First Install of Linux, couple of questions....

[eagle1]

Hey guys! I have worked with linux and solaris systems but I just know basic stuff. The thing is that I did my FIRST linux install yesterday (Linux Mandrake 7.2). One problem I have is that the output in the monitor is small (i'm using 1024x7..) and it just doesn't scale right. I tried to change resolutions and such but the system didn't started then. I reinstalled everything and left the display the way it is. Now to the first question:

Can this problem be corrected if I download the latest drivers for my card?? (Elsa GeForce2 mx400 64ram)

Next problem: The sound doesn't work. The card is detected but there's no sound coming from the speakers.

How do I correct sounds?? (if it can be done)I have a Sound Blaster Live Value card.

Is there a DVD viewer for Linux?

These are the questions I have for now.! Maybe I'll ask others so .... BE PREPARED.!!

I know this is long so, Thanks in advanced guys.!!!

[randy48]

For the video, on a command line type in "Xconfigurator" (without quotes) and hit enter, this will run the X Window configuration utility and you'll be able to make your changes.

Audio and DVDs I can't help with...don't use them on the Linux boxes (except for one that has a SB 16 in it).

[CMonster]

Audio - first check the mixer under Multimedia and make sure that the volume settings are not too low or muted,


if that doesn't help then run sndconfig from a terminal - follow the prompts

To toggle available resolutions use <Ctrl><Alt><keypad + or ->

Very likely the default "nv" video driver is okay for 2D, but you have chosen the wrong monitor. If windows are too big to fit on the screen you can also move them out of bounds by pressing the <Alt> key and then click-n-drag the window. You say it doesn't scale properly to your screen - is it possible to adjust your monitor?

A word about Nvidia drivers: The drivers available from Nvidia will not install and work if you do not have XFree86 4.0.1 or higher installed on your machine - which was only an option with the deluxe version of Mandrake 7.2, and then only if you did an "expert" install.

If you are using Mandrake 7.2 "Complete" then you will also find it very difficult to upgrade to XFree86 4.0.1.

DVDs? You need xine or the oms player.

Look into www.linuxvideo.org (http://www.linuxvideo.org) but be warned that installing the OMS player is a complicated procedure that involves compiling the source code on your system for 4 items, and these must be done in the proper order. Also, the proper devolopement tools must be installed on your system in order for you to compile code.

xine is much easier http://xine.sourceforge.net (warning there be hackers in them waters)



[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 06-10-2001).]

[eagle1]

Hey Cmonster it seems like your da man here.!!! heheh. Well, I'll try and do the things you have told me and see if they work.! Also, is there a defrag like utility for linux.?

[CMonster]

No defrag utility is necessary for Linux because the file system is designed to prevent the kind of fragmentation you find in DOS/Windows 9x products.

Perhaps the closest thing would be fsck for more information try running man fsck in a terminal window.

Note on disk file systems for Linux: typically 2 file systems are used for Linux today, "ext2" and "Reiserfs." While some claim Reiserfs can be more difficult to setup, I believe it is the fastest and most bullet-proof disk file system for Linux. Do a search on Reiserfs: Three reasons why ReiserFS is great for you:

ReiserFS has fast journaling, which means that you don't spend your life waiting for fsck every time your laptop battery dies, or the UPS for your mission critical server gets its batteries disconnected accidentally by the UPS company's service crew, or your kernel was not as ready for prime time as you hoped, or the silly thing decides you mounted it too many times today.

ReiserFS is based on fast balanced trees. Balanced trees are more robust in their performance, and are a more sophisticated algorithmic foundation for a file system. When we started our project, there was a consensus in the industry that balanced trees were too slow for file system usage patterns. We proved that if you just do them right they are better--take a look at the benchmarks. We have fewer worst case performance scenarios than other file systems and generally better overall performance. If you put 100,000 files in one directory, we think its fine; many other file systems try to tell you that you are wrong to want to do it.

ReiserFS is more space efficient. If you write 100 byte files, we pack many of them into one block. Other file systems put each of them into their own block. We don't have fixed space allocation for inodes. That saves 6% of your disk.

