Thread: Mandrake 8.2

I installed Mandrake 8.2 on my notebook computer. I didn't want to use WinXP anymore. Now I want a refund for WinXP. Do you think MS will pay me?

It's nice. It installs a lot faster than Red Hat. I think that Red Hat has more packages, however Mandrake is nicely set up and has some stuff that Red Hat doesn't offer. They both use KDevelop and QT designer as their main IDE and Widget toolkits. Underneath it is GNU C (gcc) and GNU CPP (g++). The Mandrake setup provides a slightly easier interface for selecting what servers you want installed, but it asks a few more hardware questions than the Red Hat setup. They both were not too dificult as long as you knew the name of the graphics card you have. In many respects Mandrake and Red Hat offer the same applications. The result is that it is more applications than I'll probably ever use.

I've found that it is a simple matter to test these different OS's. I download all of them for free (download the iso files to my hard drive than burn the CD images to a CD with Roxio Adaptec) and make sure that I have my original cd's such as Win2k just in case Linux is incompatable with the hardware.

I had some BIOS problems. The OS worked fine, but when I Halted my notebook, it would not shut down the screen, that is, the OS shut down, but it just wouldn't take that last step and shut my screen down. I emailed compaq customer service and they said that Linux is a business networking computer and they don't support it, they are using MS Windows because they are dealing with the general public.

I had to restore WinXP. I'm almost certain that the problem was in BIOS. Well, I mentioned to Compaq that they should sell systems that are compatable with both Linux and MS Windows. They said that they would pass the message along to management. The hardware and BIOS should be standardized and both OS's should run, that way people in this world can have a choice without being trapped into supporting a MONOPOLY.

Mandrake 8.2 looked quite nice. Well, at least I still have Red Hat 7.3 that I am using right now on my desktop.

I also am using Mandrake 8.2 on my laptop from which I have been learning how to use qt designer.
It reminds me of visual basic.

I'm happy with the core disks whenever I have payed for Mandrake in the past I ended up with many packages I didn't want. It was always a pain.

So far I am having fun with the new OS although I am having some problem continuing the tutorial in qt designers manual as stated in my other post.

Troll_King about the screen not shutting down I believe you can fix it by recompiling your kernel.

When you recompile your kernel, there is an option called APM --> Advanced Power Management, (I don't remembert under what menu it was though) which should fix your problem. Using the 2.4.5 kernel, which is old, there extra options under it for BIOS's that might not work properly with Linux. Maybe try turnnig the APM on, and if you still have trouble, turnon those other options.

Sorry about the above post, but I forgot to logon.

Troll_King about the screen not shutting down I believe you can fix it by recompiling your kernel, and adding APM support.

When you recompile your kernel, there is an option called APM --> Advanced Power Management, (I don't remembert under what menu it was though) which should fix your problem. Using the 2.4.5 kernel, which is old now, there were extra options under the APM option for BIOS's that might not work properly with Linux. Maybe try turnnig the APM on first, and if you still have trouble, turn on those other options.

I believe that there is a technical solution. If I was knowledgeable from studying hardware drivers, I686 architecture, and ASM, than I would write code to update BIOS immediately. The truth remains, I am a newbie in terms of the Linux operating system. I have never recompiled the kernel before, and I'd like to first do some reading about it. I have some books that go into detail about the process.

Thank you for the reply. In time I'll sort it out. I am interested in the potential of the Linux operating system as a research tool. I was born on the Microsoft operating system. Please have patience. It was almost a miracle that I was able to download RedHat and Mandrake sucessfully from the internet and make discs from the ISO images. That was a great feat for me.

Must be a trend or something, I switched from RH7.2 to mandrake 8.2. I love it, I wish I found it earlier.