Ok...after endless searching through threads on how to solve my problem i've come to this conclusion. Cut my losses and start fresh.

I've been trying to get my installation of Mandrake 9.0 to work happily with my Radeon 9500pro card for days now but to no evail. I'm too much of a noob to try and deal with all this stuff at this stage in my linux development. I know this will have many whispering the words of shame, but i have no choice but to walk away with my tail in between my legs.

I really want to start getting familiar with linux but i havn't had the chance to do that yet because i've been so pre-occupied with trying to get 3d working and too stubborn to settle with just 2d.

So please have mercy, can someone please suggest a distribution and drivers to get me going so i may finally be at peace.

My system consists of:
Asus P4PE SATA/RAID/LAN motherboard
HIS Radeon 9500pro Graphics Card
WD800JB IDE HD
Integrated sound from M/B

Please somebody help.

Regards - OSI-laya

You say mandrake 9.0,

have you tried mandrake 9.1 - the latest release - it has quite a lot more support for newer stuff i.e. hardware etc

I struggled like hell to get my scanner working - which was supposed to have good support. I got there eventually.

As soon as I installed the 9.1 it detected and configured it straight away - no hassle whatsoever.

The only thing with any linux distro is that if (like me) your knowledge is only window$ based, then the learning curve is unbelieveable.

Use a "dual boot" set up, then you have the best of both worlds and if you have problems with the linux install, you can just boot back into window$ to obtain assistance that you might not be able to get while you are in linux - if you have connection problems and the like.

What is more frustrating, is that quite a lot of the available "literature" is not as helpful as it is trying to be - IMO its written by geeks, for geeks. As far as books are concerned - various people have recommended "running linux" published by O'Reilly. Got my copy in front of me, but I havent got round to trying it yet because ??????

the best thing is the forums like this - there's always someone who will try and help you - the only downside is that if (like me) you are impatient by nature, then the frustration bit is the worst.

But I would also say, get stubborn and shout and swear at you monitor (but don't hit it with anything it won't do any good).

Just don't give up - that's easy.

regards

John

Thanks bigjohn

Luckily im dual booting with XP so im still able to do the things i need to do. My issue is that ive stuffed up my mandrake so badly trying to get my radeon card working properly that i think its time to do a fresh install, hopefully this time with a distro that comes ready to support my card coz im just not ready to deal with all the issues iv'e been having. I just want things to be working so i can concentrate on getting to know linux and what it can do, ive always been a fan but never actually got aroung to giving it a go, and this first attempt has been quite daunting!! Hopefully things will be better second time around, that is, if someone who knows about these issues with the radeon cards can recommend something too me. I sure hope so. I will read up on mandrake 9.1 though and see if it can do the trick.

Regards - OSI-laya

Agreed. MDK9.1 or Red Hat 9 come with XFree 4.3, which is a years worth of hacking and driver improvements. If you're having problems with hardware, your best bet is to use the most modern distros available.

This may sound like a crazy idea to some but I recommend using and learning Slackware. It is definitely the way to go if you wanna learn Linux. For the driver just go to the ATI website and download the drivers and follow their instructions. I haven't installed an ATI driver yet but after looking at their website it looks easy enough. This is the link to your graphics card. If it doesn't work go to this other link and look it up there.

Hopefully this will be helpful,
Figa

Take a look at this thread it might be helpfull.

Figa

Thanks people, i've decided to install Slackware 9 which is now up and running and gee whiz it runs smoothly, still have the same issues as before though but i think i'll just settle with 2d in the meantime, i dont want to risk stuffing this nice install i got going yet.

Thanks for all the help.

Regards - OSI-laya