Mandrake 8.1, Hardware Configuration

[Connie]

Getting ready to install this and I think (even though I'm really a newbie, newbie with Linux, not Windows installs) I should choose the expert Install instead of the recommended. Here's why...I'm reasonably sure from reading posts here that my sound card might be a trip (Aureal Vortex SQ) and my printer is an Epson 875DC. The Epson 875DC is 6 color ink, USB and I have read some blurbs at Linux-usb.org concering the 875 and 870 Photo printers. Anyone here ever put an Epson USB printer in? If so anything I should be ready for?
The Aureal Vortex sound card, is a PITA under WIN98 so I'm not really expecting a fun trip in Linux for it straight off and far as I can tell under WINXP, don't even go there. LOL (Have XP Build 2600 trial running on my husbands machine, dual boot with 98SE)
How well is the V3 2000 PCI going to run in Linux? That's the video card on this machine.
This is my first attempt at running Linux so bear with me...I like to ask questions so I'm ready for potential problems before I install. ;)
This machine will have to be a dual boot for the same reasons the other accountant stated in another thread. Got to get some financial software running somewhere along with Tax Preparation software and at present looks like this is a job for winders.Unless I can run it with WINE.
Another couple of questions so I have everything ready when I install. Favorites...transferable from windows or not?
Here's the machine so if you see anything that might give me aheadache you can bring it to my attantion. Forwarned is forarmed.

Duron 600@700MZ
Epox 8KTA+ Mainboard
KDS VS 190 Monitor
Aureal Vortex2 SQ Sound Card
512 Meg PC133 Ram
Floppy Drive
Internal Iomega Zip 100
Toshiba 48X CD-ROM
Plextor 8432 IDE Burner
Maxtor 30 gig HDD
Zoom External 2949L Modem on Com 1
Acer Scanner (Might be a problem child)
Logitech Mouseman 4 button mouse
Logitech I Feel Wheel mouse USB
Logitech Internet Keyboard (However the internet features don't work in windows so why should they work in Linux)

Also do I need to run any antivirus in Linux or is this OS "home free".....would be nice. :D

If it helps I build computers as my hobby...
Thanks for your input.

Now to clean up my "D","E" and "F" partitions....Linux has to have a home on this thing somewhere.

[Roy Smith]

i use a zoom 2948L external modem on com1 with no problems, but for some reason harddrake locks up when trying to detect it - so i just turn it off before running harddrake. since yours is a 2949L AND you're installing mdk 8.1 (i've got 8.0), you may not have this "problem", but as i said i can use the modem just fine.
the video card shouldn't be a problem. www.mandrakeuser.org (http://www.mandrakeuser.org) might be useful wrt the scanner - there should be a link there to a database of compatible scanners and drivers.
the burner may or may not be a problem, perhaps somebody else will respond.
even if the monitor isn't obviously supported, you can make it so if you know the specs, such as max/min res., refresh rates, etc.
best bet is to perform the installation (i like expert mode, as well) and see what shakes out. any problems that arise can then be addressed and - with maybe a tad o' luck - fixed.
enjoy! :)

[Connie]

Roy, thanks for the input.
The 2949L is a Dual Mode and I think I saw where there was another driver to DL for the voice capabilities.(But I never use them) I knew the 2948 was supposed to be compatible, but I'll remember to have it off when I configure it. :)Windows drivers are the same for the two modems so maybe linux drivers will be too.
Will check out the link on the Scanners, looking for my manuel on it....
Believe Mandrake's site under hardware shows the 8432IDE Plextor as compatible.
I have the spec's on the monitor, so if it doesn't ID it, then I can set it up. It's a multi scan monitor and I saw those listed in the demo at Mandrake.
Yup I think Expert Install is the way to go...I don't let M$ choose for me so I figure I'm not going to let Linux either, even if I don't know diddly about it. Can't be that much different than anything else in the set up. After that it's another horse, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. :D Hey at least you can look under the hood with linux.
Still plowing through my HDD, one should clean these up more often.Geeze so much junk.
Should be able to format D & F drive when I finish.

