Hardware questions
 

Hi there

I've been installing Linux on my girlfriend's computer after her Windows got some horrible disease corrupting every disk that came in contact with it.

After installing Mandriva 2005 Limited Edition (for about 6 hours!) I've found there's still some tweaking to do. If anybody at all could help me or point me in the direction of howto's that don't give me a headache (or a bigger one!) it might just save my life...

I've got a Radeon graphics card that I would like to get to 1280x1024 resolution. This isn't important really, but all her Excel documents are for reading that size. Plus having a 17" monster makes websites look huge.

Also, I have a Lexmark z615. This doesn't work either.

The most important thing is the sound card. I've looked on the sound howto, tried a few things but it's not working. lspci is not found. It seems to be recognised but not configured or something.

I'm quite new to this and I'm finding the howto's and tutorials a little bit of a drag to sift through, but advice so far has been helpful and I wouldn't have even got this far without it...

Thanks

Karl

First up, maybe gives us a little more info on your graphics + sound card. You've ran lspci to check for devices, paste the output on here. You could consult the HCL on this site too. But, at a guess, you're not running the correct driver and/or xserver settings for your card. The sound card, probably the same issue with the correct module not being loaded/available.

A little bit of hope for your printer though, Linux drivers are available - http://downloads.lexmark.com/cgi-per...Redhat&target= Although it's for RH9, it's worth giving it a go, and at least they're direct from Lexmark.

Thanks for the reply!

lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440LX/EX - 82443LX/EX Host bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440LX/EX - 82443LX/EX AGP bridge (rev 03)
00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
00:08.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905B 100BaseTX [Cyclone] (rev 30)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 PRO] (rev 01)
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 5940 (rev 01)

soundcard doesn't seem to be there. Do I need another command for that?

Since it doesn't appear under lspci so I will guess that is an ISA sound card. Do you have any idea on the manufacture of the sound card. It been awhile since I've had to configure an ISA sound card but I would start off installing isapnptools.

http://www.roestock.demon.co.uk/isapnptools/

Re: Hardware questions
 

Had a very easy time configuring graphics recently: Knoppix live CD got X working perfectly, so simply pasted the relevant stuff from its XF86Config-4 file into my own. Not the whole lot just the relevant bit. Obviously be careful not to fry monitor.

Equally Knoppix doesn't get sound working, on my thing, but Ubuntu live does. Could Ubuntu's files be ripped off?? Haven't tried it myself.

I've downloaded the isapnptools, how do I now unpack and install it?

My soundcard is Yamaha OPL3 SAx. I read somewhere I might need to change my BIOS settings. Will I have to reinstall after that?

As for video, I gave Knoppix the screen=1280x1024 boot command, and as it was booting it said "using modes 1280x1024" but KDE never let me resize, so I just assumed it was the version of KDE or something.

This was the first distro I've managed to install without something going wrong. I had to install twice. I might not know anything else about Linux, but
I've certainly got the hang of deleting and creating partitions! (in cfdisk and qtparted). In a way it's like tuning a guitar. It's not fun but you have to know if you're ever going to play for yourself...

Thanks for the patience

Karl

Assume it's an .rpm file? If so go to it in mc (midnight commander the file manager); tap enter; then, after it's opened, go inside it to 'install' and tap enter. Ditto .deb.

No need to reinstall after changing bios setup.

Try Knoppix without the screen= command perhaps. Is the relevant button at the bottom right on the kde screen??

Suggest you run the program sndconfig.

I don't seem to have sndconfig (as normal user or as root).

As root, I went to mc and hit enter on the file. It unpacked itself to a directory. I went in and hit Enter on INSTALL but nothing happened.

It was a tgz file I downloaded from the isapnptools website. Do I need a different version for Mandriva?

Oh, and in Knoppix, the little blue icon to resize the screen was there, but it only went as far as 1024x768. That's with and without the screen=1280x1024 command. Just for info, it's a Radeon 9250 with multiple desktop support for Windows (I don't really need that in Linux though...)

My BIOS has a setting that just says PNP OS? y/n. I don't know which one to select because I don't know whether that switches PnP off or not.

It doesn't really do either, it instructs the BIOS as to whether the operating system is capable of plug and play; which of course it is. Therefore, you need to select "yes." If not, the BIOS will usurp control of PnP allowing a USB mouse/keyboard to be used on a legacy OS.

What I meant with the Knoppix suggestion was to start Knoppix then look at it's XF86Config-4 file, X's configuration file. Copy any bit that seems relevant, then paste it into the XF.... file on the system you want to fix. Just a thought, worked well for me.

There are two well know X configuing programs, one text one graphical. Perhaps find their names with x and then tab twice, or 'apropos config' or something.

There is a program called 'discover' which might find what your sound card is.

I installed alsa the other day, so I'm fresh on that, if you want to try that route. (Advanced linux sound architecture.):

Find the full name of the kernel, kernelversion doesn't give full on mine. Look through ?alpha-modules on your distribution and find one with your kernel name; install it.

Install ?alsa-base and its dependents and discover. Unmute alphmixer or whatever mixer. Use 'alsactl store' to store the mixer setting. Reboot probably.

May have to add user to audio group.

Sorry, my problem was misunderstanding the installation. As it happens, I ripped out my OPL3 SAx for a nice ABIT thing that just works, reinstalled again and set the graphics card properly. Phew!

So now the only thing I need up and running is the printer. I downloaded the z615 driver and followed the instructions, but it didn't work. The printer configurator still couldn't find it. Am I doing something wrong because this isn't Redhat 9 or something?

Not that I'm finished with the OPL3 SAx yet... I have another computer with a broken PSU and once I get that fixed I'm determined to beat it when I've got the time to read through stuff properly!

Thanks for the patience!