lameth wrote:
lameth wrote:User level. Just born Newbie. SystemDell Dimension XPS T-500 Desktop with 128mb of Ram, 26 gig hard drive, Soundblaster live value soundcard, Diamond Multimedia Viper 770D Ultra TNT2 video card with 32mb of memory. Logitech Marble Mouse USB trackball. Debian Version 3.0 Purchased from the SphereProblem:X-windows fails to start because my USB Mouse is failing to initialize. No sound from my Soundblaster live value card.After reading a few articles and searching debian's package list I thought using modutils or usbmgr might solve the problem I was having. Don't ask why it was just a hunch. When I typed in modutils or usbmgr I recieved the message command not found.Yeah I was amazed too ;-) I thought both sounded prety important so I apt-got both. After both were installed I typed usbmgr at the command prompt and guess what? It spit out a couple lines about *.c header files I think and a couple lines about usb audio and usbmouse. Next I typed startx and bam! X-windows complete with sound! Sound didn't even work on the previous install. The one minor hitch was that when I started X with my user account /dev/dsp didn't work because access permission was denied. After I chmod 777 /dev/dsp sound worked in kde for my user account too.
The general consensus seems to be that instead of changing permissions on /dev/dsp, you probably wanted to add your user to the audio group.
Now in all seriousness, could someone explain to me why what I did worked and if usbmgr is required to run usb devices why it wasn't installed with the rest of the usb drivers.
I don't believe usbmgr is required for USB devices to work; however, I do believe it's required for Plug-n-Play type functionality of USB devices. Also, what probably made the difference was the installation of modutils, which handles a lot of the housekeeping of modules. Why it wasn't installed on your system to begin with is beyond me.
Since I'm still enjoying the rush of endorphines brought on by what seems to be a successful debian installation and I have your attention and you're probably already irked at the size of this download I have another question.
To get down on the size of postings, you can trim out parts that are no longer relevant, such as the output of "startx", etc. Also, as a general rule, a separate question is probably best handled under a separate thread. After all, people will see from the subject line that this particular thread is "Solved", so why bother, and even if that didn't slow them down, people who know about contiguous files on reiserfs may not care to read a posting about USB mouse problems. It also helps when others are searching the archives for answers to their problems.
The previous distrobution of linux that I used was Mandrake 8.0. The installs always went fine but then after a month or two of using it I would start seeing messages about non-contiguous data on the hard drive. I was using the Reiserfs filing system, if it matters. Correct me if I'm wrong but non-contiguous data is usually a sign that the computer wasn't shut down properly isn't it? X would occasionally crash but I don't recall my whole system ever crashing and I do know how to shut down a computer under linux. Never did I pull the powercord or bump the power switch. I know this isn't a mandrake mail list I'm just curious if it's a linux problem a mandrake problem or a reiserfs problem. All your opinions, views and rants are welcome.
I'm no expert, but I believe "non-contiguous data" is not indicative of a crash; rather, it's indicative of file fragmentation. I suspect you're seeing these messages and mentally equating them with the autorun of Scandisk in the Windows world after an improper shutdown. Instead, you should equate them with running Defrag in the Windows world. Having said that, I have no idea what the issues are concerning file fragmentation in Linux, and even less on a reiserfs partition.
Kent