[Roy Smith]

actually, there's a nifty lil program called diskdrake that runs during installation. it'll show you (graphically and with text) what partitions you have. you can delete, resize, select mount points, filesystem type, etc. no need to pre-format any partitions, just make sure the partitions you want to use for linux installation don't have anything left on them that you want to keep.
i mighta mentioned this earlier, but i simply didn't think of it. after awhile, ya take some things for granted, ya know?
as for the modem, i don't think it'll cause any problem during installation and most likely you'll not have to do any configuration for it - it's afterward, when you try to run harddrake, that it *may* cause a problem, but then that whole thing may be my personal problem and not that of anybody else.

[Connie]

Roy, I knew Drakedisk could do the formatting of the partitions. From what I've seen on the Mandrake site about it it seems to be very close to partition magic in it's mode of operation.
Hopefully I'll get Mandrake in sometime today. I have backups of most everything I want to save on my drives. Just cross checking to make sure I didn't forget anything on the two partitions I will wipe.
It's like cleaning out a closet....you know you need to and there's all this stuff so you just put it off. LOL
Did go to the link on the scanner, ended up at linhardware.com and I think maybe it will work. Now the soundcard...got to go to SourceForge I think and follow the yellow brick road to get it in. All thses bookmarks/favorites...hope I can burn them to a CD and transfer them into linux. Otherwise this might take awhile. You have no idea what my bookmarks look like. :D

[Molecule Man]

Quicken99 does run in Wine, I even installed it under Linux only, for a demo of Wine for my LUG. Possibly later versions will work as well. GNUCash that is a part of Linux-Mandrake is pretty solid though it may be missing some features you need. The other main option is Kapital from www.thekompany.com (http://www.thekompany.com)

A tip that might help you, if you need to manually setup the modem, Com1 is /dev/ttyS0.

[kapwfm]

www.codeweavers.com (http://www.codeweavers.com)
This will get you a very easy-to-use WINE program for Mandrake or any other distro that can handle .rpm packages. I've been able to run Quicken 97 (yes that's Quicken 97) on it and it works just fine for me...along with some of my other Windows programs. It's fairly slow, but it gets the job done and setup is a breeze.

[Connie]

Hmmm I have Quicken 98 :) Have to try it.
I have the HDD backed up, partitions cleaned out finally so after I fix supper I suppose I will give this a shot.
I have read til I'm blue in the face on that Aureal Vortex sound card including the other thread here about it. I imagine that will give me another migraine. (It gave me a migraine in WIN98 with it's lock ups and I finally think I got that 99% fixed with the 2041 certified drivers and changing slots and IRQ's and REM before the DOS loaders.)I think I was at the linhardware site checking some posts on the BBS there about it. There is a line they said to put in as root
/etc/rc.d.rc.local
setpci -d 12eb:0002 40.B=ff
Like I'm going to figure out where that goes on the first boot up..haha
And I'm not sure that is a Mandrake set up, but it seems to have fixed a problem with the VIA chipset. This was a fix for WIN2000 which they then implemented into Linux and they said it was working. Might be the same problem in WIN98 with this soundcard and the VIA chipset. I would use my onboard sound (AC97) but as far as I know it was the cause of WPF's and a stack overflow problem since the problem disappeared when I disabled the onboard sound in BIOS. Wasn't a ram problem because changing ram didn't solve it.
Heading off to check out the link for the DL of WINE..... :)
Thanks fellas

[ 06 October 2001: Message edited by: Connie ]

[Connie]

Ok have it installed, but coming to you online from good old WIN98. First Drake Disk could not partition the "D" drive, so I had to come out and use Partition Magic to set up. Dunno why it couldn't get it but kept getting a partition failure.

For some reason it has (2)8432T Plextor drives listed and (1) for the Toshiba CD-ROM?
Uh I have 1 plextor and 1 Toshiba.
Far as I know the modem is set up ok, but I can't dial out. It detects it, my lights come on but it won't dial and it's on Com 1.
Have to recheck everything, but it should dial out. So far can't see anything amiss, yet.I don't have it set to start the connection on boot tho.
So how does one get little icons on the desktop for the CD-ROM's? Have one for the floppy, zip and printer and BTW the printer works.Don't know about the scanner yet. Have some ??? In the control center but they are things like the VIA Bridge, but then it lists the bridge, etc. Everything with the??? are VIA related.But then the right entries seem to be there. Something to sort out I guess when I figure out how to get there.
Of course the sound card is another horse.
Not worried about it for awhile, run with the sound turned off most of the time anyway.
Got to get the drivers for it and then, mess with that. Not tonight tho, more interested in getting this modem running.Any bright ideas out there? Went to linux newbie and checked the NHF on modems, still can't see anything that stands out.

