OK, Slackware 10.1 now installed on Athlon Shuttle box. (Please let’s not go on about outdated version of slackware please!)

Good.

Type startx.

Xwindows appears.

Good.

Move mouse.
Pointer vanishes. PC locks up. Hard reset (so far – I’m unfamiliar with any soft reset options. I’m just trying to get a desktop here!)

Try again. Type startkde without moving mouse.

KDE starts with Wizard.

Good.

Move mouse.
Pointer vanishes.
PC freezes up again.

Hmmm… looks like mouse driver trouble?

Slackware 10.01 bareacpi kernal.
Serial mouse (not PS2. Though I can dig on out if needed. I just grabbed mouse to hand.)

I am ready to reformat and install again as required. I expected this kind of trouble as I learn! (Each step another technical nugget. Slow going mind!)

Suggestions anyone?

Thanks.

There's something about up-to-date mice that doesn't suit older releases. I had a lot of trouble controlling my mouse when I tried running Slackware 8.1 in VBox and qemu. I never found a solution, but it might not have helped with 10.1, anyway. Have you tried running xorgsetup?

xorgsetup? Tell me more. I know nuffin at this stateg.

BTW, this mouse was running on a 1988 Amstrad 8086PC with Windows 3.0.

So it isn't that up to date!

Thanks.

Run these, in a terminal, as root:
(if X is running)
then:
This usually detects your mouse, keyboard, etc, and writes a suitable config file.
Then, if that goes OK, log out as root, log in as your "normal" user, run:
And hope for the best.
If that doesn't work, we'll have to hope somebody who knows more than me (lots of them!) comes along.

Thanks. I'd just looked it up online since your post.

Many thanks.

For those more technical, is this really likely to be a mouse problem, or a video driver problem?
X-Windows runs up in a vry high res for the underpowered monitor and flickers a lot (clearly running on the edge of 60Hz) but I guess that is OK. Since things draw and I got the inital KDE Wizard I can assume the video driver handling is not the cause? I AM looking at the mouse?

Just in case.

This setup prog looks cool. Many thank BrianL. This is exactly the sort of thing I wanted to learn, hence Slackware. More slow, more painful, but I learn the diagnostic processes for future installs on other machines.

Hi,

You should look at the logs: '/var/log/Xorg.0.log' or even 'dmesg' to see potential clues.

You could post the '/etc/X11/xorg.conf' within code tags for us to confirm the setup. You should make sure the configuration for the mouse device are correct. Protocol, device and other parameters. The information to look at for setup;

It has been a while since working with these versions for me.

I am curious as to why you have selected Slackware 10.1? Why not 10.2 or 11? Major differences between these versions.

I am curious as to why you have selected Slackware 10.1?

Fair question and I don't mind answering.

1) So many people have gone on about how underpowered my Shuttle box is I figured I couldn't run the later versions anyway! So I dropped back a few versions. Yes, i can buy new RAM, I know...
2) I started learning computing (I took a stupid degree in sociology and have lived to regret it. Even then computers were more my interest so had to self teach) right back on a 1977 Commodore PET. I have shifted up right from CP/M to DOS to Windows 3.x up to Windows 7.0, nothing skipped. Learning from early renderings helps me understand the later renderings. I know the difference between a 95 kernal and an NT kernal. Most people don't. But I learnt what a kernal was from the Commodore PET! So I start low level and work up. (That's why I choose slackware and not a 'do it all for you' Unbuntu job. Sure, it means more pain up front but then I learn how to fix things.)
3) I am learning. I don't need all the bells and whistles yet. I will upgrade when I get a version, (yup, an old version,) running on a machine and I am confident with what is there.
4) Seems to be lots of documentation online on 10.1 specifically. That shifted me.
5) I have an eye on seeing if I can get this running on older equipment. Older versions gives me range. I can always upgrade!
6) My wife and I plan to return to her home country where computing is Linux and on old boxes. Absolutely NO guarentee they are going to be running the latest versions! It's easier to learn forwards than backwards. Once I got Windows NT 4 I could appreciate Windows 2000 (can't be user on the domain AND administrator of local PC!!!) and advise. Where we're going I expect Pentium 1 and II's to still be in mainstream use.
7) After the interface disasters of Vista and Windows 7 (We had this 'Microsoft usability feedback system and, after five years of feedback they give us VISTA??!!!) me scared of modern interfaces. Call me paranoid but both Vista and Windows 7 make me feel sick. (Yes, I know Linux isn't like that – you're not limited to one GUI, etc, I'm just paranoid now!)
7) I'm a romantic. I like to do things my way with an element of giving something old new life. Why do you think I was running Windows 3.0 on an Amstrad 8086?

