Newbie hdinstall on Dell CPx H500GT, all OK except....

....I need some help with a few things:

a) I would like to run i8kutils, but after I apt-get install i8kutils and try to run i8kbuttons or i8kfan, I get "can't open /proc/i8k: No such file or directory". After searching the 'net and reading alot, I am assuming that the Dell Laptop Support is not enabled in the kernel. Is there a way to enable the Dell support? Or am I just wrong?

b) Printing from my Linux laptop to my WinXP network printer. I have Samba set up and working, I installed the printer via the KDE Print System menu. When I try to print the test page, it is sent to the WinXP printer, the printer starts working, (i can hear it getting read to load paper, etc.), then it stops before it loads the paper. I can see the print job in the WinXP print list as a Guest user, but it just stalls, and eventually I will have to reset power to the printer to get it back online. Any ideas what might be going wrong?

c) Some personalized settings are not being saved in KDE under my regular username after a reboot. Things like desktop icon placement, taskbar size, panels added to the "K" menu. Other things like desktop backgrounds, color schemes, etc. are saved OK. Any ideas?

Other than these problems, I am really happy with the install. Wireless card set up was a breeze, video and sound were detected perfectly, and my laptop now runs faster/better than when it had WinXP on it.

Anywho, any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. TIA :D

Hmmm, 64 views and not one reply....was it something I said :lol:

a) I would like to run i8kutils, but after I apt-get install i8kutils and try to run i8kbuttons or i8kfan, I get "can't open /proc/i8k: No such file or directory". After searching the 'net and reading alot, I am assuming that the Dell Laptop Support is not enabled in the kernel. Is there a way to enable the Dell support? Or am I just wrong?

After lots of searching/reading, I finally got this working, thanx to Jim Turner and his page at http://turnerville.virtualave.net/LinuxOnCPxH.html. I just needed to add i8k to the end of the /etc/modules file. Then I apt-get'ed gkrellm and gkrellmi8k, (a i8k plugin for gkrellm). Now I can see my cpu temps and automatically control the fan according to my personal settings, all via gkrellm.

b) Printing from my Linux laptop to my WinXP network printer. I have Samba set up and working, I installed the printer via the KDE Print System menu. When I try to print the test page, it is sent to the WinXP printer, the printer starts working, (i can hear it getting read to load paper, etc.), then it stops before it loads the paper. I can see the print job in the WinXP print list as a Guest user, but it just stalls, and eventually I will have to reset power to the printer to get it back online. Any ideas what might be going wrong?

Still not working :?

c) Some personalized settings are not being saved in KDE under my regular username after a reboot. Things like desktop icon placement, taskbar size, panels added to the "K" menu. Other things like desktop backgrounds, color schemes, etc. are saved OK. Any ideas?

This resolved itself when I had to reinstall the OS after breaking something :oops:

And thanx to Hydralisk and his tutorial at http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2251, I have upgraded my Knoppix hdinstall to Debian unstable. Pretty nice for an older refurb'ed laptop, even if it won't print to my WinXP's printer....

Thanks, buddy.

I was able to get the fans working on an old laptop that I'm refurbishing for Project Reboot.

http://reboot.cpcug.org/