I've been using Linux as my primary desktop for about 1.5 years now, and I occasionally have to do some detective work to get particular feature working. I've posted some of problems/solutions here in case someone in a similar problem stumbles by. My favorite distro is Mandrake (using 8.1 now), so many of the problems/solutions are Mandrake specific. These solutions worked for me - your mileage may vary.

Problem List:

• I can't sync my Palm Pilot with AvantGo in Mandrake 8.0/8.1
• How can I get my ATI Rage Fury Pro to work in Linux?
• Where can I find NVidia drivers for Linux?
• How can get TV output from my NVidia GeForce2mx card?
• How can I play DVD's on linux?
• Xine won't work with Mandrake 8.0. What is libXv.so.1?
• I have a Nikon Coolpix 995. How can I use this digital camera with Linux?

Problem:

I can't sync my Palm Pilot with AvantGo in Mandrake 8.0/8.1

Solution:

For 8.0: J-pilot uses a plugin program called SyncMAL to interface with AvantGo The SyncMAL version included with Mandrake 8.0 (version 0.52) does not work with J-pilot 0.99. Download jpilot-syncmal-0.62-2mdk.i586.rpm from Mandrake Cooker. Install it by typing (as root) 'rpm -ivh jpilot-syncmal-0.62-2mdk.i586.rpm'. All should be good!

For 8.1: It looks like something is wrong with the syncmal version shipped with 8.1 as well. I have not had time to look into it yet. If you know anything about this, let me know. Richard.Sawin@ndsu.nodak.edu

Problem:

How can I get my ATI Rage Fury Pro to work in Linux?

Solution:

I have no idea. I owned one of these cards for about 5 days. I eventually exchanged it for a Nvidia card. The ATI card worked with the 'fbdev' server in XFree86, but without any acceleration. Check out these pages if you're still interested in fighting with your ATI card:

• Gatos Project - www.linuxvideo.org/gatos
• ATI Rage 128 X-server HOW-TO - www.linux3d.net/ati/sections/rage128_howto/index.shtml

Problem:

Where can I find NVidia drivers for Linux?

Solution:

NVidia writes their own drivers and releases them (binary only) at: www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=linux. Go with the .tar.gz files if possible. Some problems with the .rpm version for Mandrake (probably fixed by now?) are outlined at www.littlewhitedog.com/reviews_other_00022.asp.

Problem:

How can get TV output from my NVidia GeForce2mx card?

Solution:

The 1.0-1251 drivers (and higher) from NVidia support TV-out on cards that have this option. There is a TV-out readme and a twinview readme in the /usr/share/doc directory of the GLX driver you downloaded from the NVidia site (see above). Be sure to check out the NVIDIA TV-out Tiny HOW-TO at www.linuxhardware.org/article.pl?sid=01/05/29/2147241. Here is an XF86Config-4 file that worked for me.

Problem:

How can I play DVD's on linux?

Solution:

As far as I can tell, you have three options to look into:

• Xine - xine.sourceforge.net
• VideoLan - www.videolan.org
• OMS - www.linuxvideo.org

Problem:

Xine won't work with Mandrake 8.0. What is libXv.so.1?

Solution:

This page should tell you everything you need to know: www.mail-archive.com/confirme@linux-mandrake.com/msg09780.html

Problem:

How can I use my Nikon Coolpix 995 with Linux?

Solution:

Andreas writes this cheat sheet on alt.os.linux.suse. I have a copy of his message here as well.