ive manged to get mandrake up and running

Boston

wasnt that hard to install to my supprise, but im finding it hard to make my way around it, anybody have the basics for mandrake, i mean like customizing it, and figuring my way around the programs, i mean i cant seem to access my emails, what do i do.

Warning, this is bond to be the first of many question topics, as im totaly new to linux.

Boston

actually the most important things are

how can i change screen res
how can i access other partitions
weres the my computer of mandrake

dahamsta

I like Mandrake.

how can i change screen res

UP: CTRL + ALT + + (plus sign)
DOWN: CTRL + ALT + - (minus sign)

You may need to reconfigure X though. In Red Hat, you would use Xconfigurator, and I'm assuming the same goes for Mandrake. Open a console window and type 'Xconfigurator', follow the instructions.

how can i access other partitions

What kind of partitions? For FAT, you would do something like this:

mount -t vfat /dev/hdaX

Where X is the partition. Have a look at the man page for mount (type 'man mount' in the console) for a bit more info, or give us more information.

weres the my computer of mandrake

There isn't one. How about the Mandrake Control Centre? Should be on your panel.

adam

Boston

Right ive sorted out the email client im using kmail,

the res thing didnt work, it did something but not what i wanted.

i dont know what a console window is

and ive no idea how to mount a drive, as in ive no idea what you mean by main page (main memu maybe)

the question probably sound totaly stupid to you but as ive said, im greener then green at this.

one things, how to i change browser to comthing more agreable with the boards, im using modzilla, i want to use netscape,

Boston

no actually, ive looked at both, is it just me or is modzilla netscape.

anyway, is there aother decent browser client out there that works well with mandrake

seamus

Originally posted by Boston

i dont know what a console window is

Just like an MS-DOS prompt window. It gives you a command-line interface inside a window. In GNOME/KDE it normally comes as default on the main 'toolbar'.

and ive no idea how to mount a drive, as in ive no idea what you mean by main page (main memu maybe)

That wasn't a spelling mistake, he actually meant 'man page'. Every command (and other things) in linux has a manual in-built. The way to access these manuals is to type 'man command' at a command prompt, hence why they are called 'man' pages.

the question probably sound totaly stupid to you but as ive said, im greener then green at this.

I've only had Red Hat installed a couple of weeks. It gets way easier, once you realise that it's not as simple as any MS OS and is way more powerful

Boston

well ive a week to get my head around it, then its firewall and sever time.

ive still no idea how to open that console window, it doesnt seem to be under the main menu

chernobyl

You should be finding it easier than your first time with a windows pc.
i was able to find the control panel etc in minutes.
mandrake is very much GUI so it may be different but not black/white.

Mixie

Boston,

'Console' is called Terminal in mandrake, its on the toolbar at the bottom of your screen, usually represented by a black squarish icon. Typing Dahmastas mount command there will mount the drive.

On your desktop, 'mandrake control centre' will let you change your screen resolution.

sisob

Originally posted by Boston
actually the most important things are

how can i change screen res

run XFdrake

how can i access other partitions

run diskdrake

weres the my computer of mandrake

things are different in linux.

in /home/[username] you personal files are stored

in /mnt your other partitions are mounted.

you can use the file manager to browse these directories.

Boston

some good stuff guys, im off to try them, i actually found termainals, by accident last night, but closed them because i was lookign for consoles ha, anywho, it should be good, i actually like it which is a surprise

Boston

i found out how to mount a drive, it was in control centre, and it sends them to the mnt folder, which is handy.

it also saved alot of other questions as thats were my cd rom drive is as well,

the res change worked great. so far its flying

but seriously, is there any thrid party web browser out there that can handle this board alittle better, cause i just couldnt take this

and sound, i cant seem to be able to hear mp3s, they are playing, but i cant hear them

Boston

i found the sound problem, ive, inbuilt sound and a sb live 5.1 sound card. now one thing is for sure the drives for the sb are old, but it may just be that mandrake is trying to use intergrated sound. any ideas about this?