[Molecule Man]

Have you tried setting the modem in kppp yet? In the configuration there is a query modem. It works very similiar to the modem diagnostics in Windows. (you know in the modem control panel). If that all works then just use kppp to dial out. Otherwise you know where to go for further assistance.

[Connie]

kppp did it. Coming to you this time online with Konqueror, Mandrake 8.1 WaHoo! Now all that's left is the miserable sound card and this puppy is set up. :) Hmmmm wonder how I disconnect? :rolleyes:

[kapwfm]

Setting up the icons for the CD drives are really easy on the KDE 2.2 desktop. I assume that's what you're using.

Right-click anywhere on the desktop. A context menu will pop up. Select "Create New" (it's at the top of the context menu...or at least it should be). Then, select CD-ROM device, Floppy Device or Hard Disc. A window opens up with three tabs...General, Permissions, and Device. In the general tab, you can select the icon for the device (just click on the icon and then you can choose whichever icon you want) and you can also name the device whatever you want. I don't think you really have to worry about messing around with the permissions tab, but if you want to snoop around, it wouldn't hurt. :) Then we move to the device tab. In the device list, select the device. For instance, if you were creating an icon for the CD-ROM, you would select (/mnt/cdrom). Your CD-Burner will be (/mnt/cdrom2). This is largely dependent upon if your CD-ROM is your master on that IDE channel or if your Burner is the master on that IDE channel. You don't have to worry about filling in the mount point...that takes care of itself. You can--if you choose to--select the unmount icon for the device. Then just click OK and you should be able to access your device.

However, ther is one problem in Mandrake 8.1...Supermount has been disabled. So, in order to access your CD-ROM, you need to mount it. If you single click on it, it should automatically mount for you. However, if you want to eject the disc, you need to right-click on the CD-ROM and select "unmount" or "eject." If you don't do this, you'll notice that you won't be able to use the "open/close/eject" button on your CD-ROM or your Burner. Floppies are the same way, only you have to select unmount before removing it...or else when you try to access a new floppy, it'll only show what files were on the floppy that was originally mounted. Hope that's not confusing.

As far as disconnecting your modem from the net...I'm not sure how KPPP is set up in Mandrake 8.1...as I have a cable connection. However, if the KPPP dialer is docked on your kicker next to the clock (a rectangle with two little lights that alternate between red and green to tell you that your connection is active), single click on that...a box should pop up with a button that says "disconnect." That should send a termination signal to your modem. If the KPPP dialer is minimized and in the taskbar...kind of like a task button on Windows 98...click on it once to restore it and click "Disconnect."

As for your soundcard...all I can say is you have more patience in the matter than I would. By now I would have just purchased another sound card. Especially if I had troubles with it in Windows. :) Good luck with it! :)

Hope I've been of some help and didn't confuse you. :)

[Connie]

Kapwfm, no confusion. ROFL I right clicked on everything else but the desktop.AH hah! There it is.I had found all the drives and
found I could click on them and find the CD-ROM etc that way, but no icons. But that right click on the desktop, yup I can get an icon.
Is there a way to set how often you check for mail? I run mine to check every 5 minutes in windows to keep the dial up active. Have to sort back through that and see if I missed a tab anywhere.
Did have a problem shutting down last night,
I was going to reboot and run windows so I could activate RC5 until I get a linux client and it locked in shutdown. But it booted up ok this am into linux.It was busy tho fixing this and that.When I installed it Mandrake Installer for some reason didn't give me the option to make a boot disk.
Did find out how to disconnect, but there are no little flashing lights near the clock, just the connection window on the tray.
My Granddaughter has my AWE64 sound card and if this Aureal is too much of a hassle she's getting a new component. :D Actually I'm a little part shy since I built 3 computers for the grandkids.My 4 year old granddaughter has my test machine(K62-400) and her older sister (14) has a K62-500 machine I built for her.The Grandsons in Missouri have another K62-500 machine I built for them. My parts supply is nil.
Thanks for the help on the icons....my burner is secondary master and the CD Rom is slave.

