Teilhard Knight wrote:
I believe "nv" is the correct choice. Are you sure the problem is video and not something else, like failure to find the mouse? Take a look at /var/log/XFree86.0.log; you'll see a lot of lines beginning with (II) which are informative lines, some with (WW) which are warnings, but not particularly fatal, and etc. Look for lines that begin with (EE), which are errors; they should give you a clue as to what's failing when you try to start X.Hello. I hope you do not mind a real dummy hanging around here. I know nothing about Linux or Unix, but I want to learn. I hardly know a couple of command-line commands, so I am in need to get an X Window in my GNU Debian I have been trying to install. I must be doing something wrong in the installation. For example, I have a modest NVIDIA TNT2 64/64 pro, I do not know which, but it is not that important. In the list of graphics cards once I chose "nv" for the card, and in another try I chose something else I don't remember. Can you tell me what is the right choice?
You may know the difference, but just in case you don't, .rpm (Redhat) is not "Linux"; it's a packaging format that is common to many Linux distros, particulary Redhat. Still, technically, you're correct. A driver packaged in a .rpm format is a Linux driver (presumably). But natively, Debian, also a Linux distro, doesn't use the .rpm format (although it can in many cases with the "alien" package). This is a nitpick that I probably shouldn't even be pointing out to a newbie. Still . . . .Also, the installation cannot detect my external USB modem (I have one internal, but it is a Win Modem, so I have no hopes to use it in Linux). But I have the Linux drivers (.rpm), but I do not have the slightest idea of how to install them. Can you also help here?
Assuming the Redhat (or Mandrake, or whoever produced the .rpm) driver works in Debian, I'd try "alien --to-deb usbdriver.rpm" (you might have to "apt-get install alien" first), which should create a file named usbdriver.deb. Then you can install it with "dpkg -i usbdriver.deb". I'd estimate that this has a 65% chance of working. If it doesn't work, you can probably find the same drivers somewhere in a .tgz format (or even better, in a .deb format, which is what you'd want even before trying alien on your .rpm). If it comes down to that, you can then ask questions about installing that format of driver.
Some winmodems can now be used in Linux (thanks to the tireless efforts of Linux coders, and no thanks to the manufacturers of said "modems"), particularly if they're based in the Lucent chipset. In other words, don't just automatically dismiss the idea of using your winmodem.
That's generally for USB mice I believe. For PS/2 mice, you probably want "/dev/psaux". For protocol, you probably want "PS2", or if you have a scroll wheel mouse, "IMPS/2". There is a "gotcha" here. If you're using gpm for the console mouse, you'll want to set it as just mentioned, and set it to repeat as "raw", and then configure X to use "/dev/gpmdata" instead of "/dev/psaux", otherwise the two drivers (one for X and gpm for console) will fight over the incoming mouse data. If you don't use gpm, just configure X to use "/dev/psaux" as mentioned above.Lastly, I would like to know what is the PS/2 (mice) port in Linux. I chose "/input/mice", is this correct?
Thanks, and again, I hope you do not mind my dummy questions.
Not at all.