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Thread ID: 41005	2003-12-26 19:10:00	Red Hat 9 tweaking, fixing, and making hospitable	Jaguar (4442)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
203303	2003-12-26 19:10:00	This is a carry on from the thread of Mandrake 9.2 Networking with XP (that just got way off topic with the change of distros etc. Anyway... installed Red Hat yesterday, and have been using Windows for... nine years? Yeah. So, first impression was... where's the coffee? Trying to make it like home is going to be difficult, I can see that... but with your help, it's possible! First on the shopping list: 1.) Get a MSN Messenger equivalent going. NB Gaim, when I download, fails to open, just a flash appears, Jen suggests that it's a lack of dependencies or something along those lines. :S aMSN just extracts into a folder, and I can't see the file to open, so I click on aMSN and it says something about a child error with aMSN... don't ask. 2.) Want to get into my hard drives just like everywhere else. Want to be able to save files onto them, access them, make a shortcut on my desktop!! NB. They are NTFS, and there is XP that is installed on the same hard drive as Red Hat, but the second hard drive has no OS. 3.) With Opera, the text is so miniscule, that I need a magnifying glass to read them! And no, that's not a hyperbole!! Windows: Here (www.davidbowie.com) Linux:Here (www.davidbowie.com) Look out for the text sizes, I need to make the Linux ones larger. 3.) nVidia drivers for my video card. I have a Leadtek Winfast A280 LE TDH MyVIVO Geforce 4 Ti4200 w 128MB RAM. Getting a driver for this in Linux I'm sure would make a difference, or so I've been told. 4.) Still thinking. You guys should have enough there to look at for the moment though...	Jaguar (4442)
203304	2003-12-26 20:06:00	> Anyway... installed Red Hat yesterday, and have been > using Windows for... nine years? Yeah. So, first > impression was... where's the coffee? Try theming GNOME, its a lot of fun :D Im not a fan of Redhat's Bluecurve theme set ;-) > Trying to make it like home is going to be difficult, > I can see that... but with your help, it's possible! Wont take too long either we hope :-) > First on the shopping list: > > 1.) Get a MSN Messenger equivalent going. NB Gaim, > when I download, fails to open, just a flash appears, > Jen suggests that it's a lack of dependencies or > something along those lines. :S aMSN just extracts > into a folder, and I can't see the file to open, so I > click on aMSN and it says something about a child > error with aMSN... don't ask. Basically, depending on where you extracted it to, here's what I'd do: Open up a console: su - [enter root password] cp amsn-0.83.tar.gz /usr/share tar xvzf amsn-0.83.tar.gz cd msn (it may have called the folder amsn, try both.. Mines amsn, but I compiled using Sources...) ./amsn If that works, then close aMsn for a minute (Yes, you can come back to it in just a moment). cd /usr/bin ln -s /usr/share/msn/amsn Now, try pressing Alt + F2 and it should bring up a Run box. Type: amsn and you should see amsn load :-) Out of curiosity, are you using GNOME or kde? > 2.) Want to get into my hard drives just like > everywhere else. Want to be able to save files onto > them, access them, make a shortcut on my desktop!! > NB. They are NTFS, and there is XP that is installed > on the same hard drive as Red Hat, but the second > hard drive has no OS. Basically you'll need the ntfs rpm. You'll only get read-only at this stage due to the nature of NTFS (Unless you upgrade to the 2.6 kernel, but Im not sure if Redhat have released that rpm yet). See: linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net > 3.) With Opera, the text is so miniscule, that I need > a magnifying glass to read them! And no, that's not a > hyperbole!! Sorry, cant help here... > 3.) nVidia drivers for my video card. I have a > Leadtek Winfast A280 LE TDH MyVIVO Geforce 4 Ti4200 w > 128MB RAM. Getting a driver for this in Linux I'm > sure would make a difference, or so I've been told. Jen has already posted a URL to nvidia.com IIRC Go there and get the Linux ia32 .sh fle, then follow the instructions in the README (I reakon you should be pretty sweet with it). To boot to runlevel 3 by default, you'll need to edit (as root) /etc/inittab change where it says: # Default runlevel. id:5:initdefault: to say: id:3:initdefault: reboot your PC and you'll have noting but a command line interface. follow the install instructions for it (sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496.run) and then modify your /etc/X11/XF86Config You can even do this before-hand with a GUI if you need. Edit the /etc/X11/XF86Config file and change the following from: Driver "vesa" (or "nv" ) to Driver "nvidia" This should be about 4/5 the way down the config file. In the Module section, make sure you have: Load "glx" You should also remove the following lines: Load "dri" Load "GLcore" That will be up the top part of the file. If you get stuck, you can look in the /usr/doc/nvidia-glx-1.0.4496/README file :-) That Readme is freely available on the nVidia.com website, and I'd suggest you quickly browse through it :-) Let us know how you get on Cheers Chill.	Chilling_Silently (228)
203305	2003-12-26 20:26:00	OK, I see that Chill has just beaten me to giving instructions on how to install the nVidia drivers, but having spent the last 20 minutes writing them I will post it as an additional guide :D ************************************************** ***************** How to install nVidia drivers. First download them from here ( 1. 0-5328" target="_blank">www.nvidia.com) - the package name is NVIDIA-Linux-x86- 1. 0-5328-pkg 1. run Also have a read of the README (ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/ 1. 0-5328/README) as it covers everything, but I will do a quick summary for you. NOTE 1: Everything is case sensitive so enter file paths exactly how you have them. NOTE 2: You will need to be connected to the internet when you do this as it might want to run off and check the nVidia ftp server for some precompiled files during the process. 