The thing which has always proved troublesome is suspend to ram. Suspend works but it would never wake up requiring the battery to be removed to get it going again. Suspend to disk always worked fine.

Hoping that updates from AMD/ATI for the video driver or new kernels would eventually solve it. I now have a MIB sourced kernel http://mib.pianetalinux.org/MIB/2011.0/32/projects/kernels/3.1.6/ and the latest ATI driver http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/amd-driver-installer-12-2-x86.x86_64.run which work really well making for a pretty reasonable video and desktop performance with all the KDE plasma effects and animations.

However suspend/resume still did not want to play? I tried re-compiling the kernel which for a brief moment seemed to allow suspend/resume having read this solved someone's resume problem from one source.

Finding a comprehensive guide for Suse linux which explains all you need to know about pm-utils and s2ram - http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Suspend_to_RAM and here http://old-en.opensuse.org/Pm-utils

Testing to find the best parameters to use with the Asus 1215B and ATI video driver I settled for s2ram -f -a 2

To make it work with the keyboard and power saving system I added this file /etc/pm/config.d/modules containing a single config line:

S2RAM_OPTS="-f -a 2"

set the permissions to 755

So far this works OK.

I'll have to test against some other kernel(s) and use suspend to ram daily to see if it breaks?

When you right click in any open or part open window space you will get a pop-up menu that offers a choice <LEAVE>, clicking on <LEAVE> presents another pop-up menu offering

log-out, shutdown or reboot. Clicking reboot starts the process through to the boot menu where you choose what you want, click on it and the process then runs through to the Login Screen.

Here is the trick.......

When you get the <LEAVE> pop-up menu, don't just click on it, instead hold the mouse left click button down and in a moment or two the Boot menu will appear. While still holding the mouse left click button down, slide the mouse pointer over the choice you require on the boot menu and only then release the mouse button. The process starts immediately and proceeds non-stop through to the Login Screen.

While this only saves about 2 or so seconds by making one action unnecessary, what it also does is join two useless short intervals into one longer one that you can utilise for say grabbing a quick drink. So there are two benefits. Thank you KDE.

Cheers. John.

http://urpmi.org/easyurpmi/index.php

I'm trying to figure out how to do this with local sources taken into consideration, too:

#!/bin/bash

# rpmfix - searches your system for missing files and reinstalls rpms they belong to
# Copyright (C) 2003  Steve Scrimpshire
# email: omarserenity@gmail.com

# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
# modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
# as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
# of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
# http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html#SEC1

# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.

# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
# Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.


rm -f notonmirrors
rm -f missing_files.list

rpm -Va --nodeps --nomd5 --noscripts | grep missing | grep -v "/dev/" | tee missing_files.list
TEST=$(rpm -qf $(awk '{print $NF}' missing_files.list) | uniq)

urpmi.update -a

for name in $TEST
 do
  echo $name
 GET=$(urpmq --sources $name 2>/dev/null)
  if [ $GET ]
	 then
	 if [[ $name != XFree* ]]
		then
		   wget $GET
		else
		   echo "I won't fix $name because I always have problems doing that!"
	 fi
	 else
		echo "$name does not exist on the mirrors!"
		echo "$name" >> notonmirrors
  fi
 done

DIR=$(ls)

for file in $DIR
  do
  if [[ $file == *.rpm ]]
	 then
		rpm -ivh --replacefiles --replacepkgs $file
		rm -f $file
  fi
  done

exit 0

I created a special directory to put this script in and after it runs, you may or may not see a new file in that directory called notonmirrors, which will contain the names of pkgs that have missing files, but urpmq could not find them on the mirrors, so you will have to fix them manually. I have it ignore XFree pkgs, because there is always some files for fonts that are missing and no matter how many times you reinstall it, they are still missing.

PS: I would suggest once the install is complete adding the PLF repos using Easy Urpmi. The Official repos should already be in place with the install. Once all updates are done using these PLF sources then you could add as I have the MIB group repos this will give you access to many other more up to date applications such as Skype. It is best to keep "backport" repos disabled unless you know what you are doing. With these enabled there is a risk of allowing new buggy versions to be installed as updates. You have been warned!

I hope to build up a list of fixes for the NC20 and the new Mandriva 2010 Spring (One) distribution.

Here is the list so far of problems which need to be fixed:

- Frequency scaling of the processor which out of the box runs at 1.5Ghz all the time.

- Find or compile a better ViaChrome9 video driver for passable support for desktop 3D animation. (*)

- Get that driver to work with external screens. (*)

- Get that driver to wake up the back-light after power saving switches off the screen. (*)

- Bluetooth pairing with proper pin exchange.

- Get all the FN keys to work

- The Windows program environment Wine installs OK but freezes the machine on launching Wine. (*)

- Samba does not seem to be functioning even after installing and providing a conf file.?

Getting an updated video driver could/should fix the (*) items.

Other contributions to make this more complete welcome! Contribute your success with any of these issues or new ones for the NC20 configuration in this topic. Do add any details or variations on these fixes which I have missed!

[moved from Laptops etc by spinynorman - welcome aboard :)]

Note: I have more success specifying a username on the host, password for that user, and in the extra options setting uid=500,gid=500 (or whatever that user's number is on the host), but I am just putting that out there if you are still having an issue.

Hope this helps if anyone is having an issue...

title install

kernel (hd1,0)/i586/isolinux/alt0/vmlinuz

initrd (hd1,0)/i586/isolinux/alt0/all.rdz

When I chose 'install' from the boot menu, it started the installer and asked how I wished to install. I chose Hard disk and it asked me for the location and I pointed it to the root of the HD and off I went.

The (hd1,0) means the second disk (hd1), first partition(0). You could also extract the files to your regular harddrive and change where that points. Without linux already installed, you can get a version of grub for Windows (I forget the one I have used before).

I hope this is clear enough. If clarification is needed, please feel free to ask for it. :D

It's relatively easy to do using the dd command. To backup the mbr to a floppy just run:

# dd if=/dev/hdx of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=1

where 'x' is your boot hard drive, i.e. the one where your mbr is located.

The mbr is on the first sector of your hard drive which is 512 bytes. The above command merely copies the first 512 bytes on sector 1 to a floppy.

To restore the mbr from the floppy backup, boot off a rescue cd like knoppix, open a console and get root privileges, then run:

# dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/dev/hdx bs=512 count=1

If you don't have a floppy drive, you can backup the mbr to a file on your hard drive and copy the file to a cd-r if you have a cd burner. To backup to your hard drive run:

# dd if=/dev/hdx of=mbr.bak bs=512 count=1

This will create a file mbr.bak in your current working directory. Obviously, if your partition table is trashed, you will never be able to access that file on your hard drive so you need to place it on some removable medium. Just create a data cd and copy mbr.bak to the cd-r with your favorite cd burning program.

Restoring from a cd-r backup is essentiall the same except you have to mount the cd-r and run:

# dd if=<cd drive mount point/mbr.bak> of=/dev/hdx bs =512 count=1

Note, if you have resized or altered any of the existing partitions since you backed up this problably won't work. If you just created some new partitions physically located on the hard drive after your existing partitions, the mbr backup should leave the partition table in the same state it was in before you created the new partitions, i.e. the new partitions will be deleted and the prior working partition table with the old partitions should be restrored.

Here is what my remote looks like: http://www.altechco.com/images/cyber.jpg

In the beginning, I was trying to install a tarball someone wrote at http://linux.thaj.net63.net/cyberlinkusb/ [cyberlinkusb-20081207.tar.bz2] to get this Cyberlink Remote to work. After a couple of hiccups I got the tarball installed successfully only to discover later it was superfluous since the driver has been incorporated into the kernel. http://www.xbmc.org/forum/showpost.php?p=302112&postcount=28

Regarding this remote control: some buttons are seen as regular keypresses (such as the Number buttons and Enter). Other buttons are special (such as Play and FastForward), and these are the problem ones.

I am sure there are a couple of superfluous files and steps that got entered here. Eventually I should be able ferret them out.

-------------------

First, install LIRC. Here is a list of my installed LIRC related rpms.

python-lirc-0.0.5-2mdv2009.1
vlc-plugin-lirc-1.0.1-1mdv2009.1
liblirc0-0.8.5-0.20090320.1mdv2009.1
lirc-remotes-0.8.3-0.20080704.3mdv2009.0
pulseaudio-module-lirc-0.9.15-2.0.6mdv2009.1
lirc-kernel-desktop586-latest-0.8.5-1.20090817.0.20090320.1mdv2009.1
xmms-lirc-1.4-7mdv2009.0
lirc-0.8.5-0.20090320.1mdv2009.1
lirc-kernel-2.6.29.6-desktop586-2mnb-0.8.5-0.20090320.1mdv2009.1
dkms-minimal-2.0.19-15mdv2009.1
setserial-2.17-14mdv2009.1
kernel-desktop586-2.6.29.6-2mnb-1-1mnb2
x11-proto-devel-7.4-16mdv2009.1

I created the file /etc/udev/rules.d/10-lirc.rules with the following content.

KERNEL=="lirc[0-9]*",	NAME="lirc/%n", GROUP=="disk", MODE=="0666"
KERNEL=="lirc0", SYMLINK=="lirc"

Next, for a Cyberlink Remote Control enter the following content in: /etc/lircd.conf

I also entered it in the following file because it was there: /etc/lirc/lircd.conf

begin remote
 name  CYBERLINK
 bits          32
 eps           30
 aeps          100
 one           0     0
 zero          0     0
 gap           135995
 toggle_bit_mask 0x0
     begin codes
         Back                  0x8001009E
         Pause                 0x80010077
         VolumeDown            0x80010072
         VolumeUp              0x80010073
         Record                0x800100a7
         Guide                 0x80010082
         Mute                  0x80010071
         ChannelUp             0x80010192
         ChannelDown           0x80010193
         Play                  0x800100CF
         SkipFoward            0x800100A3
         SkipBack              0x800100A5
         Stop                  0x800100A6
         Menu                  0x8001008B
         Fwdwind               0x800100D0
         Rewind                0x800100A8
     end codes
end remote

For a different brand of remote, you may be able to find the appropriate information to copy to these files from a subdirectory of /usr/share/lirc-remotes

Or else look here: http://lirc.sourceforge.net/remotes/'>http://lirc.sourceforge.net/remotes/

To find the appropriate scan codes, enter the following in terminal and look at what is displayed with each keypress.

Note that your event# could be different.

# hexdump /dev/input/event8

Here is an example. For keypress Play, I get the following output...

