On Sat, 21 Jul 2007 16:38:07 +0000, Tony Peardon wrote:

> Hi All,
> This is my first post to this group, and before I get to the subject of
> my troubles, I'd just like to say that Debian really impressed me. I've
> got an old computer (Dell Optiplex GX1), and it use to run very slow on
> Windows 98, and crash often. Now I feel like I have a whole new computer,
> and it's never crashed once, but I do have some questions, mainly because
> I'm a total newbie.
>
> First Question: I can't seem to play any 3D games with any speed at all.
> I could under Win98, so I suspect that my graphics card just needs to be
> configured, but I can't find where to do this. Anyone who can point me
> in the right direction has my appreciation.

What graphics card? Nvidia has Linux drivers at their web site.

>
> Next Question: Here at my home, we have three computers, all online
> through an old 16 port IBM hub and a telus DSL modem. I'm running debian,
> and everone else is running XP. My question is how do we connect the
> three computers together so that we can share files with each other.

SAMBA - see samba howto at www.tldp.org

>
> Last Question: I want to be able to write internet applications with
> php/mysql, but I can't get any of my php pages to load. These pages were
> written on my windows 98 machine, and they all worked, but now none of
> them do. Anyone know whats up?

You need to install php. Start synaptic from the system menu and search
for php. Click select, click install. If you want them to work from within
a browser, you'll need to install apache, too. Then browse to 'localhost'
- you'll probably need a link to where the pages are from /var/www.



>
> Thanks in advance for all replies. Especially the ones that help
>
> sTony

[edit]

> Thanks in advance for all replies. Especially the ones that help
>

The only thing I might add to poster ray's advice is that I'm guessing you
want to setup a production environment, so you probably also want to
search (Google or your favorite) for LAMP system (Linux, Apache, MySQL and
PHP) howto's.

Rodney

On Jul 21, 6:38 pm, Tony Peardon wrote:
> Hi All,
> This is my first post to this group, and before I get to the subject of
> my troubles, I'd just like to say that Debian really impressed me. I've
> got an old computer (Dell Optiplex GX1), and it use to run very slow on
> Windows 98, and crash often. Now I feel like I have a whole new computer,
> and it's never crashed once, but I do have some questions, mainly because
> I'm a total newbie.

No problem, we have all been total newbies here. But to help you, you
need to help us.
So first you need to tell us which sort of problem you want to solve.
I think you have done that
quite good. Points to you.
Then you really need to tell us about your computer. Here you just
lost your point
Which distribution version do you have (Debian has different version,
I would guess you use Debian/Etch which is version 4.0)?

> First Question: I can't seem to play any 3D games with any speed at all.
> I could under Win98, so I suspect that my graphics card just needs to be
> configured, but I can't find where to do this. Anyone who can point me
> in the right direction has my appreciation.

We need to know what hardware you have. A good way is to use the
command 'lspci'
So open a terminal window, type the command. Mark it with dragging
and marking
the command and output, and then middle klick in you next replay to
this. It will look
something like this ("..." means that I removed some text):

$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GL Express
Memory Controller Hub (rev 04)
....
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M24 1P [Radeon
Mobility X600]
....
$

The line "VGA compatibel controller..." tells us that I have a ATI
graphical card. If you tell use which
you have, we should be able to point you where you can find how to
install a 3D driver

> Next Question: Here at my home, we have three computers, all online
> through an old 16 port IBM hub and a telus DSL modem. I'm running debian,
> and everone else is running XP. My question is how do we connect the
> three computers together so that we can share files with each other.

As ray wrote, SAMBA is good way of shareing files and printers with
other MS Windows machines.
You could also look for SSH or WebDAV (putty or other klient on your
MS Windows XP machines works
well, webdav need you to set up Apache2 the right way).

Each user needs an account on your Linux machine to be able to read/
write files to it.

> Last Question: I want to be able to write internet applications with
> php/mysql, but I can't get any of my php pages to load. These pages were
> written on my windows 98 machine, and they all worked, but now none of
> them do. Anyone know whats up?

