General questions with mandrake
 

i recently installed mandrake 10.0 on my emachines and am having some problems with it.

Specs:
emachines t2825
FIC AU31 mobo, nforce2
512mb ram
120gb hdd(split into 20gigs for windows, 5gigs for mandrake install and the rest for porn:p)
microsoft multimedia keyboard(with all the buttons on top)
a generic 8in1 media card reader
logitechmx310 mouse (total of five buttons, not including the scroll wheel)
integrated sound
radeon 9600xt
generic DVD drive
liteon cdrw drive
17" CRT monitor capable of

30~70 KHz (horizontal)
50~160 Hz (vertical)
1280 x 1024 @ 60 Hz
1152x864 @75Hz(what i plan on using)

the mobo: the latest nvidia nforce drivers are for 2.4 kernel. can i install these?
ram/hdd work fine
keyboard-i want my multimedia keys:mad:
media reader: i want to see my pictures:mad:
mouse: i want my back/forward buttons. my quickswitch button and my scroll wheel:mad:
i GOT NO SOUND:p :mad:
i GOT NO HARDWARE ACCELERATION :p :mad:
optical drives work fine
im at 1024 right now and i want 1152. however, when i increase the resolution, it stays at 1024, only ir makes the screen bigger than the monitor, so i cant see everythin and when i move my mouse over to the side, it "pans" around the screen. if you know what i mean...



ive installed the ati drivers but hardware acceleration is still turned off. i htink i messed up in fglrxconfig(hence why the screen resolution is messed up) so can anybody recommend a good set of configuration instructions?

nuka_t; first have you check all of hardware at mdk hdwr database for compatablity then try check this ;http://www.tldp.org?HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX on all ur hdwr for tips and workaround.

i checked, and all my non-generic hardware is supposed to worki in mandrake. its hot really "if" but "how"

nuka_t; did u try ldp site as suggested? why not! answers there!

ldp has got tons of stuff on it, but nothing specific to my hardware. the only sound configuration thing i could find was from three years ago, and it was for external soundcards onlym and it was for the 2.4 kernel. i also couldnt get the search function to work. after searching and clicking on the link, it would just take me back to the main page. my priorities for thigs to work is

sound
video
scroll wheel
multimedia card reader
and multimedia keys for the keyboard.

nuka_t; that is one that i`ve got handy hardcopied from mdk sites. but maybe you`ll have to do same for answers and work arounds. sorry its alot of work but we`re in same boat. thats the way we help each other.
dig in & search answers and they are some where among all sites.!

its not really about the work, i dont mind doing it for myself. its just that i dont feel confident messing around with my system with a workaround that isnt made specifically for my exact hardware. i guess, in time, ill know more about the way everything works in linux and can get it right.

nuka_t; ok but any advice given is subjective with whose suggestion given.
so mine is to look at all the sites you can find for answers that would be best in giving you what you need! up to this point in my learning curve(newbie too) I`ve looked everywhere, books,any &all sites for insight,inspiration & help (any kind) as long as it increases my knowledge that do not have yet.!

to begin with(and be brutally honest) you got an el-cheapo PC. Sorry. A lot of on board sound is NOT supported by Linux at the moment, but some is. We need to know your cheap, sorry chip set of the sound, then we might be able to point you at the right direction.
A suggestion would be to try and find old/used SoundBlaster card from somebody and install that. They are(almost) universally supported today.
As of right now, Linux STILL lags behind detecting and working with
multimedia keys for the keyboard and 6 wheel mice.
Time to find other hardware that is better supported by Linux. That's what i did when I began with Linux-I made SURE rthe hardware i bought was Linux-compatable.

ok, thank you for insulting my system. my sound is nvidia soundstorm 5.1. its better than a soundblaster i think. nforce2 integrated audio is miles ahead of others like intel. buying new hardware is NOT an option for me, although i might consider a sub-20 dollar sound card.

zaharia&nuka_t; defeating purpose of forums not way to go. what ever does not work place it into the hardware base for practical use via trial and
use by other members that have alot more expierence. after testing they will bring work arounds and drivers. thanks to developers, compilers and programmers.

i downloaded knoppix and EVERYTHING works fine on it. no configuration at all. where can i see the drivers used by it so i can use the same ones in mandrake?

Video Card:
ATI cards are hard to setup in LINUX. I suggest using Nvidia cards. They are easy to setup and you do not have worry about compiling and following several instructions. I suggest searching this forum for some clues how to setup ATI cards.

Resolution and Depth Settings:
After you setup your video card using either ATI drivers, Gatos drivers, or some German drivers for ATI, you can a line in XF86Config. Its located under /etc/X11. First visit http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl. Type in your monitor settings and your desire resolution. Copy the ModeLine code and paste it in XF86Config. You should see some example ModeLines to get an idea where it goes.

Sound:
Its pretty easy go to http://www.alsa-project.org. Then click on Soundcards. Next select Nvidia in the drop-down menu box. Your sound device should be listed. Click on the details link. You should see instructions how to install ALSA and setup you sound device. Download all ALSA packages listed on its home page.

Scroll Wheel:
Go to http://www.xfree86.org/. Navigate through the site. Find information about how to setup up a 7 button mouse. Yes, your mouse is seven button. The file you will need to edit is either "/etc/X11/XF86Config" or "/etc/X11/XF86Config-4". To set Forwad and Back a page. You have to edit another file. I think it will be .xresource or .xmodify (I do not remember). Then find the program name. Next you have to bind a keyboard event that designates forward and back in your favorite web browser. You have to do some searching.

Multimedia Card Reader:
These readers have their own out of this world chipset that makes it hard to setup in LINUX. You need a few things loaded. I assume Mandrake has setup USB correctly. All you need to do is login as su, sudo, or root then load a few modules (drivers). To do this, type "modprobe sd_mod ; modprobe usb-storage". These two modules should make it work. If the reader needs a little helping hand type fdisk -l. A bunch of information will go by. It should stop a few seconds at a certain disk to initilized your card reader. Then you can mount it.

Multimedia Keys for the Keyboard:
Well this is a little complex, but can be done. There is a thread about this in this forum. I suggest doing a search. Multimedia Keys will not be the same as Windows, but you get much more flexiblity in LINUX. You can bind or designate a button to do infinite amount of tasks.

A few sites that helped me got where I am now.
Justlinux - http://www.justlinux.com
The Linxu Documentation Project - http://www.tldp.org

You may have notice after searching a while that LINUX is very, very flexible than Windows. You can do just about anything you want with LINUX. If you want your monitor to display graphics upside down, you can do it. If you want your mouse feel like its a control stick like in a plane. You can do it. If you want to use a joystick to be used instead of mouse. You can do it.

electro; Right on. that what this newbie is doing, found lots of answers
searching every site as what you suggested and most everybody else who,s been around. this is better than asking W support team. no put down just the facts. thanks for your input.!