[root@localhost dkb]# hexdump /dev/input/event8

0000000 7d1e 4ada 5887 000e 0004 0004 00b0 000c

0000010 7d1e 4ada 58a1 000e 0001 00cf 0001 0000

0000020 7d1e 4ada 58a8 000e 0001 00cf 0000 0000

0000030 7d1e 4ada 58b1 000e 0000 0000 0000 0000

I highlighted the relevant section in red. This button press would go in the files below (i.e.:Play 0x800100CF)

/etc/lircd.conf

/etc/lirc/lircd.conf

If you have trouble getting the hexdump, try the following in terminal as root...

# /etc/init.d/lircd stop

# lircd -d /dev/input/event8 {lircd -d device [read from given device]}

Now press the special keys such as Volume Up, Volume Down, Mute, etc.

When done pressing each of the special keys, then enter the following in terminal as root...

# /etc/init.d/lircd start

Now the hexdump will hopefully work. Fixed it for me.

I now have an on screen display of the volume level. The volume control and mute buttons of the remote seems to work with most apps.

You can run $ irw in terminal to see your keypresses after they are configured.

Next edit /etc/sysconf/lircd as appropriate.

The important lines for the Cyberlink Remote seem to be...

DRIVER="devinput"
DEVICE=/dev/input/event8

Reference: http://cjo20.net/remote.htm'>http://cjo20.net/remote.htm

To find the appropriate /dev/input/event#, enter the following in terminal:

grep -l 'TopSeed' /sys/class/input/input*/name | tail -n1

Take the number from the output after input: /sys/class/input/input8/name

In my case it was 8, so the DEVICE=/dev/input/event8

Note that your event# could be different.

Alternatively to get the event# you can try $ cat /proc/bus/input/devices in a terminal.

TopSeed Tech Corp. USB IR Combo Device is my Cyberlink Remote Control

Notice the event8 entry below. I don't know if this entry was after I created /etc/sysconf/lircd or not.

Here is the relevant part my output from $ cat /proc/bus/input/devices

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=0766 Product=0204 Version=0100
N: Name="TopSeed Tech Corp. USB IR Combo Device "
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:1d.1-1/input1
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.1/usb2/2-1/2-1:1.1/input/input14
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd mouse2 event8
B: EV=17
B: KEY=fc112 20d0c00 0 0 70000 0 18000 21f8 d001d804 9e0040 0 0 0
B: REL=103
B: MSC=10

Here is my /etc/sysconf/lircd file. This is the critical file to get irw and lirc to work.

When this file is set up properly, you will get output from all of the keypresses on your remote.

# Customized settings for lirc daemon

# The hardware driver to use, run: # lircd --driver=? for a list

DRIVER="devinput"

# Hardware driver module to load [found Module name in MCC > Hardware > Browse and configure hardware > Keyboard > USB IR Combo Device]
#HWMOD=usbhid

# The device node that communicates with the IR device.
# if you are using lirc_serial, set DEVICE to /dev/ttyS[0-9]
# where 0-9 is the serial port your IR receiver is plugged

# with devfs enabled
DEVICE=/dev/input/event8
#DEVICE=/dev/lirc/serial

# without devfs 
#DEVICE=/dev/lirc

# Serial port for the receiver (for serial driver)
# COM1 (/dev/ttyS0)
#COM_PORT=/dev/ttyS0
#DRIVER_OPTS="irq=4 io=0x3f8"

# COM2 (/dev/ttyS1)
#COM_PORT=/dev/ttyS1
#DRIVER_OPTS="irq=3 io=0x2f8"

# COM3 (/dev/ttyS2)
#COM_PORT=/dev/ttyS2
#DRIVER_OPTS="irq=4 io=0x3e8

# COM4 (/dev/ttyS3)
#COM_PORT=/dev/ttyS3
#DRIVER_OPTS="irq=3 io=0x2e8"

You may need to reboot for changes to take effect.

Alternatively you can try # /etc/init.d/lircd restart in terminal.

Finally, I had to create the files /etc/lircrc and /home/~/.lircrc with the following content (relevant for VLC).

There is a file: /usr/share/doc/vlc/lirc/example.lircrc that is helpful.

Enter vlc --help in a terminal window to find the appropriate hotkeys for vlc.

begin
   remote = CYBERLINK
   prog = vlc
   button = Mute
   config = key-vol-mute
end

begin
   remote = CYBERLINK
   prog = vlc
   button = SkipBack
   config = key-prev
end

begin 
   remote = CYBERLINK
   prog = vlc
   button = SkipForward
   config = key-next
end

begin
   remote = CYBERLINK
   prog = vlc
   button = Pause
   config = key-play-pause
end

begin
   remote = CYBERLINK
   prog = vlc
   button = Menu
   config = key-nav-activate
end

begin
   prog = vlc
   button = Back
   config = Escape
end

begin
   remote = CYBERLINK
   prog = vlc
   button = Rewind
   config = key-slower
end

begin
   remote = CYBERLINK
   prog = vlc
   button = Fwdwind
   config = key-faster
end

begin
   remote = CYBERLINK
   prog = vlc
   button = Play
   config = key-play
end

begin
   remote = CYBERLINK
   prog = vlc
   button = VolumeDown
   config = key-vol-down
end

begin
   remote = CYBERLINK
   prog = vlc
   button = Stop
   config = key-stop
end

begin
   remote = CYBERLINK
   prog = vlc
   button = VolumeUp
   config = key-vol-up
end

begin
 prog = vlc
 button = ChannelUp
 config = key-toggle-fullscreen
end

Currently I have the following buttons working in VLC

Volume Up

Volume Down

Mute

Play

Pause

Speed Up

Slow Down

Stop

Previous

Full Screen (toggle)

This button doesn't work in VLC for some reason that I haven't figured out yet.

Next

Useful links:

http://www.g-loaded.eu/2006/01/10/how-to-configure-and-use-lirc/

https://mandrivausers.org/index.php?/topic/28910-howto-mandriva-linux-2006-lirc/

http://cjo20.net/remote.htm

http://www.minimyth.org/document-howto-lirc_devinput.html

http://www.xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=39433

http://wiki.videolan.org/How_to_Use_Lirc

http://lirc.sourceforge.net/remotes/

http://blog.mricon.com/2008/04/setting-up-apple-remote-control-with-f9.html

http://pulseaudio.org/wiki/Modules#module-lirc

EDIT: I forgot. To get VLC to use the remote, start VLC with the following command: vlc --extraintf lirc

EDIT2: I am making edits to this post as I discover new things.

Firefox on some systems can sometimes have an issue in that it will not allow you to browse the web. However, using konqueror or an alternative browser seems to work fine, shows that it's not a network configuration issue.

It is however, a configuration issue within Firefox, and the way to resolve it is as follows.

1. Click in your url bar, and type "about:config" without the quotes.

2. In the Filter field type "ipv6" without the quotes.

3. The entry "network.dns.disableIPv6 should appear set as "false".

4. Double-click this entry, to set it to "true".

The browsing problem should now be resolved.

This fork of mplayer by one of the main developers is the preferred version to use, since it contains many enhanchements that are missing from the official branch.

The guide is here:

http://www.linuxtech.net/tips+tricks/How_To_Build_Uotis_git_MPlayer_Branch.html

It should be easy enough to follow even if you have never built anything from source before.

Let me know if anything is unclear.

How do you store your photos and personal files?

Anyone keeps at least 2 or even 3 backups in diverse locations?

Here's the article:

Best Reliable Long-term Data Storage Media

kMyMoney was not included in the application packages distributed with Mandriva 2010.0. However the following steps should allow you to easily install kMyMoney in a clean installation of Mandriva 2010.0 (You MUST be connected to the Internet for this installation).

Open "Tools"/"Konsole (Terminal)"

At the prompt type: su

This will be followed by a prompt for your root password

In "Konsole", now type (or paste) the following:

urpmi.addmedia --distrib --mirrorlist 'http://jjorge.free.fr/packages/mandriva/$RELEASE.$ARCH.list'

This will add the media necessary for you to easily install kMyMoney using the "Mandriva Linux Control Center".

Now open the "Mandriva Linux Control Center". This should open in the "Software Management" screen. Click on the "Configure media sources for install and update". You will notice three new media sources at the bottom of the list:

JJORGE_abandonware

JJORGE_i586

JJORGE_noarch

In the upper left corner click "File" / "Update" (or just "CTRL+U"). This will update your new media sources.

Now click "OK" to return to the "Mandriva Linux Control Center - Software Management" screen. Click "Install and Remove Software".

In the upper left corner of the screen you will see a drop-down box typically set to the default of "Packages with GUI". Change this to "All". (THIS IS IMPORTANT - otherwise for some reason it won't display "kMyMoney" as an available package)

Now in the "Find" field type "kMyMoney2" and hit Enter. "kmymoney2" should now appear as a package available for you to install!

Click the check box by "kmymoney2" and then the "Apply" button.

You will then be prompted to select either the "Flash", "Free", "One" or "Powerpack-kde-config-2009.0-8mdv2009.0.noarch" Clicking any of these should work.

A dialog box titled "Additional packages needed" will appear listing several packages that will need to be installed. Click "OK". Then click "Apply".

Another dialog box titled "Confirmation" will appear listing the several packages that will be installed. Click "Yes". The packages will then download and install themselves.

Unfortunately, although installed, "kMyMoney" will not appear in your menu or on your desktop. But the executable file is located at "/opt/kde3/bin/kmymoney2".

To create a link to "kMyMoney" on your desktop, move your mouse to an empty spot on your desktop and right click. In the menu that appears, click "Create New" / "Link to Application". Another menu will appear. Click the "Application" tab, then click the "Browse" button (by the "Command" field"). Now click "Root" and locate "/opt/kde3/bin/kmymoney2" then click "Open" (or you can just paste "/opt/kde3/bin/kmymoney2" into the field).

Now click the "General" tab and change the title from "Link to Application" to "kMyMoney". You will also see an icon to the left that appears like a piece of paper with a blue question mark. Click this icon. This will display a new menu where you can locate and select the "kMyMoney" icon ("System icons" - "Applications"). Click "OK"

You should now have a linked icon to "kMyMoney" on your desktop! If the icon doesn't display properly - or if you can't locate it (this is a problem on some computers) try refreshing your desktop and/or reboot. This often solves the problem.

