Hello All,

Every few years or so I try to get linux up and running to teach myself the OS. I fundamentally like the idea of open source and think it is really still in it's infancy with a bright future ahead.

Recently I built a new machine.
Athlon 64 3200
MSI k8ngm2 motherboard
2 gig pc3200
MSI GeForce 6600 video card.


The microsoft windows xp x64 edition was worthless, so my base install is XP and I left 20 gig unpartitioned for getting linux up and running. I really wanted to get a native 64 bit OS on the athlon.



My first attempt at an install was SuSE. It didn't even get through the disks, despite correct checksums. Next was Mandriva 10.0. It installed fine, but could not configure my network.


No big deal. The Hardware manager could see all of my hardware properly, however it did not have the proper drivers for the video card, or onboard network or sound.


All three are from nvidia, and the ethernet is an nForce networking controller. I went to their site (under windows) downloaded the drivers and installed them.

As per the documentation I then went to the configuration tool. I opened up network connections, new network connection, manually selected the nvidia driver hit next and that was it. A box flashed in the upper left corner of the screen and the wizard went back to the start.

According to the docs I should have had a new network connection to configure (I'm guessing eth1).

But I can't find it. What I can find is that mandriva REALLY wants my eth0 connection to be the firewire port, but that isn't going to do me any good.

I then tried to edit the module configuration as per instructions for (other linux builds). But that didn't help at all. I am a total n00b when it comes to doing command line and config file editing. I was rebooting like a bandit going back and forth from windows trying to trouble shoot this and eventually mandriva bonked.

I've deleted that partition and I'm ready to start from scratch.

Any help on this would be appreciated. This appears to be a slick looking build and I'd like to get it running.


Thanks,

Andy

If it's a fairly new computer you might be better off with mandriva 2005 or 2006. It's a large download, but really your network should be configured automatically. eth0 if it's your only connection. Unless your on dial-up.

Thanks. I'll try the newest disk images. However, I've found a lot of people having problems with the nvidia chipsets.

I'll give it a go though.

-Andy

There are problems with nvidia graphics cards and mandriva 2006. My system froze until I got the updates. You'll probably have that problem with your card.