and now that it's all installed I'm having a couple issues I need help with.

First when mandrake 9.0 boots up I get a command prompt that resembles Dos sort of....what do I type here? It then will ask for my user name and password in that prompt? And how in the world do I work around that...since I installed it about 2 months ago and forgot the password.

2nd my rockwell covexant modem isn't recognised. Is there a way to get it to work with it or what should I do. I believe it to be a win modem.

3rd in your opinion what is probably the best add-on to run some basic windows stuff. When I say basic maybe a game or 2...like worms armageddon from team 17 and programs (apps) written for windows in either VB6 or C/C++ (maybe a written in visual C++)?

man If I can get my mandrake 9.0 to work with this windows will be leaving the building PRONTO

- Loco

1st Answer: You shouldn't get a black screen that your talking about... If you installed Disc 1 and Disc 2, you should automatically be taken to the nice GUI of mandrake. If you did install those cd's and this still happens, you need to type your user name and password (dont worry if you dont see little stars pop up cuz it is seeing what your typing) When you finally get to the command line, type startx.

2nd I dunno... Sry

3rd There are two good windows programs to emulate windows. Wine (Winex is better for gaming) or what I use is VMware which allows you to use multiple OS's in linux. I reccomend VMware, but make sure you follow the manual on the site EXACTLY!

Winex: http://www.transgaming.com/
VMware: http://www.vmware.com/

PS. Once you get into linux, make sure you learn to use your shell (you probly use Bash) go here to learn basics:
http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/all.html

1. Not sure - sounds like you have it starting at level 3 (I tend to stay with level 5 i.e. graphic interface). If you can remember the root password, then you should be able to change the user password.

2. Not sure - if it's a "winmodem" then you may never get it working. But you would need to surf for info on "winmodems" as I understand there are drivers available for some of them (though I don't know if conexant is one of them)

3. You would have to check out "wine" (or winex though I can't remember which is commercial and which is downloadable) - then you may be able to get some of the windows stuff working!

Sorry if that's no help.

regards

John

I'm not sure how youd get your password back from this situation - however - if you do manage it - you'll want to change your run level from 3 to 5

Open a console and type :

su
then type your root password - then

kedit /etc/inittab

change 3 to 5 in the id run level line ( id:x:initdefault) near the top - save the file - next time you boot up you should be in graphical mode

As for Winmodem information you could try checking out

www.linmodems.org/

Winmodems are often a headache to get sorted out in Linux - a safer bet would be an

External Serial modem

These are much easier to set up.

I have a conexant modem too, and a quick google for conexant linux driver returns http://www.mbsi.ca/cnxtlindrv/
These worked for me

alright, so u get to the login part of the console...
during mandrake install, u should have been asked for a "root" password

at the login, type root, then press enter
if u entered a password while installing madrake, enter that now and press enter, if not, it should not ask for a password, or if it does, don't type antyhing and press enter

now u should get something like [root@localhost root]
here, u should type startx

your screen might flicker, it's ok, unless you don't see or hear anything: if u see something, all is well, nothing is wrong with your distro or cd, come back and we'll tell u how to avoid this

if u don't get anything, then there may be a problem: it means that your monitor doesn't like the refresh rates set for it or it means linux doesn't like your video card (or it wasn't set up properly): if nothing showed up and u will probably see stripes, hit CTRL ALT F2 to get back into console and login as root again

type xf86drake, or xfdrake, or xf86cfg (one of those commands) to see if you can get your windows manager running (btw, startx command the X windows system to start)

a lot of this may make no sense, just come back for more help when u need it

Still haven't figured out your password?

Reboot. When lilo comes up with a menu to pick linux, windows, floppy etc., press CTRL and X at the same time. It'll give you a prompt that looks like:

boot:

type linux single
and press enter

It'll launch you to a prompt w/o a password. Then type "passwd <username>" It'll ask you to type the new password in twice. For good measure, change the root password with "passwd root" and a new password too. You'll understand later if you don't already.

Type reboot -n. Let it reboot. You'll see the password prompt again, but it's all yours now.

Then listen to everyone else and type "startx" when you have a prompt again and say hello to your xserver.

If it craps out, you've got it setup wrong... that's for another howto.

You want your winmodem working eh? Google for "Winmodem howto."

None of this crap working? Make sure you've got all 3 Mandrake Discs and reinstall it. All the problems should go away with a fresh install (granted, they didn't the first time, but make sure you've got all the discs and first time, you might as well install EVERYTHING unless you KNOW you wont' need it).

And an add-on for games? WineX is where it's at. There's nothing too it 'cept for a little cash. Wine'll get you there too, but it's not as friendly.

Good luck!

i am only going to address your modem issue

go to conexant website, see how to identify your modem, you will have to look at the card/chipset for positive id. i have an hsf, both windows and linux id it as hcf, wrong. btw the modem id programs do no better.

after you id your modem type, hcf or hsf, go to linuxant website, download appropriate, KERNEL SPECIFIC driver/install same

open terminal, type kppp, set up isp (use dialog, not wizard), query modem, etc - connect isp

if you upgrade to 9.1 or do new install with 9.1 then you will have to uninstall old driver, get new one 'cause now you have new kernel!