-------

Mandriva 2010.0 Updates un-install kMyMoney

-------

After getting kMyMoney working, "Mandriva Update" will periodically want to remove kMyMoney in order to update certain "Mandriva specific" files. So far these include:

mandriva-kde4-config-common

mandriva-kdm4-config

powerpack-kde4-config

The exact warning message is:

----------------------------------

The following packages have to be removed for others to be upgraded:

kdelibs3-common-3.5.10-11mdv2009.1.i586

(due to missing kde-config-file,

due to missing libkdecore.so.4,

due to missing libkdeinit_kconf_update.so,

due to missing libknewstuff.so.1,

due to missing libkdeinit_kaddprinterwizard.so,

due to missing libkdeinit_kcmshell.so,

due to missing libkdeinit_kio_http_cache_cleaner.so,

due to missing libkdeui.so.4,

due to missing libkdeinit_kio_uiserver.so,

due to missing libkdeinit_kded.so,

due to missing libkdeinit_kcookiejar.so,

due to missing libkdeinit_kbuildsycoca.so,

due to missing libDCOP.so.4,

due to missing libkdefakes.so.4,

due to missing libkdeinit_dcopserver.so,

due to missing libkabc.so.1,

due to missing libkdeinit_cupsdconf.so,

due to missing libkdeinit_klauncher.so,

due to missing libkparts.so.2,

due to missing libkio.so.4,

due to missing libkunittest.so.1)

kmymoney2-1.0.2-1abd2009.1.i586

(due to missing libkdecore.so.4,

due to missing libkdeui.so.4,

due to missing libkhtml.so.4,

due to missing libDCOP.so.4,

due to missing libkabc.so.1,

due to missing libkutils.so.1,

due to missing libkio.so.4,

due to unsatisfied libkmymoney20 == 1.0.2-1abd2009.1,

due to missing libkmm_mymoney.so.5,

due to missing libkmm_kdchart.so.0,

due to missing libkmm_plugin.so.0)

libkdecore4-3.5.10-11mdv2009.1.i586

(due to unsatisfied kdelibs3-common == 30000000:3.5.10-11mdv2009.1)

libkmymoney20-1.0.2-1abd2009.1.i586

(due to missing libkdecore.so.4,

due to missing libkdeui.so.4,

due to missing libkio.so.4)

----------------------------

This is because Mandriva 2010.0 "wants" to remove everything prior to KDE4. But this is not a problem.

If you proceed with this update, afterward simply return to the "Mandriva Linux Control Center - Software Management" screen. Click "Install and Remove Software". Then select and re-install "kMyMoney2" from the list (which should still be intact). This should re-establish your desktop (menu) links - and kMyMoney should once again work. :-)

----------------------------------------------------------

MANY thanks to José Jorge for the URPMI media sources!!!

I performed the above on my HP G60 Notebook with no problems at all - and on my AMD desktop (with the minor display problems described above). Please consider posting these instructions on other forums so that Mandriva 2010.0 users can continue to enjoy kMyMoney.

[moved from Software by spinynorman - welcome aboard :)]

Well I did it. It took me awhile to figure out what I should do, and even longer to hit the GO button....but it worked. Kopete quit, but I got it fixed. It is much faster!!! Lots of changes.

STEP 1:

NOTE: Copy the text below to a text editor or even the address bar. Remove the $ from them(ftp$). I did that so the board would not see it as a URL and shorten it.

I added media sources (copy these to a console, I did this all in KDE as root). These are one line each. Copy the first 3 lines all at once and then the second 3 lines all at once. Just remove the $

urpmi.addmedia KDE4.3.2NOARCH ftp$://ftp.pbone.net/mirror/ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/stable/4.3.2/Mandriva/2009.1/noarch/media/kde43/ with media_info/hdlist.cz

urpmi.addmedia KDE4.3.2MAIN ftp$://ftp.pbone.net/mirror/ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/stable/4.3.2/Mandriva/2009.1/i586/media/kde43/ with media_info/hdlist.cz

STEP 2:

In a console type: drakrpm-edit-media --expert

This is to allow ticking update in the media manager for the two new sources so it will know to check for updates in them. Go to media manager and check Update for the two new sources.

Go to update and it should list the KDE 4.3.2 updates for your system and what you have installed.

STEP 3:

Hit update!

This was a pain because it said the packages had no key and kept asking do you want to install anyway. Hit yes. You have to baby sit it. I didn't know how to fix this so I hung in there till done.

******************************

How to fix Kopete:

I had very little trouble. To fix kopete find (google) these:

pidgin-plugins-2.6.2-4mdv2010.0.i586.rpm

libortp8-0.15.0-1mdv2009.1.i586.rpm

I installed them one at a time after the upgrade and a full reboot, in the order they are listed.

When you install the second one it will get a couple more dependencies (insert your DVD) but Kopete worked after that.

******************************

I'm no expert but I did upgrade KDE years ago, to 3.1 from 2.x I believe. I got help here to do that so I thought I'd post this to help some of you out. I hope it works. I have no serious problems that I know of. It boots and Kopete was the only thing that broke that I can find.

GOOD LUCK! You'll love the speed, especially if your on an older machine like mine (Athlon 1800+).

It really makes a difference!

[moved from Software by spinynorman]

Go to configure your computer, hardware, setup the graphical server, select options and select enable duplicate display on the second display. Log out and back in. Now go back to Nvidia display settings and it will give you the option to set the refresh rate.

Hope this helps someone. I played with config files and everything...

But this worked.

how to do a new 2009.1 install with KDE 3.5.10:

This is what I did:

- installed Mandriva 2009.1 from the Free dual arch ISO with LXDE as desktop environment

- added all repositories (official and plf) with http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/

- opened a root console

- typed: urpmi task-kde3

- after that, at the next login I had the choice of KDE at the gdm login screen and selecting this fired up the great beloved KDE 3.5.10 desktop!

https://mandrivausers.org/index.php?showtop...st&p=603444

how to do an upgrade to 2009.1 keeping your KDE 3.5 desktop:

Upgrading from previous releases

Please note that if you use the Free or Powerpack editions to do an upgrade install from a previous Mandriva Linux release, KDE 3 - if installed - will be replaced by KDE 4, and your personal KDE settings and customizations will be lost. If you do not want this to happen, we recommend you either use the installer's ability to add internet repositories prior to doing the upgrade, or do a network installation, or use the newly-introduced ability of Mandriva Online (the Mandriva update notification applet) to perform upgrades from one release to the next. Using any of these methods, the upgrade process will have KDE 3 packages available, and your upgraded Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring system will have KDE 3 and your personal settings preserved.

http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/2009.1_Notes#U...evious_releases

[moved from Software by spinynorman]

Just in case somebody is looking for a usb wifi dongle to complement a system, the Edimax WiFi nLite Mini-Size Wireless N USB Adapter for £ 10.99 works OTB with Mandriva 2009.1. I just installed it on my Asrock nettop Ion 330 and all it needed was the wap rpm to connect to my network. The speed is very impressive, and the "N" standard makes it quite future proof.

The device is recognised as a rt2870sta and works perfectly out of the box,

Highly recommended!

Stef

[moved from Hardware by spinynorman]

It has been more then 3 years since the kernel driver is not working for Realtek chip.

During the Mandriva installation on 64bit system I've spent a couple of days trying to find out, where the problem comes from.

As for now I know it for sure the problem was r8169.ko driver for those cards which is not working for unknown reason.

For all who has same card you have to do following steps to turn your network on.

1. Download the last driver from Realtek web site.

2. Install either the kernel sources or just a devel version.

3. Build a driver module according to the instruction given in README file for driver

4. Remove or blacklist the old driver.

5. Don't forget to build the new initrd file with mkinird the_name_in_your_/boot_folder kernel_version

5.1. Before that remove or copy somewhere else the old initrd file.

Without the last step the new driver won't work!

P.S. Actually I'm wondering how long one has to do all these things instead of using the proper driver supplied with a kernel...

So far I know it's open source...

[moved from Networking by spinynorman]

I have attached a HOW TO explaining how to compile Proximodo.

As an aside, I have just been reading another thread that mentioned -devel versions of libraries. It is now obvious to me now - but wasn't for a long time - that if you are compiling from source you must have the -devel versions of dependant libraries because the compiler will need the header files.

Now that I have Proximodo running I have made a permanent change to Linux. It is several weeks since I last booted to XP and I cannot think of any reason why I will need to do so in the near future. It has been a long and, at times, frustrating journey. It is a year since I went into my local electronics retailer and purchased my first MDK distro CD for $2.

I think that I have graduated from the newbie class of '04 B)

Compile_Proximodo_mdk101.txt

After upgrade, hugin fails to stitch panoramas together, it goes through all the motions of loading the photos, letting you allocate control points, previewing the panorama and even mapping each photo to the separate tiffs, but then fails at the last step, calling enblend to merge the photos together.

If you look at the command window, what it actually tries to call is something like "false -compression NONE -o output.tif ..." and the other parameters which should get given to enblend. So why does it try to call "false" instead of "enblend"? Yes I have enblend installed, and it's at /usr/bin/enblend, quite easy to find. It seems to be a bug in hugin though, related to the user config (which worked fine for the previous version of hugin). If you call the same command from the console but with "enblend" instead of "false", it works, and you don't have to redo all your point clicking!

I found out how to fix it, you have to edit your ~/.hugin file. You could delete this file and let hugin create a new one (apparently you have to go into preferences and click "OK" - don't click "Cancel"! Or another way is just to add a line in the .hugin file, in the [Enblend] section:

Instead of

EnblendExe=enblend

you need to change this to

EnblendExe=enblend
Exe=enblend

(if he doesn't listen first time, you gotta tell him twice! ;) )

There are also funny magnifier things obscuring the view on the control point dialog now, getting in the way of what I want to see, but I guess I'll get used to that.

Did I already mention I wish I'd stuck with 2008.1?

[moved from Software by spinynorman]

mencoder -vf crop=374:306:69:43,scale=176:144,hqdn3d=4:3:6 -af channels=1,resample=8000:0:2 -srate 8000 -oac lavc -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=h263:mbd=2:vbitrate=160:acodec=libamr_nb:abitrate=12200 -of lavf -o out-file.3gp in-file.flv

A similar conversion can be done with ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -i in-file.mpeg -s qcif -vcodec h263 -acodec libfaac -ac 1 -ar 8000 -ab 32000 out-file.3gp

Whilst software RAID probably isn't the most popular, since hardware RAID is much preferred, I don't currently have the technology in my machine to do this. So, I used software RAID, and have submitted this HOWTO for anyone who wants to use it.

First, you'll need more than one hard disk. Both mine are IDE, the first is a 20GB disk, and the second is a 160GB disk. Since you cannot partition it during the installation process, you'll have to create the partitions manually. This is a simple task, and requires the use of a utility called "fdisk". As an example, I've listed my hard disk partitions below, the blocks that they utilise, and the effective rough size in MB/GB.

