Ok Linux People, You Win.

[qwijibow 0]

thats a terminal.when linux loads, by default you have 6 seperate command login terminals, and one graphical login terminal.the graphical one is the sventh, andyou can switch between them with ctrl+alt+F1 or F2 or F3 etc etc etc.Linux uses somthing called runlevels to allow users to quickly switch on and off different daemons and programs.for example i have runlevels set up on my machine, "default" and "server"if i give the command to switch to runlevel server, the graphical interface will shutdown, the firewall will re-congigure, and ftp and ssh servers will start.i think mandrakes default runlevels are "3" and "5" where 3 is command line and 5 is graphical.you can switch to runlevel 3 from tunlevel 5 with the command "telinit 5" or "startx"some distro's default to runlevel 3. like slackware, some dont. in mot sure about mandrake, but switching default behavior is a 2 second job ;)if you ever pluck up the courage to try again, let us know.

[musichere 0]

Okay, my saga continues I bought a new 160 GB Hard Drive and installed that. Then I installed Linux on one of the 80GB partitions. Then that was all going fine, but on the opening sequence there is a PPPoE Failed, OOOpe Failed (or something like that)It crashes during the searching for PPPoE now.Why does it load this wierd sequence of checks every time I load linux? is there a way to prevent this?Also sometimes when I boot the computer it goes L 0707070707070707070707070707070707070707707070707070What on earth is that?!?!??!

[szupie 0]

That has happened to me before. The LILO configuration isn't configured correctly, and I think you would have to reinstall linux to remove that...

[musichere 0]

I've already installed linux twice now, I think it's not a good idea to do it again, also quijibow said it's bad for the computer to keep reinstalling the OS. Is there absolutely no way to fix it? Also I still can't ge tthe Mandrake graphical installation to work properly.

[qwijibow 0]

That has happened to me before. The LILO configuration isn't configured correctly, and I think you would have to reinstall linux to remove that...

dude ! no !

to re-install lilo you only need to edit lilo config file, then run the ocmmand "lilo" as root.

linuz is modular... you dont need to change the whole system to edit a module, you can recompile a whole kernel without re-installing, the boot loader is nothing.

how is your machine connected to the internet (PPPoe stands for Point to point protocol over ethernet) ??? what do you mean searching for PPPoe ?

when you say weired sequence of checks, are you talking about all those lines that end in "[ OK ]" ???

thats the starup sequence, its starting your daemons and loading drivers / services.

if you dont want to see that, you can use somthing called "boot splash" its a pretty graphic and percentage bar, like the windowsXP bootup style.

personally, i prefere Grub boot loader to lilo, but lilo should work.
did you change your partitons after installing lilo ? lilo can be sencitive ot this i think.

linux shouldnt crash while trying to activate ethernet... but it may ppause for several minutes if its lookwing for a DHCP server and doesnt find one. give it a few minutes and hopefully it will continue to boot without network.

also, have a look through your vitual consoles (ctrl + alt + Fx where Fx are you F kys on the top of the keyboard) is there any output about a error ???

if you have truely crashed, you will see a "Segmentation fault" "kernel panck" or the system will stop responding completely.

im a little confused... mandrake is usually painless to setup.

have a look aroung /var/log for a boot file... please post its contents here for us to look at.

Also I still can't ge tthe Mandrake graphical installation to work properly.

so.. you are in command line.... you run "startx" what happens ????

in the Linux section of How-to's and tutorials, there is a tutorial on how to change default runlevel.... maybe yiou shoul have a look at it.

or is your porblem with the screen--size / resolution ???

post your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file for us to look at.

[musichere 0]

OK I posted some wrong information in my other post.

 

Here are the screenshots i'm talking about.

 

I can only boot to Windows through using the XP disk every time.

 

I'm thinking of reinstalling both Windows and Linux.

 

I'll try the thing you said quijibow.

 

Thanks again for helping this Linux dumbarse.

 

[wwheeler 0]

I have gotten Limewire to work on my 'drake system....

 

It was really easy to do also. The good thing about 'drake is that it is an RPM (Redhat Packaging Manager) based distro, so it is good to get your feet wet. But back to what I was originally saying...

 

Limewire comes in a RPM install. All you have to do is downloadit, and run it and you are good to go...

 

As to the question of security, I have been running a server for two years, and have never had a virus on it. I don't think that many viri exsit that affect linux. As long as Micro$oft holds the corner on the PC market, and it remains so security lax, then I think that Virus programmers will stick to attacking it... But, that is just my humble opinion.....

 

As for stability, my 'drake, Redhat, and linspire distros have all been running 100% of the time for at least two months now, the record for me is on my redhat system, which remained runnin for 7 months straight with out a hiccup....

[wwheeler 0]

OK I posted some wrong information in my other post.

Here are the screenshots i'm talking about.

I can only boot to Windows through using the XP disk every time.

I'm thinking of reinstalling both Windows and Linux.

I'll try the thing you said quijibow.

