bigjohn

For anyone thinking about trying Ubuntu, heres a link about installing Ubuntu software that appeared on digg - I had a quick read and it seems to be quite comprehensive, though straight forward. regards John

Well is it trying to check for updates or something like that i.e. checking for system/distro updates but defaulted to every 5 minutes or something ? Or did you set up the "mandriva online" facility ? where you upload your configuration and it's capable of making sure that you're as up to date for security etc reasons ??? Note down whatever the URL is that it's trying to contact, and then start looking through the stuff in /var/log and see if theres a clue there (don't know what it might be under, for example I have 28 files and 12 folders in my /var/log - so you just have to look and see if anything particular is trying to connect to mandriva). Oh and if you did setup the mandriva online, that is a "phone home" type thing, but it's not a spyware thing per se, unless you didn't follow what it was and had set it up because it's part of the distro's "offerings". Personally, I uninstall it. I can do any updates myself, without any assistance from mandriva. regards John

Well the normal default is to create /root and /swap - I'm presuming that the apparent need to create the /swap is a throw back to the days when it was necessary i.e. that installed RAM was relatively small, when 64megs was considered a lot, so that it had too have somewhere to swap any excess memory requirement - the wisdom being that the /swap was twice the size of installed RAM. Of course, now we have the luxury of plenty of cheap RAM, it's not only server kit that has 1, 2 or even more gigs of RAM - from that POV /swap is kind of redundant, though there could still be a necessity for /swap if you happen to be doing stuff "a la workstation", i.e. stuff that is hugely memory dependant like video editing or similar (an I right in presuming that CAD can also eat mountains of RAM ???). So, if you have a good dig around, you may, like I did, find that it's often better to have 3, in some cases 4 partitons. My setup is a legacy from having gentoo installed, plus the benefit of having a seperate /home. Hence I have /boot, /swap and /root (the same as the gentoo default), plus /home. Which means that it doesn't really matter what distro I have installed, as long as I, 1. don't touch the /home during install i.e. reformat it and 2. install the same applications as I would have used with a previous distro, then I just do an install of whatever and when I log into my /home/user (same username obviously, for log in purposes) everything "just works". It's all a "choice" thing really. The only real overriding limit is the 4 primary partitions limit. So thats easily sorted out by making one of them "extended" and then making as many logical partitions within the extended one. All you have to do is remember not to touch the partition table - that can screw things big time. There is, I believe, a limit to how many logical partitons you can have, but I seem to recall that it's high enough so that if you really wanted too, you could have seperate /home, /swap, /root, /boot, /var, /usr, /tmp, /sbin, /bin, etc etc etc. Though I haven't sussed out the benefit of doing that yet, or how I'd install into it (yes I'd imagine that the /etc/fstab would be rather complicated as far as mount points and the like). regards John

Thanks for that uralmasha, I've managed to suss it out, mainly because of coverups last post - It was the bit about symlinking the script to /usr/local/bin and the like. I've done that now and tested it, and it works great. Ha! it even looks like I've managed to make the little bugger open it's tabs in a new window so that I still have the main link open in the first tab - which will save a massive amount of confusion on my part when "digging" or "slashdotting" :D regards John

because after it has a "mandriva touch" :D - lots of people have trouble with them. Big John, I posted a very detailed instructions on how one can install firefox from the tarball: https://mandrivausers.org/index.php?showtop...0251&hl=coverup In essense, uninstall rpm if you had it (just to get it off the way), as root create a directory in /usr/local/, move or copy new firefox stuff to that directory, and create a symbolic link in /usr/local/bin to point to the firefox executable located in /usr/local/{created dir}. Once this is done, you can start firefox from the CLI or add an entry to the menu, or just create a shortcut on the desktop. Which I didn't understand the first time I read it (a couple of hours ago) :huh: . So if I create the /usr/local, is that where I'd move the tar.gz package too and then unpack it ? Also, does that mean that it's available for all users, with different profiles (and logically different bookmarks/preferences/etc etc)? I'm not particularly fussed whether the firefox is from the tar.gz or an rpm (I've not had any trouble with rpms). Though I've been trying to get the rpm from cooker - which I have. Initially it was missing libnspr4 and libnss3 - which I got from the Dutch nluug mirror, but now it also wants to get libavahi-glib1 something something, which is located in the mde repository, except the little bugger doesn't want to let me download it at the moment. Damn! As I say, I don't care what form it comes in, as long as it's in a location that allows global access for all users, but so that we can all get to our own bookmarks/preferences etc etc. regards John p.s. and yes, I have copied my bookmarks.html file so I can uninstall everything without any worry. p.p.s I'm using the tar.gz version to post this, but it's in the wrong place - so I'll read your linked post (again - fourth time) and see if I can work out what the hell I'm supposed to be doing. Well I've been trying to follow coverups instuctions, but I'm getting lost in the middle bit with the references to the old and new. I don't have an old or new, just the /usr/local/Firefox. So does that mean that I need to symlink the script (or both the script and the executable) to /usr/local/bin or is it ok just to use /usr/local/Firefox/firefox for starting it with an icon ? Plus will it allow multiple profiles so that all of the user accounts can have their own bookmarks/preferences/extensions etc etc ??? Or does that also have to be done via a symlink from /usr/local/Firefox/firefox to /usr/local/bin/firefox ??? Sorry if that sounds a bit lame, but it's just confusing the hell out of me. regards John {edit}Bugger! typical. Just as I finish asking another bit of a question and post it, I notice a nice, easily understood reply to my earlier query Ah well, off I go then to do the symlinks that coverup has suggested {/edit}

