i have never used linux before ( ), but would love to try it out. through much research, i have decided to start with mandrake. i tried downloading the three iso version from the mandrake website (the version for i586 or above). well, to test it out i opened up vmware and installed it on a virtual machine jsut to see if i could figure it out. well, it was installing, and it said there were four installation cds i could have (the fourth having kde 3.3), but i decided only to use the first three, cause those were the only ones i had. well, it installed and rebooted, but then i was stuck in a command-line based os that i couldn't really see (cause it was in a window), and i had no idea how to get the gui working. first off, how do i run kde (that's the gui, isn't it)?

secondly, i have an a64 cpu. is there a 64-bit version of mandrake?

ok... firstly, a better title would be appreciated next time... but hey.. you're only young once.

i *think* that the 4th cd is actually on the 3rd cd... there used to be 2 small sets of packages on the 3rd cd back in the days i used to use RPM's.

KDE is not THE gui... X is the windowing system, and KDE will add toolbars, menu's, wallpapers etc... to the actual mouse-moving-around-on-the-screen stuff that X provides. there is also gnome that can provide this, and many many dozens of other smaller ones. if you have got X configured to load correctly, try just running "startx" in the console, and that will try to load X and whatever window manager it can find.

if you want to install kde, i think on mandrake, you want to just run "urpmi kde" as root, and it will ask for the relevant cd's etc... you can also configure urpmi to download things directly from the internet as needed.

thx, i'll try it out. sry bout the bad title, i wasn't too sure how to express my confusion

so, once i boot into mandrake, do i type "urpmi kde" (obviously without the quotation marks) or "startx" to get the full fledged gui? and is there a way to get this to happen automatically?

I've never done an install with vmware, so I cannot comment on that. There is a 64-bit version of Mandrake though. As stated, first try "startx" at the command line and see if it will boot into KDE. The fourth disc of Mandrake--to my understanding--is not needed for a basic install.

The 4:th cd is only for Mandrake club memebers and contains som extra stuff. Probably to make it more worthwile to become a member.

/Fnurr

do i need that 4th cd to get the gui? i really don't want to have to pay for the distro i use, but i want it to be easy to use (mandrake is relatively easy, isn't it?) cause i don't really know what i'm doing with it.

No you don't need the 4:th cd.
KDE, Gnome and a few others are included on the 3 cd set.
If you have a fast internet connection you could add PLF (Penguin liberation front) really good stuff as an urpmi source and get some extra programs. You should also add the contrib directory as an urpmi.
You'll find the contrib at any mandrake mirror under for example:
ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/os/Linux/dist....1/i586/media/
(here you could make a guess at my nationallity )

And yes Mandrake is fairly easy.
/Fnurr