This HOWTO has been written for RAID1, but can equally apply for RAID5 as well.

/dev/hda1 = blocks 1-12 = 100MB
/dev/hda2 = blocks 13-2434 = 19.9GB

/dev/hdb1 = blocks 1-125 = 1GB
/dev/hdb2 = blocks 126-2547 = 19.9GB
/dev/hdb3 = blocks 2548-end = 138GB

/dev/hda1 has been created because the boot section needed to be outside of the RAID array, therefore this will be mounted as "/boot".

/dev/hda2 will be mounted as "/" and will be utilised as part of the RAID array. The equivalent partition that it will be mirrored with is /dev/hdb2.

/dev/hdb1 is swap, and isn't being mirrored. Neither is my /home mountpoint, since this is larger than the rest of the space I have. If I had 2 x 160GB drives in my system, then everything would have been mirrored.

Creating the partitions

Boot from the Mandriva CD/DVD and press F1. Type "linux rescue" at the prompt. Afterwards, you should get a menu, and choose the option to go to the command line.

For options on what commands to use in fdisk, press "m" once within the program. However, the basics are:

n = create new partition
d = delete existing partition
p = show existing partitions
w = save and exit
q = exit without saving

Since, I have two hard disks, the commands to use with fdisk, are as follows:

fdisk /dev/hda
fdisk /dev/hdb

after one of these commands has been ran, you can then use the menu options I listed above. Now, my full example:

fdisk /dev/hda
n - to create new partition
p - to choose primary rather than extended
1 - if prompted for which primary partition type 1.
press enter for the start block, as we will use the default.
+100M (this is to select 100MB partition, easier than figuring out equivalent in blocks which is 1-12)
n - to create new partition
p - to choose primary
2 - to create 2nd primary partition
press enter for the start block, as we will use the default.
press enter for the end block, as we will use the default.
t - toggle partition type
2 - partition 2
fd - selects auto RAID
w - to save and exit

now the 20GB disk has been partitioned as I have above. Let's do similar for the 160GB, however, we need swap and home on here also. So:

fdisk /dev/hdb
n
p
1
press enter for default start block
+1024M (1GB swap)
n
p
2
press enter for default start block
2547 (this will equal same size partition for "/" to be mirrored - calculation later)
n
p
3
press enter for default start block
press enter for default end block
t
1
82 (sets for swap file)
t
2
fd
w (to save and exit)

That's the second disk configured, exactly how we want it. Swap at the beginning, so that it's faster to access. Then the "/" partition, exactly the same size, followed by /home using the rest of the disk.

So, how did I work out what size for the partition? Well, easy really. On /dev/hda it started at block 13 and finished at 2434. So, 2434-13=2421 blocks utilised for "/". On /dev/hdb the partitioning was different, "/" didn't start at block 13. Therefore, since the swap ended at 125 and this partition starts at 126, we need to work out the end point for this partition. We know the size is 2421 blocks, so 2421+126=2547, which is the end point, to get the exact same size as the partition on /dev/hda.

Installation

Now the installation can be completed, so type "reboot" and press enter, to restart, and boot from the Mandriva CD/DVD again. This time, press enter to let it boot normally into the installation.

When you get to partitioning, choose "Custom Partitioning", since we already have done it, so we just need to allocate these to mount points, as well as create the arrays.

Select the first partition on /dev/hda, and set this to be "/boot" and then set the file system type be it ext2, ext3, reiserfs, etc, etc. I chose reiserfs, but ext2 or ext3 are just as good here. Now select the second partition, and create the array, let it use the default of "md0".

On /dev/hdb, the first partition should be green, and will show as swap, so nothing to do here. Select the second partition, and you can then choose an option to add this to the existing array. Select the third partition, and then set this to be "/home" and choose the file system type.

Click the Advanced button, go to the array tab, and then modify the file system so that it is what you want it to be, be it, ext2, ext3, reiserfs, etc, etc.

Continue the install, and let all partitions be formatted. And follow the rest of the installation as you would normally and reboot the system when complete.

Post Installation

Now that your system is up and running, you can check the status of your array, by typing this at a terminal prompt:

cat /proc/mdstat

this will output on the percentage complete of the array, or whether it's complete and active. This can take some time depending on the file system/partition size.

Now you have software raid running on your system.

I just did something I thought would be much harder to do, so here I share it, so that you know:

1/ it can be done,

2/ it is not that hard :)

I wanted to resize the server's LVM partitions, those being /, /home, /var, /usr, /tmp, and /data, in this manner: all partitions had to shrink as much as reasonable, so that /data could grow as much as possible.

Constraints:

— I only have remote SSH access, so all must be done on the live system (online).

— All partitions initially ReiserFS, but I'm not against trying JFS or Ext3 (XFS heavier on the CPU, or so says the Internet… and the CPU is an old PIII).

Initial situation:

/ and /home much too big (1GB available, where disks are 8GB in size)

/home barely used (this server is now mostly for anonymous/ro SMB access)

/usr, /var and /tmp slightly over-sized (especially /tmp)

/data emptied from previous usages of the server, ready for its new mission.

As it happens, let me say staight away that my biggest surprise was that MCC (diskdrake) manages LVM transparently and does it well!

1 - Shrink /

This is the only thing that I couldn't find a way to do. ReiserFS can be growed online, but not shrinked, and / cannot be unmounted…

2 - Remove /home

Problem: I remotely connect with SSH, so /home is used.

Solution: Just for once, allow remote login for the root user.

I did so (/etc/ssh/sshd_config), restarted sshd, logged out, and back in using root.

Then it's all easy: move /home/* to /, then (with diskdrake) umount and destroy /home, and finally move back /home's former content from / to /home/ (directory, not mount point).

At that point, don't revert yet the change in /etc/ssh/sshd_config about allowing root to login.

3 - Shrink /var and /tmp

These were the easiest.

First look for processes that use the partitions with

lsof | grep /var
lsof | grep /tmp

Then kill/stop the processes/services that are reported (included sshd if needed; don't forget to restart it after the resize is done).

All else is done with diskdrake: unmount both partitions, shrink them, mount them again.

4 - Shrink /usr

This was the trickiest bit. /usr is used by diskdrake, and used by localisation, and numerous other running services (among which is sshd), not forgetting lsof itself.

Still, it can be shrinked :)

You have to login remotely as root (see the /home part) so as to limit the number of processes using the /usr partition.

step A - First, being cautious, I stopped all I could find that was using /usr. To limit the output of lsof, I forced the shell and the commands I ran to a locale-less mode:

LC_ALL=C exec bash
LC_ALL=C lsof | LC_ALL=C grep /usr | LC_ALL=C grep -v '^lsof'

As before, kill/stop the processes/services that are reported (included the sshd service if needed; I reboot soon anyway; just don't logout before the reboot is done).

The only thing I did not remove (I would have been locked out of the system) was the sshd process allowing me to work remotely.

step B - Next, I copied the whole /usr contents to /data/usr (the only place big enough for such a big content):

cd /
tar -cf --one-file-system --force-local usr | (cd data && tar -xvf - --numeric-owner --atime-preserve --preserve --same-owner --force-local)

Some options may be superflous, but this is the command I use when I want as exact a copy as possible.

step C - Then, I lazilly unmounted /usr and quickly replaced it with a working equivalent:

cd /
LC_ALL=C umount -l /usr
LC_ALL=C mv usr usr.old
LC_ALL=C ln -s data/usr usr

I then edited /etc/fstab so that the /usr mount point becomes /usr.old instead, and rebooted (“reboot†command).

step D - With root login still allowed, I logged in as root, and re-did step A.

Then I ran “diskdrake†to unmount /usr.old and shrink it. In my case, as I spotted a corrupted directory at the whole-copy-with-tar stage, I also changed the FS type to Ext3 (just to see if it allowed online shrinking: it does not), and formatted with disk check. /usr.old must then be mounted again.

Back at the command-line, I put the data back in the partition:

cd /data/usr
tar -cf - --one-file-system --force-local . | (cd /usr.old/ && tar -xvf - --numeric-owner --atime-preserve --preserve --same-owner --force-local)

Finally, I edited /etc/fstab so that /usr.old becomes /usr again. And I ran these commands:

cd /
umount usr.old
rm -f usr
mv usr.old usr
reboot

4 - Grow /data

That's the easiest part. If you went that far, no more explanations are needed. It can even be done online with ReiserFS, in theory.

I did not do it online, though, because I took the opportunity to try and format this partition with JFS, just to see if it allowed online shrinking: it does not. diskdrake doesn't even allow offline resizing with this filesystem! I switched back to ReiserFS.

At this stage, two last things can be done:

— revert the change on /etc/ssh/sshd_config so that remote root login isn't allowed anymore;

— “rm -rf /data/usrâ€, unless you formatted the partition.

That's all. I hope this will help others.

Yves.

They can be found here,

http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-3522034.php

:D B)

Note to moderators , if you think these are of use but in the wrong place or need another topic title , feel free to alter or move .

Thanks.

:)

Preamble:

In the past couple of years, the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have launched web-based video-on-demand offerings, allowing you to catch up with programmes you've missed (as long as you're using a UK IP address). However, whereas the BBC and Channel 4 opted to use a Flash-based solution, ITV decided to "upgrade" to Silverlight. And have also coded their pages in such a way that although the "Install Silverlight" link will take you to the Moonlight installation page, it still claims Silverlight isn't installed. There have also been reports from Windows users (who could theoretically use it) that it frequently pauses for buffering, and doesn't allow you to skip forwards or backwards (probably so you can't skip the adverts!).

Workaround solution:

Whilst reading an ITV forum on issues with ITV Player ( http://forums.itv.com/1/626841/ShowThread.aspx ), I chanced upon an unofficial third party workaround involving a Firefox plugin - http://chris.orr.me.uk/caughtup/

Somehow this channels content via his site, where it is converted into a playlist of WMV streams (minus the adverts), which are played in your system's default media player. Interestingly, while ITV have taken steps to remove its listing from Firefox Addons, they don't appear to have taken out any action against Christopher Orr himself...yet.

For example entering the following in the search field:

^kernel.*latest

will find all packages that start with 'kernel' (^kernel) then contain any random characters (.*), followed by 'latest'.

I guess that's because 'rpmdrake' is written in Perl.

Just thought this knowledge might be useful to someone else too.

http://www.linuxtech.net/tips+tricks/linu...ini_how-to.html

I have tested the procedure on Mandriva 2008.1 but it should work on most recent Linux distros.

