Yesterday when I installed RH 7.3 it came up as desired in text mode with KDE as default GUI. It identified and loaded module for the Soundblaster sound card, but that died soon after I started.
Noticed I had some unassigned hard disk space and decided to add another vfat partition to share between Linux and the other OS. Partition Magic said there was a discrepancy or two in the Linux partitions, and offered to fix same, which I accepted. KDE then locked up when I went back to Linux, and the sound card was no longer usable. This morning did a fresh install. Missed the option to designate KDE as default GUI and Gnome came up. I found I was in mode 5, rather than 3, but managed to fix that. Configured the modem and got Konquorer going in my personal account and Netscape from root. Did have a problem with Nautilus wanting to pop open every minute or two, with a sidebar failure, so spent much browsing time shutting that down. Sound does work, and enjoyed a CD while I fiddled with dialup. A few questions remain. First, how do I hang up the modem when finished surfing? Don't see an icon for connect/disconnect. Would like to be able to switch back and forth between Gnome and KDE, but so far no luck. Book I have is a couple of versions old, so the menu item it suggests is not to be found. Will be on the lookout for a 7.3 book, or even one of my only slightly older version ones that seem to have disappeared. I'd like to run Linuxconfig, if only I can find it. Also need to set up mount of at least one of my vfat partitions, but don't find a viewer that shows what partitions are on the hard drive. I'm certain such a module exists, but don't know where to look. Anybody been there, done that? The main impression I get of RH 7.3 is very favorable. It did a good job of probing and getting video card and monitor specs, so the screens look excellent. Like the GRUB loader, too. All of this upgrading/reinstalling seems not to have touched the other OS in the dual boot. Very pleasant. Choppy
