Hi! here just got Mandrake 9.2 (finally!)
Oh btw, specs:

P4 1.70 GHz
256 MB paired RDRAM
Geforce2MX 400

40 GB Win32, has Windows in it. /dev/hda, I think... Primary master
120 GB NTFS, file storage. Connected through IDE card
120 GB NTFS, file storage. Primary slave.
120 GB, file storage. 70 GB NTFS, the rest for MDK. Secondary slave.

CD-ROM Connected through IDE card
DVD-RW Connected through IDE card
CD-RW Secondary master.

USB mouse and keyboard.

Problems:
1. Cannot modify BIOS. When i press F2 to get into BIOS, it gets into it, but it doesn't respond to my keyboard, even when i tried a PS/2 one. At one time it worked, I don't know how or why. Begun MDK installation anyway.

2. Installation always goes smoothly, except it freezes if I leave it for too long when it's waiting for input or the next CD. A few tens of minutes usually freezes it. After smooth installation, I can get in only with linux-nonfb, maybe the VGA doesn't have framebuffer support.
After learning things inside, I rebooted back to Win. When I rebooted back to linux, after choosing in bootloader, it gave me 1 of 2 errors on N tries (off memory)
a. CRC error, system halted.
b. Invalid compression type (error=1), system halted.
The Nth try, I got in. Next time I tried, couldn't get in anymore.
Deleted the linux partitions and NTFSed them then surface-scandisked it in Win. Reinstalled MDK. No more of the above 2 errors, could use it for a whole day, purposely rebooting multiple times to check if it happens again. It didn't. Satisfied, I used Win again for a day. Today I missed MDK and rebooted. Got another error (long one), forgot what it said (forgive me!!) >_<
Desperate, reinstalled MDK again.
3. This time the "terminals" menu in K menu had a lot of other consoles other than Konsole. It has CRXvt (Big5), GBRXvt (GB2312), JRXvt (JIS), KRXvt (KSCS601), Konsole and Kterm. Is this because other than the English (American) language, this time I chose the Japanese language too?
4. I thought the messups were caused by me going into Win, so after the install I went back to Win then back to MDK. Still worked. That's where I am now. I tried both Lilo and Grub, currently using Grub. I thought I got a text GRUB or something like that back then, did stuff with the rescue feature in CD1 and got the usual GUI GRUB back. But now there's old-linux and old-windows there O_o

Can anyone read what's going on? Anything at all that can help?
Thank you

5. POSSIBLE BUG REPORT!
Almost forgot :P I was trying to move windows from one virtual desktop to another (abbreviated VD? I don't know :P) here's what I pressed:
Alt+F3 --> d --> right arrow button
That crashes the KWin, weird stuff. Restore it with
$ kwin
btw, Alt+F3 --> d --> <no of destination VD> works

Thanks in advance for the help, and I hope my bugreport helps! ^___^

in trying stuff, i typed "lilo" into command prompt. it overwrote grub, as i read around the internet. so i need to do grub-install now. but i'm a bit worried, what do i enter for the install_device parameter? lilo also gave me a crc error when i try to boot into MDK.
cheers

Might be a stupid suggestion, but try flashing your bios! My keyboard stopped responding after a bios flash, but maybe yours will do the opposite. Are you using a via chipset? They have numerous problems in my experience.

Also, in order for me to get into the bios and have the keyboard be responsive is this:
The very second after I hear the monitor kick on upon startup or reboot, I repeatedly tap the del key in one second intervals until it goes into the bios and that seems to work. Very strange.

I would try to solve that problem first and then work on the other problems. Also, keep in mind that Linux makes much more use of your hardware and will seem buggy on unstable equipment. Maybe you have a defective memory module or something. Are you overclocking? That will definately cause problems, especially if your heatsink and fan are crummy.

Try http://www.memtest86.com/

JL

well i booted into knoppix and ran # memtest 256M because i thought i had 256 megs of rdram (2 x 128) but it kept saying "insufficient resources" and trying lower values, until it became lower than 128! then it scanned and found no errors. weird.
about the del mumbo-jumbo, i'll try it isn't it like "when turning on the old NES, have the tv on channel 3 and it'll work" XD wonder why though. i tried flashing the BIOS already. i'm not overclocking.
btw turns out i've been trying to install MDK to a harddisk connected through an IDE card. lol now i moved that harddrive into a secondary master, hopefully that'll help huh? thanks for the reply

so. i thought that would help. kill me.
After rearranging my drives physically, i installed linux again, then logged in, was happy, then rebooted to see if i can get in again. i could. happiness. installed plenty of stuff, then rebooted into windows before i slept, so it could download some stuff while i slept. this morning i tried to reboot into mdk and what did i get?

kernel (hd2,5)/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdd6 devfs=mount splash=silent hde=ide-scsi hdf=ide-scsi acpi=ht resume=/dev/hdd7
Error 15 : file not found
Press any key to continue...

OMG i'm desperate!! >_< what is wrong?
please help, and thanks