Mandrake Linux Install- Some problems

Just installed Mandrake Linux last night, had a lot of trouble with my x display settings- but I finally fixed that.

Now my mouse works, but there is no visible mouse icon. I have a Dell Insipron 8000 laptop with a PS2 tracking ball and touchpad. Needless to say it is a pain in the a**.

The other thing is when I partitioned I used the partition from windows partition option under a recomended install. I gave it a little over 4 gigs, and it split it into two Linux Native partitions 1.6 and 2.5 something like that- What happened there?

I'd say theres something wrong with your XF86Config file that is giving you the cursor problem, have a look at http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Laptop-HOWTO.html or http://www.linux-laptop.net/dell.html.
I don't really understand your "partition from windows partition option" Does this mean you're dual booting with windows? Linux needs at least 2 partitions, a root (/) partition and a swap partition - don't think you'd really need 1.6 gigs of swap, but i'm hardly more knowledgable then the developers at mandrake, so i'll say nowt.

There is a 500 meg swap partition in addition to the two Linux native partitions. I am dual booting with windows, so it took the space from the windows partition. The thing is there are two partitions where I only need one- I think the problem is that the program that installs linux won't do partitions of a little over 2 gigs (I remeber seeing that somewhere, doesn't make too much sence to me though).

Thanks for the two links- I hope that will help solve the mouse problem.

If you choose the auto allocate, it probably did this.
1.6GB Linux Native
Swap
2.5GB for /home

That should be a normal workstation install.

The native partition is where all the programs and OS related tools sit. The /home partition is where you, the user, can store your personal data like speadsheets, documents, etc.

It's no different that if you partition a windows box to have Two partitions, one small C: for the OS and programs and another larger D: for all your personal data.

That's what it sounds like, it's exactly the kind of setup I use for my linux workstations, although I had a bigger /home partition :)

That sounds right to me- actaully that thought occured to me. I guess that would also explain why when I installed it the second time it wouldn't let me install on the 2.6 gig partition.

Obviously without a mouse its been rather hard to check that theory out. I'm still working on the mouse thing.

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Obviously without a mouse its been rather hard to check that theory out

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df -h

And just so you know - its pretty annoying when a person edits a post after somebody has taken the time to answer it.

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Originally posted by petemcevoy
And just so you know - its pretty annoying when a person edits a post after somebody has taken the time to answer it.

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Actually I editited it right after I originally posted it because I made a major typo - but if you took the time to look you will see I edited it at 7:41 and the first reply was at 7:45.

I do agree that it is annoying to edit the original post after a reply.

Thanks for all the replies. I got X-windows working finally. I had to install a new driver for my video card - installing the new drivers and tweaking the XF86Config-4 and that problem was solved.

Now that I got it working I think I want to have a little bit more space available to my root partition- does anyone know if I can resize that partition when re-installing Mandrake or should I get partition magic or something?

If you select "Expert Mode", you can resize your partitions during the reinstall.

Happy Hacking