for the longest time, urpmi settings were screwy on my machine (after I tried to remove the install CD image from my machine), so finally I got around to doing the easy urpmi thing, got a large number of security and bug fixes udpates
Things seemed fine for several days until I rebooted my machine: now it won;t even autolog in, and fails if I try startx, can't find nvidia module, yada yada...

Maybe it's an opportunity to wipte everything and start clean with 2007 Spring

I had spent the money for a powerpack last time I got Mandrake, but I'm done spending money on distros...
will the 1 CD version allow me to install the rest from the web or is it limited to prevent you doing that?

If it is, any suggestions on an alternative distro? It's gotta be KDE, and while there is a big Ubuntu trend, is KDE really as well supported as Gnome on Ubuntu?

KDE is well supported by Ubuntu under the name of Kubuntu. You can install Ubuntu from the CD, and then install KDE via the netweork. This will make both worlds coexist on your HD, just like Mandriva powerpack does.

Kubuntu is much worse (or rather, less mature) than Ubuntu. It's an OK distro, but not very polished and rather too "newbie-friendly".

I would suggest either PCLinuxOS or the (somewhat more geeky) Sidux, successor of Kanotix.
Both are exhellent KDE-centric live distributions, and both have mainly HD installation in mind.

This is useally easily fixable: as root type XFdrake, and try to get a working X back then you can try to get nvidia working again (probably you will need to install the correct kernel source run XFdrake again, else try to uninstall dkms-nvidia and reinstall dkms-nvidia and run XFdrake again...)

Mandriva One (1 CD version) is more than enough. You can install it and later you can add everything you need from easy-urpmi sources. I've done that and it works well so far.

Grab Mandriva One, install it, play with it. If it works, then stick to it.

I think that most of my problems stem from douing the easy urpmi updates, my system partition is full and I'm guessing some installs silently failed and I wan't notified by the rpmdrake wizard.

I grabbed a copy of a linux magazine with a Mandriva 2007 Spring. Maybe it's time for housecleaning, so rather than run an upgrade, which I ususally do, I will do a full install from scratch.
samba also stopped working properly, I can browse my linux shares from windows but can't copy file (the remote stops responding). weird weird


I almost went for KUbuntu, but I still have this feeling that KDE is more of an "add-on" and I'm worried about having problems/outdated apps becuase of that.

If Mandriva Spring doesn't work for me, I'll give Ubuntu a try, otherwise I'll got for Mepis which works pretty flawlessly on my laptop.

You should do very well with Mandriva Spring. If you have troubles with the Magazine discs it may be because they are dicky (often the case).

If needs be then PM me with your name and address and I will be pleased to airmail you a copy immediately at no cost. (Have done it for others in the past).

Cheers. John.

How big was your system partition? I've never ran out of disk space, unless I've made the partition too small in the first place.

12G

turns out the logwatch cache was 8.5G and probably the mian source of my issues