a number of minor issues from a n00b

[mzilikazi]

im a relative linux n00b, ive tried a few distros and like knoppix because its debian based and rather up-to-date

but ive got a few problems im not sure how to fix; most of them are minor i think but definitely annoying

first, i cant browse /mnt at all, anything i browse it with locks up. looking into hda7 for example from the desktop causes a problem, but trying to look diretly into /mnt things freeze and i have to reboot (unless someone can tell me how to kill X and whatever else while starting at it

Not sure exactly what you mean when you say "trying to look directly into /mnt" but have you done cd /mnt? Are you using KDE?

second: apt-get update gives me a problem: i get *alot* of connection errors; where can i get a good, uptodate sources.list to use?

Well here's my /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb ftp://archive.progeny.com/debian/ testing main
deb-src ftp://archive.progeny.com/debian/ testing main

deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main

Have a look at apt-spy to create your own sources.list
apt-get update
apt-get install apt-spy
man apt-spy

third: xine gives me a nav packet error when playing dvds; i think i found a solution to that in the forums...but i need apt-get to update properly to get it working :/

Have you installed libdvdcss?
wget http://download.videolan.org/pub/lib...2.8-1_i386.deb

sudo dpkg -i libdvdcss2_1.2.8-1_i386.deb

fpurth: how do i add resolutions for a monitor? i use a 17" crt but want a higher res than 1024x768 i forget the next one up 1152x something i think) ?

Have a look at /etc/X11/XF86Config-4and add your resolutions.