Humour me! :-)

That help?

>The Magic is in the Magician not the wand!

^^^ You said it!

Hi,

I would select Slackware 10.2 or 11 instead of 10.1. Some major concern/changes with the 2.4 and glibc at the 10.1 level if memory serves me.

Your advantages to move to 10.2 or 11 will be the kernel options along with potential hardware support for your equipment. Your equipment is newer and drivers/firmware may be a problem. Since the Athlon & chipsets are on the edge of the timeline. Keep things simple.

What about the requested information and xorgconfig? Any attempt on suggested aid and what was the results?

Thanks again.

Kernal options not too worried about at this stage. OS first, apps later.
Your point about 10.2 is fair.

I need some time to get back to PC to check it over. Tis year is so overloaded I have snatch a half hour here and there as I can!

Hi,

Look at http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/slackware/ for the versions. You can look at the tree of each version to then view the documentation for each.

Slackware-HOWTO is just one that you should read, there are many others within the tree.

Just a few links to aid you to gaining some understanding;

Slackware® Essentials
Slackware® Basics

Linux Documentation Project
Rute Tutorial & Exposition
Linux Command Guide
Utimate Linux Newbie Guide
LinuxSelfHelp
Getting Started with Linux
Bash Beginners Guide
Bash Reference Manual
Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide
Linux Home Networking


The above links and others can be found at 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

Hi Onebuck!

I have already been catching up with the links you gave before. So I am reading!

I am also downloading web pages on various stuff as fast as possible. It has become clear to me now that Linus is NOT "start 'er up and have a play." You have to know something of what you are doing you are doing up front. On slackware anyway. Unbuntu users implore me to stop playing with the CLI via slackware claiming Unbutu does it all for you.

Which is not the idea.


Status report:

The mouse problem was sorted by plugging in a PS2 mouse and re-installing. (That's why version does not matter too much right now as I will be re-installing on a failry constant basis at the moment. When I am satisfied I can control Linux as an OS THEN I will pin down a 'proper version' and worry about apps. Experience so far has confirmed this to be the right approach.)

KDE now running. Don't like it. Another case of "Oh, we can make it pretty and confusing!" Just because you can do something does not mean you should! Also, 1024x768 at 61Hz hurts the eyes on my not too good monitor. But KDE don't like 800x600 much. Still, just found out about xwmconfig. Will try other alternatives. Very early days. May stick with KDE or jump to GNOME with more RAM.

What IS clear to me is that, almost like Windows 3, the GUI's on Linux allow apps to run that could not fire from a pure text enviornment - but they are very much a case of a mask over a serious CLI. Dropping down to the CLI appears - to me so far - to be the way to run Linux with the GUI largely just to run apps. Well, that's how it looks so far. But maybe KDE is just duff or I'm missing things. Very likely. Find it bizarre I can't format a floppy from KDE without using a utility and that doesn't work so far. Can't get USB stick to read either but early days. There's no doubt about it. This is a LOT more work than DOS/Windows!

Still, I can do PIP B:=A:*.COM in days gone by or hack around with regedit, I guess I should do able to do this. But it's a lot to learn up front! So, yeah, now it's not playing, it's reading!!

I have now a listing of linux to equivalent DOS comand which I am sure will help. I have bash instruction manual and the docs from your links! So I am on it! Pleased I can get to KDE. Now gotta learn how to formal copies, copy files, get memory stick read, where to store thing, how to get out of trouble (picked up on the fsck command after file system glitch already.)

No need for people to reply to the above! Otherwise I'll annoy with every question or issue this early. Lemme read! If I get really stuck I will call in! I just gotta read more. The above is just a status report. It could be a lot worse but Linux is far more unlike than I expected.