I have just installed Mandriva 2006, but when I boot up it will not work with my old Creative Labs CT6970 GeForce 32 MB DDR 4X AGP video card. The card works perfectly with Windows XP and Win2K. All I get on the Linux boot is 2 broad horizontal bands of multi-colored nothing. Any suggestions? As I am a Linux newbie to the extreme, any assistance will help. One other item - if your suggestion is to write something to the kernal, please tell me how to do it, because I have no clue.

Thanks,

Tennessee Flytier

Go to NVidia website and download drivers for your card. If it's old check it is supported with the latest drivers.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html

Install instructions are on this site.

Thanks for the help, liaty. But, after reading the installation instruction at the Nvidia site, I realize this is an impossibly difficult task for someone of my near-zero Linux experience.

Regards,

Flytier

Flytier -- I don't know if you are still following this post, but if so, I'll give you my advice. Linux is great to use, and even easy, once it's installed and properly configured. But if any problem comes up during installation, as it did for you, it's a real challenge for someone new to linux to jump in and fix it. The problem you're having is actually easy to fix, if one of us were sitting at your computer, but to give step by step instructions via this forum would be pretty daunting, and likely couldn't include the exact steps to follow based on your system.

My advice is that you put the Mandriva install on hold for now, and try a Live distribution of linux, like Puppy Linux or Knoppix, or any of the many others. These are programs you can burn onto Cds via Window$ and then use to boot your computer temporarily into a linux system. Another distro (besides Mandriva) might handle your video card easily without any modification. If the Live version works well with your hardware, you can then install it on your hard drive.

The steps you saw on the nvidia site sound overwhelming to you because they assume you know at least some Unix. If you want to enter the linux world, and hopefully you still do, then I would advise you get a very basic book on Unix. After an hour or less of reading, you'll understand most everything involved in tinkering with a linux system.

Good luck.

I'm pretty sure the commercial version of Mandriva includes nVidia's driver. It's also less than half the price of XP, by the way.

For ease of use give ubuntu a try. It's a live distro at first so you can make sure that it is compatible with your system. And on the home screen there is an installer icon. Ubuntu, once installed also has an app "easy ubuntu" which installs the non-free apps for you. Java, flash etc. Not sure if Nvidia drivers are included in this but you could check out their website and find out.
Also as mensioned above there are many advantages of a paid for version. As well as getting the drivers you need, you also are paying for help and support.

liaty -

Thanks for the Ubuntu advice. I downloaded and installed the free version of Ubuntu and it works perfectly with my graphics card. So did Knoppix. I wonder why Mandriva 2006 wouldn't?

Another problem though. Maybe someone can help. I installed Ubuntu on a 20GB partion of a 80GB HDD. The other 60GB contains Windows XP in ntfs format, which is listed as hda1 in Ubuntu. I can't get Ubuntu to mount my Windows partition or read my Windows files. When I double-click on the hda1 icon in File Browser, I get the following message: Unable to mout the selected volume. Upon clicking the Show More Details button, it gives me 2 lines as follows - error: device /dev/hda1 is not removable. and error: could not execut pmount. Ubuntu would also not read my other, separate, 20GB HDD. Any ideas?

Thanks again,

Flytier

One other interesting thing. Knoppix had no trouble reading the files in my Windows partition and read files from my other 20GB ntfs HDD.

The latest knoppix comes with a new app for reading and writing to ntfs. I'm not sure what this app is but until recently writing anything through linux to ntfs was experemental. See:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=254792