:smash: Ok.... I downloaded the Mandrake 8.2 iso's and burned them to CD. I partitioned a portion of my 60Gb Maxtor so I can Dual Boot between Windows XP Pro an Madrake, but when I try to boot from eother the CD of Floppy, I get the welcome screen, I hit enter then it goes black. :/ Nothing happens after that. No HDD sounds, no CD-ROM or Floppy sounds, nada. (I'm a huge when it comes to Linux.) I tried to get started using the text installer, but no luck... Any Help would be great. Thanks

I figure system Specs would be nice?

AMD Duron 1GHz
1Gb PC 133 RAM
GeForce 4 Ti 4400
Maxtor 60Gb HDD
Hercules Gamesurround Muse XL Sound
3COM NIC (10/100)
Lite-On 12x10x32 CD-RW
Memorex 40x CD-ROM
1.44Mb Floppy
Microsoft Internet Keyboard (ps/2)
Logitech Optical WheelMouse (USB)

did u check ur downloaded file with md3sum

did u check ur burning if was right or bad

never heard of md3sum. The burn was succesful. All 3 discs. They all recognize in my regular CD-ROM Drive and my CD-RW Drive. I still have all 3 iso's, so what do I need to do?

go into the dir where u have the files and type i think:

md5sum and the name of file

and compare the result with the file named md5sums ( u will found in the same dir where u downloaded the files from on the ftp site)

can u get it?

Ok, I got the md5sums from the wesite where I got the ISO Images. (http://www.linuxiso.org) Now, i saved the ISO files to my Desktop in Win XP. do I just type md5sum "filename" in a run prompt? That is what confuses me.

*edit* Ok, so I found a Windows based md5sum checker, but it will not check the sum of the actual Image file. So, Is the file then, on the disc that I burned of the ISO? I'm really new at this Linux thing, but hell, who wasn't at one time, right?

i don't know does it work on windows or not
but i am sure that the md5sum work on linux-->consol

u may ask how does it work on windows

and look here it may help u:

http://www.linuxiso.org/viewdoc.php/verifyiso.html

Does it matter if I use Download Accelerator Plus while downloading the ISO? I've never had probs with it before, but could it possibly change the md5sum?

the md4susm is change when there is something wrong with the downloaded file
can u get it?

if the downloaded file is not 100% as the original file then the md5sum will change and that means that u need to redownload it from the begining

Ok.. I got the jist of it. Somehow, my ISO's became corrupted today on my HDD, so I need to redownload them. :/ (No viruses, I checked) I had the DOS version of the md5sum utility, but it too was b0rked, so I got the windows based one, but It wouldn't check the files out either.... very weird.. I will look more and post later.


*edit* Should I maybe be looking at a different distro as I am a n00b? I know there are lots out there, but I also need a distro with newer Hardware support too, otherwise this would really suck.

Little update: I did get Mandrake to install, but I had an applet or something crash on me a little bit ago, and don't remember what it was. :/ My display looks like ass right now, because I couldn't get Mandrake to recognize my GeForce4. I downloaded an RPM Package from Nvidia, so what do I do now?

Cor - you've had a bit of a struggle haven't you?!

Installing the rpms from the NVIDIA site is pretty straightforward, provided you've got all the right bits from the actual Mandrake CDs installed okay as well.

For the sake of the rest of this post, I'm assuming you did the sensible thing for a newbie and chose the option "Install everything cos I have no idea what I'm doing" or whatever it's called

If you *didn't* do that - think about redoing your install and making sure you do - it helps loads in the end - once you're a bit more experienced, you can go an un-install stuff you know you don't need really easily....

Right - now onto the NVIDIA bits...

When I did this, I made sure I downloaded the .src.rpm files from NVIDIA's site (there should be two of them) - it means that when you use them, the binary files will match the architecture in your machine exactly - rather than the best guess that the .i386.rpm or .i586.rpm files that they provide as precompiled jobs...

Installing a .src.rpm is fairly easy, make sure you've used the 'su -' command to change to the root user then you type :

rpm --rebuild NVIDIA.blah.blah.src.rpm

If you've got everything from the Mandrake CD's installed ok - you should see a lot of text start flowing up your screen for a while. Then you get a prompt back.

Now type :

cd /usr/src/RPM/RPMS/

then

find . -name NVIDIA*.rpm -print

This will tell you which sub directory from there your newly built rpm is in (likely to be i686 on most modern machines)

cd <that directory>

now you type

rpm -Uvh NVIDIA*rpm

and the newly built binary RPMs will be installed ok.

The last step is to exit the file in /etc/X11 called XF86Config-4 (you did choose Xfree86 4.2.0 didn't you?).

Search through the file for the line which reads :

driver "nv"

Comment that out by putting a '#' at the beginning of the line.
Add a new line underneath which reads :

driver "nvidia"

You should also find the "Modules" section (fairly near the top of the file) and insert a line with reads :

module "glx"

Save the file, and type :

startx

X should start up now, and you should, if you've done everything above correctly, get a nice big NVIDIA logo occupying the whole screen just before X starts up properly.....

Hope this helps (and that I've remembed it all right, my linux box is 200 miles away)....

Bry