hi helpers just installed linux mandrake 9.0 for the first time, all runs ok but would like to change monitor refresh rate and latest vid card drivers.when i go to control panel and select monitor it brings nothing on screen but looks like its searching for a cd rom as the cd rom light continually flashes,it dose this when i click on any hardware icon in control panel,any help would be great,i am loged in as root.
thanks in advance.

thanks for the help people,any way managed to struggle my way through installing new drivers alls good.
mybe someone can help me with this one, im useing kde desktop and am trying to install a prog, but it keeps telling me to mount cdrom drive,what the hell dose this mean.
thanks again.

In linux, in order to access a filesystem (being anything from cd, floppy, hard disk, etc.) you need to "mount" it so that you can access it from your root filesystem.

Different distributions use different "mount points" which are places in your root filesystem that you can access your other filesystems. If you are from the MS Windows world, think of it as a your "My Computer", from there you can go to your floppy drive, hard disk, cdrom, etc.

Examples of mount points can be "/mnt/cdrom", "/cdrom" "/media/cdrom", etc.

You can mount your cd in one of two ways. Most distributions automatically set up your mount points and add them to a file so that they are ready to go when you need them. The file used is "/etc/fstab" which holds all your mountable partitions. For a distribution like Mandrake, you can "mount" your cdrom by placing the cd into the drive and typing in a console "mount /mnt/cdrom". At that point, you should hear the cd start to spin up, and you can access the files on there by "cd /mnt/cdrom". When finished, you must un-mount the cd with "umount /mnt/cdrom".

If the entry does not exist in your /etc/fstab file, then you can mount a filesystem as follows:



The bottom example shows how to manually mount your cdrom to the /mnt/cdrom mount point. For more information on mounting, type "man mount" in your console to read the man page.

Mandrake requires you to use the cd because it is configured by default to install all files from the cd

thanks a lot tourettes can play music now,i need it to keep my frustration levels down.it's so differant to windows,none of my mates run linux, but i am determined to work it out. i have a million more questions.
thanks again for the help.

Anyone getting into Linux should get a couple of books.

I would recommend "Linux in a nutshell" this contains almost all the commands you will ever need with all options for each command.

I also have the RedHat 8 Bible. If there is a bible book for your distro then give it ago. These books walk you through most of the things that noobies have trouble with. Now i know these are not always cheap, but they can save you soooo much time.

Good luck

Medic6666

Good idea Medic, i think i'll start a thread for that....

Hi, I'm another nube. Quick question. I just loaded Mandrake 9.0 & I'm having trouble getting the OS to reconize my modem Lucent Winmodem. Could I just mount the modem the way you mount the CD ROM? Except for not being able to connect to the net this is a nice OS. Lots to learn though.

I am also pretty much a linux noob but one thing I do know is that Drivers for controllerless "WIN" modems are hard to find, there are apparently some out there but these modems in general were designed for windows and only when some Linux guru decides to tackle creating a driver for these Modems can you get them to work. I would not consider this a Fault with linux or a reason not to use it. In general these winmodems are about the poorest performer you can get and would instead suggest buying an external Serial modem which requires no drivers at all and they tend to be much faster especially on older machines. something similar to this should do nicely.