It would be great if Mandriva could integrate this into the 'MCC/Local disks/Manage disk partitions' tool, but until then, the CLI is the only way to do this that I'm aware of.

Any comments are welcome!

So what should you know?

This is what I have collated to date, maybe some error

feel free to contribute. I DO NOT have a 64 bits yet, doing "homework" on the question.

If you are a newbie, the advice seems to be to install a 32 bits linux onto your 64 bits processor.

This is possible, and simpler in the short and long term.

The loss of performance is small.

Updating a 32 bits mandriva to a 64 (instead of doing a full install). Forget about it! bad idea.

Read that not advised to share /home between two Mandy OS (one 32 and one 64, multiboot)

no known rational for that apart that well it is risky. No feedback/experience known

Mixing 32 and 64 libraries is risky

However, setting 32 bits and 64 repositories for uprmi, is feasible

(Order is important to calculate the dependencies)

Flash (well maybe we should not use flash at all...) Anyway, solutions/options are

You may have seen this

[root@localhost install_flash_player_7_linux]# ./flashplayer-installer

ERROR: Your architecture, \'x86_64\', is not supported by the

Macromedia Flash Player installer.

Solutions are

- Flashplayer within Konqueror

- Use opera

- Use nspluginwrapper to "translate/bridge" 32 bits macromedia flash libraries/pluggin into firefox 64 bits nspluginwrapper-i386

- Avoid any flash (I do)

- Chroot a 32 bit firefox (with all the problems/duplication that creates)

Firefox:

There is a 64 bits version, but pluggins/extension will lag behind for a while

Consider nspluginwrapper (Does 64 bits work with it?)

Java

Alledegly there is a 64 bit JRE. To be confirmed

Azureus (java) Reported to work, depending on versions

Realplayer / Helix player (Why do you want realplayer... well I ilke trplayer)

lastfm: some report of it not working, and the contrary as well

wine: well this is 32 bits by definition

Allegedly seen one post saying compilation flags are automatically set to 32 bits and it

compiles beautifully from source on a 64 bits

Skype (well closed source):

Try openwengo; wait for reversed engineered skype clones

Chroot it

for oppenofice, 32 bits, and in general

Quote (Translated from Fr)

There is I think a 64, but basically it is a tweaked 32, going to 64 is a lot and lot of recoding allegedly

2) add 5 repositories: main64, contrib64, main32, contrib32, club32.

3) deactivate main64, contrib64 BEFORE installing any 32 bits application. This avoid dependency hell for the 64 bits,

which risk disappearing

4) install firefox, flash, ooffice, java etc.

5) deactivate 32 bits mirrors, reactivate 64 mirrors

Good to know

urpmi.update -a && urpmi --auto-select --keep --strict-arch

where --keep so that packages that would uninstall other packages are not used and

--strict-arch to avoid a 32 bits application to be replaced by a 64 and conversely

mplayer and to have all the win32 codecs (32 by definition), allegedlly

http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/news.html:

svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/mplayer/trunk mplayer

./configure --enable-gui

make

as root make install

Othewise chroot the damn thing from URPMI

 

Seen something about install32 prefix, lost from sight

A good chroot tutorial or bash script for mandriva to create a chroot environment

(I have not find one yet)

 

What you should (and shouldn't) expect from 64-bit Linux

http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/09/07/1632253

 

Installing apps in a 32-bit chroot in AMD64 Debian system

http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/356

 

32-bit browsing in a 64-bit system

http://internet.newsforge.com/article.pl?s...0216&tid=13

 

[moved from Installing Mandriva by spinynorman]

[moved from Software by spinynorman]

You can find it here:

http://www.linuxtech.net/tips+tricks/hw_diagnostics-pt1.html

Comments and suggestions are very welcome!

It's available from my website (still mostly under construction, please excuse the barebones look!):

http://www.linuxtech.net/downloads/libdvdcss_1.2.10.html

Hope it can be of use for someone!

[moved from Software by spinynorman]

Reviewed on Mandriva Cooker 2009

.....Lex

ps.

Do not forget to tune the channel!

[moved from Hardware by spinynorman]

I will deal with the why first because that is easy to explain.

In my Linux life I was 'weaned' on KDE and loved it. That love stopped abruptly with KDE4. I won't go into the reasons for that here, I have said enough on that subject, just suffice to say that for now and I far as I can see into the future I do not want it on my computer in any way, shape or form, not even it's libraries if I can avoid them.

That decision left me with a problem because I don't like Gnome either. Granted it is a lot better than KDE4 but still not to my tastes and why anyone considers it to be 'easy' to use is beyond me. I could have stuck with KDE3 of course as it is still far and away the best option, but that is changing rapidly, more on that later.

So that meant I had to look very seriously at Xfce. Initially I could not really come to terms with it either, the biggest problem I faced being file management utilities. I have never been happy with any of the default file management utils on any of the main desktop environments (ironically I find the best of a bad bunch to be Dolphin the KDE4 file manager! - every cloud has a silver lining so the saying goes - but even if I were willing to use the rest of KDE4 I still wouldn't use Dolphin by default). My solution to this for a long time now has been Krusader, it is (or was) simply superb. Unfortunately this is no longer the case. In their headlong rush to make Krusader compatible with KDE4 they have ruined it on KDE3. If I install the latest version of Krusader on a KDE3 based system it rather inconveniently erases the contents of every file that I open in root mode (and root mode is one of the best reasons for using Krusader). Thunar is no worse nor better than Nautilus and Konqueror, in my opinion none of them are good enough. So for a while there I was completely stuck. My interim solution was to install Xfce on top of a KDE4 install, which then allowed me to use Krusader without erasing all my files every time I opened them, but that meant I had to suffer all the largely superfluous KDE4 libraries with their massive amounts of updates, 'polluting' my system and I didn't want that.

But I found a solution to that particular problem and several others, and that leads me on to the main point of this post, the 'How' part in the title.

1) File Management.

As I said above this was one of the biggest problems for me. It was solved very simply and easily when someone introduced me to Xfe. Two things to say about Xfe, the first is that it is not the same as 'Xfce' and (as far as I know) has very little to do with it. The second is that Xfe is not as good as Krusader, but it has about 80%-85% of Krusader's functionality, and it doesn't erase your files when you open them so that is a distinct advantage. It takes a little bit of getting used to but it is not that difficult, and it is platform independent.

1a) Kdiff3

Really part of file management this. Krusader has a function in it's menus that provide a direct link to kdiff3 (or any other compatible differences utility) that enables you to compare the contents of two files simply by selecting them and clicking on 'compare by content'. This is very useful and is not duplicated in Xfe. In order to get a similar functionality I would recommend a program such as tkdiff. It wont integrate into the file manager and will need to be launched separately. However is extremely light weight and fully functional.

2) Removeable Media.

I cannot understand why everyone else is not as concerned about this as I am. When I plug in a removeable drive I want to be told that it is present - I do not EVER want it to be automounted (because that drastically increases the probability that I will forget to unmount it again later). When I manually mount that drive I want to be told that it is mounted and I want that indication to remain visible for as long as the drive remains mounted (and no matter whatever else I am doing, so desktop icons are worthless, they will be covered by application windows).I also want the opportunity to unmount it again preferably from the same indicator that performs the other functions. KDE3's Removable Media applet did this perfectly and should be the benchmark that all other DE's follow.

OK so you are going to ask me "Why is this so essential?" Well, I have already destroyed 2 removeable media devices in my life and I don't want to destroy any more. Let me define 'destroy'. Destroy does not mean 'lose data'(although that certainly happens), destroy means - render totally inoperative, so inoperative that not even low level formatting tools like 'fdisk' are capable of writing a file system to the device - in other words you bin it. Now you might tell me that this is impossible, but I will beg to differ, because I have done it not once but twice, and I don't want to do it again (and after I discovered KDE3's removeable media applet I never did it again).

So how to overcome this problem in Xfce? It is a twofold process. First you need the 'Places' plugin. This shows devices that have been plugged in but not mounted in an partly 'greyed out' font, and devices that are plugged in and mounted in a normal font. However it does not visually distinguish when devices are mounted or unmounted without clicking on it first (and this is why KDE4's 'recently plugged devices' is such a worthless waste of space). In order to have that VITAL visual inidication that a device is mounted you also need the 'volstatus' plugin. This does absolutely nothing until a plugged device is mounted, then it presents an icon in the system tray to warn you that you have something plugged and mounted. It also gives you the opportunity to unmount it safely, so all you have to do is to remember to glance at the systray before you unplug devices or shutdown.

My only criticism of it is visibility. It is a greyish icon on a greyish background. KDE3 Removeable Media applet is far superior in that respect, so about 90% functionality compared to KDE3, but acceptable.

3)Quicklaunch Toolbar.

As I said above, 90% of the time, desktop shortcuts are totally worthless because they are covered by application windows. This is why a quicklaunch toolbar or something similar is, for me, an absolutely essential part of a desktop environment.Yes you can use program shortcuts in your taskbar, but in my opinion they take up too much space.

When I was testing KDE4 I spent literally ages trying to get the quicklaunch toolbar to work. It never worked properly and it was one of the many reasons I gave up on '4'. Having said that, the quicklaunch toolbar in Xfce does work, but is obviously so much of an afterthought that it is not much better. Luckily there is an alternative.

Xfce (and Gnome as well if you like) provide the opportunity to have more than one panel on a desktop, and also enable you to choose where to put them. I utilised this functionality to replace the quicklaunch toolbar. My solution was to have a second panel on the left hand side of the screen which, by default, was auto hidden. It thus did not occupy any screen space, but was accessible simply by moving the mouse to the left (which is no different to moving it over a quicklaunch toolbar). It is then possible to place as many shortcut buttons as you like (xfce calls them launchers) in this panel, without occupying any real estate on your main taskbar and system tray and they are no more difficult to use than a quicklaunch toolbar.

Functionality 100%

4)Kshowmail.

There are endless Mail clients in Linux, if you use Opera you even get a pretty useful one built into your browser, but none that I could find, with the exception of Kshowmail were capable of reading and deleting mail whilst it was still on the server. In my Windows days I used to use Poptray which has a similar functionality and it is the simplest method of making sure that your machine remains free of email borne viruses whilst ensuring that you miss nothing that a spam filter might wrongly categorise.

The method I used to overcome this was to open a googlemail account and then to use the excellent checkgmail utility to access it. You don't actually have to use googlemail much at all if you don't want to, you can simply set up a mail forwarding rule to forward a copy of the mail on all your ordinary mail accounts into googlemail, this has another advantage in that you automtically save your email in two separate places and thus are very unlikely to ever lose it. You will also find the that googlemail is quite an impressive service.

