ATTN Linux users - Mandrake Wackiness

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Tach Deneva
Posts: 1546
Joined: 18 Dec 2002, 18:51
Location: KY

ATTN Linux users - Mandrake Wackiness

Post by Tach Deneva »

If any of you guys are using Mandrake Linux 9.0, be careful with the XFree86 update offered in Mandrake Update in the Software Manager/Control Center. The update process is wacked - something is uninstalled during the process (that would be incompatible with the update) but it's not reinstalled along with the updated version - and you won't know that until you restart your PC and discover that you can't start the X server!

Which is what happened to me this morning, when I booted up Mandrake. Aiee! Fortunately, I have a triple-boot system and was able to find the info I needed to fix things on Google Groups (alt.os.linux.mandrake).

I had to engage in all kindsa wacky console shenanigans (using 'links' and 'mc') to get the X server up and running again. So if you decide to update XFree86, download the necessary files and install them manually!

TD
"Shoo! Shoo! Go away! Oh God, he's got a monkey." -- Ms Purple
BlackHawk*K
Posts: 1051
Joined: 12 May 2001, 17:00
Location: Oklahoma

Post by BlackHawk*K »

i been interested in liunux for a bit. tried Lindows a bit and it realy can screw up windows. you said something about tripple booting... how do you do that? can you send me maybe some kind of documentation... im some ways im pretty conputer savvy but in other ways im dense as a rock... hehe. for me the computer is all learned from trial and error... i just mess with something till i get it figured out..
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Tach Deneva
Posts: 1546
Joined: 18 Dec 2002, 18:51
Location: KY

Post by Tach Deneva »

I don't remember how I did it. Heh.

Lessee, I got this PC (Dell Dimension 8100 w/20GB hard drive) in April of 2001 - I still have the emails from back then. WinME was preinstalled (and the peasants rejoiced). Around February of 2002 something happened that got me PO'd at Winders, so I bought the Standard Edition box set of Mandrake Linux 8.0. It was like $25 for 3 CDs and a BIG installation manual. The first two CDs were the OS, and the 3rd was a big collection of free software - including the software I needed to convert some free space on the hard drive into an empty partition, in which I installed MDK, leaving WinME still intact on its own separate partition. I had the option of using LILO or Grub as bootloaders - I chose LILO. Whenever I booted up the PC, LILO gave me the option of booting into Mandrake or WinME. Way cool!

Shortly thereafter I became interested in Lycoris Desktop LX (another Linux distro). So I bought an 80GB hard drive and copied WinMe onto it, leaving MDK on the 20GB (master/boot) drive. I divided the 80GB drive into two partitions - 50GB for WinME, 30GB for Lycoris (didn't really need that much for Lycoris). So then, still using the LILO bootloader, I had a triple-boot system.

Earlier this year, I got fed up with WinME and installed WinXP Pro instead. I dunno how or why, but all my emails and various other Winders files were still there after I installed XP. Weird, but cool. I had to reinstall LILO, of course, and of course I'd already forgotten what I needed to do to get Lycoris to boot up - but that's what Google is for.

So, anyway, now I'm running Mandrake Linux 9.0, WinXP Pro, and Lycoris Desktop LX (build 47, I think - I've upgraded twice).

I don't remember all the details of how I did everything, but I relied heavily on Google Groups, specifically the Mandrake Linux newsgroup.

TD
"Shoo! Shoo! Go away! Oh God, he's got a monkey." -- Ms Purple
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