Ok, it's time to fess up. The interesting stuff is still in the future. Because they are nifty, we are going to add database and hypertext like features into the file system. Only by using balanced trees, with their effective handling of small files (database small fields, hypertext keywords), as our technical foundation can we hope to do this. That was our real motivation. As for performance, we may already be slightly better than the traditional file systems (and substantially better than the journaling ones). But they have been tweaking for decades, while we have just got started. This means that over the next few years we are going to improve faster than they are.

Speaking more technically:

ReiserFS is a file system using a plug-in based object oriented variant on classical balanced tree algorithms. The results when compared to the ext2fs conventional block allocation based file system, running under the same operating system and employing the same buffering code, suggest that these algorithms are overall more efficient and every passing month are becoming yet more so. Loosely speaking, every month we find another performance cranny that needs work; we fix it. And every month we find some way of improving our overall general usage performance.

The improvement in small file space and time performance suggests that we may now revisit a common OS design assumption that one should aggregate small objects using layers above the file system layer. Being more effective at small files does not make us less effective for other files. This is truly a general purpose FS. Our overall traditional FS usage performance is high enough to establish that. ReiserFS has a commitment to opening up the FS design to contributions; we are now adding plug-ins so that you can create your own types of directories and files. www.namesys.com (http://www.namesys.com)


[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 06-10-2001).]

[eagle1]

GREAT INFO..!!! Thanks for everything.!

Let me tell you:

Sound is working (I went to the mixer and turned up the volume --duh!!--why it didn't occurred to me ??? dont ask..!)

Changed the monitor and .. voila.. it works pretty decent at 1024x768.

For DVD's, I found out that the software it's still in its baby steps..

Thanks for the filesystem info.. great..!

Now, if I want to work in something like vtk or openGL, I just need to download their libraries right??? No need to download special drivers for the video card.???!!

Thanks a bunch,.

[eagle1]

Cool. I went to the vtk page and I'm going to download everything (libraries, source,etc)! You see, I'm learning to use VTK and OpenGL with C++ so I installed linux for this reason (primarily)!

Also,.. is there something like a Dial Up for linux as in Windows? Do I do it from the network configuration menu?

Thanks a bunch.!

[CMonster]

Regarding the vtk/OpenGL stuff, it seems you already have a pretty good handle on what you want.

I have found that for Nvidia cards any of the "Mesa" accellerated video offerings that come with Linux are called experimental for a reason -they don't work worth beans. The best performance will come from using Nvidia's drivers - but then I only use OpenGL for a couple of games (tuxracer and gltron) which my dauthter loves -oh yeah, and for HeavyGear-II (for me). Basically I just like to know that OpenGL is there if I need it.

[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 06-11-2001).]

[CMonster]

kppp

[eagle1]

I have downloaded new Nvidia video drivers but they are in rpm format! Now, I have the instructions for installing these files but what happens if something goes wrong??

[pbharris]

on the NV drivers, installing them won't hurt anything, but be sure to check out the README for installing them, you may need to modify the file /etc/X11/XF86Config-4. I have an example of mine at http://members.telocity.com/cph013/XF86Config-4

[eagle1]

OK.. I installed the packages everything cool but there's only one thing for me to do:

I have been trying to install the latest Mesa drivers (libraries.???) and the thing is that I follow the instructions in the included documents but it doesn't install!!!
It says some error about Glut or something. Now I don't know if the nvidia drivers installs them or not. If not, can someone please detail a step by step on how to do this, how to install Mesa libraries??? Or do you have any links???, etc..?

When I compile a .c file that uses Mesa and Glut, it says : include GL/gl.h doesn't exist (or something) so that means that the libraries are not installed...

Any suggestions are appreciated.!!!

[pbharris]

hello,
nvidia does not use mesa and having mesa installed will cause errors, the GLut lib is not needed for nvidia. do you have have the kernel source installed? if so then make sure that when you installed the nvidia drivers the GL header files get installed too, which i think they should by default, but i don't know what would happen if teh kernel source was not installed.