Dear Shawn,
Thank you for trying to help. Someone on the Mandrake newsgroup is
working on the swap partition problem already-- when I check that
group again maybe the solution is already there. It turns out that,
for whatever reason, fstab shows the swap partition as hda5, and
fdisk shows what I intended to be the swap partition as hda3, but it's
not the right format type. So I think we're making progress there.
The memory problem is still peculiar, however.
This is some info about the RAM, lifted straight from the Gateway
support site:
128-MB 133/100/66-MHz 64-Bit 4-Clock SDRAM DIMM
Having only 64K recognized doesn't seem to be much of a problem, even
without a swap partition working, because I'm hardly a power user yet.
But usually RPMDrake grinds down to a halt and stays there when I'm
trying to add one or more packages. I've stopped using it and just
use RPM at the command line or click on a single RPM icon in
Konqueror. Perhaps the lack of enough memory is the cause of this.
I have not wanted to complain about the modem problem until I have
re-read some old messages I saved about the issue and familiarized
myself with the advice and what I tried to do several months ago. I
know that few Winmodems can be expected to work with Linux, but this
is just a simple external modem at least five years old.
If we could work on the RAM problem first (even though it isn't the
most bothersome) I'd like that.
Thanks again for helping!
Paul
>>>Short version: More things "just work" in Xandros than in any other
>>>distribution. I'm talking about sound card, wheel mouse, wireless
>>>networking, connecting to Windows shared drives, sound cards, X
>>>configuration, and that sort of thing.
>> That sounds like a blessing indeed. My experience with Mandrake 7.2
>> and 8.2 has been less than gratifying. I've spent hours of
>> frustration both on my own and bothering other people, and my system
>> still only recognizes half of my RAM, refuses to use its swap
>> partition, and (worst of all) I'm still totally incommunicado: it
>> can't find my plain-vanilla U.S. Robotics Sportster external modem
>How much RAM do you have, and what type?
>What does your /etc/fstab look like?
>Are you sure you have a swap partition? Type 82, under Linux fdisk or
>cfdisk.
>It may not display the modem anywhere in the Control Center or anything
>like that. Just try to configure the dialer using /dev/ttyS0 or
>/dev/ttyS1 (look this stuff up, it's been a couple of years since I've
>had dial-up).
>> connected to COM1. (I'm writing this under Windows). Many other
>> people have had this last problem, as well, which sorta leaves
>> Mandrake in the dust behind MS-DOS 2.0.
>> However, if and when I get a Linux functioning properly, I want to use
>> it for programming, and I've read that Xandros is not oriented to this
>> purpose: many of the most important tools are omitted, even gcc and
>> emacs.
>> If this is true, please tell me at least that they can be fairly
>> easily added. If all I wanted to do was point and click my way around
>> a browser and a spreadsheet, I'd never be interested in getting away
>> from Window$.
>Xandros is based on Debian, so if you learn a little bit about apt-get,
>you should have no trouble installing compilers, etc. Also, I just
>checked, and gcc is available in binary form, so you wouldn't have to
>have a compiler to install it.
>Also, I'm sure that you have been mislead -- gcc is included in Xandros
>-- at least if you do a full install. If you read my HOWTO about
>getting encrpted DVDs to play at Linurati.net, you will see that the
>instructions use the ".configure, make, make install" steps, which, in
>my understanding, is using gcc. I could be wrong -- I'm a web
>programmer, not a C programmer.
>Hope this helps. I think that we can get you up and running, if you
>keep asking questions and the rest of us can help you figure it out.
>Shawn
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