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Re: [Alug] nvidia graphics card - success
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 04 Nov '02

04 Nov '02

MJRay wrote: >"dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86" should ask you which X server at the >first step. -svga is v3 and -xfree86 is v4. >> Temper is rising. > >Mine too. Are you ignoring me? > >MJR No, no, not at all, I'm sorry - I just fail to understand a lot of the time. I've now seen what you are saying, done "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86"and have rocketed towards using xserver-xfree86, v4.x, having xf86config-4 file, and xwindow is now working as it should. Many thanks. MJRay previously wrote: >I think I've had one of those working fine in 2d with XFree86 3.x using the >svga binary, or 4.x using the nv driver. Both can be configured as you >install xserver-svga or xserver-xfree86, respectively, or using >dpkg-reconfigure afterwards. I did reinstall xserver-svga. I wasn't ignoring this, just blundering about in the dark. >3d support is still non-free and not recommended. If you want good 3d, >these are not the cards that you are looking for. I don't care about the 3d support, the card is not for games or fancy stuff. I've got this card because it is what work gave me. Seriously - I'm sorry if I waste anyone's time on-list. All the pointers are very welcome even if I do digest them very slowly sometimes. Thanks, Jen.

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Re: [Alug] nvidia graphics card
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 04 Nov '02

04 Nov '02

Adam Bower wrote: >dpkg -l will let you know what you have installed atm, look for things >that mention X, I think there may be a package xfree86-common which if >you remove that it will remove most of the other things too. Then >apt-get remove things, although what will happen is it will also try and >remove things like your window manager etc. don't delete /etc/X11 that >would be a last resort! OK. I'll have a spring clean in the morning when I come in. Ta muchly. >Are you going to be on irc tonight? if so I can perhaps tell you a >little more then. My phone is still out of order since the large gales, and BT told me today they won't get an engineer out till 11th Nov to mend it. It took half an hour at least to be told that, to add insult to injury. Grrrrrr. Jenny.

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Re: [Alug] nvidia graphics card
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 04 Nov '02

04 Nov '02

Ricardo Campus wrote: "Jenny, I'll send u a copy of my XF86Config-4 and the output from dpkg -l when I get home so you can check if you have the correct X packages installed. (I also have true type fonts set up "which is nice") What I had to do to get it working from Potato was to manually remove all the X packages, then manually apt-get install the new ones (apt-get dist-upgrade shagged it up). It's a pain, but if you have a working set of packages to crib from, it makes the job a great deal easier. AFAIK, Woody still has the old X packages included, to aid backwards compatability. So it could be using the old 3.x series... they have *slightly* different package names to the 4.x series... all a bit confusing! Personally, I used the source from Nvidia's site but that's because I was using a more current kernel than Debian were offering at the time. The drivers really do make a difference. wizzzzz! ;) Ricardo" Apt-get install xwindow installed v4.x, however I still can't read an xf86config generated file, section headings aren't recognised, and I still have an XF86Config file rather than XF86config-4. And the logfile for startx shows it is still using v3. So how can I tell Woody I want to use 4 not 3? Perhaps I need to rip out the /etc/X11 directory and begin again like Ricardo has done. Temper is rising. I don't wish to play games, all I want is a screen I can have 4 little xterm windows on at a time. Bah! Thanks, Jenny.

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Re: [Alug] nvidia graphics card
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 04 Nov '02

04 Nov '02

Adam Bower wrote: >Have you removed the old X v3. from your system? try perhaps >uninstalling all the X packages from that and possibly 4 and getting it >to install from scratch. There is a possibility that you may want to >look at the command update-alternatives instead though as this selects >different packages when you have a choice of more than one. I would get >rid of all the X packages if it was me though, and then try only >installing Xv4. Yes, I'll be happy to completely clean out all the x stuff and start from scratch. Will I do that via apt-get remove [stuff with x before it] or just delete /etc/X11 and contents, or do i need the dreaded dselect to find out what has been put where? This sort of thing has me flapping about like it was two years ago - I can't tell whether or not part of the x system is v3 or v4. Yours Uselessly Jen.

