LinuxQuestions.org - Slackware newbie... Questions about usb mouse, power, bootsplash, GNOMEs

Well, this will probably turn out to be sort of a long post, so let me get started... Here we go...

First and foremost... Huge thanks to all of you people. Without you I wouldn't have even gotten this far. Thanks! :)

A little background... I have about 6 months of Linux experience so far. Mostly of it is with Debian, and I certainly know enough to get around. I installed Slackware 10 from the 2 CD set about 2 weeks ago, and there is something that I just really like about it. I just can't pinpoint it, but I think it is great, and will never go back to windows... Bleh!

Anyway, I have my Slackware 10 installed on a Toshiba Laptop, A65-s1063 to be specific. I followed the suggestions found in the Shilo's Tutorial, Insyte's Tutorial, and the pages that were linked to those pages. Most everything worked out well. I did a swaret --update to current about a week ago, and that broke some stuff. I figured I may as well keep going on up to bigger, better things, and fix everything that is broken after I get where I wanted to be... Well, I installed kernel 2.6.10, and have been tweaking with it for a few days now. I have resolved most of my sound issues and USB problems while tweaking the kernel. Anyway, f you are reading this you are probably getting bored right about now, so let me get right to my problems...

1. Mouse:

Originally, my synaptic touchpad worked just fine, and so did my USB mouse. After I did swaret --upgrade, my USB mouse stopped working. Okay, I did a mouseconfig and set it up to use my touchpad. After my first kernel compile the touchpad doesn't work the way it is supposed to, I was able to double-tap and hold to drag, etc... This is fine by me, because I would rather use my USB mouse anyway. When I plug in my USB mouse, the laser lights up, and everything looks kosher. I do a mouseconfig, set it to USB, and then reboot, and my touchpad is still the only working mouse. I think it probably has to do with a /dev/mouse link, but I could be wrong. Maybe I don't have a module I need, I don't know. Speaking of modules, here is the output of lsmod:

Code:

Module                  Size        Used by

snd_pcm_oss              48708  -

snd_mixer_oss            17388  -

snd_atiixp_modem      13444  -

pcmcia                        16944  -

yenta_socket              19052  -

pcmcia_core                51648  -

I have never seen any modules loaded, but not used by something... Bizarre.

Next Problem: This should be an easy one...

2. GNOME:

How do I change the menus in GNOME? Should be a simple enough problem... In Debian, I can just do update-menus as user, and blam! That, or it happens automatically... I have been able to set up some launchers for some of my programs, but it would be so much easier if everything was just... there. For this reason I am using KDE, hopefully temporarily.

3. Power:

With the fresh install, reboot would reboot my machine, now, after the upgrade to kernel 2.6.10, it acts as if I ran a shutdown -h at the CLI.

Lastly... (For the moment anyway)

4. Bootsplash:

During my kernel configuration, I enabled bootsplash, frame buffer (vesafb) @ 1024x780, and console frame buffer support. I downloaded a theme from bootsplash.de, I think, installed it just like suggested. I think my problem is in the LILO configuation. Here is my lilo.conf:

Code:

# LILO configuration file

# generated by 'liloconfig'

#

# Start LILO global section

boot = /dev/hda

#compact        # faster, but won't work on all systems.

prompt

timeout = 50

#VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256

vga = 773

# Normal VGA console

# vga = normal

# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k

# vga=791

# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k

# vga=790

# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256

# vga=773

# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k

message=/boot/xray-blue.boot



# End LILO global section

# Linux bootable partition config begins

image = /boot/vmlinuz

  root = /dev/hda1

  label = SlackwareX2.6

  initrd = /boot/initrd

  append ="splash=verbose"

  read-only

  password="password"

  restricted

image = /boot/vmlinuz-ide-2.4.26

  root = /dev/hda1

  label = SlackwareX2.4

  read-only

  password="password"

  restricted

Anyway... what I was thinking is that it points to the original initrd from fresh install. When I configured my new kernel, was I supposed to do some extra step to make a new initrd? Just my thoughts...

Anyways, I would love some assistance with this stuff, it could only make my slackbox a whole lot better. I will resist the urge to mess with some stuff here for a lil while, at least until I get a little feedback.

Thanks!