[Gloucs] Mandrake 8.2 on a Dell Inspiron 8100

[Dave Addison]

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Hi Mike,

The graphics card stuff is a bit dense, X is one of the least well=20
supported parts of the system when it comes to graphical configuration=20
utilities and Nvidia won't let the distributions ship their reference=20
drivers. However, my GeForce 2MX is entirely happy so the problem should=20
not be insoluble.

The NVidia drivers should directly support Mandrake 8.2. You'll need to=20
download the vanilla GLX RPM and the kernel driver RPM for the Mandrake=20
8.2 UP i586.

As you're about to modify the display driver I would suggest doing the=20
rest of the process from a console. Install the RPMs using the commands

rpm -ivh NVIDIA_kernel.i386.rpm

Messages should say that the kernel driver has been successfully loaded.=20
If not, quit while you're ahead.

Next, install the NVIDIA_GLX RPM by doing:

rpm -ivh NVIDIA_GLX.i386.rpm

After that, you have to modify the configuration file for the Xserver=20
(make a copy first so you can put the original back if things go wrong).
The relevant section of the NVIDIA README is:

(sec-03) EDITING YOUR XF86CONFIG FILE
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

When XFree86 4.0 was released, it used a slightly different XF86Config
file syntax than the 3.x series did, and so to allow both 3.x and 4.x
versions of XFree86 to co-exist on the same system, it was decided that
XFree86 4.x was to use the configuration file "/etc/X11/XF86Config-4"
if it existed, and only if that file did not exist would the file
"/etc/X11/XF86Config" be used.  Please make sure you know what
configuration file XFree86 is using.  If you are in doubt, look for a
line beginning with "(=3D=3D) Using config file: " in the your XFree86 log
file ("/var/log/XFree86.0.log").  This README will use "XF68Config"
to refer to your configuration file, whatever it is named.

<Next bit doesn't matter because you have a working setup, and it then=20
goes on to say>

If you already have an XF86Config file working with a different driver
(such as the 'nv' driver), then all you need to do is find the relevant
Device section and replace the line:

         Driver "nv"

     with

         Driver "nvidia"

In the Module section, make sure you have:

         Load   "glx"

You should also remove the following lines:

         Load  "dri"
         Load  "GLcore"

if they exist.  There are also numerous options that can be added to
the XF86Config file to fine-tune the NVIDIA XFree86 driver.

This has always been relatively painless for me.

I don't know about Mandrake but on my system /dev/dvd is a pointer to=20
the CDROM device (a "symbolic link" in Unix speak) and you should=20
therefore be able to create it if you know which device to point it at.

You could try the command "ls -l /dev/cdrom". On my system this gives=20
the following output:

[dave@phaedra1 dave]$ ls -l /dev/cdrom
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root            9 Oct 26  2001 /dev/cdrom ->=20
/dev/scd1

This basically says that the cdrom device is a pointer to /dev/scd1=20
(which is a CDROM drive in my system).

Alternatively the "dmesg" command will print all the system messages=20
from boot and should tell you which device is your DVD although this is=20
probably more confusing


Once you know which device your CDROM is, you can create the /dev/dvd=20
using the following command

ln -s /dev/scd1 /dev/dvd

where you should replace "/dev/scd1" with the correct device for your CD=20
drive. The leading / is important. This should clear the error message=20
on startup. I guess that your DVD might be /dev/scd0 if Mandrake=20
configured itself to use the CD burner.

The message on shutdown sounds a bit odd and reminds me of some problems=20
that used to occur with a program called supermount which automatically=20
made removable discs available when inserted. (Feel free to disagree=20
here anyone.) If you're using Gnome as your desktop, you could try KDE=20
and see if the problem goes away (or vice versa).

<flamebait>
If you do decide to try another distribution, I've tried Suse 7.3 which=20
is very user friendly and I've heard that Suse 8.1 is one of the best=20
available
</flamebait>

Hope this is of some use. You could always bring the machine along to=20
the next meeting if all else fails.
--=20
Dave Addison

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