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nvidia graphics card
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 04 Nov '02

04 Nov '02

Hi list, Has anyone any experience in using an nVidia GeForce 2MX graphics card with Debian? I did an apt-get install nvidia-glx-src but although startx apparently gets xserver up and running there is no visual on F7. (Sorry - a bit lacking in helpful info there, there is a bundle of stuff on screen comes up on the console from which I typed startx but I don't now how to trap it in a file.) How was the meeting? Most sorry not to make it. Jenny.

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Re: [Alug] nvidia graphics card
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 04 Nov '02

04 Nov '02

Adam Bower wrote: >Thats your problem then not having the right (X4.x) version of X >windows, things to check are > >1. which release of Debian >2. can you install different versions of X in the newer releases? >3. have you got the correct sources.list >4. have you run apt-get update, apt-get dist-upgrade etc... 1. Woody 2. I am now doing an upgrade of w-window-system, see 3 and 4. 3. I didn't have "contrib" on one of my sources. I'll rerun update and upgrade. 4. Yes, I did recently, but see 3. Craig wrote: >Simple... get the nvidia-glx-src and nvidia-kernel-src compiled >(providing that in mind that you have left the kernel source in >/usr/src/linux since it will build against your kernel) > >Then in XF86Config: > >Add the line in Section "Module" > > Load "glx" > >And then: > >In Section "Device" change: > >Driver "nv" > >to > >Driver "nvidia" > >Restart 'X' and you should be on your way. I've been running xf86config and it has been generating a completely incompatible file with such sections as "drivers", and X hasn't liked it at all so I've been writing one out manually with section headings it can deal with. Having old version of xwindows explains a lot. Thanks, I'll let you know how it goes when xwindow has rocketed forward into the 21st century. Jenny.

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Re: [Alug] nvidia graphics card
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 04 Nov '02

04 Nov '02

Adam Bower wrote: >you can look in the logfile /var/log/Xfree86.0.log (probably, may have a >slightly different name) anyhow if you don't need 3d acceleration with >the card then you don't need anything apart from X4.x Well for a start the log output shows "XFree86 Version 3.3.6a / X Window System" Ha HA! However, apt-get says I'm already using the most current version of xfree86-common. Is it telling porkies? Thanks, Jen. (Thanks for the logfile trapping thing)

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 04 Nov '02

04 Nov '02

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include tkirc, bitchx, xchat and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://freshmeat.net/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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A keen newbie on the loose
by Ben Francis 03 Nov '02

03 Nov '02

Hey there I've been subscribed to and reading messages on the Alug mailing list now for around 2 and a half months and thought it was about time I said something. I'm just about a complete newbie to Linux, my experience extends to a failed Red Hat 6.1 graphical installation - it failed because a) I didn't know my hardware well enough and b) because I didn't have a clue what I was doing and didn't know how to configure the thing once it was (semi) installed. I never actually got as far as starting X. I waited for it to start automatically when I booted after I finished the installation (I tried both Gnome and KDE on separate and numerous occasions!) but it didn't so I typed startx and it... flopped. I'm installing on a PII 300mhz box with a 4Gb hdd, 64 meg of RAM with what I thought was a pretty generic graphics card and little else. I've been using Windows for years but have wanted to get into Linux for a long time for a number of reasons - one of them is that I'd like to set up a web server I can use for development with PHP and mySQL or another database application. I'd like your advice on which distro to start with. When I couldn't install redhat I did a bit of reading and found that Mandrake or SuSe might be a good place to start, but a friend is sending me the latest version of Red Hat and Debian (which he thinks I would learn a lot from) on CD - I only have a 56k internet connection. I have a limited experience of unix commands but apart from that I really don't have a lot of knowledge on this kind of thing and feel a bit like I don't know where to start. Do you think I would benefit by coming to one of the ALUG meetings or joining an IRC session? I live near Peterborough but could probably make a UEA meeting, but travel is a problem caus I'm 16. Thanks for your time Ben Francis ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: tola ^/. "there is no spoon"

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New Member
by John Sherman 03 Nov '02

03 Nov '02

Linux to be installed in due course I like change and have never left my computer the same configuration for very long. I hope to find Linux a challenge and to be able to experiment and enjoy as I will soon have more time available. To this end I shall go in at the deep end and start with Debian but there appears to be plenty of help available for the novice. John

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