Need help rescuing linux!

quote:

---

Original post by flukus
My computer just froze while I was running xandros and when I restarted it couldn''t start kde. I tried startx and it said something along the lines of "failed to initialise nvidia kernel modul".

---

You didn''t tweak your kernel at all, right? Try typing ''modprobe nvidia'' as root in a terminal and seeing if it gives you any interesting output. Also, after doing that, see if dmesg (run it in a terminal too) has anything informative at the end.

quote:

---

Original post by flukus
Is there anyway to adjust the dialling script (or whatever it is) to deal with this without freezing my computer?

---

It''s more likely whatever kernel module is responsible for handling the winmodem. I''ve never owned a winmodem, so I couldn''t say what''s being used or if whatever is happening is a known or common issue.

quote:

---

Original post by flukus
And for one last general information question (for now at least), Are all linux systems bad for dealing with hard resets?

---

As long as you''re using a journaling file system there shouldn''t be any huge troubles caused by the occasional hard reset. If you aren''t using a journaling file system, if the file system repair program doesn''t work properly all kinds of problems can arise with misplaced or mis-permissioned files.

quote:

---

Original post by flukus
A few times I''ve had the computer freeze and I''ve had to setup the ISP settings again.

---

There are a lot of reasons that could happen, I suppose. It might just be whatever configuration software the distribution uses procrastinates a bit about when it saves such settings (meaning it''s a bug or mis-feature in the program in question).

If you purchased Xandros (it is commercial, so that''s what I kind-of assume), complain (nicely ) to them about this type of stuff. They''re the ones responsible for installing whatever software handles the winmodem (normally that''s a good thing ), et cetera.

When I tried modprobe nvidia it loaded the module but with warnings:

0: nvidia: loading NVIDIA Linux x86 nvidia.o Kernel Module 1.0-4496 Wed Jul 16 19:03:09 PDT 2003
devfs_register(nvidiactl): could not append to parent, err: -17
devfs_register(nvidia0): could not append to parent, err: -17

It works well enough to let me load KDE (and type this) but only as root, and I have to type modprobe nvidia everytime I restart my system.

quote:

---

As long as you''re using a journaling file system there shouldn''t be any huge troubles caused by the occasional hard reset. If you aren''t using a journaling file system, if the file system repair program doesn''t work properly all kinds of problems can arise with misplaced or mis-permissioned files.

---

reiserfs is journaling file system isn''t it?

quote:

---

If you purchased Xandros (it is commercial, so that''s what I kind-of assume), complain (nicely ) to them about this type of stuff. They''re the ones responsible for installing whatever software handles the winmodem (normally that''s a good thing ), et cetera.

---

Actually it was a freebie magazine cd and there forums arn''t too helpfull most of the time and from what I understand their tech support isn''t that great anyway.

what distro?

for the nvidia prob, try this as root:

# cd /dev
# mknod nvidiactl c 181 0
# mknod nvidia0 c 180 0
# mknod nvidia1 c 180 1
 

Have you tried reinstalling the nvidia drivers? That will
probably work, make sure when the installer asks you to recompile the kernel modules you do it. Reboot and X will work again. Had same problem before on Slackware though. Bit easier than messing around with device binding that are already made.

Don''t know about the winmodem.

^^It''s xandros (debian). I tried what you said but it says the files already exist. I''ll try installing the drivers again, I just found an update that apt-get upgrade missed anyway!

I''m not sure why but when I restarted that time everything loaded normally, without me installing the new drivers. I still get the same two warnigns though.

Thanks alot for helping, that twice this board has bailed me out (null and void in particular)