You need to install Apache2 and PHP, which you find with "synaptics"
as ray told you.
Then you need to set Apache2 up to use PHP etc. That you do with
special commands
in debian. Look at http://www.debian-administrator.org/ or use Google
to look up pages
to "set up" "Apache2" with "PHP" on "Debian" "Etch" .
I will give you and every one else, use those marked key words in a
google search, It will
give you a really good hit in first line

They have good information about SAMBA too on the same site.

> Thanks in advance for all replies. Especially the ones that help

Your welcome

Good luck

On Jul 23, 1:35 am, AJackson wrote:

Hate this, but here are two good links to what you want:
SAMBA: http://www.howtoforge.com/debian_etc...tdbsam_backend
LAMP: http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntu_debian_lamp_server

ray espoused:
> On Sat, 21 Jul 2007 16:38:07 +0000, Tony Peardon wrote:
>
>> Hi All,
>> This is my first post to this group, and before I get to the subject of
>> my troubles, I'd just like to say that Debian really impressed me. I've
>> got an old computer (Dell Optiplex GX1), and it use to run very slow on
>> Windows 98, and crash often. Now I feel like I have a whole new computer,
>> and it's never crashed once, but I do have some questions, mainly because
>> I'm a total newbie.
>>
>> First Question: I can't seem to play any 3D games with any speed at all.
>> I could under Win98, so I suspect that my graphics card just needs to be
>> configured, but I can't find where to do this. Anyone who can point me
>> in the right direction has my appreciation.
>
> What graphics card? Nvidia has Linux drivers at their web site.

There are also ATI drivers and Intel drivers. If you have some other 3D
card, you are likely to be out of luck, though.

>
>>
>> Next Question: Here at my home, we have three computers, all online
>> through an old 16 port IBM hub and a telus DSL modem. I'm running debian,
>> and everone else is running XP. My question is how do we connect the
>> three computers together so that we can share files with each other.
>
> SAMBA - see samba howto at www.tldp.org

Err, well, yeah :-)

>
>>
>> Last Question: I want to be able to write internet applications with
>> php/mysql, but I can't get any of my php pages to load. These pages were
>> written on my windows 98 machine, and they all worked, but now none of
>> them do. Anyone know whats up?
>
> You need to install php. Start synaptic from the system menu and search
> for php. Click select, click install. If you want them to work from within
> a browser, you'll need to install apache, too. Then browse to 'localhost'
> - you'll probably need a link to where the pages are from /var/www.
>
>
>
>>
>> Thanks in advance for all replies. Especially the ones that help
>>
>> sTony
>

Have fun.

--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| My (new) blog: http://www.thereisnomagic.org |

On Sun, 22 Jul 2007 23:35:08 +0000, AJackson wrote:

Hello again everyone,

Thanks for all the replies...

> On Jul 21, 6:38 pm, Tony Peardon wrote:
>> Hi All,
>> This is my first post to this group, and before I get to the
>> subject of my troubles, I'd just like to say that Debian really
>> impressed me. I've got an old computer (Dell Optiplex GX1), and
>> it use to run very slow on Windows 98, and crash often. Now I
>> feel like I have a whole new computer, and it's never crashed
>> once, but I do have some questions, mainly because I'm a total
>> newbie.
>
> No problem, we have all been total newbies here. But to help you, you
> need to help us.
> So first you need to tell us which sort of problem you want to solve. I
> think you have done that
> quite good. Points to you.
> Then you really need to tell us about your computer. Here you just
> lost your point
> Which distribution version do you have (Debian has different version, I
> would guess you use Debian/Etch which is version 4.0)?
>
>> First Question: I can't seem to play any 3D games with any
>> speed at all. I could under Win98, so I suspect that my
>> graphics card just needs to be configured, but I can't find
>> where to do this. Anyone who can point me in the right
>> direction has my appreciation.
>
> We need to know what hardware you have. A good way is to use the
> command 'lspci'
> So open a terminal window, type the command. Mark it with dragging and
> marking
> the command and output, and then middle klick in you next replay to
> this. It will look
> something like this ("..." means that I removed some text):
>
> $ lspci
> 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GL Express
> Memory Controller Hub (rev 04)
> ...
> 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M24 1P [Radeon
> Mobility X600]
> ...
> $
>
> The line "VGA compatibel controller..." tells us that I have a ATI
> graphical card. If you tell use which you have, we should be able to
> point you where you can find how to install a 3D driver
>
>