[bdg1983]

If you are using Kmail...

Settings - Configure Kmail - Network - Under Incoming Mail (if you have accounts) select Modify and then check Enable Interval Mail Checking, set the time and there you go. Mine is set for 60 minutes for all my accounts.

[Connie]

Ok, found it in KMail. Thanks a bunch. Sooner or later I'll find eveything. ;)
So far have found quite alot. May configure KICQ and see how that goes. ICQ crashes winders, maybe it'll run in Linux. Would be nice.
Just one more dumb question, what does XKill do? And what's the purpose of locking or locking the desktop? Locking saves the settings?????
Going to have to go around to all the BBS's I'm on and fix the passwords to one common one. I can't remember that many. :rolleyes:

[bdg1983]

You might as well get used to reading the enormous amount of manual pages.

man xkill

Locking the desktop will disable the keyboard and mouse until you enter the password. Keep unknowing hands off your pc. ;) Kinda like a password protected screensaver.

By the way, that was 2 questions. :rolleyes:

[ 07 October 2001: Message edited by: mdwatts the 3rd ]

[Connie]

Yeah I know those man pages are there.So I suppose I really should read them. (hey I'm old and senile, humor me) :p Probably the oldest person on this BBS or if not close to it.
Like the lock desktop feature. Keep the husband off my space. What a novel idea. :D
Seriously though this would be an excellant feature with small children in the house.
Now to go reread that other thread about the "infamous" Aureal Vortex 2 soundcard.Got the drivers cornered at Source Forge.

[bdg1983]

Originally I did say 'husband' but decided to change to generic so not to insult you or your husband.

I had never heard of xkill until you posted the question, so all I know is what's in the man page.

I don't know about you being the oldest here at LNO. Some of us, including myself, are also getting up there.

[Connie]

ROFL, well I'm 58 headed for 59. Usually on the hardware BBS's that puts me older than most others on there.
I have been digging around looking for the handy how to stuff those aureal drivers in mandrake without the hassle the other people have had. Maybe this is nice excuse for me to get a SB Live? They seem to flop right in according to the posts I've seen.
Think I'll mosey over to the NHF's and see if there is an instruction sheet on this for Mandrake.
I asked about XKill because there is this big red icon on the top of the screen for it. Now the word kill makes me a little edgy so I asked. :) I wanted to know "Kill what" :rolleyes:

[bdg1983]

58!!!!! Wow you are old. Does the nursing home allow you to bring in your own pc? ;) ;) ;)

You've got a decade on me. We have members in the 60's and 70's though they tend to nod off halfway through their replies. :D

Enough of that...

The Aureal may be supported. Have you checked their site for any Linux drivers? Google ( www.google.com/linux (http://www.google.com/linux) ) is a good place to search.

Though is your looking for a excuse to get the SB Live, then I guess nows a good time.

[Connie]

Well at least you didn't say "You mean they have computers in Kentucky?". Sorry not ready for a nursing home yet.LOL
I looked in the "man" files. Agggh...read XKill and now that I've read it, still not sure what exactly it does. Kills something that's not working right I assume. Does it send it to /dev/null? Oops gone forever.
Ah at least there are people older than me on this board. That's good. Don't feel like I have to break out a cane.
Think I got all those dev files in that I needed to at least get the OS to maybe not say, uh ...no such command. Now to figure out just where one puts a download when it comes in...make a folder (Directory) somewhere I guess. At least that's what I do in winders. Probably not what you do in Linux. :)

[Molecule Man]

To use the linux term, it kill -9 [offending window] or to use a Windows term, it "end tasks" the window. Basically it allows you to quickly shutdown a program that has crashed.

The aureal card is not hard once you have learned how to untar a file (tar zxvf file.tar.gz) and have the proper stuff installed (make and kernel source.) Most difficult thing will be finding the exact aurel chipset you have.

