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Optiker
10-12-2004, 01:31 PM
Y'all...I'm a Linux greenhorn. I had Red Hat dual booted on my Win2000Pro machine at work for a few years, but didn't use it much because too much didn't work and I didn't know how to make it work. Then I had Mandrake 9 on my machine at home, and had similar problems, though I used it slightly more. Finally, I got new computers both places and decided to install Mandrake 10 at work and Libranet at home - both dual boot with WinXP.

At work, it was a breeze - and everything worked! Even sound, which I was never able to get either place with Red Hat or Mandrake, or even with Knoppix, my printers, and all drives automounting!

At home, Libranet was a little harder to install, and had the same old problems of not seeing my one most critical HD partition (my data partition), no sound, only one of two printers, and I gave up about then.

At home, I reinstalled Mandrake 10, and what a pleasure! It was simple, automatic, and everything worked!

Two exceptions...first, some programs don't work - neither Tux Racer nor Cannon Smash work. They seem to be trying to run, but after maybe 30 seconds or a minute of trying, just disappear before even a splash screen. Am working that problem.

Secondly, I'm having trouble installing RPMs - even those that are specific to Mandrake 10. Am also working that problem.

Otherwise, finally I have a Linux machine that I can actually do something with. I look forward to it learning how to use it, and hopefully, in time, it will be my default boot instead of WinXP.

If you're a newbie and considering Linux, I can recommend Mandrake 10 from my own experience! My only disappointment is that Mandrake 10 (the non-MandrakeClub DL version) has far fewer programs than the Mandrake 9 installation had - that's why I'm trying to learn how to install RPMs...to be able to install some of the ones I was finding useful in Mandrake 9.

deathadder
10-12-2004, 02:00 PM
Glad you got your install's working :)

Your problems with tuxracer etc are probably because of the drivers your graphics cards are using, if your using a nVidia card, head over to nvidia.com and download the Linux drivers, there really easy to install and should let you run tuxracer without anyproblems. If your running a ATI card, I belive there's a download page on their site, they do have offical linux drivers but I dont know where they are :)

What kind of problems with rpm's

Finally welcome to the linux community, and good luck with your installs. If you have any problems google.com/linux is your friend, so are these forums :D

deathadder
10-12-2004, 02:04 PM
Didn't see your other thread about the rpms :rolleyes:

Optiker
10-12-2004, 02:11 PM
deathadder...from your followon post, I assume you saw my other thread over in "Software." If not, please take a look rather than me repeating here.

Yes, nvidia 5200/128mb if I recall. New Dell in July, so fairly new card, but the Mandrake 10 installation seemed to recognize it. I will, however, get the driver as you suggest and try that.

I'm a freeware junkie, so I'm hoping that I can become proficient in installing in Linux. If not, maybe it would be good for me to have less "stuff" on my machine. :)

Thanks for the advice and for the welcome!

Optiker
10-12-2004, 02:25 PM
deathadder...on the nvidia driver, Linux IA64 or IA32? I'm running Mandrake 10.0 on a Pentium4. I DLed both, and quickly looked at the README files - not exactly a no brainer! Pretty intimidating, so you'll probably see me back here with questions.

Thanks!

deathadder
10-12-2004, 04:13 PM
Linux IA32, I belive the IA64 is for a 64bit processor.

If you need any help feel free to pm me.

Mandrake would have detected your card but used the default drivers for X.org or XFree, which ever it uses, these drivers dont allow 3D acceleration, which you need for Tuxracer and the like.

Optiker
10-13-2004, 10:03 AM
deathadder...OK - thanks on the IA32 question. I guess I'd have assumed the IA64 just because it is such a new computer, so it's good to have a knowledgeable reply rather than a guess.

Also, thanks for the explanation regarding the driver. As I mentioned in reply to your reply to my installation post on the "Software" forum, I didn't have time to do anything last night, so will try to get to it again tonight. I will also try to install the nvidia driver, but as I mentioned, unless you have some comments on installation, the invidia README instructions look very complicated for a greenhorn, so I'm not very confident!

Thanks!

Choozo
10-13-2004, 10:11 AM
The nVidia driver install is pretty straight-forward if you just follow the instructions to the letter.

Should be quite a few other searchable threads on the forums here which relates to nVidia driver installation.

Cheers :)