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- Linux - Hardware (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-hardware-18/)

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barabus

05-05-2005 10:04 AM

Newbie and Linux Virgin

Hello All,

Am finally on the verge of 'crossing over' to Linux (Suse 9.3 Professional) from the dreaded Microsoft XP (To get even worse it seems with the advent of Longhorn). I plan to run a dual boot for the time being and as I don't know a word of Linux terminology I guess I'm going to be in for a heck of a rough ride.

I am running on a Dell Inspiron 8600 and already at boot up it seems I am without either touch pad or mouse.......... how can I fix this? Where can I get compatible linux drivers to match my sound and video hardware? Does the GeForge FXGo 5600 graphics card perform as it should under linux or do I need to get special drivers? What about drivers for my sound card, display etc? and most important will it be easy to install my cable modem (A Scientific Atlanta Webstar 2100).

Maybe I'm putting the cart before the horse but as with most os's the native drivers run the bare basics........ and seemingly in my case not even the mouse.

Any pointers you can give for now would be great and very much appreciated - I'll drop by periodically in the next few days before i attempt an installation proper to read your advise and maybe with a few more Questions if that's all right by you guys

Thanks in Advance

-Blackbeard

Cron	05-05-2005 10:19 AM

Hi,
I think it should run fine... For touchpad you may have to do some work on xorg.conf, but it's not hard.
If you'll want hardware acceleration in your GeForce you'll need proprieatary NVIDIA drivers from here or your distro's package manager, else you can use built-in nv driver and you'll get all features, just without acceleration.

EDIT:
Just did a search in HCL for you :) looks like it will be fine :) look here.

PS.:
I would suggest to not leave distribution field in your profile blank, unles you haven't decided yet. see here for more details.

barabus

05-05-2005 02:09 PM

Thanks Cron

Thanks for this info....it's a starting point!

Am d/l ing the graphics card drivers........................ any thoughts on the Cable Modem Issue? Bear in mind the whole Interface and unix/linux language are totally new to me. I take it xorg.conf is something similar to Yast and is a configuration tool!

I guess first things first - when I get the OS installed I will try setting up the Network and modem during installation - Hope it'll go to plan. I do see from browsing the web that quite a few folk have had trouble trying to configure various cable modems under linux. Hope I won't be adding to the swelling numbers!

Thanksa gain for the tips buddy! I'll check back periodically in the coming days!:)

-Blackbeard

barabus

05-06-2005 08:23 PM

Now Have the OS (SUSE9.3 installed) but as I suspected neither the Alps touchpad/ the MS Optical Mouse (USB) nor the Cable Modem installed native drivers and therefore don't work. I have a desktop I cannot Navigate and therefore cannot fgure out where I need to go or what to do to try and get any of them working.

How do I access xorg.conf for instance and what need I do to at least get the mouse up and running?

Again I would be gtareful for any help you seasoned Veterans can give

- Barabus

Cron	05-07-2005 03:13 AM

For the Alps touchpad, looks like it'll need a kernel patch and recompile (VERY easy when you know how).
And for mouse: can you connect it to your PS/2 port via USB->PS/2 adapter (if there is any PS/2 ports on that Inspiron) and see if it works, else you will need to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg.conf is a text file, not a tool :)) and enter device name for your mouse there (maybe protocol also). I think device name sdhould be something like /dev/usb/mice and protcol IMPS/2. I am using Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical connected via adapter with these settings:

Code:

    Option "Protocol"    "IMPS/2"

    Option "Device"      "/dev/psaux"

    Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

ZAxsisMapping is for wheel to work.
If that does not work, can you post output of 'ls /dev/usb' and 'ls /dev' (without quotes)? enter commands like this: in kde press Alt+F2, type xterm and enter commands in pup-up window (in case you didn't know).

Hope this helps.

barabus

05-07-2005 10:56 PM

Thanks agan Cron!!

Thanks I figured out where SaX2 and Yast Tools were eventually and amazingly mouse configuration (Both the Alps and Inteelimouse were working fine). The ScientificAtlana WebStar Cable modem hooked up effortlessly. However I have something akin to a 'freaking' nightmare on my hands in terms of the Monitor and Graphic Card. I have a GeForce FXGo 5600 and downloaded thye drivers etc. - everything was like a dream until that is I rebooted the System.

Not knowing a word of Linux Lingo I was met with a console screen and it seems my monitor config must be wrong. Using Dos Prompt type commands I was able to browse to /KDE3/YaSTadminSession but alas was unable to find any where to enter monitor values in there. (Graphic Card probing only!).

Can you maybe give me a path to the SaX2 utility from where I might be able to reconfigure the $DISPLAY values?

