----- Original Message -----
From: "Art Richardson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Newbie" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, March 13, 2000 8:50 AM
Subject: [newbie] Where is the so called help???????
> You know you hear so much of the fact that if you have problems with Linux
> that there is a large group of people who are willing to help. Just be
> willing to do a little homework first and try to find the answer somewhere
> in all the how to's and other documentation. If you can't find anything
that
> related to your problem just post your question in a newsgroup etc... and
> someone who possibly overcame the problem will help with a reply. Well for
> this newbie that has not been the case. I am not stupid, just
inexperienced
> with Linux. I have posted questions in several newsgroups, and in this
> newbie list and all I have gotten is a resounding wall of silence. Maybe
my
> questions aren't interesting enough or maybe not technical enough for you
to
> show the world that you are the smartest Linux guru on the planet. My
> girlfriend suggests that I post questions in her name and maybe that would
> stroke enough male ego's out there to get a response. So one last time
> before I just reformat the drive and just go back to windows, maybe one
> person who has been there will take a few minutes and write a reply .
>
Or maybe they didn't know the answer ? .. or due to the heavy volume of this
list.. didn't get to read the mail yet.
Contrary to popular belief people who use Linux, also have a life, and need
time to sort through mailing lists. I for one subscribe to more
than one mailing list, have a job, and have friends.. which in turn means on
a slow day I read around 700 messages. I use linux, but i'm still human
so are the others who are on this list. I'm sure I'm part of the masses on
this list, and not a rare exception.
Anyway, it's not wise to insult someone and then ask them for their help.
but thats just my personal take on things..
now to your problem.
> 1) I have a 3Com 3c509b nic. I cannot get this card to install. I have
been
> told that this card needs to have the PnP feature disabled to work
properly.
> The machine that I am using for my Linux installation is the family
computer
> and windows has to be on it for the rest of the family. What will
disabling
> the PnP feature do to the windows side??
I did this once, and Windows ran like a charm, unless you have to reinstall
windows, if you do, I think SE will recognize it, or if not..
you should have the drivers for it on a disk. I did this dual boot in the
days of Slack 3.2 and Windows 95. I'm hoping 98 will have no problem
working with a non-pnp card.
> 2) I also cannot get Draxconf to work. From a post to this list I found
that
> you must install the RPM and then it would work. After installing (I think
I
> did, there was nothing that told me that it was installed) and when I
click
> on the icon nothing happens. Maybe that's another reason I can't get my
nic
> to work. I can't configure anything.
One of the problems of Linux WM's is that they usually don't tell you if
they can't find a file. They print out to STDERR, and STDERR is never
STDOUT, anyway.. open up an xterm, and type drak (and then hit tab), it
should give u a list of executables in your path that start with the letters
drak.
if you see drakx, or drakxconf then proceed to type that. start gnorpm, and
try to find it from there.
> 3) Lastly, this may seem like a very stupid question but how do I turn off
> my x server and just use the bash shell? I mistakenly answered yes to the
> question to start the x server on startup when I was installing Mandrake.
I
> am using KDE and the only exit I can find is the option that will shut the
> machine down.
Point and click way to do it, is to use drakxconf (see above :)). But if you
can't find it, try running setup, if thats not installed, try XConfigurator,
or if all else fails,
go to /etc/rc.d, and do the following
grep kdm * ; this will search all the files in the directory that have the
words kdm in them, open up the file and comment out the section that says
starting X, or if you don't want to mess with files manually
(if you're new to linux, I wouldn't recommend it). Once the window pops up
asking for your Login info, type
ctrl -alt -f1 , this will switch you to tty1, which is a normal console, you
can switch between them by changing f1 to f2, note f7 will take you back to
X.
Hope that helps..
PS: here are some useful sites.. (will help everyone on this list).
http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP (I know it's metalab now, but old habits die
hard).
http://lhd.datapower.com (Linux Hardware database, this has saved my life
more often than I can recall).
http://www.linuxpowered.com (my site.. sorry for the plug) :).
http://www.linux-mandrake.com (if this needs a description, go back to pre
school) :).
PPS: Say hullo to your gf for us.
