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Linux woes

djberg96 on 2003-12-14T16:48:33

I created Linux (Mandrake 9) partition and installed Linux on my new desktop. Unfortunately, X failed miserably and I'm stuck in command line mode. Even after installing the driver rpm from NVidia, X windows won't start, and I don't know what I need to do to the XF86config file to make it work.

Also, I need to figure out how to disable CUPS, because it makes it hang on startup.

Bleh...

For some live support

WebDragon on 2003-12-14T19:52:53

You might consider firing up an irc client, hopping on irc.freenode.net, and hitting up the #mandrake support channel.

I've been using the #redhat #perl, #vim, #mondo, and #fedora channels for quite some time and have generally found freenode to be quite friendly and informative.

XF86Config file

mary.poppins on 2003-12-15T09:23:54

First off -- I think NetBSD is a much nicer unix than the "user-friendly" linux distros. It is less complicated, and thus both easier to understand and more correct.

In any case: for the XF86Config file, run:

      XFree86 -configure > /etc/XF86Config

which probes your hardware and emits a pretty-good config file. Typically, all you have to do after that is to set your preferred resolution, by adding a DefaultDepth line:

Section "Screen" ...
                DefaultDepth 24 ...

and make sure X is using the right frequencies for your monitor, by looking at the /var/log/X* file.

Re:XF86Config file

djberg96 on 2003-12-15T16:23:58

First off -- I think NetBSD is a much nicer unix than the "user-friendly" linux distros. It is less complicated, and thus both easier to understand and more correct.

At the conference in Austin, someone helped me install BSD on my 1 1/2 year old laptop. If he hadn't been sitting there helping me along, there is no way I would have gotten it installed - it was painful. I still don't have dhcp working, despite following "the manual" the best I can.

Re:XF86Config file

mary.poppins on 2003-12-16T06:16:37

What do you mean by "BSD"? One of the old releases from UCB?

If you mean FreeBSD: I tried FreeBSD 4.X a while ago and it felt like a buggier, cruftier version of NetBSD. In particular, the 4.X rc scripts are terrible. As of 5.X they have imported the NetBSD 1.5 (fall 2000) rc system. From what I've heard, though, 5.X is really buggy.

I assume you don't mean OpenBSD.

If you haven't tried NetBSD, I urge you to do an ftp install and give it a whirl. Just download and burn two floppy images, boot, and follow instructions of the curses-based installer.

NetBSD is not entirely cruft-free (you can't be, and still be unix), but it's nicer than the other unixes I've used (AIX (blech!), Solaris, HPUX, Debian, Red Hat (blech!), and FreeBSD). The man pages are great. Lots of people complain about the dhcp stuff, though. NetBSD includes the ISC dhcp, which has been developed in the great tradition of BINDcrap.

If you want to make a bunch of people happy, you could write a good, BSD-licensed dhcp implementation in C. :)

The funny thing about all this is that I'm a big believer in the GPL. I just happen to like NetBSD better than the GPLed alternatives.

Re:XF86Config file

djberg96 on 2003-12-16T15:51:58

Yeah, FreeBSD 4.9 actually. I didn't realize that there was a significant difference between Net* and Free*. :)

Well, it's already installed so I think I'll stick with it for now. Mainly I wanted it just to see what *BSD is like in general and to futz around with lkvm.