Now I Know

[JoeHill]

On 23 Dec 2003 21:37:39 -0500
Stephen <roulton623-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> I didn't know what the summary on the Mandrake 9.1 was supposed to do
> since I got a blank screen on that particular spot in the setup where my
> installation locked up.
> 
> The question I have is there anything in that part of the setup that
> would cause a lag when starting applications.
> 
> You said that is the area where you get to configure hardware that is
> found and add hardware that wasn't detected. Could there be any thing in
> there that could be configured wrong to cause my problem.
> 
> If there is then my problem could be solved by configuring what ever it
> is that might be configured wrong.

My first guess, and it's a guess, would be the X configuration. If it doesn't
properly configure your X server, with proper settings in XF86Config-4 for
resolution and such, it *could* result in the slowness and lockups you are
experiencing. One place to check for errors is /var/log/XFree86.0.log.

IME, that is the only item that *never* gets config'd automatically on an
install, with good reason. It wants you to decide on res, colour-depth, etc.
What type of video card are you using, anyway?

One sol'n I've seen for a few people using Nvidia cards is to turn off ACPI.
This has gotten rid of some hard lockups and slow response in *some* cases.

In /etc/lilo.conf, you will see the first section is for your default kernel
entry, and there should be a line like this:

append="devfs=mount hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off resume=/dev/hda5 splash=silent"

yours might be different, but try setting acpi=off, then run "lilo", and reboot
(all this as root of course).

I'm still bettin' this is a hardware issue. Either you've got a bad stick of RAM
or the vid card mem or GPU is on the fritz. As I think someone else on here
pointed out, Linux can be a lot more demanding on hardware, or at least a lot
less forgiving when it's not at it's best.

Someone mentioned "memtest", did you investigate that?

In any case, Happy Holidays and all that!

-- 
JoeHill ++ ICQ # 280779813
Registered Linux user #282046
Homepage: www.orderinchaos.org
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