1. Save the downloaded file into your home directory /home/jaguar/ 2. Next to install the driver, X or the graphical desktop (runlevel 5) cannot be running at the time so you have to be in the command line runlevel 3 to install it. 3. Close all open applications. Open up a Terminal window on the desktop and enter "su -" to change to root. Next enter teleinit 3 - this command will close down runlevel 5 and drop you into runlevel 3. You will see the services shutting down and then some restarting. When it has finished you will either end up at a root prompt, or be asked to login in - use root to login with. 4. You now need to navigate via the command line to your saved nVidia file. Enter in cd /home/jaguar/ To make sure you are in the right place, enter the command ls which will list the contents of that directory and you should see the nVidia file listed. 5. Next enter in: sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86- 1. 0-5328-pkg 1. run This will start the package installer and just follow the prompts that will appear. 6. Hopefully at the end you will get a message about the installation being successful and you should be back at the root prompt. Enter cd at the prompt and then teleinit 5 which will take you back to runlevel 5 and your desktop should load again. NOTE 3: At anystage if you want out of runlevel 3 (command line) just enter at a root prompt teleinit 5 to get back to your desktop. Now the next bit - telling X that you want to use these lovely drivers you have installed :D You need to be root do this, and the easiest way is to use the GUI to navigate around and edit the config file. On the desktop again, open up a Terminal window and su - to root again. Enter in Nautilus (or Konqueror). This will load Nautilus but with full root powers. 1. Using this window and navigation arrows, go up a level to / then navigate to /etc/X1 1. Here you will see a config file called XF86Config. Make a copy of this file as backup (one is normally made anyway, but I always make a manual copy as well - name it XF86Config(copy). 2. Double-click on the XF86Config to open it in a text editor. You will need to edit some lines in here. Under the section called "Module" you will need to change these items: *make sure you have: Load "glx" (you should have this already anyway) *remove the following lines: Load "dri" Load "GLcore" Under the section called "Device", you will need to change the reference to what driver to use: Change driver "nv" (or Driver "vesa") with: Driver "nvidia" NOTE: make sure you keep the " " marks. 3. Save the changes and exit out. 4. Big test time - you need to restart X for the new drivers to load. So log out of X and log back in again. You will know that the drivers were successfully installed because you will see a splash screen with the NVIDIA logo appear and also you can get back into KDE or Gnome without a system error :D. If something does go horribly wrong, you should be dumped into command line and asked if you want to load a default XF86Config file, so just say yes to that. Below is an example of my XF86Config file with the references given to the new driver: Section "Module" Load "dbe" Load "extmod" Load "fbdevhw" Load "glx" Load "record" Load "freetype" Load "type1" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Videocard0" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "Videocard vendor" BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX (generic)" EndSection	Jen C (20)
203306	2003-12-26 20:30:00	Well, you've really covered it there Jen :-) I remember you saying there were new drivers out... Im still using the older ones until Gentoo put out the newest on their portage tree. Probably best Jaguar if you follow Jens instructions, they seem a bit clearer :-) ....And good luck :-) Its not really that hard once you've done it and are looking back on it ;-) Cheers Chill.	Chilling_Silently (228)
203307	2003-12-26 20:46:00	Gosh, thanks for all that Jen, those instructions will come in very handy to me as well . :-) Incidentally, the text in Chill's post changed to a TNR font halfway through the post for some reason . I wonder how that happened? It looks rather weird! . mscandy . orcon . net . nz/pf1 . jpg" target="_blank">www . mscandy . orcon . net . nz	Susan B (19)
203308	2003-12-26 20:49:00	Er, sorry. I meant to say thanks for all that Chill and Jen. :-)	Susan B (19)
203309	2003-12-26 20:57:00	> Incidentally, the text in Chill's post changed to a > TNR font halfway through the post for some reason. I > wonder how that happened? It looks rather weird! > > www.mscandy.orcon.net.nz Yes, same here. Firebird 0.7 in Linux... Anybody wanna check that with IE or Opera? Weird.. I never knew you could do that :D	Chilling_Silently (228)
203310	2003-12-26 21:10:00	Yeah, I saw the huge fonts that Chill created in his post - just thought he was trying to make it easier for jaguar to read the fonts with his Opera browser :p If you want to make your desktop look more like home and not the generic theme that Gnome loads (I guess you are using this from your previous Opera screenshoot), take a look at this site here (http://www.kde-look.org/) - yes, I know it is called KDE-Look but there are heaps of wallpapers, icons etc that you can use. As Chill has already mentioned, you can adjust anything you like with the themes via Preferences on the Gnome menu panel. Have a good play around :D To show you how you can candy-up the desktop, here is a screenshot of my current KDE desktop (sal.neoburn.net). Hopefully you can access that image - sometimes they don't won't display on ImageF1 for some weird reason.	Jen C (20)
203311	2003-12-26 21:11:00	Yes, it's the same in IE and in Opera. It will be in the coding somewhere......	Susan B (19)
203312	2003-12-26 21:14:00	Ok, well my head is still spinning, I won't get onto the nVidia drivers until I get aMSN sorted out . (Easiest first, then kill yourself on the hard stuff later!) >Now, try pressing Alt + F2 and it should bring up a Run box . Type: amsn and you should see amsn load Well, got going past the ln -s etc . etc . (NB Stupid text makes the l (L) and I (i) the same! Can get awfully confusing . . . where's that coffee? When I do the Alt + F2, the Run Box does open, but when I type amsn, it doesn't find anything . . . no such file or directory . Yes, Bluecurve does look a little er . . . interesting . . . any ideas on how to change it? Will do nVidia drivers tomorrow .	Jaguar (4442)
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