Ok, I ran lspci in a root terminal, this is what it returned. It seems
that my onboard graphics controller is a 3D Rage Pro. From the name of the
card, it sounds like it should do 3d like a pro, but other than running
prboom (doom clone) in 8bit mode, I still can't seem to play anything 3d.


00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host
bridge (rev 03) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX -
82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03) 00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation
82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02) 00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation
82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01) 00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation
82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01) 00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation
82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02) 00:11.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com
Corporation 3c905B 100BaseTX [Cyclone] (rev 24) 01:00.0 VGA compatible
controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro AGP 1X/2X (rev 5c)

If someone could help me set this up so I can play the 3d games, I'd
really appreciate it. If the onboard rage just wont do 3d graphics in
linux, could someone suggest an older graphics card that would. I can't
afford a new graphics card, but a used one...maybe.


>> Next Question: Here at my home, we have three computers, all
>> online through an old 16 port IBM hub and a telus DSL modem.
>> I'm running debian, and everone else is running XP. My question
>> is how do we connect the three computers together so that we
>> can share files with each other.
>
> As ray wrote, SAMBA is good way of shareing files and printers with
> other MS Windows machines.
> You could also look for SSH or WebDAV (putty or other klient on your MS
> Windows XP machines works
> well, webdav need you to set up Apache2 the right way).
>
> Each user needs an account on your Linux machine to be able to read/
> write files to it.
>
>
Thanks Lots. SAMBA sounds like what we are needing, though the situation
has changed somewhat, so before I proceed, possibly messing up everything,
this is what we have in mind. The intension is to run a fourth computer as
a gateway machine, and then link the other computers to it, and each
other, through the hub. The gateway machine will have one harddrive that
is shared with everyone on our local intranet, mainly for shared media
files. It will also have the printers connected to it, so everyone will
also need to be able to print through it. The gateway machine will also
have a dns server and a firewall installed, and will be the first line of
defence in our little network. Another thing that has changed is that we
are down to only one XP machine. Ubuntu having been installed on one of
them. ( It also is not doing 3d graphics like it should, but I'll get to
that problem later. ) Anyhow, this setup sounds ok to me, but I'm not sure
if it will work. I am concerned about the ip of the gateway machine. Our
ip addresses all get changed every night, so how will our computers know
where to look for their new ip's, or do both ethernet cards in the gateway
machine have their own ip. I'm not sure how this works, or even if I've
explained it correctly, so heres a little graphic of sorts,
___________
| DSL Modem |
_____________ _____|_____ __________________
|Color Printer| <--| Gateway PC|--> |Dot Matrix Printer|
____|____
| IBM HUB |
__________| | |_______
____|____ ____|____ ___|____
|Debian PC| |Ubuntu PC| |WinXP PC|

Can anyone see any trouble with that setup, or would something else be
better? We want to be able play network games, and the XP machine will
eventually be changed to another linux machine, but only after I learn
enough to make sure I can get it running right. It's my cousin Lens
machine, and although it's loaded with malware, and he's constantly
scanning with this, that, and the other thing, I still haven't been able
to convince him to switch. He says.. "lets just wait a bit and see what
happens". He is just scared of linux, which I can understand. After all,
it took me years to make the change, but now that I have, I have no
regrets, and I don't miss the spyware one bit.

