NEW Slacker needs help on his spankin' new install
 

Hi there, after some 3 or 4 years of stifling my growing passion for Linux I finally bit the bullet and with much joy, installed Fedora Core 2. I liked it but found it a little too fluffy for my taste (I am not insulting my fellow mad hatters, this is a personal preference) I then, after a few false starts, successfully installed Slackware 10. I LOVE it, I WANT it, I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT IT! It runs my basic hardware beautifully. The problem is that I can't seem to figure out how to work the basic issues of hardware detection/configuration and package management out. I need to figure out the following:

1) Graphics- I am running an NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX420 (PNY) card and have installed the 6106 driver. I have not configured xorg.conf successfully yet, my first three attempts yeilded I/O errors.

2) Sound- I am running a SB Live Card

3) Drives- I have 1 52x CDROM that was detected in the install, my old CDRW and Zip100 were not recognized

4) Printer- I have a bright, shiny new HP DeskJet 5150. I need it to work

5) Router- I am sporting a Netgear RP614v2 Safe Router Gateway, it likes to randomly cut out on me.

Now, here is what I have attempted:

1) Graphics- Nothing to any success, I entered a few lines taken from NVIDIA's readme and it hated me. The xorg.conf file I was looking at didn't look like what they were referring to in the readme, I am back on my VESA driver for right now. The one time I thought I had it, I kicked into 1280x 1024 resolution and it was all icky lookin' (256 colors and misaligned)

2) Sound- I have tried nothing save unmuting alsamixer and storing it, still no sound

3) Drives- I have no idea how to use modprobe and therefore have failed to make any headway here.

4) Printer- Had it working on my second install under KDE, I am at a loss under GNOME.

5) Router- Hmmmm. I have no idea

I have also tried to recompile my kernel twice, I have absolutely no idea what I am doing. I gather that the bare (bear?) kernel from the install needs to be compiled to support my hardware. I also gather that my woes could be easily solved if I knew how to ask the right questions. Any referrence material would be loved. I won't lie I would love to have somebody lead me through this all the way, but I also know that I can only learn some things by hurting myself.

I am running a P4 on an Asus motherboard, 700 some MB of ram and an NEC monitor. I also have MS Winderz on this box and it boots perfectly under LILO. I just need these problems solved. I am more than happy to do the legwork necessary to learn this, I just need to have fairly specific instruction on where to look and what applies to Slackware. Thank you all SO MUCH for your time and consideration.

"Point me toward danger Azim. I'm ready..."

-Kurt :newbie: :scratch:

Re: NEW Slacker needs help on his spankin' new install
 

Well there are too many things here to solve all at once...

1) If your nvidia install went correctly you should be able to start the nvidia drivers simply be changing vesa to nvidia and enabling/disabling the correct options at the top (glx should be enabled and dri should be commented out). This won't get it running up to it's capabilities but it should work. If it is still failing post the errors you are receiving.

2) I don't have a SB myself but there have been quite a few posts on SBs on the Slackware forum, you might try searching and reding those.

3) Chances are the CD-ROM is recognized, just not mapped to a mount point. check the /dev/hd* nodes (hda is master on IDE1 hdb is the slave, hdc is master on IDE2, hdd is slave, etc...) alternatively it could be listed as a SCSI drive if you are using 2.4. try "cdrecord -scanbus" and see if a drive comes up. My guess is it would be sda. No idea on the zip. Is that considered a floppy drive? might be fda.

4) Use Cups, again do a search in the Slack forum for Cups.

5) no idea at all, I would suspect a faulty router but you say windows works fine.


P.S. For directions on how to compile your kernel check the sticky threads on the Slackware forum (again). They should get you started.

Thank you
 

Mephisto, I appreciate your rapid response:D , I will check those references. I will keep you posted. Once again thank you.

I know a guy, that also has slackware 10.0 and uses a router to surf on the internet.
He told me that he just used a program to automticly assign an ip to each computer( forgot the name :scratch: ) on boot, and then you can type http://10.0.0.138 in a webbrowser to configure your router further.
EDIT:
About the sound, i used kmix.

As far as the Deskjet 5150 goes, try this link at Linuxprinting.org for install instructions and recommended drivers. They say that this printer "mostly works", but if it's every bit as good as my PSC1350 that "mostly works", then you should have no real probs.

HTH
Baldrick

Ok so I have my sound working well. My video situation is growing frustrating, after I try to configure xorg.conf I always get a "no screens found" error. Any Ideas?

