dagwoood Posted September 11, 2005 Report Share Posted September 11, 2005 As per my other thread with regards to getting Linspire to perform how I would like it to, I've come to the conclusion that I'm trying to run before I can walk.So, I would appreciate some advice on what distro would be suitable for me, in view of I'm a total noob when it comes to Linux. The problems I've encountered have also been compounded by I've only every used Windows XP, so I'm not conversant in running commands from the command prompt(apart from a few basic commands, i.e.chkdsk, defrag, ping, ipconfig etc).I don't want to give up on Linux, it's really piqued my interest, but I'm struggling to perform even the most basic of tasks, so a really low maintenance distro that I can install Nvidia drivers on(I just can't stand looking at a crappy desktop :blush:) would be my main prerequisites.Cheers, dagwoood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trackrat Posted September 11, 2005 Report Share Posted September 11, 2005 suse 9.3.To enable the drivers in this distro you simply go into YAST, click on Installed & Installable patches, find the Nvidia entry, right click it and then click install. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagwoood Posted September 12, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2005 suse 9.3.To enable the drivers in this distro you simply go into YAST, click on Installed & Installable patches, find the Nvidia entry, right click it and then click install.Thanks for that trackrat.I've spent a few hours downloading/installing a network install of Suse 9.3. It installed, but then I couldn't boot into it, I had to use a boot CD. When I did get into it, it kept locking up when I was trying to configure the boot files :( To compound matters, I couldn't boot into windows either!I can only put it down to a corrupt download. As this is the most likely fault, I would like to give Suse another try, but go the CD install route instead of downloading it. In view of this, is this company reputable Thelinuxshop.co.uk ?Cheers, dagwoood.P.S. I've managed to get XP up and running(used recovery console to FIXMBR, and then ran Acronis True Image). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan2273 Posted September 12, 2005 Report Share Posted September 12, 2005 If you want to PM me I will send you a DVD with SuSe 9.3 on.I subsribe to Linux magazine and it came with it but I have no use for it as I am using Fedora core 4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
korgg Posted September 15, 2005 Report Share Posted September 15, 2005 You could also try Mandriva (aka former Mandrake) ....www.mandriva.com ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagwoood Posted September 15, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2005 Sorry, but I could do with some more advice please :blush: .I installed Suse 9.3 from CD. The problems is, whenever I try to do anything on it(download updates, scroll down a long list)it's still locking, i.e.can't scroll, close open windows, right click to bring up menus. I have to do a hard reboot to rectify this.Something I noticed when the system was booting up was an error worded to the effect that DMA isn't enabled which leads me to think that it's a RAM issue.Now, to get windows to run stable with my m/b chipset, I have to manually set my RAM timings(a known issue with nforce2 chipsets). I set the CAS# latency to 2.5(my memory should run at 3.0 at 400MHz). I'm also running in dual channel mode.Could either of these be the cause of the problem when trying to run Suse?Cheers, dagwoood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagwoood Posted September 15, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2005 You could also try Mandriva (aka former Mandrake) ....www.mandriva.com ...Thanks for that korgg(I'll have to learn to Refresh more often :D). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagwoood Posted October 13, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2005 In case anyone else experiences the problems I had, I found out(with a lots of help on another forum)that Linux users with nForce2 motherboard chipsets were running into problems trying to get v2.4.x.x distros to run. The problem was addressed with later versions of kernel 2.6.x.x.I've tried Mandriva, Suse 10 and Xandros(all have v2.6.x.x kernels), and haven't had any problems.As to why I originally started this thread, I've been using Xandros. It's seems easier to use for a newbie like myself, is easy to install s/w(via Xandros Network)and when I installed it it picked up my Nvidia card and installed the Nvidia driver for me B) . I was quite impressed with this, as Xandros is only a 600+MB download compared to Suse 10 which weighs in at over 2GB.Thanks everyone for the help and advice, I'm sure you'll be hearing from me soon with so "how to" questions :blush:Cheers, dagwoood. B) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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