>> Last Question: I want to be able to write internet
applications
>> with php/mysql, but I can't get any of my php pages to load.
>> These pages were written on my windows 98 machine, and they all
>> worked, but now none of them do. Anyone know whats up?
>
> You need to install Apache2 and PHP, which you find with "synaptics" as
> ray told you.
> Then you need to set Apache2 up to use PHP etc. That you do with
> special commands
> in debian. Look at http://www.debian-administrator.org/ or use Google
> to look up pages
> to "set up" "Apache2" with "PHP" on "Debian" "Etch" . I will give you
> and every one else, use those marked key words in a google search, It
> will
> give you a really good hit in first line

Thanks everyone, but I managed to get this issue sorted out on my own,
though perhaps not with the greatest solution. I installed LAMPP, now
XAMPP, from the internet. It works wonderfully, although I don't any way
to start or stop it, other than opening a root terminal. I'd like it if
it just started when my machine starts up.


> They have good information about SAMBA too on the same site.
>
>> Thanks in advance for all replies. Especially the ones that
>> help
>
> Your welcome
>
> Good luck

Again, thanks for all the help and advice guys.

Tony.

On Aug 21, 9:36 am, Tony Peardon wrote:
> On Sun, 22 Jul 2007 23:35:08 +0000, AJackson wrote:
>
> Hello again everyone,
>
> Thanks for all the replies...
>
>
>
> > On Jul 21, 6:38 pm, Tony Peardon wrote:
> >> Hi All,
> >> This is my first post to this group, and before I get to the
> >> subject of my troubles, I'd just like to say that Debian really
> >> impressed me. I've got an old computer (Dell Optiplex GX1), and
> >> it use to run very slow on Windows 98, and crash often. Now I
> >> feel like I have a whole new computer, and it's never crashed
> >> once, but I do have some questions, mainly because I'm a total
> >> newbie.
>
> > No problem, we have all been total newbies here. But to help you, you
> > need to help us.
> > So first you need to tell us which sort of problem you want to solve. I
> > think you have done that
> > quite good. Points to you.
> > Then you really need to tell us about your computer. Here you just
> > lost your point
> > Which distribution version do you have (Debian has different version, I
> > would guess you use Debian/Etch which is version 4.0)?
>
> >> First Question: I can't seem to play any 3D games with any
> >> speed at all. I could under Win98, so I suspect that my
> >> graphics card just needs to be configured, but I can't find
> >> where to do this. Anyone who can point me in the right
> >> direction has my appreciation.
>
> > We need to know what hardware you have. A good way is to use the
> > command 'lspci'
> > So open a terminal window, type the command. Mark it with dragging and
> > marking
> > the command and output, and then middle klick in you next replay to
> > this. It will look
> > something like this ("..." means that I removed some text):
>
> > $ lspci
> > 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GL Express
> > Memory Controller Hub (rev 04)
> > ...
> > 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M24 1P [Radeon
> > Mobility X600]
> > ...
> > $
>
> > The line "VGA compatibel controller..." tells us that I have a ATI
> > graphical card. If you tell use which you have, we should be able to
> > point you where you can find how to install a 3D driver
>
> Ok, I ran lspci in a root terminal, this is what it returned. It seems
> that my onboard graphics controller is a 3D Rage Pro. From the name of the
> card, it sounds like it should do 3d like a pro, but other than running
> prboom (doom clone) in 8bit mode, I still can't seem to play anything 3d.
>
> 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host
....
> 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro AGP 1X/2X (rev 5c)

> If someone could help me set this up so I can play the 3d games, I'd
> really appreciate it. If the onboard rage just wont do 3d graphics in
> linux, could someone suggest an older graphics card that would. I can't
> afford a new graphics card, but a used one...maybe.

It's an old ATI graphical card, and you have to have DRI installed
for X11 to be abel to accell 3D rendering with OpenGL (supported by
mesa software),

I did a Google search on "3D Rage Pro debian dri" and got lots of
hits. Try one of them.

