I messed up mandriva...


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Hey

Well...I messed up Mandriva...lol I was playing around with settings, and was having fun with the 3D effects. I put it on the second option (I'm sorry, I can't remember what its called...has a picture of two desktops beside each other) and it worked great. My video card could handle it (GeForce 2 MX400 64 Meg). Anyways, I tried putting it to the Third option (Shows a cube, with two desktops). It said I had to log out. So I did. Now...all I see is a grey monitor and my cursor...nothing else works...I can go to safemode, but its command line, and I don't know any commands. I know I can just reinstall, but I was hoping to learn a way to fix it. No use learning linux if I don't get my hands dirty once in a while lol

Also, how do I duelboot properly? When I installed linux, it wouldn't let me boot into windows. Then when linux got messed up, I fixed my mbr, and now can't boot into linux...haha

Thanks for any help :)

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Well, not sure what happened with your video settings, but from your descriptions, you selected a "dual head" system, and it worked on your two monitors (do do have two monitors? you didn't really specify). Then you selected the 3D desktop environment, which I am not familiar with, but I think would use something like emerald and compiz to manage your GUI (and requires the proprietary nVidia driver). If there is a problem with emerald, compiz or your xorg/nvidia settings, that might explain the problem.

And, when you 'fixed' from Microsoft's tool, it reset it to Microsoft-only default for Windows. You should be able to boot a Linux CD and perform a grub-install. You will likely need to manually add your chainloader line to boot Windows manually with a text editor when you get Linux booting again.

These are the general things that you need to do, but I don't have the specifics on how to do it, as I have never used compiz, nor have I had to do a manual grub-install. But a google for these might give you some good step-by-step instructions.

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I only have one monitor. The 3D effects looked like what I saw others doing, with cubes and such, in the linux desktop screenshots, and was trying to figure out how to do the same. And I do think it was Compiz and Emerald. How would I re-set it to no 3D effects from safe mode?

I'll visit google later and have a look at the grub-install and fixing it to no 3D effects as well

Thanks :)

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I only have one monitor. The 3D effects looked like what I saw others doing, with cubes and such, in the linux desktop screenshots, and was trying to figure out how to do the same. And I do think it was Compiz and Emerald. How would I re-set it to no 3D effects from safe mode?

I'll visit google later and have a look at the grub-install and fixing it to no 3D effects as well

Thanks :)

Go to Synaptic and search for xgl and choose removal for xserver-xgl.

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I don't think that Mandriva uses synaptic/apt. And his Linux doesn't boot into an X GUI at this point.

Maybe sudo urpme xserver-xgl would be the Mandriva equivalent command.

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I don't think that Mandriva uses synaptic/apt.

Most Mandriva users go with URPMI. You can get it set up with Easy URPMI once you get your X GUI up and running.

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The simple solution is to start in "safe" mode, then at the prompt type "startx /usr/bin/gnome-session && metacity --replace" which will start up gnome with metacity (the default, which you had before) rather than compiz. This is assuming you are working in gnome. If you use kde the command should be "startx /usr/bin/startkde && kwin --replace". Once you are back up in a GUI, turn off the special effects and reboot back into regular mode. Hope this helps :)

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Awesome! Thanks! I'll give those a try! But ah...how do I get back into Linux...? haha When I did the 'fixmbr' for xp, it doesn't show grub anymore...I still have the Live cd. Can it be fixed from that?

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You'll need to re-install GRUB. There are several ways to do that. Just follow the instructions HERE. Even though the instructions are for Ubuntu, it is the same for Mandriva.

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The thing to setup grub worked, thank you Barney :)

However the thing to change it to kwin didn't work...the screen went blank for a moment, then a long error. To much to write down by hand, as I had to go to work in a few minutes, but it pretty much said 'Kwin: cannot connect to X server'

I am using kde 3.5. I'm checked and double checked, and I didn't notice any typo's...

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