[Sussex] Installing Gentoo - more questions

[Matthew Macdonald-Wallace]

On Wed, 2003-12-17 at 09:16, John D. wrote:
> Hi list,
> 
> where to start with my questions?
> 
> Erm, Ok, now that I've managed to get kde running under gentoo, I notice a few 
> subtle differences, from the way it's presented.
> 
> In the kde control centre, there is an X configurator, and I thought it would 
> be good to fine tune a few things.
> 
> my mouse, monitor and keyboard, seem to be set up properly, though when I look 
> through the list, my graphics card is listed as being a generic nv. Yet I 
> don't follow why, because when I check out http://www.xfree86.org/ list of 
> compatible hardware it shows me
> 
> 10de nVidia group
> 	0172 NV17 (GeForce4 MX420)
> 
> which identifies my graphics card exactly.
> 
> If I then look at my /etc/X11/XF86Config file and go to the Graphics section I 
> can see
> 
> Section "Device"
> Identifier "Standard VGA"
> Vendor "Unknown"
> Boardname "Unknown"
> Driver " VGA"
> 
> Section "Device"
> Identifier "geforce4 mx420" (which I think is what I've put in)
> Driver "nvidia" (again, I've changed this from nv otherwise I can't see the 
> screen as the "picture" area is corrupted and jumps about)
> #Videoram 65536
> 
> Why does it seem to be showing 2 graphics devices?

Not sure really, can't help you here I'm afraid... :(

> Next, when I start gentoo, if I try and start kdm from my user account (as in 
> run level 3), it tells me that only root wants to start kdm, I can't even 
> start it if I su to root (I have to start it as root, and then when it "fires 
> up" I get the option of logging into kde as either root or user)
> 
> How would I modify things so I start kdm automatically as user, because I 
> suspect that otherwise I am leaving root access open at some level.

As root (or sudo/su -c)

$> rc-update add kdm default

> Also, when I tell it to reboot, the kdm closes down and before the system 
> reboot's I see a long list of stuff (modules I presume) that modprobe can't 
> do anything with, I'm suspecting that this is stuff that is checked 
> automatically on startup, but I don't know how to be able to view it, so I 
> can then ask what to do about it, or what, if any, I need to install (because 
> if I open a console, I don't even see a usable bash prompt i.e. instead of 
> something like john at thepc john $ I get bash 2.0-5b$ - or # if I try as root) 
> so I think that the console is doing something entirely different from what I 
> see when the system starts at level 3?

modules are listed in /etc/modules.autoload.d/ if you go in there and
play around so it only loads the modules you need, you should be fine.

HTH,

Matt
--
+----------------------------------+
|Matthew Macdonald-Wallace                  |
|The Truth Will Set you Free              |
|http://www.truthisfreedom.org.uk/  |
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"We have struggled to not proceed, but to precede to the future of a
nation's child." George W. Bush November 12, 2000 Quoted in the Journal
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