Typedef

Boston.
link to sblive setup http://www.euronet.nl/~mailme/
if your onboard sound is disabled in your bios then you probably just have to tweak your mixer settings. Try to up the volume on your sound card with gmix.

If that doesn't work then.

Open and terminal and as root type.

lsmod

if you have a module listed called
sbpcd then you are sorted.

It might be that some 'daemon' is interferring with sound production.
Again as root try this.

ps -a
or ps -a Typedef(replacing typedef with your login name)
now if you notice artsd, esd or any other process with a name that ends with sd ie somedaemon(sd) then find it's pid or the number corresponding to it in a ps listing.

example
ps -a Typedef
339 v7 Is+ /usr/local/bin/artsd

type
kill 339
try to run an mp3 again.
It might work?

sisob

Originally posted by Boston

but seriously, is there any thrid party web browser out there that can handle this board alittle better, cause i just couldnt take this

what exactly is wrong? what browser are you using? I find galeon works well.

Boston

i will try that now Typedef

im using netscape with modzoila

everything is crampt together, like really compact, and it doesnt seem to support the same fonts as ie, the one it replaces them with is fussy and hard to make out.

sisob

i fired up netscape and yeah - the fonts are a pain.
I'd sugest you use mozilla or galeon.

as for the cramping i couldnt see that - maybe you have an older version than i do. what version of mandrake are you using

Stephen

Hey - I'm another linux newbie. I installed mandrake (7.2) on my pc the other week, and have done most of what's above to customize it to my liking. The problem is that KDE seems to run really slow. Takes ages to launch web browsers/new windows/other programs etc.

I still prefer windows 2000

dahamsta

You should try a newer version Stephen, 7.2 is really quite old. As an example, the difference between Red Hat 7.2 and 6.2 is astounding. I wouldn't feel comfortable on a workstation on Red Hat < 7.2, but the only thing holding me back at this stage is the lack of VMware for 7.2. With VMware, I'd say farewell to Windows as my primary forever.

adam

Stephen

Yeh, I just installed mandrake 7.2 cos that's what I actually had with me at the time.

I think I can get my hands on a mandrake 8.something cd, or possibly some other distro.

what the fup is VMWare then?

TheWarden

VMWare allows you to run other OSes from within Linux. So you can create a partition or virtual partition with Win2k installed and then use VMware to "boot" it up. It basically emulates a PC bios and then runs as a task under Linux. During my tests I'd say you get speeds at around 70-90% of booting natively into Win2k. It doesnt do graphics very fast so forget about games. But can be useful if you just want to run Word and other productivity programs. It provides networking between the host Linux OS and the running OS too.

We used it in college to provide diskless access to Linux and windows programs from a central server. Handy as we had loads of old crappy computers lying around that we could use as dummy terminals. Of course terminal services does a better job of this nowadays....

dahamsta

Stephen,

Always try to get the latest release of Linux distros, particularly if the current release /isn't/ X.0. Mandrake is at 8.1 at the moment, and there's a beta of 8.2 out. Red Hat is at 7.2, and that's a nice distro too.

What's VMware? VMware is cool.

adam

Yerac

Apologies in advance if I'm posting this in the wrong area but I'm very new to the area of Linux. My question is in relation to installation. I've got a copy of Mandrake 8.1 on the 3 CD's but having probs getting the machine to read it.
Basically I've made my boot disk on floppy, booted the machine with floppy and CD 1 in place but once I get past the initial Linux information screens I get a response along the lines of "The CD does not appear to be a Mandrake Linux installation" disk".
I'm just wondering if anyone has any ideas what this might signify and any possible work-arounds. Cheers.

Typedef

If z disks were burned from a pc cdrw then and you are using the burned disks in an 'old' cdrom say an 8x, there is a chance that because of the 'amorphous' way data was written to the cdrom that the 'slow' cdrom can't read it. Try removing the hard-disk from the pc and installing mandrake via another computer.

Boston

Ive decided its not worth the hassel, looks good allright but its to slow to respond for my liking, i may invest in the firewall/router version sometime in the future. but as ive a router with full nat support theres no real need, thanks for the help