Functionality 100%

5)Ksnapshot

Ksnapshot will run on xfce/gnome although it does not behave exactly the same as it does on KDE (specifically when you want to take a screenshot you do not press enter as the popup window suggests you should, if you do the whole thing will freeze, you have to double click with the left mouse button instead). This is how I was operating for a while. The reason I couldn't use the default xfce-screenshooter? It didn't have a 'region' shot mode, which is the only mode I ever use. However I found out later on that the reason it didn't have a 'region' mode was because the version of screenshooter in all the repos was an older version and in fact the later version (must be 1.4.9 or above) does have this function.

Of course there is always a downside. v1.4.9 is only available in a tarball. Now my success rate with installing things from source is no better than anybody elses - about 10% I would think, so I didn't hold out much hope of getting this going either, but in fact it installed quite easily. The only thing to remember is that you must uninstall any previous version of screenshooter first, other wise it won't run. The required file can be downloaded from www.gnomefiles.org.

Functionality 100%

6)Klipper.

I like to run a clipboard utility in my systray. For some reason this does not happen by default in Xfce, in fact it doesn't even include a clipboard utlity. For a little while I was running klipper itself (with attendent cost in unnecessary kde libraries) but I eventually found that the Xfce clipboard plugin is called 'clipman' and you have to download it separately it is not included in a default install. I can't remember if I got it from the repos or from the internet but it is easy enough to find anyway.

Functionality 100%

7)Clock

The standard Xfce clock plugin is naff. Replace it with 'datetime' plugin which is much more configurable and includes a calendar as it should - not quite so easy to configure as KDE equivalents but not that difficult to work out.

Functionaliy 100%

8)Amarok.

OK it is a great program but do you really need all its bells and whistles? I don't. Mplayer plays just about everything you throw at it and is tiny in comparison, so is vlc (although at the moment it won't play the sound from dvd's on my latest version of mandriva 2009). Xmms is there if you just need audio playback. Xfmedia, the xfce media player works perfectly on Linux Mint but won't even load on Mandriva, no idea why, but there are so many alternatives it is not really much of an issue.

Functionality 100%

9) K3b.

Another superb kde program. Xfce has Xfburn although I must admit that to date I haven't tried it so cannot recommend it one way or the other.

Functionality Unknown.

So that is about that. Or is it?

Unfortunately not. There is one more issue that remains unresolved on my quest to ditch KDE. If you don't use money management programs then you need read no further (and congratulations if you have managed to read this far - if you have the patience to do that then you certainly have the patience to succeed with Xfce!). If however you do use money management programs then I need to acquaint you with point # 10.

10) Kmymoney2.

If you can remember as far back as the fourth paragraph of this epic, you will note that I said I had found a solution to most of my requirements on Xfce, but this is the exception, I cannot replace Kmymoney. I started using this quite a few years ago as a Microsoft Money replacement when I migrated to Linux and consequently I have a lot of data within it that I want to be able to use and refer to.

If you have ever used .qif export/import techniques on money programs you will know that there is no such thing as a 100% success rate, it will always fail in some respect or another and this is one of the problems I face, even if I were to select a suitable replacement for Kmymoney I know for sure (because I have tried) that I would not be able to fully and completely transfer the data over. I could start again from scratch with a new money manager program by simply transferring the information in my latest statement into it and carrying on from there, but that would not give me any access to historical information which would all be in Kmymoney format - it is a bit like using proprietary software, you become locked in.

I have tested several replacement options and for the benefit of others that may want to try them I will give my opinions here, although I must say that it is extremely unlikely that I will be using any of them. Kmymoney pulls in around 70MB of dependencies on a Gnome system (so I presume an Xfce only system would be about the same) - I guess it is something I will just have to live with.

Here are the replacements that I have tried:

Gnucash - I don't like gnucash and never have. The idea of having 'accounts' for everything instead of 'categories' is ludicrous besides which after I had imported all my data from Kmymoney it proceeded to tell me that I was £58,000 overdrawn!! I hope not.

Grisbi - This one did the best job of importing the data from Kmymoney (although still not 100%) and I thought for a while that I had found my solution. That notion was quickly dispelled when after spending a couple of hours using it, it decided to freeze and had to be forcibly shut down. When I opened it again all the data that I had spent the last two hours sorting was gone. Too unstable to consider.

Buddi - The complete opposite of grisbi this one, far and away the safest to use in that it auto-saves a new database at specific intervals, a bit like a decent word processor, so absolutely no way to lose data. Trouble is there is no data to lose, at it steadfastly refused to accept even a single line of data import from my .qif files, so you would have to start from scratch if you wanted to use it, but if you were in that situation it might be a good bet.

Jgnash - a java app. Couldn't even get it to run (on 4 different distros).

MMex - A Novell/Suse app this (although not originally). Bit of a one trick pony. It doesn't matter what you do with it, all you get is the warning 'Could not write to read only database' (4 different distros including Suse). In each case the database it was referring to was situated in my home folder with my own username and usergroup and 777 permissions. Useless.

So that is it. Most but not all requirements satisfied to date. At the moment I am using Xfce as a default desktop but it is running on top of a Gnome install, with Kmymoney tacked on. A bit mixed up but nowhere near as mixed up as KDE4. Sooner or later I will get round to testing an Xfce only system (ie without the Gnome base, but still with Kmymoney) and when I do I will let you know how that goes. In the meantime this post is long enough as it is.

install the two packages needed:

urpmi sshfs

urpmi fuse

SSHFS is meant to be used so that you mount the remote file system as regular user, not root:

sshfs remoteserver: localmountpoint

You will get an error: you don't have permission to use /dev/fuse

You can get around this:

as root: chmod 666 /dev/fuse

This will not stick, the /dev permissions get reset everytime the system boots

Here is the more permanent fix: as root, edit /etc/rc.local, add this line at the end:

chmod 666 /dev/fuse

SHHFS works great. It is much better for mounting file systems in other Unix-like boxes than having to risk using NFS or pretending to be Windows and log into samba drives.

Maybe the above issue could be handled in the fuse rpm in future releases.

Thank you,

Hannu

[moved from Networking by spinynorman]

I had a terrible experience finding info on how to set up ndiswrapper to work with my WMP54G card, but after a few days I finally figured it out and decided to post about it. Hopefully someone will find this useful. YMMV, but it should work with any card supported by ndiswrapper

Procedure

You're going to need to add two lines to /etc/modprobe.conf. Here are the lines I added:

alias wlan0 ndiswrapper
install ndiswrapper /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install ndiswrapper && { loadndisdriver 14e4 4320 /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5.sys /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5.inf; }

The part that gave me the most headaches is the area between the curly braces. As you can see loadndisdriver takes four arguments:

# loadndisdriver --help
Usage: loadndisdriver [OPTIONS] pci_vendor pci_device windowsdriver.sys windowsdriver.inf

Here's how I got the arguments:

• First, you'll need the windows driver for your card so grab the .sys and the .inf files from your card's CD (or where ever the drivers are). For my card they were called bcmwl5.sys and bcmwl5.inf. It doesn't really matter where you put these files. I put them in /etc/ndiswrapper. These are the last two arguments to loadndisdriver.
  
• To find pci_vendor and pci_device you need to run the lspci command. Here's what mine looks like:
  

  # lspci
  00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 02)
  00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 02)
  00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
  00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
  00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
  00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
  00:0d.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905B 100BaseTX [Cyclone] (rev 24)
  00:0e.0 Multimedia video controller: Zoran Corporation ZR36120 (rev 03)
  00:0f.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM94306 802.11g (rev 03) <=== My wireless card
  00:10.0 Multimedia audio controller: Aureal Semiconductor Vortex 1 (rev 02)
  01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV5M64 [RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro] (rev 15)

  
  Notice the numbers at the beginning of the line for your card (00:0f.0 for mine), and then run lspci -n:
  

  # lspci -n
  00:00.0 Class 0600: 8086:7190 (rev 02)
  00:01.0 Class 0604: 8086:7191 (rev 02)
  00:07.0 Class 0601: 8086:7110 (rev 02)
  00:07.1 Class 0101: 8086:7111 (rev 01)
  00:07.2 Class 0c03: 8086:7112 (rev 01)
  00:07.3 Class 0680: 8086:7113 (rev 02)
  00:0d.0 Class 0200: 10b7:9055 (rev 24)
  00:0e.0 Class 0400: 11de:6120 (rev 03)
  00:0f.0 Class 0280: 14e4:4320 (rev 03)  <=== My wireless card
  00:10.0 Class 0401: 12eb:0001 (rev 02)
  01:00.0 Class 0300: 10de:002d (rev 15)

  
  Match up the numbers you found earlier to locate your card. The numbers i'm looking for in my example are 14e4:4320. 14e4 is pci_vendor argument of loadndisdriver and 4320 is the pci_device argument
  

To test this out install the ndiswrapper module:

# modprobe ndiswrapper

If there were no error messages, so far so good. If the command "iwconfig" (part of the wireless-tools package) recognizes wlan0 and doesn't say "no wireless extensions" then everything installed correctly. Now you can use iwconfig to setup the access point, essid, etc. See the man page for iwconfig for more info. Here's how I would start my internet manually:

iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed
iwconfig wlan0 key restricted XXXXXXXX
iwconfig wlan0 essid ZZZZ
dhcpcd wlan0

Just replace the X's with your key if you use WEP (you do use WEP, right? :D) and replace the Z's with the name of your access point.

Now you're probably going to want to start all this up automatically. You need to create a file called /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0 and put this in it:

DEVICE=wlan0
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
ONBOOT=yes
ESSID=YOUR_ESSID
MODE=Managed
KEY="YOUR_KEY"

Have a look at the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-wireless script to see what variables you can put in this file. Now all you have to do is reboot and see if your internet comes up.

Conclusion

I hope that someone can find this useful. Of course is anything here is wrong or if there's an easier way, then by all means do tell!

It was raining a lot in the UK today so I though I'd do a little Howto. It's about installing virtualbox and testing Mandriva Xfce version 2009 without a CD, directly from the iso file :

The Link to my site

(server "ON" only 7 -> 22:00 UK time to save the planet...)

Stef.

:D

I noticed that my "Inbox" file for Thunderbird was surprisingly large (100M+) even though there were very few emails in there and most of them were tiny. On a second account the Inbox file was 67M and that was also a bit suprising.