because after it has a "mandriva touch" :D - lots of people have trouble with them. Big John, I posted a very detailed instructions on how one can install firefox from the tarball: https://mandrivausers.org/index.php?showtop...0251&hl=coverup In essense, uninstall rpm if you had it (just to get it off the way), as root create a directory in /usr/local/, move or copy new firefox stuff to that directory, and create a symbolic link in /usr/local/bin to point to the firefox executable located in /usr/local/{created dir}. Once this is done, you can start firefox from the CLI or add an entry to the menu, or just create a shortcut on the desktop. Which I didn't understand the first time I read it (a couple of hours ago) :huh: . So if I create the /usr/local, is that where I'd move the tar.gz package too and then unpack it ? Also, does that mean that it's available for all users, with different profiles (and logically different bookmarks/preferences/etc etc)? I'm not particularly fussed whether the firefox is from the tar.gz or an rpm (I've not had any trouble with rpms). Though I've been trying to get the rpm from cooker - which I have. Initially it was missing libnspr4 and libnss3 - which I got from the Dutch nluug mirror, but now it also wants to get libavahi-glib1 something something, which is located in the mde repository, except the little bugger doesn't want to let me download it at the moment. Damn! As I say, I don't care what form it comes in, as long as it's in a location that allows global access for all users, but so that we can all get to our own bookmarks/preferences etc etc. regards John p.s. and yes, I have copied my bookmarks.html file so I can uninstall everything without any worry. p.p.s I'm using the tar.gz version to post this, but it's in the wrong place - so I'll read your linked post (again - fourth time) and see if I can work out what the hell I'm supposed to be doing.

Cooker? You mean "the twilight zone" ? Yeah! s'pose I could. It's just that I've usually shyed away from cooker because I had a bad experience when I first started with linux Because I know little or nothing about cooker repositories, I don't know just how "cooked" it actually is? I'll keep that idea in mind though, because if any other leads fail, it should (in theory) put stuff where mandriva like it to go (hopefully). regards John

Oh, OK I'll go and get it and give it a try. Ok, so I've managed to get it, and install it - sort of. Wheres the normal mandriva location(s) for it i.e. system wide, so that all users can get at it ? Because I've currently got it in my /home but obiously I want it so that it's system wide and all users have their own bookmarks etc (yes I have got a seperate copy of my bookmarks file) ??? regards John p.s. and yes I have done a search, but none of what I read made sense too me

Oh, OK I'll go and get it and give it a try. regards John

Well as I haven't located an rpm version of firefox yet, I managed to find the older version of the tabbrowser preferences extension which I hope will do the trick. Thanks for the responses people. regards John Well as I haven't located an rpm version of firefox yet, I managed to find the older version of the tabbrowser preferences extension which I hope will do the trick. No, that hasn't worked either. Damn! This is supposed to be an easy thing to set up. any other ideas please ? regards John

Does anyone know how I set my firefox preferences, so that opening links always starts a new tab (as opposed to a new window)? I'm sure I've had it set like that before, but can't recall whether this was done by editing preferences or with an extension of some sort. regards John

For KDE go to Contol Center -> KDE Components -> File Associations Which I've done, and the damned system still opens .wmv etc with totem (which I hate but is still listed as the system default). mpegs now open with mplayer. Any idea how I stop totem opening anything unless I specifically tell it too, and to make mplayer open just about everything else - videowise that is ? regards John

Cheers for that devries. I'm not sure if it is actually a problem at Warwick or not - it didn't matter whether I used the url for Warwick or for mde.djura - it wouldn't extract the list. Though I did try variations of hdlist.cz and with hdlist.cz, but I've got it now. Ha! the actual problem I was having seems to have been sorted by doing a "newbiesque" re-install, but now I can sort out getting the new kde stuff as well. Again, many thanks. regards John

can someone just run me through the correct method of adding the mde repository? I can find the ftp and http servers at Warwick. I then copy the url, then in the MCC look at the list of repositories that I've got set, and then click "add custom". I add the url (for either the ftp or http server depending on which one I've copied). I've tried all the ways that I can think of but keep getting errored out. It doesn't seem to matter which of the other boxes I try. I'm obviously doing something wrong, but for the life of me, can't work out what it is. regards John

Which is one of the main reasons that I'm confused. Certain types of video media will kick open the Totem video player (which is the default, but I don't really like it so I'd like to use mplayer as the default). Other types of media (.wmv for example) just open as a black screen with "no input" or similar in the centre. As far as I can see, firefox (the mandriva one) should be playing them as normal, but it's not. Plus, I've yet to work out how to change the default movie view to mplayer. regards John