Which Distro?
 

I am new to Linux, and would liek to know which Linux core would work better for me. I am trying to get Mandrake, Slackware and Fedora working, but neither like to start the GUI since I have the 6800GT and don't know how to configure anything, I was wondering if you could help either with the installation of the driver for my vid card in slack or mandrake, or if there is a different distro that would suit me a bit better for gaming and learning linux. Thanks in advance!

my advice is to decide exactly what you want out of your system. Each distro has it's own benefits. Keep in mind, with slackware, some say it is a little more difficult because it is kept simple; however, if you do some research in the slackware forum, there is actually a thread called "this is how I do it all." It is pretty nice and helpfull. I would go to the link to the website and go through the steps. If you run into trouble, search through the thread. If you want something easier try Mandrake, Suse, Fedora or even check out Mepis which is quite easy to install as well and is a subversion of Debian.

i don't know about gaming... never thought about linux as a gaming OS... i dual-boot my computer, and use winOS for playing games, since most of them r made for winos...

whatever distro u want to use, get it as new as possible... did u try fedora core 3? i know i had problems before with ge force 5200 fx, wich i still have. i had to download newest version of x-windows, and it costed me quite some time... because the distro i was using wasn't as new as possible... that's my expirience

sorry about my spelling, hope i helped

If you want an easy time learning Linux I would say stick with Mandrake, SuSE, or Fedora. Slackware get get a bit dicey, especially for newer users. As for gaming...any Linux will really do as long as you can get Cedega (Old WineX project) to work on your machine: http://www.transgaming.com/

Cedega emulates a Windows Machine so that you can play almost any Windows based game. Don't expect to be on the front lines of gaming with Linux+Cedega however, as it does take some time to work out all the bugs that arise form emulating a Windows Machine.

Check out their supported games database: http://transgaming.org/gamesdb/, it is quite extensive.

Anyways, welcome to Linux and LQ!

In my opinion you should try Xandros and there Open Circulation version http://www.xandros.com/products/home..._oc_intro.html , it its designed specially for the new users of Linux.

I have use it and i think its the easier distro ever made :)

have u tried any livecd like knoppix , mepis , kanotix ??

man this question gets asked a lot. I'd first say what heema said - try knoppix on your computer for test purposes - is your computer compatible, etc. Second, i'll go with what the rest say, in that it is really your choice - to aid that choice, start off with the easier distributions. I would recommend Mandrake, mainly because it has nice GUIs for all system-related management tasks, which make it easy to configure your system. As for gaming, there really isn't a distribution "best" for gaming, because all games would probably run just as well on one than the other... depending on what x server you run, what libraries you have installed, and whether or not your video card has the best (and well supported) driver installed for it to support games that require it.

Don't start with slackware until you have a firm grasp on the basics of a linux system, and that could be a while. To learn, you need to start off easy, and make the transition as smooth as possible. Some new people started using debian right off the bat, and gave up because they didn't know (for example) what LILO was and where it was supposed to install to - stuff like that. The "easier" distributions make it easier to learn, because they don't require you to know as much - they automate many of the installation procedures, and do it (this is opinionated) pretty well.

Well, I have tried Knoppix. It runs perfect on my system, no flaws at all, just starts right up, and also, I would like to stick with Mandrake. That is what I have installed, so therefore, I would like to keep using that. Yes I have tried Fedora and it is just like Mandrake and Slackware, it is just that startx doesn't run at all! I know that it has to be my Video Card drivers since the errors are:

VGA driver does not support depth 24
Screens found because no devices are detected

FATAL ERROR
No Screen Found

I know that my vid card is supposedly installed since the Mandrake install found the nVidia GeForce 6800 (Generic) video driver for my card. It is just that nothing works.

Now my question is, what do I have to do in order to fix all of this? When I try to view the log; under root or my username it says, "Permission Denied" or something of that nature. What would be your advice since I am a :newbie: ?

I don't quite know if those are the exact errors, but those are the ones that I can remember from basically what they were saying. Sorry if that causes a problem! I am such a n00b. I feel really dumb for not knowling Linux but knowing Windows so well.

Could you post your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file? If you don't have that file, then this one /etc/X11/xorg. And which processor do you have?

If this produces any results, could you post that as well (got this from another thread but modified it myself) Also, what did you type to view the log file? should do it.

I will do this once I get home from work. I have the AMD Athlon XP 3200+ and the GeForce 6800GT with an AOpen AK79D-400VN MOBO. I think that should be what you need am I correct for the system specs?

Yes that's what i was looking for, for now. I"ll do some looking around to see if your video card has the compatibility as the others, etc etc. Should be fine to my knowledge, though....

*edit*

This would be the driver to download. If you don't know what's better about nvidia products from the linux point of view, is that their drivers have more compatibility than most other companies AND for their chips, they use one unified driver. So you only need to specify architecture of the processor, and the operating system.

Here is a snippet of their README file:
Looks like it's supported! So when you return home, my *suggestion* would be to install the Nvidia driver, which isn't too hard. I can help you through it (they provide a step-by-step procedure which isn't hard to follow either) :). Here is also a LQ.org Tutorial for installing Nvidia video cards on mandrake 9.1 (there shouldn't be that much of a difference at all for mdk10). So now you have three sources of help :D

Off of the top of my head, the problem would be the generic driver. The other would be a misconfigured X server configuration file. Installing the nvidia driver will correct the driver problem, and going through your config file should hint towards the problem (note that i am not an expert with video cards or their configuration files; i just know how to troubleshoot them to a certain extent beyond which i can't help... i'm still learning :p)

OK the only problem that I am going to have is downloading the file and installing it. I don't have a way to install the driver since I don't know how to download files using the prompt. What would I have to do for that. It is kinda difficult since I have to switch between HDD's to go between Linux and Windows, so that is why I am trying to get all of the steps so I can print them out in windows, switch HDD's and then configure Linux to work and then hopefully come back to the forums while on linux and say it is working. Do you know what I would have to do, kinda step-by-step since I don't know linux at all, to obtain, install, and configure the driver? Thank you SO much for all of your help student04. You are really being a lifesaver since I really want to get this running just have no idea how, or what to do.

Aw, it's no problem, really. I enjoy helping where i can.

As for download via the command line.... does it.

For example your driver would be this command That -c modifier just tells wget to allow for continuations of downloads. If you have a dialup connection i would imagine that that would work well...

Oh and you can surf the net with lynx. This is it's website. You can install it from your cds or the internet. If you don't have either wget (unlikely) or links, just do the following (Omit one if you have it already). Lynx works by typing it's name, and then the website. I don't have much experience with it, but i heard that lynx version 2 has support for many things.

Tahnk you very much, that is sweet. I didn't think that you could download from the command prompt. So basically I would say, go into my root directory, mkdir driver...cd into new driver folder...do the wget command...and then just type /driver/[name of file] and hit enter to install? If so what is the step after that, or both the correction and the steps. Thank you again student04