Hi!

I just installed Mandrake 10.1 on my laptop, with the hope of getting my ATI card drivers working (I know - good luck).

How do I tell which kernel is my current one - and how do I go about upgrading it to the most current?

I'm kind of used to RedHat and the likes which have automatic updates.

Thanks!

open a terminal as root & type........... uname -r

that will give you your running kernel version. if you do uname -a, that will give you your kernel info, plus a few other bits of system info.

Mandrake, by default, won't "upgrade" a kernel for you. it will install a newer version in addition to your current kernel. it's a failsafe. if you just upgrade a kernel & the new kernel won't boot for some reason, you're in for a major hassle or you can be screwed, depending on your know how. by installing a new kernel beside your old one, should the new one not boot, you still have your original to fall back on. once you know the new kernel is ok, you can then safely remove the old one, should you wish to.

how to get a new kernel (or any app)? basically, 2 ways............

first, you'll need external sources (package repository mirrors). you can go to Easy URPMI. follow the intructions there & set up "contrib" & "plf" sources, at least. you can get "update" sources there, but you can also get those via the Mandrake Control Center (more on that in a bit). stay away from "cooker" sources if you don't like things breaking or possibly screwing up your system. "cooker" apps are betas/testing grounds for newer versions of things & are often unstable. finally, if you set up a "main" source, you can pull all apps that are on the install cd's from a mirror, plus get a few bonus apps that aren't on the cd's.

once you have your sources in place, you can get a new kernel (should there be one available), or any application package, for that matter. you can do this 2 ways.

the easy GUI method.........

open Mandrake Control Center. you can do that by going to the menu panel->system->configuration->configure your computer link, or by typing mcc in a terminal as root. once opened, go to software management. from there you can install/remove/update software & manage your media sources in GUI mode. your first place to check for a kernel update is in the "updates" module. just click it, let it search the mirror for any available updates, pick what you want, install. second way to install is click on "install software". pick anything form the lists you want to install, or type something in the search box to search for it.

the command line way...........

the Mandrake software installers are just GUI front ends for URPMI. URPMI is a very handy tool. i won't explain all about it here, 'cause there's far to much to explain. for all URPMI options, do man urpmi in a terminal. a quick lesson though........... to install a package with urpmi, open a terminal as root. then type urpmi <name of package here> (hit enter). urpmi will find the package in your sources if it's available & install it. if it finds more than one package with the same name, it will list them & ask you to choose one. it also takes care of any dependencies you might need. you can use partial names or wild cards to search for apps, such as urpmi kernel* would find any kernel available. you can also do urpmE to remove apps. such as, urpme <name of package> will remove the app.

hope that helped a bit.

otis

Thank you very much for that well thought out response.

Just to add to this post - once I have successfully upgraded the kernel, how should I go about installing the ATI drivers?
Mandrake did recognize my ATI card - but since I just downloaded the iso files, the driver didn't come with it.

Should I just download the driver from ATI and use rpm to install it?
Or is there a better way with Mandrake??

Thanks again.

just to let you know that uname -r also works as a normal user without root privileges.

jacksmash............

go here -> http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html

get the linux graphics driver for your card. i don't use ATI, i use Nvidia. but, i see all the ATI drivers are in RPM format, so after you download go here -> http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/linuxhowto-ati.html for info on how to install it properly.

it looks pretty straight forward, from what i can see. maybe an ATI user will post here with any specifics you should be aware of.

otis

OK - one question before I start this install.

The ati howto states the following:

Make sure the following software is already installed on your system:
glibc version 2.2 or 2.3
XFree86 version 4.1.0, 4.2.0, or 4.3.0
Kernel source code
Kernel header (include) files
GCC compiler
Make Utility

Everything is fine here - except I'm not sure about the Kernel source code and header files. There is a note right after which reads:

NOTE: Kernel source code and header files must match the version of the kernel you are using. For example, Mandrake 10.0's precompiled kernel version is 2.6.3-7mdk, for which you should need kernel-source-2.6.3-7mdk RPM release.


NOTE: Your kernel may have restrictions on which compiler versions can be used. Please check your Linux documentation for more information on installing kernel source code.

I have no idea what to do about this!!

My kernel version is: 2.6.8.1-10mdk, so my understanding is that I would need the
kernel-source-2.6.8.1-10mdk RPM release. How do I go about doing this?

Thanks for the help so far!!

yes, you're correct. you need a matching kernel source installed for your kernel so the drivers can compile. you can get that via one of the 2 ways i described in my earlier post.

1............. use Mandrake Control Center->software->install & type kernel in the search. pick the kernel-source that EXACTLY matches your kernel. for kernel- 2.6.8.1-10mdk, the source would be kernel-source- 2.6.8.1-10mdk. matching the source with the kernel is important, so make sure you pick the correct one. it's on one of the CD's, or if you've updated the kernel it will be available from an update source. Mandrake will not offer kernel-sources as updates. you have to manually do a search for them, but they will be available from the update source.

2.............. in terminal as root type........

if it finds only one kernel-source, it will auto install it. if it finds more than one, it will show you what it found & ask you to choose one. again, make sure you choose the proper matching source for your kernel.

otis

Ok, I tried your second choice. It asked for one of the CD's and started installing it.

Let's see what happens...

Ok. It installed fine.

Now I'm going to try the rest of the steps.

Ok, I was able to get through the process without any errors! I thought I was going in the right direction until I restarted the computer.

Now I can only boot into text mode - no graphics.
I try startx and it fails.

I'm not sure what went wrong or what I should check. I can't even display any files here because I can't get into graphical mode (I'm on my windows box right now).

Is it possible that the kernel-source on my installation CD didn't match? How would I check?

Please bear with me on this one!

Ok, it seems that I got the drivers installed ok.

But there is still something wrong.

When I run lsmod, fglrx is definitely there.
When I run glxinfo, I get Direct Rendering = YES
When I run fglrxinfo, it shows ATI and no MESA stuff.

So far so good?

Well, I definitely have no 3D acceleration, because glxgears crashes my system.

Any suggestions??

jacksmash...........

i really can't be of much help with your ATI problems, sorry. as i said earlier, i use Nvidia. i don't know the ins & outs of ATI. if you go to the link i provided in my earlier post for ATI installation, you'll see there's some troubleshooting topics there. ("possible installation issues") there's some stuff there about fglrx & AGP support. i'd suggest checking those out & see if it fixes things for you, or starting another thread about your specific ATI issues. also, you can do a search of this forum for ATI install info. there's already several good threads on that. here's some ATI search results to get you started.

otis

Ok. I'll do that.

THanks Otis.