After some googling I came across the "compact" command which can be run on a folder from the right-click menu. After doing that, the file shrank down to 1.3M, which is much more like it. I've no idea why this isn't done automatically by default, but there you go. We do have a defrag tool after all. Might be of use to someone if they've had their mailbox for a whlie, with lots of deleted spam, especially as there's a size limit beyond which Thunderbird starts misbehaving... :unsure:

More info here: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Compacting_folders

most other email clients by default automatically compact the folder when a certain amount of space is wasted, whereas this has to be activated by the user in Thunderbird.

*** NSPlugin Viewer *** ERROR: could not reconstruct XVisual from visualID

(firefox:18492): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_hash_table_remove_internal: assertion `hash_table != NULL' failed

With only these 2 plugins installed: kde4-nsplugins and nspluginwrapper, I just removed the nspluginwrapper. Now Firefox3 isn't giving me any "complaints" in Konsole, and it seems to be working OK.

Kieth

[moved from Software by spinynorman]

I also had a network (wireless) up and running.

The first task was to copy the i586 folder from the dvd on my pc to the laptop, I used the /home directory as I would not be formatting this partition and I new where the directory was.

The hard part was to get the grub loader to find the necessary files to boot from the i586 directory.

This was accomplished in part by a useful utility on Mandriva's Webserver i.e.

http://qa.mandriva.com/hd_grub.cgi

A sample result from that site was :-

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

title Mandrake Install

root (hd0,5)

kernel /i586/isolinux/alt0/vmlinuz ramdisk_size=128000 root=/dev/ram3 acpi=ht vga=788 automatic=method:disk,partition=hda5,directory=/home/i586

initrd /i586/isolinux/alt0/all.rdz

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A cut and paste into /boot/grub/menu.lst was all that was required.

The all important files needed to boot I have highlighted.

When this is added to grub you will of course have a new entry in the list at boot time. Simply select Mandrake Install to install.

A NOTE ABOUT PARTITIONS AND DRIVES.

The /home partition is usually designated as /dev/sda6 when listed via 'df' and when viewed in 'drakconf'. For some unknown reason grub associates (hd0,5) as /home, unfortunately the cgi script at the website gave me (hd0,4) as the partition. So a little editing put it right.

Should you put your /i586/ on another partition then you will need to work it out which one it is on. This is not too difficult when working with grub because if grub cannot find the files it will tell you so and give you the option to edit the lines until you get the correct one. Take note of what you put in your edit as the edits are not saved to disk.

Once you have successfully booted the correct entry you will be presented with a dialog requesting the partition where your /i586/ directory is. If you have used the /home partition, select /dev/sda6 and OK.

You will then see a dialog requesting the directory to use for the installation. Simply type in the boxi586. NOTE there is no forward slash before or after the entry.

If all has gone well so far you should be presented with the installation screen that you all know so well.

I have written this howto in the hope it maybe of help to someone. Please feel free to correct me on mistakes I have made. Enjoy.

If you have any problems with a sound card (mostly integrated), os sound server, arts, esd, you can create hidden file .asoundrc in your /home directory, or for all users of your computers in /etc/asound.conf (if necessary: create it). In this file write

pcm.card0 {

type hw

card 0

}

pcm.!default {

type plug

slave.pcm "dmixer"

}

pcm.dmixer {

type dmix

ipc_key 1025

slave {

pcm "hw:0,0"

period_time 0

period_size 4096

buffer_size 16384

#4096 if problems

period 128

rate 44100

}

bindins {

0 0

1 1

}

}

OK, this fragment to leane on dplug, dmix plugins. Not much information of ALSA software ....Lex

cd... Text is entirely my and design for every and transferred from different forum on which I happened in Poland

http://www.mandrivalinux.eu/showthread.php?t=18412

Text is translate behind help of translator.

Alsa this drivers to cards of sound new generation appeared which enough no long ago and they gained huge popularity. And though them fast development follows, still indispensable service of older open system of sound oss is us. Example here vocal transport and also ; as well as ; television of video are continually linux. Difference is large between this drivers and most important this quantity of served sound cards as well as utilization of some components, advanced control. Small record onto this subject is defect too. Obviously alsa has to emulate drivers oss and therefore it is peaceable backwards. Some programmes be able to to act from alsa still. In kernels 2.6.X. Alsa became add for ever . But one should to remember that add drivers (drivery) became only. Alsa to work demands libraries, tools of every type which it was been possible to take

<http://www.alsa-project.org> from home side of project. All packets have to be this myself version!. Newest drivers in moment version of writing this posta this 1.10 - system indispensable libraryalsa-lib this using programmes from sound.

- Modules of indispensable corealsa-drivers this for concrete work of cards and her components.

- Additional programmes alsa-utils this to service of sound acting card from line of recommendations but giving control strengths of voice, recording and reproduction. Sometimes they are indispensable and more necessary depression mixers and graphic players. They bring in information much. -Alsa-firmware of some card need File firmware to correct working so-called -alsa-tools this additional programmes e.g. To loading firmware etc During installation of system in most of cases card will become detected and installed indispensable software will become. Drivers alsa co-operate arts for kde whether esd for gnome from servers, servers exist also for wmakera and characterizing server jack this one self low latency even to 1 millisecond. Servers mediate between drivers alsa and applications what makes possible using from sound many applications simultaneously. In front of shopping of card get to to know smallest problems are cards it is proper with which. Read a little record which is kernela in /usr/src/documentation/sound/ after installation of sources it is proper also. If we know what driver serves we can our card take drivery alsa already and after unpacking giving command ./configure - we will inquirehelp whether we have our driver. Users kernelis from 2.4 have easier assignment, however in one should 2.6 to remove library alsa and drivers from switch -force whether -nodeps because it can this to pull removal of half of system in depending. To to install drivers we give standard recommendations - example for card sblive 1024player ./configure -with-cards=emu10k1accessible #### is more option for midi, jojstika etc Make

make install ####as root if at configure we will not choose concrete card this all drivers will compile themselves us. List of accessible drivers in version 1.0.10

In file /etc/modprobe.conf we have whole configuration of card - example of final value 0 they mark number of sound card, I ask not to mislead that device is disabled. We have to acquaint possibilities with everybody amixera amixer obviously necessarily -help to reproduce what next application aplay will say us, giving command aplay -l we will receive list of accessible devices. Example: aplay -d hw:0,0 *.wav

aplay -d plug:surround40 *.wav

aplay -d plug:surround40:1 *.wav ###if we want to get sound on second sound card - for owners more depression of one card. Checking of working of front loudspeakers is different interesting function, back in dependence from model cards and example: aplay -d front *.Wav

aplay -d rear *.wav option plug permits onto reproduction of incompatible sound through our card. It does not mark this and I ask not to mislead from codecs, but example to be possibility of listening of sound 24 bite on card 16 bit maybe. Possibility of listening of spatial sound is different example on cards audigy2 and newer sound ac3 demand which to correct working. We can this behind to simulate e.g.

Programme mplayer.

Mplayer -channels -af 6 surround=100 -ao alsa:device=surround51 film.Avi ##(musician.wav) for owners of cards 4 channels we write down surround40 and channels 4. Example how to get sound e.g. 5,1 whether 6,0 and maybe larger use is in kaffeine. In arrangements audio in my case I included sound 6,0 and I included integrated card earlier realtek on sterowniku via snd-via82xx. Having two card we modify file /etc/modprobe.Sound 4,0 and this example of modification

Thanks serves conf because my basic card only ago in kaffeine we have 6 channels but original sound from plate dvd. Some sound cards possess one's own processor dsp (sblive) and different no ( integratedcard with main plate). In this last processor dsp is emulated through processor main what burdens system and it causes larger delays still in sure degree. Here problem of working in two directions dochodzi also so-called Dupplex, equipment, they be able to to act in full fulldupplexie and software`that no. About what so does it walk exactly - obviously recording and reproduction of sound simultaneously. About this users convinced themselves e.g. Skype. Sound servers in sure degree this be able to to make up , but never to end. It exists many projects how dmix - reproduction from many sources as well as dsnoop recording from many sources. Aplay -d dmix *.Wav encountered problems and curiosities:

simple mixer control 'master',0
simple mixer control 'headphone lfe',1
simple mixer control 'headphone',1
simple mixer control 'headphone center',1
simple mixer control 'tone',0
simple mixer control 'bass',0
simple mixer control 'treble',0
simple mixer control 'pcm',0
simple mixer control 'surround',0
simple mixer control 'center',0
simple mixer control 'lfe',0
simple mixer control 'synth',0
simple mixer control 'wave',0
simple mixer control 'wave center',0
simple mixer control 'wave lfe',0
simple mixer control 'wave surround',0
simple mixer control 'line',0
simple mixer control 'line livedrive',0
simple mixer control 'line2 livedrive',1
simple mixer control 'cd',0
simple mixer control 'mic',0
simple mixer control 'mic boost (+20db)',0
simple mixer control 'mic select',0
simple mixer control 'video',0
simple mixer control 'phone',0
simple mixer control 'iec958 coaxial',0
simple mixer control 'iec958 livedrive',0
simple mixer control 'iec958 optical raw',0
simple mixer control 'iec958 ttl',0
simple mixer control 'pc speaker',0
simple mixer control 'aux',0
simple mixer control 'capture',0
simple mixer control 'mix',0
simple mixer control 'mix mono',0
simple mixer control 'ac97',0
simple mixer control 'external amplifier',0
simple mixer control 'sb live analog/digital output jack',0

Final value 0 they mark number of sound card, I ask not to mislead that device is wyłaczone. We have to acquaint possibilities with everybody amixera amixer obviously necessarily -help to reproduce what next application aplay will say us, giving command aplay -l we will receive list of accessible devices.