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.p...da5a9dfd667241
(this looks like good place to start)

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=145944 (from Ubuntu, with a
link to a blog which installed DRI)
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=395030 (last
post has an sugested search string)
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=465580
(relevant part of /etc/X11/xorg.conf and about some problems)

> >> Next Question: Here at my home, we have three computers, all
> >> online through an old 16 port IBM hub and a telus DSL modem.
> >> I'm running debian, and everone else is running XP. My question
> >> is how do we connect the three computers together so that we
> >> can share files with each other.
>
> > As ray wrote, SAMBA is good way of shareing files and printers with
> > other MS Windows machines.
> > You could also look for SSH or WebDAV (putty or other klient on your MS
> > Windows XP machines works
> > well, webdav need you to set up Apache2 the right way).
>
> > Each user needs an account on your Linux machine to be able to read/
> > write files to it.
>
> Thanks Lots. SAMBA sounds like what we are needing, though the situation
> has changed somewhat, so before I proceed, possibly messing up everything,
> this is what we have in mind. The intension is to run a fourth computer as
> a gateway machine, and then link the other computers to it, and each
> other, through the hub. The gateway machine will have one harddrive that
> is shared with everyone on our local intranet, mainly for shared media
> files. It will also have the printers connected to it, so everyone will
> also need to be able to print through it. The gateway machine will also
> have a dns server and a firewall installed, and will be the first line of
> defence in our little network. Another thing that has changed is that we
> are down to only one XP machine. Ubuntu having been installed on one of
> them. ( It also is not doing 3d graphics like it should, but I'll get to
> that problem later. ) Anyhow, this setup sounds ok to me, but I'm not sure
> if it will work. I am concerned about the ip of the gateway machine. Our
> ip addresses all get changed every night, so how will our computers know
> where to look for their new ip's, or do both ethernet cards in the gateway
> machine have their own ip. I'm not sure how this works, or even if I've
> explained it correctly, so heres a little graphic of sorts,
> ___________
> | DSL Modem |
> _____________ _____|_____ __________________
> |Color Printer| <--| Gateway PC|--> |Dot Matrix Printer|
> ____|____
> | IBM HUB |
> __________| | |_______
> ____|____ ____|____ ___|____
> |Debian PC| |Ubuntu PC| |WinXP PC|
>
> Can anyone see any trouble with that setup, or would something else be
> better? We want to be able play network games, and the XP machine will
> eventually be changed to another linux machine, but only after I learn
> enough to make sure I can get it running right. It's my cousin Lens
> machine, and although it's loaded with malware, and he's constantly
> scanning with this, that, and the other thing, I still haven't been able
> to convince him to switch. He says.. "lets just wait a bit and see what
> happens". He is just scared of linux, which I can understand. After all,
> it took me years to make the change, but now that I have, I have no
> regrets, and I don't miss the spyware one bit.

You want to run a Linux box as firewall/router (you call it gateway
PC). That is ok, but be carfull what services there is on the
"outside".
The interface towards Internet should not run any services (exept
maybe a ssh service).

There are some special distributions that works ok as such a firewall
etc.

> >> Last Question: I want to be able to write internet
> applications
>
> >> with php/mysql, but I can't get any of my php pages to load.
> >> These pages were written on my windows 98 machine, and they all
> >> worked, but now none of them do. Anyone know whats up?
>
> > You need to install Apache2 and PHP, which you find with "synaptics" as
> > ray told you.
> > Then you need to set Apache2 up to use PHP etc. That you do with
> > special commands
> > in debian. Look athttp://www.debian-administrator.org/or use Google
> > to look up pages
> > to "set up" "Apache2" with "PHP" on "Debian" "Etch" . I will give you
> > and every one else, use those marked key words in a google search, It
> > will
> > give you a really good hit in first line
>
> Thanks everyone, but I managed to get this issue sorted out on my own,
> though perhaps not with the greatest solution. I installed LAMPP, now
> XAMPP, from the internet. It works wonderfully, although I don't any way
> to start or stop it, other than opening a root terminal. I'd like it if
> it just started when my machine starts up.
>
> > They have good information about SAMBA too on the same site.
>
> >> Thanks in advance for all replies. Especially the ones that
> >> help
>
> > Your welcome
>
> > Good luck
>
> Again, thanks for all the help and advice guys.
>
> Tony.