If you have set it up to dual-boot, boot up windows and use the system information wizard. Print a report to a text file.

That way you can use cut-and-paste to create a hardware inventory for your machine when you post for help. And if you are using the booted up windows to talk in this forum, you have most of the information about hardware someone may want to ask.

It also is very, very good to have if you end up with a problematic installation and need to enter custom commands during install or add to the boot-loader configuration files. If the information is available people will tell you how to do it. Many times, if the hardware list is present in your request for information and assistance, people will spot the problem immediately. Some hardware combinations are trouble (even in windows, there is an entry table for "problem devices").

The type of network connection you use and if you have a modem present--even if you are not using it. Sometimes, it is easy to forget unused hardware, and it can cause problems. Do you have a home network, and are you sharing the connection with another computer? This can have an effect on boot-up.

/*I had a "sick" network card that absolutely drove me crazy. It caused intermittent problems which were impossible to trace until it got sick enough to give "usual" symptoms. Once I replaced it, all sorts of problems disappeared. Sometimes, this kind of thing happens--and it can happen with other hardware devices as well. I had a printer cable which caused problems. I also have had video cards wreak havoc as well. Oh, yes. I do need to mention that if you have been changing hardware around double check the jumpers on all of the drives. I have an old Western Digital drive which refuses to die, but the jumper has to be removed and replaced every once and a while (the gold-plating wore off of the jumper pins and it has a corrosion problem).*/

It is a *Good Idea* to print this cleaned up hardware inventory with the memory port locations and other pertinent information organized for your own use in the future.

You may want to check your bios settings--just to be familiar with them. Over-clocking will work okay in windows, but can be a real problem in Linux.

The type of installation for your distro is important. Often as not, people will install "everything".

Do a minimal installation, set it up to boot up the command-line as the default. You can start the GUI/windows using the command startx. All of the settings can be changed with relative ease once everything works. It is always best to become familiar with the minimal set-up and add applications as you need and want them.

KDE can get upset with you if you have a bunch of stuff which is not initialized and configured when you do the installation. Every service which is installed and not configured will cause it to hang until it "times out". If you have a bunch of services which are dependent upon each other, you can end up in an endless loop.

Last, but not least. Read the installation documentation. I know, in many cases it is not needed. I've blown off the docs a bunch of times, and gotten away with it more often than not. It's just the NOT that gets you, and when it gets you--it really gets you.

Well i finally got things back the way they where and now is running in GUI mode and not that dos looking mode no more thanks for the help provided which helped aided me in my conquest even doe it was picking out pointers given by each person .. well what i did bascially was to boot into command line mode then

login as root
cd /usr/bin/X1186
folder then i entered DrakConf after which i change the option of starting X at boot time then then removed all the temp files from "rm /tmp/(user name folder)" and "/tmp/.X0-lock"
make sure that

rm /tmp/.X0-lock

is typed as it is and is removed or else you will get the same problem and oh yeah i have sound now but still can't play aduio cds

rebooted my machine login then typed kde at command and hey presto i was in and configured back my settings now to good old graphically but i must say it was brighing me back down memory lane with windows need to do this more often



ps anyone can give me an idea of how i can edit a file in command mode?

I'm assuming you mean in the command line. There are several editors people use to edit files. I hear pico is a pretty good one for newbies, although I have and always will stand by Vi (well, its Vim but its the same... sort of). Just type vi /path/to/file and it will open up the file and you can begin editing, although it operates different than a normal text editor would. I'd recommend checking this website out, wonderful tutorial for Vi. Glad you got everything working!

can anyone help me with this where i can configure the PKG_CONFIG_PATHand what exactly to do??
GTK is installed on the system am trying to install gxine tar file

checking for gtk+-2.0 >= 2.0.0... Package gtk+-2.0 was not found in the pkg-config search path.

Perhaps you should add the directory containing `gtk+-2.0.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'gtk+-2.0' found

configure: error: Library requirements (gtk+-2.0 >= 2.0.0) not met; consider adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if your libraries are in a nonst

YEEAAA!!! As for the commandline,I am completely spoiled by Midnighr Commander. It's a fullblown file manager with a built in text editor and mouse support You should have a pkg-config in /usr/lib and there's no GTK+2pc file inside. It could be in /usr/local/lib and if not you might try a search for it. When you find it put a copy in /usr/lib/pkg-config and it should clear the error. Should being the main word of course.

can someone tell me what this type of file is and what it it is use for i am onlu guss ing there thats its some sort of signiture but how do you use it??

Allen614 thanks

well it took me a while thanks .. I notice that that file was not in either folder so i had to download GTK+ from here http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/2...-building.html along with the supporting packages thats needed installed all the suporting packages then change all the (.pc files from the local directory and copy them into the offical
/usr/lib/pkgconfig

directory then cantinue with the installation of gxine which installed okay (note for anyone using this method you have to go control center for mandrake then menu settings and add the path of gxine if you want it sowing on the menu

the path for that can be in a few places just do a search an it can be found to add the icon look in this folder

/usr/local/share/gxine/pixmaps

thanks for the help again

An MD5 is a checksum to insure that the file you download isn't corrupted somehow. I have most often seen it used for .iso image files and such.

You run the MD5 checksum program to generate a number from the downloaded file and compare that to the number which you read from a file on the same server which contains the generated numbers on the original file.

If a file is packed, zipped, tarred, or otherwise packaged checksums are generally built in. When you expand it, the program which packaged it has already generated a checksum which will tell if the file has been corrupted and the expansion will fail with an error message. Most of your archiving and backup programs/scripts will generate a checksum of one kind or another to ensure that the archive is not corrupt. You usually can check the integrity of any package without opening it by the use of one of the functions available to you from the respective archive/backup program.

I really find it kind of strange that a package has a corresponding md5 to go with it. That is something I haven't seen often.

first you find where the file is (gtk+-2.0.pc in this case), then you export the location, like this:

export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/lib/pkgconfig