Very Computer

Celeron 400 PPGA x 2 (and yes the label said single processor
systems...but they work just fine)
Abit BP-6 Motherboard
256 MB PC100 Ram  (2 x 128)
Western  Digital 13.0 and 8.4 gig Hardrives
Mitsumi 40 x IDE CDrom
Sound Blaster PCI 128
Diamon Viper V770
Advanys SCSI controller with Matsushista 7502 cdr drive (works great)
3com 3c509 isa network card (PnP mode)
.....i think that's it.

Now here are the problems.

1) First of all when i boot it (top) says i only have about 3 megs of
ram free. How is this             possible????

2) I can't seem to configure sound with any luck, sndconfig detects my
card immediatly but i don't head any sound.

3) When i reboot or shutdown using those commands, i don't think it
properly unmounts the drives becuase i get error messages when it boots
up and take about 20 minutes to fsck them.

4) I installed the nVidia patch for the V770 and X does work but the
graphics are real sh*tty (grainy, not sure what mode i'm running in but
i know it's 1024x768)

5) Sometimes when shutting down, the machine hangs when its shutting of
interface eth0. so i'm not sure if the network card is the problem.

    That's it on the problems so here are the questions:

    a) How do i fix the problems that i listed above? (i know it's
stupid and redundant to say
                that, but it's my primary question)

    b)  What version of linux should i run on this, i.e. what will
support the hardware best. I was         considering mandrake, but i'm
not sure.

    c) Is there a way to tell what cpu is doing what? i know in Irix
when you run top it tells you          about each cpu?

                    I truly thank everyone in advance for help with
this,

--jordan

Quote:

>1) First of all when i boot it (top) says i only have about 3 megs of
>ram free. How is this             possible????

append="mem=<number of Mb>M" then lilo-v, reboot and type free.

Are you sure that you're not misinterpreting the figures displayed by free??

Quote:>2) I can't seem to configure sound with any luck, sndconfig detects my
>card immediatly but i don't head any sound.

Quote:>3) When i reboot or shutdown using those commands, i don't think it
>properly unmounts the drives becuase i get error messages when it boots
>up and take about 20 minutes to fsck them.

Quote:>4) I installed the nVidia patch for the V770 and X does work but the
>graphics are real sh*tty (grainy, not sure what mode i'm running in but
>i know it's 1024x768)

Quote:>5) Sometimes when shutting down, the machine hangs when its shutting of
>interface eth0. so i'm not sure if the network card is the problem.

Quote:

>    b)  What version of linux should i run on this, i.e. what will
>support the hardware best. I was         considering mandrake, but i'm
>not sure.

Quote:

>    c) Is there a way to tell what cpu is doing what? i know in Irix
>when you run top it tells you          about each cpu?

Kind Regards

Daniel Cave,
SGI Consulting,
1530 Arlington Business Park
Theale, Reading, RG7 4SB.
DDI:    0118 925 7584
Fax:    0118 925 7680

If you continue your present approach, I can absolutely guarantee you
will be most unhappy with linux, no matter the distribution.   I hope
you take this in the manner it was meant, as blunt stating of the
facts.   As to your present situation, all you can do is check those
lists against what you have and install the necessary drivers if they
exist.  If your hardware is simply not linux friendly, then you will
have to replace those parts.

Until your squared on the hardware issues it is useless for you to
pursue the software ones.

g'Luk