Im new to using linux.. and this is my first install so im at a loss.


Im running a pentium 4 2.53 ghz with an asus p4c800 deluxe mobo, 512mb ram single stick, (atm i cant recall its speed but im pretty sure its pc2700)
running SB audigy2 platinum sound, MSI geforce4 mx, onboard 3com gigabit nic, logitech cordless optical mouse and a basic HP media enhanced keyboard.


The install was setup as a dual boot w/ win2k installed prior(yesterday) I gave about 25 gigs of space for the mandrake installer to work with during partitioning. (160 gig drive total, has a 60gb ntfs storage partition, about 72 gigs for the main windows install, also ntfs, and then whatever is left from that mandrake auto converted.)


now.. loading kde takes maybe 2 minutes to do, and the mouse movement is laggy, and seems to cause random things to happen, windows expanding/minimizing, start manu popping up and jumping to random programs, clock options window popping up. and in a shell console typing is lagged as well.


If anyone knows whats wrong please help me out.

I reccon the cordless mouse and media enhanced keyboard are messing things up, sending spurious actions to your desktop. Have you searched for mentions of them on the web, and any X settings that relate to setting them up? Do they use USB and are you using the 2.6.3kernel? Have you installed any updates yet? Have you set focus to be set by mouseover instead of by clicking?

dude I dont understand the terminology of some of that, having only installed linux today and no extensive prior knowledge of it. i've already hooked up a corded mouse but it didnt help anything, ill try a basic keyboard later to rule that out.

they are using ps/2 adapters atm.



what I have noticed since posting is that something seems to be repeating. I keep getting this message in the terminal.

Message from syslogd@localhost at Sat Jul 17 03:23:07 2004 ...
localhost last message repeated 90 times

Message from syslogd@localhost at Sat Jul 17 03:24:08 2004 ...
localhost last message repeated 85 times


i dont know how to find out what is repeating though, (the keyboard thing is a good place to start, though, ill try a diff kb soon)

OK then, fyi:

X, or the XFREE86 server is what deals with making your monitor and graphics card display your desktop.

The kernel is the vital piece of code which controls all hardware and manages all software processes. Versions of linux 2.6 and 2.4 come with Mandrake 10, because 2.6 is a major version up from 2.4, but still a bit new.

Have you used the Mandrake Control Centre to Update any seftware yet, such as bugfixes etc?

KDE (default) and other desktop environments (GNOME, etc) have many options for customising. One is the Look&Feel -> Window Behaviour ones which can change how your mouse interacts with the displayed desktop. Do you remember tweaking these settings?

I just went and tried the keyboard idea, with a basic keyboard (no media buttons at all) it still did it, I managed to get this bit of info..


[wd@localhost wd]$ uptime
04:16:33 up 3 min, 1 user, load average: 3.22, 1.73, 0.68
[wd@localhost wd]$
[Message from syslogd@localhost at Sat Jul 17 04:16:39 2004 ...
[localhost last message repeated 80 times



forgot to check kernal ver, and no I havnt done any customizing because the lag is *extreme*, AND moving the mouse causes random events to be set into motion, such as closing a window, opening new windows, moving the windows around, and minimizing them. currently the system is unusable.

one more thing of note, gnome has the same lag going on, and if I log out of one, while its back at the log in screen the mouse and typing are not lagged, it isnt until I log in that the system gets messy.


these were the files I downloaded if it helps, downloaded them today so it is probably the latest kernal
.
Mandrakelinux10.0-Official-Download-CD1.i586.iso
Mandrakelinux10.0-Official-Download-CD2.i586.iso
Mandrakelinux10.0-Official-Download-CD3.i586.iso

Hmmm, it's a strange issue. When you installed did you select many software packages or did you allow it to just use the default selected packages???

Also with your install, when you setup the graphical options, did you set the right options for your card, such as the right actual card for your system???

Maybe try a reinstall of mandrake with just the default pakages(which install KDE and all the stuff you need to login by default). Also dont set it to automatically start KDE when it boots up and tell it not to use the GUI to login so you can get to a prompt when it boots up and see if your system is working ok then.

It's not a definate solution but it may help to try?

EDIT: sorry i just read that the system isnt laggy at the login screen....so selecting not to boot to the GUI isnt going to help you.

Hmmmmmm, i would definantly not use the wireless KB/mouse while you are trying to get this going though. Maybe try reinstalling with the chorded KB/mouse installed?

I navigated the lag enough to know that it knows specifically which video card and specifically which monitor im using, also I pretty much selected all desktop packages, and none of the server packages. I also selected gnome to be installed which wasnt ticked by default.


Im heading to bed in a few minutes but ive tagged the mandrake iso's for download again, this time with cuteftp instead of internet explorer, if anything is different about them that will be incentive to reburn and reinstall, otherwise im thinking im just gonna try a different os. fedora core 2 is also in my que for download just incase.. and I might download a lesser version of mandrake, it may also simply require a few more tries at it to get it right...


I realized something else too, I had my stereo on last time I booted and during the load screen when it got to the line about the mixer.. I started hearing noise, and it lasted until I shut down.

yeah, thats cool i reccomend just for a test, just leave the mandrake packages as default, just to see how you go with that. it still installs a whole bunch of stuff as well as KDE, so just try that. post your results

i jsut read this in another post, if you get this before you goto bed, try open a console and try these two commands to see if somethings eating your CPU

>ps -axu

or

>top


(top is a good one as its a sort of real time monitor that runs in the shell)

had more patience today, managed to get through the update program, downloaded and installed all updates, still lagged.

so I nuked it and reinstalled with only the default install, still lagged.


Im downloading slackware 10 atm to see if I experience the same thing with that, if I do I also have fedora core2 downloaded, and will also look into getting 9.1 of something to see if my luck is just poor with things with the number 10 in them

I did check my md5 and verified the isos were ok, that still leaves a burning problem, I neglected to tell nero to verify the disc after burning so its possible. Ill make sure to have it verify when I make the slackware discs.

I figured out what was wrong, I was in the bios toying around and happened upon "IDE Mode: Enhanced" and to the side the bios said that only worked with win2k/xp so I had to switch to normal for support for things like dos, win95, and apparently linux


And what do you know, it works.

Now the only problem is my dvd writer and one of my hard drives were on the fourth ide channel (which is apparently where enhanced comes into play.. adding more drives to the system) but ill fix that later.


Now, I still have one small problem of strange background noise coming through my stereo, its mostly quiet with the cd drive door open, but if it closes, the noise comes back, and gets even louder while the drive is searching the cd.


Thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions on things to try, and thanks in advance for all the future problems im going to need help on

The cd thing sounds like a problem with the cd drive -> sound card cable. Check it's connected right inside your pc first. I have a similar issue in that I think my high power speakers affect cd burning if I have them on at the time.

nod, it was. I fixed it a little while ago


all of the problems I had are solved, now im working on getting the thing to run unreal tournament, but ill worry about it tomorrow im going to bed shortly.