Hi, I'm new here. I just installed Linux Mandriva onto my PC and I am having a few problems. These might have been answered on another thread, but I haven't found them.
1.) Computer freezes up. Sometimes when I try to open up a program or a file of somesort it simply freezes up.

2.) I can't install some applications. I downloaded these applications on my not-so-old windows machine, but they claim to work for both Windows and Linux. Also, I need to know how to install tar.gz applications.

3.) These ugly line/web things keep appearing on my computer for no reason. Why does this happen?

I know that this seems like a lot but any help would be greatly appreaciated. Thanks.

Hi bread and circus ,
You can untar the zipped files using the tar in the way given below
tar -zxvf program-version.tar.gz
z for unzip
x for extarcting the tar file
v for verbose
f for file

Can you please find from the /var/log/messages whether there is any error messages logged in there?
What is the program that is ending up in error ?
What do you mean by Web things and during what time does it appear?

Thanks
Philix

1.) Odd.
2.) It says that it exists for Windows and Linux, but you will still need the Linux version. Mandriva uses RPM, so look for .rpm files to install (you'll need to be root, sorry I don't know the exact usage of RPM - read the manual with man rpm.) .tar.gz can indicate a program you'll need to compile from source. Usually, this comes with a readme on how to install it. Most can be installed with
./configure
make
make install
But it may vary, and you should read the documentation.
Sometimes, tarballs just contain executables. Just run these with ./<executable_name>.
3.) Please elaborate - provide a screenshot if you can.

First of all, welcome. I hope you can find your answers here.

While I'm not that experienced myself, I do have some suggestions that *may* help you.

What programs are you trying to run specifically? Have you checked your hardware against the hardware compatibility list available for mandriva? If not, check here: http://wwwnew.mandriva.com/en/hardware

If you're trying to install a program, make sure you have all the requirements for that program. Whether you're using packages to install, or compiling direct from the source, check that you have all dependencies for that program (some programs require other programs to operate correctly)

As for tar.gz files, it's relatively simple. Just do the following in your terminal command line:

gunzip packed_files.tar.gz
tar -xf packed_files.tar

That should get the files out of there.

Lastly, the line/webs problem sounds like a driver problem. Check that the driver used matches the model of your monitor. You should have a GUI configuration tool that allows you to choose your monitor's make and model. Check your refresh rates and resolution. If you don't know what the highest you can use for your refresh rate and resolution is, I recommend using 60Hz refresh and 1024 x 768 resolution. These settings usually will work with %99 of the monitors out there.

Hope that helps you. Might not though, I have limited experience. Good luck.

The only thing I can think of as far as messed up graphics go is either video driver issues or monitor driver issues. On my box at work (Dell, bleh) the lcd wasn't recognized properly with fedora core 4, that caused issues with resolution, I couldn't go above a certain res and some stuff was a bit messed up with the default setting.

What type of file causes the freeze up? Is your sound working properly? It could be many things, if you can, try to provide more information.

What I mean by web things is exactly that. Lines often forming a web. Imagine that some gets a colored pencile and makes a crude lines on your screen. Ugly red lines. They appear most often when I am reading a pdf or word document. The wallpaper background often bleeds through when these lines appear. Makes reading pdfs a pain in the ass because they only way to get rid of the lines is minimize and then open the file again.

Yeah, that sounds like a resolution / refresh rate / driver problem. Have you tried my suggestion from above? Either try setting your resolution higher or lower. Probably your monitor driver isn't correct too.

I tried setting my resolution to 1024x768 and everything in between but it didn't help.