[ltp] Newbie Mandrake 9.1 - T23

[Marius Gedminas]

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On Sun, Mar 30, 2003 at 02:03:02PM +0200, Sylvestre Meininger wrote:
> Being REALLY tired of W2K, I've downloaded Mandrake 9.1.
> This is my very first foray into the Linux universe and I'm stuck...

BTW if you just want to try out Linux and see how it feels, I recommend
Knoppix.  It runs from a CD, autodetects all hardware, starts X with KDE
3, lets you access all the partitions on your hard disk.  Works just
fine on my T23.  I've used it a couple of times as a rescue disk.

I've heard Knoppix includes an utility to copy it to the hard disk, so
you can use it as an installer for Debian, but I've never actually tried
that.

> I'm sure I'm missing something here :
>=20
> The auto-configuration tool that Mandrake 9.1 uses on install fails to
> recognize the S3 SuperSavage IXC16 AGPx4 graphic chipset (my TP is a T-23,
> 2647-BJG, PIII-866, 1024x768). The tool defaults to "Savage4" but neither
> the test not X Windows work (X Windows starts but is unusable).
> I've tried several other S3 drivers but none got past the test (all same
> result : black screen with only the mouse cursor visible and working).

I have the same variant of T-23 here.  XFree86 (version 4.2.1) works
just fine with the "savage" driver.

BTW I use Debian.  X in Debian stable did not work, so I upgraded to the
version from testing.  Unfortunately Debian isn't exactly know for good
hardware autodetection during instalation, so I had to configure
everything by hand.

> I guess I need to download a graphic chipset driver, right ?

I think 'upgrade X' is the right answer.  But isn't Mandrake 9.1 the
latest release?  In that case it ought to have the latest X already...
Perhaps someone uses Mandrake on a T23?

> This brings up several questions :
> Where do I find it ?
> How do I install it ? Linux boots fine, but I can't "do" anything since X
> Windows is all garbled up and unusable.

Can you switch to a text console with Ctrl+Alt+F1?  If not, then hold
down Ctrl before Linux starts booting and you should get a boot prompt.
Then type 'linux 3' and you'll get a text console instead of X.

It's been some time since I last used Mandrake.  I seem to remember that
you could press 'I' while Linux was booting to get into interactive
mode.  Then you can just say No and avoid X.

> Can I install this driver from a W2K boot ? I guess not.

No.

> Can I install this driver from the Mandrake install utility ? I guess not.

You could use it as a rescue disk, but it's not necessary here.

> But there MUST be some way to install it. Should I boot into Linux but
> without X Windows (ie : command line. But how do I do that ?).

See above.

> And if I manage to do that, how do I take the driver from my Windows
> partition and put it in my Linux partition ?

What sort of Windows partition do you have -- FAT or NTFS?  You can
mount it this way:

  mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt

(or -t ntfs), then you can access all the files in /mnt, and after
you're done, unmount with

  umount /mnt.

> (my DSL modem only works in
> Windows and the winmodem isn't supported).

Ouch.  A Linux box without Internet.  Ouch.

I've heard that you can find drivers for the winmodem.  Try
www.linmodem.org.  Or was it linmodems.org?  I don't remember, I'm just
glad that I do not have to deal with modems any more.

Do you have another PC running Windows?  Linux machines can make use of
Internet Connection Sharing, that way you could use your DSL.

> And where do I put the driver files to make them work ?

It depends.  If you need to upgrade X, just download the appropriate rpm
files and install them with rpm -uhv *.rpm.

But I guess an easier way would be to get a distribution that works out
of the box.

> See ? I need help.

Good luck,
Marius Gedminas
--=20
Linux don't need no steenkin' viruses. The users can destroy the
system all by themselves....
		-- Peter Dalgaard in comp.os.linux.misc

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