On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 21:54:48 +0000
alex.sh@w wrote:

> I am not sure that this is the correct group for me. If thee is a
> 'newbie' group please tell me.
>

No, this is as good as any. Newbies welcome! :-)


> I have just to dedicate my laptop to learning about Linux and to
> that end I have installed Suse 9.0.
>

Good choice, I think you'll like it. And, it *does* get easier with
experience! :-)


> 1. My desktop appears in a small square in the centre of the screen.
> Its the
> video settings I think I need to change but have not found them yet.
>

Not very well-named for newbies, but what you want to run is SaX2.


> 2. The mouse has a life of its own. The cursor disappears in one
> part of the screen and skips to another. There are areas where I
> cannot position the cursor.
>

Again, SaX2 will allow you to set up your mouse.


> 3. I have a Thompson Speedtouch 330 broadband modem which was not
> listed in the set-up listing. I can probably get a Linux driver
> but there appeared to be no provision to select a driver from a
> drive.
>

Here is where groups.google.com comes in handy. Go to that site and
enter the following search phrase:

"speedtouch 330" group:alt.os.linux.suse

This has been discussed a few times and you should be able to find an
answer there.


--
Kevin Nathan (Montana, USA)
Open standards. Open source. Open minds.
The command line is the front line.

Linux 2.4.20-4GB-athlon
11:17pm up 23 days 2:37, 5 users, load average: 0.07, 0.11, 0.09

On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 21:54:48 +0000, alex.s wrote:

> I am not sure that this is the correct group for me. If thee is a 'newbie'
> group please tell me.
>
Welcome
> I have just to dedicate my laptop to learning about Linux and to that end I have
> installed Suse 9.0. Yast saw me through a lot of the messy stuff but I have 3
> problems.
>

Theres no such thing as a problem only a learning opportunity :o)

> 1. My desktop appears in a small square in the centre of the screen. Its the
> video settings I think I need to change but have not found them yet.
>
You need to run Sax2 to set the display resolution to that of your laptop.
What make of laptop is it? You need to know the native resolution. Some
laptops (Dell being one) have a 'FONT' function(usually Purple function
key and a 'Fx' key). This will expand the desktop to full screen but if you
have the non native screen resolution set this can make text a but blurry.
e.g. if your screen is 1024.768 and Linux is set to 800 x 600 you can get
it full screen but text is blurred.

> 2. The mouse has a life of its own. The cursor disappears in one part of the
> screen and skips to another. There are areas where I cannot position the
> cursor.

I am guessing here but I suspect you have a Synaptics touchpad in your
laptop. You can get specifc drivers for these that sort out this problem.
I had this after upgrading to 2.6.1 kernel and installing the synaptics
driver and enabling synaptic support in the kernel sorted mine out.Have a
google for synaptics+linux

>
> 3. I have a Thompson Speedtouch 330 broadband modem which was not listed in the
> set-up listing. I can probably get a Linux driver but there appeared to be no
> provision to select a driver from a drive.
>

Again Goggle is your friend. However As you have a laptop which suggests
portability why not get a wireless Access point/modem. I have a Netgear
DG842 which does the ADSL, modem and routing all in one dead easy to set
up box. That way stick a Wifi card in the laptop and surf away wherever.It
may seem like extra expense but you should be able to get a few
quid(dollars whatever) back on the modem on Ebay and the amount of time
you will save is probably well worth it.


> Someone point me in the right direction to get started please.
>
I hoped these answers helped. Feel free to ask if you need additional help.


--
Entwisi

On Tue, 17 Feb 2004 20:05:09 +0000
alex.sh@w wrote:

> I hope that this will resolve itself when I get
> the full-size screen but I am still trying to figure out how to get
> at SaX2.

Do you have the 'wrench and hammer' icon in the taskbar? If so, click
on it and you should see it there. If it's not there, and you can't
find it in the menus, open a terminal window and, as root, do:

sax2


--
Kevin Nathan (Montana, USA)
Open standards. Open source. Open minds.
The command line is the front line.

Linux 2.4.20-4GB-athlon
1:51pm up 23 days 17:12, 5 users, load average: 0.00, 0.03, 0.03