New to linux, trying mandriva, and have a few noob questions for you.


1. When I press alt+F2 to bring up the run command it always goes behind whatever I've got running. How can I set it to come to the front?/

2. I'm used to using firefox and having the stuff I save go to the desktop, but with Mandriva when I go to look for my file it's no where to be seen. Now I can find it if I click Home and then desktop, but it doesn't show up on the actual desktop. How can I fix this?

3. Downloaded a KDE theme and installed (kollide, if it makes any difference) and it seems to install, but when I click apply nothing happens. What gives?

4. One time I tried applying the Mandriva skin and it said kwd crashed on me. I couldn't move my windows around, so I loaded kde-window-decorator from konsole. The decos come back, but as soon as I close the konsole they disappear again. How do I get them to stick around?

Do you run compiz or compiz-fusion?

And- how do you try to get back the KDE decorator? Try

from console

And do have in mind that a buggy/badly designed theme can crash the window decorator anytime... If it is THAT theme, I'd say it does not look very trustful...

I'm running whatever came default in 2008.1, compiz-fusion I'm guessing.

Like I said, I loaded kde decorator from konsole (by typing kde-window-decorator). What does "replace" do exactly?

1. Right click on the window header and choose Special\Always stay on top. I'm not using English settings so the actual text can be different.

4. You should write a "&" without quotes after the command.

Well if you read the post you'll notice it was actually applying the mandriva default theme that seemed to crash the system, though I had already tried to apply the other one, so I guess it''s possible it created some error that the mandriva theme came along and tripped over.

Thanks for answering 4, hopefully it works.

1. That just keeps the window on top when you're switching stuff around. It still LOADS behind everything no matter what.

Still in the dark about 2, and any more info on 3 would be handy.

John - If you're using 2008.1, that is not yet a stable version. I'll move this thread to the Cooker forum.

Alright, sorry if I put it in the wrong spot. I just put it in the most logical spot I saw.


So, can anyone answer the rest of my questions?

Without being rude or anything I would suggest installing Mandriva 2008.0 as this is the latest stable distro. Especially as you are new to Linux.

Thanks, but I'm 90 percent sure that 1 and 2 at least are the same, so I still need those answered.


Also, I find the 2008.1 release much more visibly appealing, and since I can't really seem to get any decent skins working I can hardly bring myself to use it when I have the spring release right at my fingertips.


If someone would like to show me a stable, well polished skin, something slick and preferably in black or blue I could go back to dot zero and see if any problems go away.

This is not really an answer to #2, but does your download appear if you right click the desktop and click 'Refresh Desktop'? If it does it is a bit quicker than searching through menus for it.