-Kurt

Can you post your Device section, your Screen section, your Monitor Section and finally your ServerLayout? You could post the entire xorg.conf but it will probably be too long for a post and would be that much more to wade through.

here are examples from my a Single monitor set-up, if you want TwinView it will take more work, but first let's try and get you into X in the simplest manner. NOTE: You won't want to cut and pate my config, I am just providing it as an example. Notice how layout points to Screen and Screen points to Device and Monitor. Based on the error you are recieving either this chain is broken or the Screen does not have any valid values.

xorg.conf
 

**********************************************************************
# Monitor section
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of monitor sections may be present

Section "Monitor"

Identifier "My Monitor"

# HorizSync is in kHz unless units are specified.
# HorizSync may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY. REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.

HorizSync 31.5 - 50.0

# HorizSync 30-64 # multisync
# HorizSync 31.5, 35.2 # multiple fixed sync frequencies
# HorizSync 15-25, 30-50 # multiple ranges of sync frequencies

# VertRefresh is in Hz unless units are specified.
# VertRefresh may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY. REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.

VertRefresh 40-90

EndSection


# **********************************************************************
# Graphics device section
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of graphics device sections may be present

Section "Device"
Identifier "VESA Framebuffer"
Driver "vesa"
#VideoRam 4096
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Screen sections
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of screen sections may be present. Each describes
# the configuration of a single screen. A single specific screen section
# may be specified from the X server command line with the "-screen"
# option.
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "VESA Framebuffer"
Monitor "My Monitor"

# If your card can handle it, a higher default color depth (like 24 or 32)
# is highly recommended.

# DefaultDepth 8
# DefaultDepth 16
DefaultDepth 24
# DefaultDepth 32

# "1024x768" is also a conservative usable default resolution. If you
# have a better monitor, feel free to try resolutions such as
# "1152x864", "1280x1024", "1600x1200", and "1800x1400" (or whatever your
# card/monitor can produce)

Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# ServerLayout sections.
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of ServerLayout sections may be present. Each describes
# the way multiple screens are organised. A specific ServerLayout
# section may be specified from the X server command line with the
# "-layout" option. In the absence of this, the first section is used.
# When now ServerLayout section is present, the first Screen section
# is used alone.

Section "ServerLayout"

# The Identifier line must be present
Identifier "Simple Layout"

# Each Screen line specifies a Screen section name, and optionally
# the relative position of other screens. The four names after
# primary screen name are the screens to the top, bottom, left and right
# of the primary screen. In this example, screen 2 is located to the
# right of screen 1.

Screen "Screen 1"

# Each InputDevice line specifies an InputDevice section name and
# optionally some options to specify the way the device is to be
# used. Those options include "CorePointer", "CoreKeyboard" and
# "SendCoreEvents".

InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"

EndSection

I would say that it is far more likely that the stated values are erroneous, I am having a hard time understanding the basic method of manipulating .conf files. I would like to get a good pointer as to where to I could study that process. Mephisto, I really do appreciate all of the work you are doing, I will try to keep up. thank you again.

-Kurt

The part I put in bold should read nvidia [i]not[/n] "vesa".

Baldrick

As Baldrick said try changing vesa to nvidia. As far as learning this stuff, the forums are not a bad place to start, and google is your friend. Here are a couple web sites by regulars in the Slackware forum that may be of use:

http://www.insyte.uni.cc/

http://shilo.is-a-geek.com/slack/

After a while you don't really even think about it, you just know what to look for. Then if you can't figure it out hit google.

Not sure if this apply's to you or not.. but when I was installing the graphics drivers for my nvidia card in slackware 9... I was having ALL KINDS OF PROBLEMS. I randomly decided to try updating my bios.. not sure where the idea came from, but I tried it, and the drivers worked perfectly without a problem after that. If you havn't already figured it out, you might want to try that.

(I was using an epox 8RDA+ if thats what you're using i'd give it a try)

Thanks
 

Well, I have officially viewed my first NVIDIA splash screen, I am having a little trouble with screen resolution but I will consult the links mephisto shot me, thank you again mephisto, as to the rest of you, I had heard that you were a supportive group of people, but I had no idea how timely and comprehensive your responses really were. I will use this forum only as an emergency measure, it is very nice to know that I will be in good hands if and when I do. I look forward to helping a few noobs out in the future. You have all been splendid, thank you again.

-Kurt

PS If anyone would like to continue dropping tips for the resolution thing I am all ears.

Baldrick and mephisto. Your service has been exemplary! I will remember you when I impliment my new world order.

-Kurt

/me throws Kurt some prozac and valium...