configuring xserver-xconfig
 

hello

this is my first post, I hope to be in the good section

so here s the situation
I have an acer travelmate 4150
motherboard intel i810
video nvidia geforce go 6200
sound ac'97

I don t know exactly what is needed to know
I m quite beginer

so I installed knoppix on my hd
via the live cd and it worked perfectly
(same as now, I could read several how-to during the installation, great !)
now I wanted to install scim so I made

apt-get install scim

several depedencie was with

and now I m on :configuring xserver-xconfig
and here are the choice :

xserver-3dlabs
xserver-8514
xserver-agx
xserver-fbdev
xserver-i128
xserver-mach32
xserver-mach64
xserver-mach8
xserver-mono
xserver-p9000
xserver-s3
xserver-s3v
xserver-svga
xserver-tga
xserver-vga16
xserver-w32

I try some search on different forum
and on xfree.org but I didn t find anything
witch help me
in fact I don t know anything about these choice exept that there are :-)

so I asking you some help
please believe that I searched as much as I could

if you know any how-to who explain these steps
you re welcome (this is certainly the first of several !)

before this install I only made an apt-get update $ upgrade
and answered no to change the config of what it seems to be
something with X server (It was said defaut=no)
this time I said yes "to see"
and because I need to write chinese
so I don t stop my computer until I found a choice hehe

thanks for reading

Hmmm...

I'd do like this:
Get X up and running in SVGA by selecting the 'xserver-svga' option.
Once X is running, i'd get hold of nvidia's linux-driver-package for the GeforceGo.
To get the Nvidia package into your system you might need to get hold of kernel sources - the installer may need it to recompile a driver module suitable for your flavour of kernel.

But first - get X going in SVGA. It's unaccelerated, but it's still X.

And then you can move on to something more interesting, like setting up printers or networking or...


Why Knoppix? Being a beginner you could profit from choosing one of the major distributions aimed at first-time-users; Fedora or Mandriva. Perhaps Ubuntu, though i haven't tried it and thus can't say much about it.
Do NOT try Debian, FreeBSD or Slackware - these are IMHO aimed at more experienced users.
Knoppix is fine for showcasing what Linux is and how it looks, but is IMHO not a 'real' installation. It's a showcase running off of a CD.

Nvidia distributes ready-to-go-drivers for eg. Fedora.

Heck, Fedora might even recognize your nvidia-gpu and install the graphics too without you needing to bother about anything.

Think about it this way; Linuxes are more or less functionally equivalent - you might as well choose one that supports your hardware directly. And if Knoppix gives you trouble, try another one.

Last words: What do Knoppix, Ubuntu, Mepis and a whole lot other distributions have in common apart from being linuxes? They're all based on Debian. Thus, mastering Debian Linux is no bad thing...
But save it for later, when you are more confident with Linux as a working platform.

Very last words: Commercial vendors like Redhat and Mandriva offer small, medium and large versions of Linux. No such thing exists - only more or less limited versions. Look to Debian & Co. for a more realistic approach to 'whats in the package' :)
Everything - all the time.

thanks a lot for the advises !

after a mistake (I press enter without wanted it)
I made a apt-get -f istall
because it was asking
and I m waiting the end of the download
and think I will go back strait to the config xserver-xconfig




why knoppix ?

in fact in france on my old computer
I already tryed mandrake 9.x, 10.1
agnula and ubuntu
(without internet just to learn a bit)

ubuntu was pleasant and recognize everything
so arriving in china, I bought my computer
and tried with the same cd !

but ! it didn t recognize my cd driver (after starting installer say no cd device ???)
same for mandriva 2006
I tryed FC4, works quite well but there was
no good config for soundcard and the apt-get tool is wonderful
so, until last week I was on debian sarge then testing with kernel 2.4 (
I wanted to switch with kernel 2.6 when I tried knoppix

and what a surprise
graphic ok, sound ok(very important for me hehe)
hard drive usb ok (I hadn t with debian)

and the programs with are for most of them the one I use
I made the install in kconsole with a french how-to in firefox next to ! was marvelous
(all that in a cd)

and I can manage all that with apt-get

so I think I will try to keep it like that
I just need some few programs more
Hope no problem will come

thanks again for this forum and your answer

Selecting a distribution that uses the debian package management system may not be the most newbie-friendly approach, but the reward is clearly visible. So much software...

managing apt-packages is a breeze if you try the Synaptic frontend:

http://www.nongnu.org/synaptic/

which you - of course - can download via the commandline-client apt-get - if it's in your apt-repository :)

Really! Try out Synaptic!

And now you're at it; grab a program called 'mc'. It's a Norton Commander clone, and it's a part of my personal survival kit, as it requires no graphics and thus enables me to roam the filesystem on a machine with broken X - which happens a lot to me, because i'm the curious kind.

Regarding hardware-recognition; well, this has been an issue as far back as i can remember. Especially soundcards and wireless lan support hat brought me much pain. Selecting mainstream-hardware is no bad idea when building a machine targeted for linux-workstation use.

Happy tweaking :)