OK, I've officially had enough. This could well be make or break time for me and linux. I love learning about things new to me(computer realated), linux may have got the better of me.

The story...

1,I install amndrake 9.2. I have massive problems with getting my modem installed. I finally solve them. User error it would seem.

I have massive problems with my sound. I just can't get it working.

I try to upgrade to the 2.6.2 kernel. It went wrong. No "dep" file. It killed the installation. Still don't know what went wrong.

2,I reinstall mandrake 9.2. The sound suddenly works with very little intervention from myself. Still don't know why or what it was exactly that got it working.

I try again to install 2.6.2 kernel. Everything seemed to go fine. I reboot the system, Lilo starts, and where it should be booting, I have nothing but a black screen (yes, I have a steady green light on the monitor). No activity to be heard from my tower.

3,I reinstall mandrake 9.2 (again!!!). No sound!!! Nothing I try makes the sound work!!!


On each install, such procs as rpmDrake (after installing a program from the disks) and GStreamer (When stopping or starting a test with the "test" button) keep crashing. Galeon decided it had developed an error while browsing to this very site and shut down (only once though).

In each installation, every time I install a proc with rpmdrake, all the folders in the main menu on the panel loose their icons, and most of the programs in those folders just disappear. I did fix this the once, by finding some main menu configuration proc somewhere in mandrake and refreshing the main menu, but I can't find it now! Surely it's not something I should have to do after everytime I install a program with rpmdrake anyway?

I'm at a loss. completely. Why has this got to be so taxing!?!?

Maybe a linux guru standing next to me and acctually teaching me how to do stuff would make it easier. In the absence of such a guru, I have only literature and people on the internet to ask for help when I'm stuck.

Is it just the way it seems, or am I having a seriously unliky/hard time of it here? I'm talking about a freshly installed OS!

As far as I have gathered, Mandrake and sound trouble go together.

As for upgrading to 2.6 kernel.. You shouldn't undertake that before you are very comfortable with linux or when you find a distro that comes with it.