Mandrake 7.1 Upgrade

waltersaegir · 04-10-2010, 02:21 AM

I have Mandrake 7.1 installed on a laptop and I have several problems that an upgrade would likely fix or provide a path that will support a fix. The Mousepad is irratic and the PCMCIA WiFi and Ethernet cards are not recognized.

What's a good way to upgrade? (I can access the network from an external modem and from a dual-boot Windows 98 WiFi)

Nylex · 04-10-2010, 02:25 AM

Since Mandrake 7.1 is so old, you're probably going to have to back up all your data and just do a fresh install of whatever newer distro you want to use.

waltersaegir · 04-11-2010, 11:23 AM

I don't really have much data to lose, but I would really like to better understand my options related to an upgrade path rather than a complete reinstall, especially since the Windows 98 dual-boot and partitioning is working.

For example, is it doable to burn CD's for Mandrake 9.? or 10.? and use that to upgrade?

I want to get to some current point where the touch-pad stops being flacky and the PCMCIA WiFi and Ethernet cards work.

pixellany · 04-11-2010, 11:28 AM

Do a fresh install. Any modern mainstream distro will detect the Windows installation and automatically setup dual boot.

Note that "modern" in this case means Mandriva and not Mandrake.

waltersaegir · 04-11-2010, 12:39 PM

Makes sense.

waltersaegir · 04-13-2010, 09:57 AM

Burned CDs for both Mandriva KDE4 and GNOME and both hang after progressing past the typical Linux text booting messages and to the Mandriva gui screen with the rotating circle at the bottom.
First messages that look like problems are:
"mount: could not find filesystem 'LABEL=One-20`0-GNOME'"

Maybe the Presario 1260 is too old with the AMD processor or???

Mandrake 7.1 had no problems installing.

I guess I'll look around the Mandriva site and maybe try an older version.

Any suggestions?

tredegar · 04-13-2010, 03:51 PM

Quote:

I guess I'll look around the Mandriva site and maybe try an older version.

No, please, not an "older version".
Linux is backwards-compatible: Newer versions support even more "old / ancient" hardware than ever.

I quit Man-drake / -riva in about 2006.

Try one of the modern 'buntus.

9.10 is OK, I tried the (Beta) 10.04, and it is good for a beta release. Wait another 2 weeks and you'll get the Long Term Support of 10.04.

If you like "old things" (as I do) you'll probably hate KDE4, so just go with a gnome desktop, you soon get used to it.

waltersaegir · 04-13-2010, 07:50 PM

Thanks for the advice.

Burned a Mandriva release 2010.0 and see that even after booting from the CDROM, the install stops and asks which (from a selection) driver it should use for the Toshiba XM-7002B CDROM and none in the selection looks workable.

Getting a little frustrated. Maybe I should try buntus.