This is not a major problem because I already know the solution, the only trouble is I can't make the solution permanent.

Every time I start up Mandriva it overwrites my existing (working) xorg.conf file with a different one that doesn't work as well (the screen resolution is wrong). Luckily it saves the old one as a backup so all I have to do is delete the new one and restore the old one to get the correct resolution, but this does get a bit tedious.

Does anybody know a way to stop it doing this?

If you are interested, the only difference between the two files is that in the working one the graphics driver is 'fglrx' in the non working one it is 'radeonhd'.

Second question relates to software management in MCC.

By default the new software management section in MCC opens with the package selection criteria set to 'Programs with GUI'. Now, if you all live to be 100 you will never hear from a more pro-gui anti-cli man than me, but even I don't want this! For example yesterday I was searching for 'kernel-sources' (in order to make Virtualbox work). It took me a couple of minutes of puzzling as to why I couldn't find any until I realised this default behavior and changed the package selection to 'All'. The source files then popped up straight away.

Another annoyance with this is that every time you change the package selection you have to wait for it to reload, and it also deletes your search term, I am not to worried about that, but I would like to have MCC open with 'All' selected by default.

I am sure there is probably a config file somewhere that I can tweak to make this happen but I don't know where it is, so can anyone help with that?

First question.

Try specifying that the service harddrake does not start on boot.
Do this from MCC -> System -> Manage system services.....

Agreed. Just disable harddake.

Thanks very much guys that solution to the graphics problem seems to have worked for me.

The MCC problem was solved by an upgrade that I got this morning.

I might like that mcc change, but I don't dare update my system any more. That last time I did, Mandriva trashed my gui and also trashed the other grub menu entries so my only fallback position was to go to dvd backups to get my system back. I find it a lot safer to put up with any vunerabilities that might exist than to risk having Mandriva destroy my system in the update process.

I understand that the update problem might be fixed in 2008.1.

There was a time that Mandriva wouldn't automatically update the kernel. Maybe that was a good plan.