That all said I have no idea what Model to choose - from what I can see in windows I have a Hitachi 15.4" monitor - Have tried using this as defaul along with the Dell 1600 Laptop and the Latitude 600 settings (individually of course!) all brought similar results. It seems I need to set the screen Value in Millimeters. Frankly I have no idea what these settings mght be and the only other info I can add is that the montor is the XVGA (widescreen type).

The Inspiron hooked up surprisingly better that I would have expected with much of the Hardware and peripherals but this Display problem is causing a real headache and I would like to live in the GUI environment as opposed to the shell environment as I don't have any idea where things are in the latter let alone the ajority of the commands

Hope you ore someone can put me straight - Thanks again

- Barabus

Cron	05-08-2005 03:03 AM

Did you read the NVIDIA drivers readme?

Did you read the NVIDIA drivers readme? If you are getting this, then probably no. :) The problem is that after installing the nvidia driver you have to say for windowing system to use it :). It is just a simple matter of changing a line in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. You should specify nvidia driver there (wich you've recently installed) instead of open-source nv (wich was there before). Just go to command line and type:

Code:

su

enter root's password, then type:

Code:

vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf

hit key 'A', scroll down to line saying:

Code:

Driver "nv"

and change it to:

Code:

Driver "nvidia"

hit "Escape" and then type :wq (this will Write to file and Exit editor).
It should work by now, just type reboot in console and behold the power. :)

EDIT:
Just did some googling. Try entering this command (after typing su and your root's password):

Code:

switch2nvidia

and rebooting, and if that does not work, then try the first described method.

Hope this was what you was looking for (my english is far from perfect)!

rjlee

05-08-2005 08:26 AM

In SuSE 9.3 you can configure X almost entirely through YaST2 (or SaX2, which is the X module for YaST2).

xorg.conf is a configuration file; it lives in /etc/X11/. You will probably not want to look at this unless you need to, because as soon as you edit it any changes you make through YaST may be lost.

If you're having trouble setting up NVIDIA by downloading it, then you can also get it through the online update tool in YaST; select to show all available packages and then look near the bottom to find the driver.

barabus

05-09-2005 01:45 PM

Re: Did you read the NVIDIA drivers readme?

Quote:

...... then type:

Code:

vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf

hit key 'A', scroll down to line saying:

Code:

Driver "nv"

and change it to:

Code:

Driver "nvidia"

hit "Escape" and then type :wq (this will Write to file and Exit editor).
It should work by now, just type reboot in console and behold the power. :)

EDIT:
Just did some googling. Try entering this command (after typing su and your root's password):

Code:

switch2nvidia

and rebooting, and if that does not work, then try the first described method.

Hope this was what you was looking for (my english is far from perfect)!

Hi again!

Your english is pretty good actually.

I tried the first method and when the console brings up the xorg.conf file it is blank!!!!! added to that I'm not sure how to escape the editor. I tried escape and return and the system just beeps!

I'm going to try method 2 - it looks like it's worth a shot! Every time I get back to the loging Screen XConsole is advising as follows:

NVIDIA tainting the Kernel

Code:

NVRM: loading NVIDIA Linux x86 Kernel Module 1.0-7167

I've tried removing the card and reinstalling it using Yast via the root account in XConsole but It hasn't changed anything

- any thoughts on this?

I would like to know exactly how to configure my desktop (as it appears in Windows) on a Dell 15.4 XVGA Laptop with a screen res of 1600 x 1024. If I try to change settings in Yast I et weird readings such as lower resolutions for virtual res etc.......

Hope you can help

- Barabus

barabus

05-09-2005 02:26 PM

Nothing Doing

Tried method 2 and seemingly Xorg.conf has been updated with the new driver info - but like I mentioned all I get is a blank file.

However on reboot still have the same message as above - any idea how to clean this up?

thanks

- Barabus

Cron	05-10-2005 08:45 AM

xorg.conf

Hi,
Hmm... /etc/X11/xorg.conf should be there (not blank, if you get blank, then it is just a new file created by vi), unless suse still uses the old XFree86, in that case you should edit /etc/X11/XFree86-4.conf instead of xorg.conf (they are identical in structure). But when you type the path to file, be aware that /etc/Foo is not the same as /etc/foo and the same as /etc/fOO (Linux makes actual use of letter cases i.e it is case-sensitive.). Anyways, I found this on my off-line archive for emergency :D:

Quote:

It is recommended to use YOU (YaST Online Update) for (re)installation
of the nvidia driver. There are several reasons for this. First, it's
simple. Second, and this is the most important one, you won't need to
recompile the nvidia kernel module after a kernel update.