[Molecule Man]

Oh, and normal linux users might save it to their home directory, ~/ or /home/molecule; but I save it to /tmp or /var/tmp. Any of those will work, or if you have write access to your fat32 partion(s) you can save it there. It doesn't really matter as long as you can find it again.

[cyberclaus]

There is support for the aureal chipset. go to www.vortexofsound.com (http://www.vortexofsound.com) then go to downloads and drivers and select your card/chipset and linux os. This will point you quickly to the sourceforge site where the drivers and support are found.
I had the card working under RH7.1 months ago and now that I am running ML8.1 I never got it to work. Yes I have been converted to the SB Live family and it had no problems at all. I hope you luck is better than mine.
Also I had the same problems with Aureal and Win98(my first partition) but it had native support under WinXP(my second partition) no luck under ML 8.1 on the third partition. I believe you would also have problems with the Voodoo card under XP as I don't believe they are supporting them from a article I read, but there are some hacked drivers for the Voodoo and XP out there somewhere. Good Luck !!!!!!

[Connie]

Hmmm temp is good. I was poking around here and there and did notice I could see my Windows partitions. I assume this means I can transfer a few minor things from there to here? (tell me yes, then tell me I can import my bookmarks/favorites folders..can I copy and paste them to my user bookmark file?) I could do this in XP from WIn98Se.....but wasn't sure about Linux. Knew Linux could see all the HDD tho. Same for pictures I have stored on the winders drives? Couldn't see why they wouldn't work since the Favorites are url's and the pictures are a universal file extension.
I know my Aureal chipset, it's the 8830.
Yes figuring out how to untar the drivers will be the next thing to try. Then to locate the /dev/ xxx file for the aureal card. Mandrake has it ID'd but so far have not found a specific file that says /dev/au 8830 or au anything on it.
Ah "end Task" got it. That's usefull, use that almost daily in windows. :mad: Seems I get to use it more than I get to use anything else as it had become so flaky. Really was terrible when I was cleaning up the drives in Explorer. Get about half way through and Explorer would crash or lock.Sometimes end task worked, sometimes not, just a hard lock and a reboot to get out of it. :(

[Connie]

Whoa Cyberclaus, back up. XP has support for the Aureal card? I have a SB Live on my husband's machine running XP. Hey the man is about to lose it.......I had been to NT Compatible and there they were saying the Vortex2 was not supported under XP. Also have a V3 3000 AGP with TV out on that machine.(2D is great, haven't run 3D yet) I have a link bookmarked for the drivers for the VooDoo's under XP. Just waiting for them to become available.Last time I checked earlier this week they had removed them until XP was officially released and after that they're supposed to be back up. :)

[MXR4LIFE]

I found you Connie! I D/L the Vortex driver.... er module from SourceForge

Then I opened it with WinZip 8.0 while in WinME, Yes it works.. sorta and will E-Mail the ReadMe to ya. Aint I sweet :D

Age 46
:rolleyes:

[ 07 October 2001: Message edited by: MXR4LIFE ]

[Connie]

MXR4LIFE, You are so sweet :rolleyes: CYM
Yes I'm here trying to figure this all out and the guys here have been alot of help. :)
Personally I hate this Vortex2SQ but don't tell Sledge.(I bought it from him). This card almost beat me on WIN98.

[bdg1983]

And I'm not sweet? Oh well...

This is mdwatts the 3rd. My account has been destroyed again after a total of 7,350 posts. Damn

Glad to see you are enjoying Linux so far. I'm still amazed by Linux and I've been using it for 2 years now.

I just create a download directory off root to put all my stuff. I create subdirectories under it to organize all my downloads

i.e.

cd /
mkdir downloads

and then I create directories under downloads such as kde-2.2.1, xine and also /downloads/installed where I put everything that has been installed until I get enough to fill a cd. Works for me.

On a good note, I got my Cirque Glidepoint touchpad to work along with my A4 Tech Trackball. Both now work in X. One ps/2 and one serial. Very nice now as I can just lay down on the sofa with the keyboard/touchpad on my lap. We need that for us older folks.