; When the boot process starts and you get the initial startup screen with the boot prompt, type in Knoppix nosmp, then hit the enter key. Let the screen go black for a few minutes and see if the boot process kicks in. Be patient, but of course after 5 minutes if the process fails, report back. The other possibility (excuse me if I repeat myself) is the burn speed that the CDR's are burnt at. They should be burnt at 4X or 8X. Tis can cause all kinds of booting problems. Why does it work sometimes and not others? Good question. Try to see if you can note any error messages that come up during boot. Another thought, are you booting from the DVD drive or another CDROM drive? Share this post Link to post
Dapper Dan 0 Posted March 3, 2004 If you want Debian, you could also try Mepis. I understand it's pretty new user friendly. Share this post Link to post
Dapper Dan 0 Posted March 3, 2004 SoulNothing, I just downloaded a new Knoppix based live CD called "Kanotix" and I'm typing from it now. The iso file is 698 MB. This distro impresses me greatly upon first look. Like Knoppix, it automatically mounts your hd partitions making it an easy rescue tool for an installed distro, and it comes with a stack of very usable programs and apps. Plus it's Debian! It comes standard with k3b, Krusader, FireFox, Gaim, Partition Image, QTParted, OO 1.1.0, alsaplayer, Audacity, XMMS, alsaconf, Three, (countem') THREE Dos emulators, and many, many others too numerous to list here. If you can, it may be worth checking out, and a good way to get Debian on your box! Share this post Link to post
SoulNothing 0 Posted March 3, 2004 1st sorry for the response delay i been having personal blocks anywho booting from dvd tried from cd still no response knoppix 3.3 or the latest version and i cant get internet access unless a friend gets it for me so ill check it out as soon as possible but ill try that on knoppix but for debian is there a gui or is it pure text base? i mean i already got debian and if the version you recommend is like debian then why not stick with debian Share this post Link to post
matttah 0 Posted March 3, 2004 did not really have time to read the entire post, but I know if you have a pre2k gateway, they use to do a lot of "specialized" hardware(aka they modified regular hardware to make it have the gateway name) and that caused several upgrades to be difficult, it is kinda like how micron did it. Daum Share this post Link to post
Dapper Dan 0 Posted March 3, 2004 Quote: but for debian is there a gui or is it pure text base? i mean i already got debian and if the version you recommend is like debian then why not stick with debian If you can install Debian, then keep it. I tried 5 times to install Debian and never could get it right. These Live cds based on Knoppix is a great way to get Debian installed on your system without all the problems associated with a text install. Share this post Link to post
danleff 0 Posted March 3, 2004 Leave it to Dapper Dan to find all the good ones! I'll have to give this a look see. And once again, he is right. The Knoppix and related distros are an easier way to get Debian on your system. I've done a few Debian installs and you need to tweak it quite a bit for some systems. It's more of a intermediate users distro, but when you get it right... But Debian is an older distro and has not had the base kernel updates, like Knoppix and other live cd's, which are a newer invention for most distros. Trust us on this one, you need a very recent distro to work on your system, since it has newer hardware. Less headaches. Remember, new hardware - new distro... More of a chance that the base kernel will recognize your hardware, especially the nForce chipset stuff. Share this post Link to post
Mel 0 Posted March 4, 2004 OK, I can't give you the technical advice the senior members can. However , my "toy' room has 4 running computers of various ages and archetectures . For the last 6 or 8 weeks ,Ive been DLing experimenting with different distros . If you have a fairly recent HP, I suggest trying ARKlinux. Most other distros run fine on my other machines but have problems with with the late model HP. Mepis is also a good choice if you are not running a HP. Both Mepis and Ark have a GUI desktop familiar to win users. Mepis is run directly from CD without affecting HD but has a desktop icon to install to hard drive. Ark is designed for windows refugees. You can also do a complete upgrade using synaptic. The desktop and control panel (Mission Control) are very similar to XP. Both distros and many others can be DLed from ibiblio.org. Mepis has 3 cd but only disc 1 is needed . Ark has 4 cd but only disc 1 is needed. I suggest these two from my nubee perspective because they are easiest to install and if you have used a M$ OS the desktop and menus will be familiar. Share this post Link to post
SoulNothing 0 Posted March 4, 2004 i got debian on my laptop and am trying to figure out whether or not it has a gui ill look into the newer distros the hp i have is a220n so its rather new 2003 modelf i beleive so ill try to get ark i just switched back to xp on my hp to get more distros but on my laptop i have debian Share this post Link to post
Maillion 0 Posted March 5, 2004 Quote: i got debian on my laptop and am trying to figure out whether or not it has a gui ill look into the newer distros the hp i have is a220n so its rather new 2003 modelf i beleive so ill try to get ark i just switched back to xp on my hp to get more distros but on my laptop i have debian Debian has the same GUI as most distributions. I have Debian, running KDE. I have run Gnome, IceWM, and FluxBox on the same machine, with the same distribution. 8) Share this post Link to post
SoulNothing 0 Posted March 5, 2004 so does that mean i have to get a kde file to go along with it or something. and ark came out to be 710 mb a bit big for a cd what do i do Share this post Link to post
Maillion 0 Posted March 5, 2004 Quote: so does that mean i have to get a kde file to go along with it or something. and ark came out to be 710 mb a bit big for a cd what do i do No, whichever you method you use to install Debian, most of the GUI and display manager software is/or can be installed immediately. The easiest and most stable Debian install is through the internet, and you can choose which packages to install at the time you install. Take care to watch closely when you click on things during the install. If the 710 mb is the size of the .iso file, then it will be fine for the CD. The .iso file is an image of the final CD, and may be larger than the CDs nominal size. (At one time, my CD burning software told me that the "size on disc" was 734 megabytes. Just be sure to burn 'as an image' or burn 'from an image' however your software calls it. 8) Share this post Link to post
SoulNothing 0 Posted March 5, 2004 totally lost on debian but i think i understand on the cd thanks Share this post Link to post
Maillion 0 Posted March 5, 2004 Quote: totally lost on debian but i think i understand on the cd thanks Sorry, what part are you lost on? ;( Share this post Link to post
SoulNothing 0 Posted March 6, 2004 the whole gui i know kde and the other forms but on my laptop which is older it boots straight to a text based hase may just be me Share this post Link to post
Maillion 0 Posted March 6, 2004 Quote: the whole gui i know kde and the other forms but on my laptop which is older it boots straight to a text based hase may just be me Try typing "startx" (without the quotes) and post any results you get. 8) Share this post Link to post
SoulNothing 0 Posted March 6, 2004 tryed comes up with something to the effect of non exsistent command i tried GUI Xstart Startx start kde i know some of these arent codes but i was just trying them at random Share this post Link to post
Maillion 0 Posted March 7, 2004 Quote: tryed comes up with something to the effect of non exsistent command i tried GUI Xstart Startx start kde i know some of these arent codes but i was just trying them at random It sounds like X Windows is not installed, but keep in mind that Linux is case sensitive, and that means that "Startx" is not the same" as "startx". If you haven't tried with all lowercase letters, then try it and post the results. If you have, to no effect, post that, too. 8) Share this post Link to post