New user - a few problems

[yulquen]

Hi,

I have successfully installed Linux Mint on my fileserver PC, which is a Gigabit EP35-DS3R with an
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and 4 GB RAM.Install is done on an 300GB IDE disk.

I have also successfully installed Squeeze-center for my squeezeboxes, and the console-version
of Hamachi, the virtual lan sw.Ive also installed samba, and set up filesharing of a few
sub-dirs of my home-dir.and enabled access to vnc the desktop from an xp computer.all working fine.

so to my problems:

#1: if I boot the Mint server with a monitor attached, and run VNC from my XP pc, I can access
the Mint desktop just fine, in 1280 x 1024, the booted resolution.BUT: if I boot it with no monitor
attached, which is gonna be a reality since the tower is to be shoved into my closet when ready,
and run VNC on XP, it opens an 800x600 window with the standard wallpaper, and visible mouse,
but no icons or start menu is visible, so I can not do a thing.AND: if I reattach the monitor in
this state, it displays only garbage.I then have to take down Mint the hard way, by using the
power-button.can probably do it with console, but have not dug into that yet.please dont
suggest to have a monitor attached always, as its not gonna happen.

#2: If I copy large files across the network, mainly from the Mint server samba shares to my workpc,
the transfer speed is just too poor.I get about 13MB/s.someone would probably be happy with a lot less,
but I'm not.

Both my XP pc and the Mint pc supports Gigabit network, and they are both connected to the same Gigabit
switch.Also, the Gigabit indicator LED is lit for both the XP and Mint connection on the swith.
As a comparison, before installing Mint on the fileserver, I briefly had Vista installed on it.
When copying files between XP and Vista PC, the transfer speed for big files were around 35-36MB/s.
almost as high as when doing internal transfers.(note: unfragmented volumes)

So, wheres the bottleneck? Samba, Mint or network drivers?

as of now, the first problem is a definate showstopper which must be solved in some way or the other.
either it is possible to change something inside a config file, or I need to build/buy a hardware
dongle that plugs into the vga port and fooles the pc to think theres a screen attached.a classic
pic project.

the second one is not the end of the world, but when transferring large files like dvd iso's from XP pc to Mint,
I would certainly benefit from the extra speed.

So, please share your views on those matters.
Thanks in advance for any help.

[yulquen]

seems I have discovered another showstopper, and this is major.

#3. my bootdisk is master on the mainboards ATA connector.nothing else is connected there.
when I begin to add other hard-drives to the mainboards SATA connectors, the system
only boots about 1 out of 3 times (so, not consistent).the drives I add is ntfs formatted
disks with media content.

when the system fails to boot, this happens:
after the GRUB screen, the linux mint picture with the progress bar appears,
and shortly after, I get the busybox shell.

or: the system boots completely (almost), except when the wallpaper is loaded, no icons
and menu.

if I get a successfull boot, I can access the SATA drive normally inside the file explorer.

This is very disturbing, I really liked Mint, but it may seem to be a bit immature yet
for my needs, if there are no quick fixes for this bad behaviour.

again, thanks in advance for any useful tips.