Shadrack Posted January 11, 2004 Share Posted January 11, 2004 (edited) Woohoo! After 3 days of installing Linux Mandrake 9.2 I finally got everything to a workable area! To be fair the only real thing I've been fighting with has been my sound. And while trying to fix my sound I've broken things along the way, and fixed them. In any case it has been a pretty good learning experience, now I need to get all the server configuration stuff under my belt and I'll feel like a more capable IT person. (well, all my work computers are windows and windows servers, but who knows at the next place I work, right?). However, I can only get fluid MP3 playback out of XMMS. I still have some issues to resolve: 1. Totem Media Player plays back sound horribly. So does K3B. Maybe they are trying to use the same engine to decode the sound, and that engine is sucking ass on my computer? Can anyone point me in the right direction? 2. K3B always fails when trying to make an audio CD from MP3's, probably related to the bad sound playback problems. 3. Mozilla Firebird keeps forgetting things. Log-in Cookies keep dissapearing. Style sheet Fonts that work on one page, when I follow the link to the next page the fonts will change (esspecially on neowin.net). History also dissapears. I was typing "www.neowin..." and nothing popped up from my history to suggest completness. 4. Can't get Thunderbird to even start. Both are probably due to the fact that they are just nightly builds, but still problems I'm trying to see resolved. For those curious on how I finally got my sound card (CM8738) to work - First thing I had to do was download the kernel-source and install it. Then I had to install the CM8738 linux driver to a directory under the kernel-source (/usr/src/linux/drivers/sound/). Run make menuconfig, and select the sound card as a module. Since the kernel-source was freshly installed, I also had to run through and configure the entire thing for my system. Compiled everything : "make dep clean modules modules_install bzImage". Add image to lilo. Repeat the kernel compilation until i was satisfied with my kernel. Then in xFree86, KDE 3.1: In HardDrak, select the sound card CM8738 and hit "Run Config Tool" and changed driver from snd-cmipci, to cmpci. Then for sound system make sure "Enable full duplex Operation" is unchecked and Sound I/O Method is either on AutoDetect or Open Sound System. TaDa! XMMS works! Built in noises in KDE works! Searching the internet for CM8738 shows a bunch of posts of people having problems with this particular sound chip. Maybe I'll write a "howto" :). Well... now my speaker is buzzing. So it looks like my sound problem extend past my desktop. :( :( sigh... Big THANK you goes out to all who have spent their time trying to help me out there! -Nic [Edit]I couldn't image installing Linux on everyones computer at my work. It would take forever! Well I guess it would just come down to what hardware everyone had and such. I can see it's bennifits as a cheap alternative for a server, but i don't see it replacing desktops anytime soon. *shrug*[/edit] Edited January 11, 2004 by nic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted January 11, 2004 Veteran Share Posted January 11, 2004 [Edit]I couldn't image installing Linux on everyones computer at my work. It would take forever! Well I guess it would just come down to what hardware everyone had and such. I can see it's bennifits as a cheap alternative for a server, but i don't see it replacing desktops anytime soon. *shrug*[/edit] Glad you got your system up and running! :D Needless to say, that there are still problems like you are seeing when installing Linux. They are becoming more rare, but some vendors still build to Windows, and do not release drivers for Linux (or at least open up the specs for Linux Developers to review). When they do this, someone with for more abilities than I must try to poke at it and see how it responds to certain data, and guess at how to make it work. This is not always 100% successful. People buy a PC bundled with Windows, so of course it will work in Windows. If the components do not come from a Linux-friendly vendor, who cares? (until you try to install Linux). And going to CompUSA, and just ask "Is this Linux compatable?", and you will often get a vacant, open-mouthed stare. Much like asking your dog about how to start a car. :blink: As for me, I was lucky when I first tried Linux. Everything worked flawlessly. Even my scroll wheel (back when you usually had to edit the wheel into XFree). Now, I carry Knoppix as a demo, and have had only ONE PC (granted, out of 5) that had any sort of issue. The rest worked like magic. As far as replacing desktops, it is just a matter of time, I think. There is a computer neophyte where I work who bought a copy of Lindows. He has never edited a text file in Linux (and never opened a shell to do anything), and thinks Lindows is *amazing*! (Don't worry, I am working him to Fedora Core, so he can take the training wheels off. Maybe someday he will go to a full-fledged Harley-Davidon, and compile from scratch, but I doubt it.) :D Anyway, congratulations! Sorry about all the hard work, I hope you enjoy your Linux workstation as much as I do! :yes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadrack Posted January 12, 2004 Author Share Posted January 12, 2004 hehe..i'm such a n00b. So last night I reinstalled Linux (again..had some weird KDE problems because I got RPM install/uninstall happy and screwed something up with my main menu) Anyway, to make a long story short, this time i went through all the install steps carefully and found that the system already supported my sound by default. I just had to select the bugger. So Woohoo! Managed to get everything installed and the way I like it in 40 mins! With Windows XP Pro it takes almost 2 hours. Quite a difference there. Sound support still is flaky in a lot of programs. Anyone know of a good solid sound card that is well supported in Linux? -Nic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted January 13, 2004 Veteran Share Posted January 13, 2004 Hey, I'm glad you got your sound problem figured out (and that it was already supported, just needing to be selected). :blush: As for well-supported sound cards, I haven't had problems with my SoundBlaster (it's an inexpensive one). Generally, most mainstream items are decently supported. Problems can still occur because manufacturers like to change internal chipsets, but still call it the same part. :crazy: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonfr Posted January 13, 2004 Share Posted January 13, 2004 Mandrake is an great distro to start using linux :), stick whit it, i did use it for few months before i did move to Gentoo linux. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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