Thanks again for helping this Linux dumbarse.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It looks like your bootloader installation failed.....

 

What I would do is to reinstall linux, making sure that when It asks if you want to load a bootloader, you select grub, and make sure that it has an entry for windows.,

[musichere 0]

The thing is, I can't get it to use the graphical installation. I don't know how to change bootloader.

[qwijibow 0]

What I would do is to reinstall linux, making sure that when It asks if you want to load a bootloader, you select grub, and make sure that it has an entry for windows.,

no no no no no no no !

if one more person surgests going through the hole installation procedure when a simple "grub-install" command would surfice, im gonna negative reputation them too hell

right... from what ive seen, it looks like you have several ethernet / network interfaces...
eth0 fails either means its not plugged upto a networkm, or the network it is attached to doesnt have dhcp and u need to set the ip manually. not a problem.

what is ppp0 ??? do you have a dial up modem ?
how is your machine connected to the network ??? ethernet card ? usb broadband ? what ?

and what is the graphical desktop problem ???
a resolution problem ?
a screen refrsdh rate error ?
or a failure to enter the graphical environment at all ?

please describe as best you can.

is ppp0 user / needed ?

i dont think its crashed, just trying to connect to a networj which isnt there.

you want to install grub instead of lilo ?

if you do, here is the procedure....

#as root#first install grub from your mandrake cd (probably an RPM install)grub-install --root-directory=/  /dev/hda

then you will need to write a /boot/grub/menu.conf file...
if you post the contents of your /etc/lilo.conf file, i can convert it to a grub.conf file for you..

or maybe some1 else will... im not going to be home at all tomorrow

[musichere 0]

no no no no no no no !

 

if one more person surgests going through the hole installation procedure when a simple "grub-install" command would surfice, im gonna negative reputation them too hell

That's why I always wait for you before doing anything

 

right... from what ive seen, it looks like you have several ethernet / network interfaces...

eth0 fails either means its not plugged upto a networkm, or the network it is attached to doesnt have dhcp and u need to set the ip manually. not a problem.

I have a USB ADSL modem. I fiddled around with some internet settings (in mandrake) but I think they were wrong.

 

what is ppp0 ??? do you have a dial up modem ?

how is your machine connected to the network ??? ethernet card ? usb broadband ? what ?

USb Broadband

and what is the graphical desktop problem ???

a resolution problem ?

a screen refrsdh rate error ?

or a failure to enter the graphical environment at all ?

 

please describe as best you can.

There is no graphical desktop problem. that is all fine, it's just that when I boot the Mandrake CD, instead of the default graphic INSTALLATION mode, it goes to a DOs mode which has much less features and is harder to use than the normal Mandrake installation mode.

 

is ppp0 user / needed ?

 

i dont think its crashed, just trying to connect to a networj which isnt there.

no

 

you want to install grub instead of lilo ?

 

if you do, here is the procedure....

 

#as root#first install grub from your mandrake cd (probably an RPM install)grub-install --root-directory=/  /dev/hda

then you will need to write a /boot/grub/menu.conf file...

if you post the contents of your /etc/lilo.conf file, i can convert it to a grub.conf file for you..

 

or maybe some1 else will... im not going to be home at all tomorrow

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm not sure of the differences between those two but I'll try out Grub since Lilo is being a pain for me.

 

Thanks again

 

[musichere 0]

Update:OK the LILO is no longer a problem; I just repaired it using the mandrake CD. Only the eth1 FAILED part and then the ppp0 hanging up and not doing anything for 10 minutes (you can't hear anything from the processor either) is hanging it up.

[miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG 0]

Hey musichere - I've installed Mandrake without any pain in the wrong place and without a hitch on pretty non-standard systems specs. Do try the grub way, coz it does make your life just a triffle bit easier - but grub won't help you solve it all... in the end, you got to get down to wading through a hell lot of linux manpages to sort it all out.. the bland white on black text is nothing short of SCARY at first - but you get used to it after a while and life becomes far smoother.. believe me - been there, done that and still lived to tell That, itself says something, doesn't it ??

[szupie 0]

qwijibow, when I installed linux the first time and had that L 07 07.. problem, I couldn't get pass that screen to boot Linux or windows! I tried to configure the LILO file by typing on the screen, but after too much keys, the computer started beeping as a warning. How could I have fixed that?

[qwijibow 0]

booted your install CD in rescue mode, mounted the root partiton, checked to see if /etc/lilo.conf was correct, then reinstalled lilo to the MBR with the command "lilo"

you have to re-install lilo to the MBR every time you alter the lilo.conf file.

thats why i like grub

to musichere:
please run the following commands as a normal user, and tell me what is output.

dmesg | grep eth

/sbin/ifconfig

There is no graphical desktop problem. that is all fine, it's just that when I boot the Mandrake CD, instead of the default graphic INSTALLATION mode, it goes to a DOs mode which has much less features and is harder to use than the normal Mandrake installation mode.

ooohhhhh.... sorry, im not familiar with that installation cd.