Inside YOU enable "Installable and Installed Patches" for "Show Patch
Category" and select "Download NVIDIA(r) Graphics Driver" from the
patches list (usually at the bottom of the list). Note, that you need
to mark it as "Update" (right mouse click) if you already installed it
before and the driver was uninstalled - for any reason. Proceed as
usual now. After YOU has finished restart your Xserver (i.e. logout
from your Xsession) and you're fine.

People who aren't afraid of recompiling the nvidia kernel module or
even reinstalling the nvidia driver each time the kernel has been
updated and want or need to use the latest and greatest nvidia driver
can use the following steps 1-3. The others should use the
instructions above using YOU and skip the steps below.

1) Kernel sources must be installed and configured. Usually this means
installing the 'kernel-source', 'make' and 'gcc' packages with YaST2.
Update it - if not already done - via YaST2 Online Update (YOU).

2) Use the nvidia installer for 1.0-7174.

modprobe agpgart
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7174-pkg1.run -q

3) Configure X.Org with

sax2 -m 0=nvidia (0 is a digit, not a letter!)

NOTE: There is no need to try to enable 3D support. It's already
enabled, when the nvidia driver is running.

Ok..
As for editor you could use nano or pico - they are much easier for a beginner, but vi/vim is much more easier for power user and is on all (well almost all) *nix systems. To exit editor you need to go to command mode, this is done by pressing escape. Then you can write a command. Basic commands are:
:e - edit file ('open' button);
:w - write to file that is being edited (asn in other words - the 'save' button');
:q - exit;
:q! - exit without saving (! is for logical inversion (true becomes false) or NO);
You can combine them like this:
:wq - this will write and exit to command line.
To go to the editing mode press Escape and button 'a' (you should see words '- INSERT -' at the bottom left).
As you can see it is pretty easy to understand those commands.

Remember, if you are lost - just reinstall everything from scratch. It will be much easier to configure it from scratch, than try to repair something, that you messed up just more :). For example, I reinstalled my ArchLinux six times, and now I am happy with it (and some people at that time even considered me 'a guru' which I am certainly not).

barabus

05-10-2005 03:03 PM

Hi Cron,

I reinstalled last night and went to the nvidia site before downloading the driver thru YaST. Printed off the info and am now at least getting better results -but not exactly what I'm looking for - a res of 1600 x 1050 without the NVidia taints the Kernel Message. I get this when starting a session but at least am now allowed to get into the GUI for KDE.

Please also refer to other thread:

Quote:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=320384

Of course I will take note of your latest reply as before........ as mentioned I continually get blank "new file" using the switch

vi /etc/x11/xorg.conf so guess the conf file must be elsewhere.

As mentioned I am trying to get a 1600 x 1050 res or better on an Inspiron8600 with a 15.4 xvga screen. Another thing that is kind of worrying now is that when trying to shut down or reboot the Icons in the lofg off menu have vanished and I need to quit through KEdit. I am only able to end session from the GUI Interface. Any Idea how to restore the Suspend/Shutdown/reboot options etc.

Thanks as always for the interest and the help!

- Barabus

ylts	05-11-2005 04:21 AM

xorg.conf file is in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. It's X11 not x11.

crashmeister

05-11-2005 08:31 AM

Forget the 'tainted kernel' message.
All it means is that a piece of non GPL (non open-source) code is in the kernel.
Thats unavoidable with the nvidia drivers.

barabus

05-11-2005 02:40 PM

I guess the x11 instead of X11 was a typo in my post - I just get the blank editor with that command!

I had the system running nicely yesterday for about 4 hours and was able to log in and out of sessions without any trouble at all! Everytjing seemed nice and confiured. However then the old probem raised its ugly head once more I cannot get past the login screen and into KDE. I've no idea what the problem is.

The following is a list of Xconsoles log each time but I've no idea how to correct these problems or even where to look

Code:

linux kernel: drivers/usb.media/ov511.c: ov518 config failed

linux kernel: drivers/usb.media/ov511.c: Camera initialisation failed

linux kernel: ov511.probe od 4-1.3.1.0 failed with error -5

linux kernel: ieee80211-crypt_ktip: unsupported module tainting kernel

linux kernel: ieee80211-crypt-comp: unsupported module taintink kernel

linux ifup: No configuration found on eth1

linux MDNSResponder: Duplicate registration of DNS Entries

The last line is seemingly unavoidable as the DHCP server automatically configures the DNS Settings through my ethernet uplink... and the values changeduring the day (They use more than one server!)

Any suggestions how I might get back into the Desktop environment from here?

Thanks as always to all who respond

- Barabus

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