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". I''ve had this happen once befor but the solution I used at the time was to reinstall xandros, but I''d prefer to rescue it if I could. I tried running the rescue program on the xandros CD but that didn''t do anything apart from fixing the boot loader. Can anyone help me with this. Now to what made it freeze in the first place, my winmodem. I looked in the /var/log/ppp/ppp.warning file and noticed that I had messages like this: Apr 20 13:56:34 main pppd[2321]: appear to have received our own echo-reply! Is there anyway to adjust the dialling script (or whatever it is) to deal with this without freezing my computer? And for one last general information question (for now at least), Are all linux systems bad for dealing with hard resets? A few times I''ve had the computer freeze and I''ve had to setup the ISP settings again. Thanks!

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)