Example:

aplay -d hw:0,0 *.Wav

aplay -d plug:surround40 *.wav

aplay -d plug:surround40:1 *.wav ###if we want to get sound on second sound card - for owners more depression of one card. Checking of working of front loudspeakers is different interesting function, back in dependence from model cards and example: aplay -d front *.Wav

aplay -d rear *.Wav option plug permits onto reproduction of nieobsługiwanego sound through our card. It does not mark this and I ask not to mislead from kodekami, but example to be possibility of listening of sound 24 bite on card 16 bite maybe. Possibility of listening of spatial sound is different example on cards audigy2 and newer sound ac3 demand which to correct working. We can this behind to simulate e.g. Programme mplayer. Mplayer -channels -af 6 surround=100 -ao alsa:device=surround51 film.Avi ##(musician.wav) for owners of cards 4 channels we write down surround40 and channels 4. Example how to get sound e.g. 5,1 whether 6,0 and maybe larger use is in kaffeine. In arrangements audio in my case I included sound 6,0 and I included integrated card earlier realtek on sterowniku via snd-via82xx. Having two card we modify file /etc/modprobe.Sound 4,0 and this example of modification serves conf because my basic card only

install usb-interface /sbin/modprobe uhci-hcd; /sbin/modprobe ehci-hcd; /bin/true
options bttv card=15 tuner=0 gbuffers=4
remove snd-via82xx /sbin/modprobe --first-time -r --ignore-remove snd-via82xx
install snd-via82xx /sbin/modprobe --first-time --ignore-install snd-via82xx
remove snd-emu10k1 /sbin/modprobe -r snd-pcm-oss; /sbin/modprobe --first-time -r --ignore-remove snd-emu10k1
install snd-emu10k1 /sbin/modprobe --first-time --ignore-install snd-emu10k1 && { /sbin/modprobe snd-pcm-oss; /bin/true; }
options snd-cards_limit=2
alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
alias snd-card-1 snd-emu10k1
options snd-via82xx index=0
options snd-emu10k1 index=1
###for oss
alias sound-slot-0 snd-via82xx
alias sound-slot-1 snd-emu10k1

Thanks ago in kaffeine we have 6 channels but original sound from plate dvd. Some sound cards possess one's own processor dsp (sblive) and different no ( integratedcard with main plate). In this last processor dsp is emulated through processor main what burdens system and it causes larger delays still in sure degree. Here problem of working in two directions it causes also so-called Dupplex, equipment, they be able to to act in full fulldupplex and software`that no. About what so does it walk exactly - obviously recording and reproduction of sound simultaneously. About this users convinced themselves e.g. Skype. Sound servers in sure degree this be able to to make up , but never to end. It exists many projects how dmix - reproduction from many sources as well as dsnoop recording from many sources. Aplay -d dmix *.wav

encountered problems and curiosities:

curiosities and problems

Some applications be able to to deprive us of possibility listening of full number of channels. Such example to be use maybe kopete whether kadu being he line, and even mplayer itself he did not advise problem with this. Lock e.g. helps Kadu, kopete etc This normal thing - cards have one's limited possibilities also. It is different problem utilization of processor dsp for sound effects and this can reduce quantity of served channels also. Some stereo will need reductions of sound from some channels to usual - reason this possession e.g. of Set stereo. In kaffeine it suffices to include a52 surround_downmix and in xine one should disable alsa_mmap_enable in options playera

mplayer run with options mplayer -channels 2

midi

small file, often used in internet in games then take down some elements. Device called sequencer, bank of sounds of (sample) as well as steering file this devices that is our file midi. He contains only and exclusively informations about heights sound, his length, number of sound as well as to contain maybe more information e.g. Text. This small informations are no including in need much memory of sound samples. Loading suitable drivers we can steer external device midi, or internal if card such a one possesses. Often used they are today program emulators (timidity)which equal quality and even equipment sequencery top. It happens this behind matter of added effects through authors of software, however samples for equipments' devices are loaded without effects. Timidity is example of program player with bank timidity-instruments. It possesses he very large possibility and him creation of file is main assignment wav, aiff, etc From file mid without necessity of listen to of whole work. Considerable quantity of effects possesses. Example:

timidity -s 48000 -od1 --reverb=n --chorus=n *.Mid ## will play us file midi
timidity -s 48000 -ow --reverb=n --chorus=n *.Mid ## will create file wav.

Aplymidi is standard player in alsa. It be able to to use also from everybody of accessible harbours. Aplay -l #### will show accessible harbours

port client name port name 62:0 midi through midi through port-0 64:0 emu10k1 mpu-401 (uart) emu10k1 mpu-401 (uart) 65:0 emu10k1 wavetable emu10k1 port 0 65:1 emu10k1 wavetable emu10k1 port 1 65:2 emu10k1 wavetable emu10k1 port 2 65:3 emu10k1 wavetable emu10k1 port 3
128:0 timidity timidity port 0
128:1 timidity timidity port 1
128:2 timidity timidity port 2
128:3 timidity timidity port 3

Aplay -p 128:0 *.mid will redirect and it will reproduce us sample behind help sequencer timidity. To to use one should to load accessible samples under names * from equipment's harbour.sf2. To loading to memory It serves programme asfxload from packet awesfx. Sfxload /home/user/4gmgsmt.sf2

aplay -p 65:0 /home/user/*.mid

Interesting patch to be xplaymidi as well as kmid maybe for kde. Splendid patches exist obviously on players, mixers as mplayer, xine, aumix, kmix and such I command to apply, but sometimes We have to intervention in textual mode and I think that this example will help you in this somewhat. Sometimes problems appear with cards e.g. of Type ensonic and it it was not been known how to advise itself with them - default arrangements not even modprobe are not effective , and this example for one from cards:

sb esstype=1869 io=0x220 irq=5 dma=1

for ess chips an additional parameter "esstype" can be specified. This controls
the (auto) detection of the ess chips. It can have 3 kinds of values: -1 act like 2.0 kernels: only detect es688 or es1688.
0 try to auto-detect the chip (may fail for es1688)
688 the chip will be treated as es688
1688 ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, es1688
1868 ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, es1868
1869 ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, es1869
1788 ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, es1788
1887 ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, es1887
1888 ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, es1888 because full duplex is supported for es1887 you can specify a second dma
channel by specifying module parameter dma16. It can be one of: 0, 1, 3 or 5.

http://linux-audio.net/

http://linux-sound.org/

cdn........

......Lex

This software helps controlling the cpu usage of a certain process or application.

http://cpulimit.sourceforge.net/ or install it via urpmi.

Usage: cpulimit TARGET [OPTIONS...]

TARGET must be exactly one of these:

-p, --pid=N pid of the process

-e, --exe=FILE name of the executable program file

-P, --path=PATH absolute path name of the executable program file

OPTIONS

-l, --limit=N percentage of cpu allowed from 0 to 100 (mandatory)

-v, --verbose show control statistics

-z, --lazy exit if there is no suitable target process, or if it dies

-h, --help display this help and exit

- It helps me a lot especially on using dynamips (cisco emulator) and pemu (pix firewall emu) on my mandriva. Very cool.

Usually, booting the install media and typing "linux rescue" at the prompt will take you, after answering a few questions and choosing the installation location of the OS you want to use for the boot loader, to a terminal. Then type "#chroot /mnt/sysimage", enter, and you can then cd to your /boot/grub directory, check and/or edit your grub.conf or menu.lst, and then type "#grub-install /dev/hdx (or /dev/sdx). The return will show the layout of your system, and you're done. Exit out of the rescue mode and reboot, and your grub menu is there.

However, this time, when I would type "#grub-install /dev/hda, this would be my return;

#grub-install /dev/hda

/dev/hda does not have any corresponding BIOS drive.

The most important thing I've learned in 40 years of fixing things, and 5 years of playing with Linux is this, DON'T PANIC!

Think, study, research, ask for help. Just don't do anything rash that you might not be able to recover from.

In this case I was fortunate, in that I was able to use the rescue mode as described above to finally find an OS,(I currently multi-boot with CentOS 5.2, Mandriva 2008 Spring, Mandriva 2009, and Ubuntu.) that I could do "grub-install" on and get my system to boot, even though it didn't happen to be my preferred installation. At least I had a working system from which I could work and try to find the problem.

My searching led me to this;

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=153679

Stoat, the author of this gem, explains this far more eloquently and intelligently than I could. I recommend reading this post thoroughly if you have questions about this. It is really quite good.

This is what I had for device.map in two of my installations;

The first is from the CentOS installation;

$ sudo cat /boot/grub/device.map

(hd0) /dev/sde

(hd1) /dev/sda

(hd2) /dev/sdb

(hd3) /dev/sdc

The next is from the Mandriva 2009 installation;

$ sudo cat /hda9/boot/grub/device.map

(hd0) /dev/sda

(hd1) /dev/sdb

(hd2) /dev/sdc

(hd3) /dev/sdi

Note the discrepancy between the two. Because of the screwy device.map(s), grub-install was confused, and couldn't install.

Following the information in the above link, I did this;

$ sudo /sbin/grub-install --recheck /dev/hda

and the return, as expected, described the device layout and succeeded.

My device.map then looked like this for the CentOS installation;

$ sudo cat /boot/grub/device.map

(hd0) /dev/hda

(hd1) /dev/hdb

(hd2) /dev/sdb

(hd3) /dev/sdc

and this for the Mandriva 2009 installation;

$ sudo cat /hda9/boot/grub/device.map

(hd0) /dev/sda

(hd1) /dev/sdb

(hd2) /dev/sdc

(hd3) /dev/sdi

Although they aren't identical, the drive order, allowing for the difference between IDE and scsi scheming, follows the same sequence.

So, I hope this information might be helpful if you should encounter a similar problem.

Thanks,

owa

Last night, I thought it would be a great idea to change my inode size from 128 to 256 on my /home partition. I didn't take a backup, because I thought since tune2fs could enable journaling OK, it should be able to modify inode sizes. So I did:

tune2fs -I /dev/sda3

being my /home partition. Now, this ran and ran and ran, for a few hours, and it was still going. I only have a 110GB partition so this shouldn't in theory have taken too long. Anyway, later on, either the CTRL-C I pressed cancelled it, or it simply finished as the response wasn't immediate. My system still have 128 inode value set, and figured that it had been trying to change it and hadn't actually done anything.

My system seemed fine, all my files were there, and I rebooted and everything was normal. That was until later today, whilst doing some heavy disk read/writes that my whole system hung. I had no keyboard response, and so issued the ALT-SYSRQ sequence to in as much as safe as possible restart my machine - ALT-SYSRQ RSEIUB - which it did fine.

The problem was, that /home wouldn't come online because of a problem, and I couldn't enter the password to go into maintenance mode - so I rebooted with a LiveCD. On checking the system, it said it had problems with inodes, and asked if I wanted to repair. So, I said yes to everything.

Then, after mounting /home to check all was OK, I noticed everything was gone! :o

To my shock, I thought I'd just lost over 80GB of data. I then downloaded a recovery CD, which in all honesty didn't do much as it would only recover partitions deleted from a disk - which can also get your data back. I had my partitions, I just didn't have the data.

I then mounted /home again, and checked in the Lost&Found folder and saw a load of folders with #nnnnnnn - where nnnnn was a number. On checking inside these, I could see all my data, so I just moved them back to their previous locations. Then, after doing:

tune2fs -j /dev/sda3

to enabling journaling and thus have ext3 again instead of just ext2, I could now boot my system normally, and I had all my data!

So, whilst I was lucky, don't do as I do. Get a backup first before trying something so stupid as changing your inode size - which, I should have realised before doing this that there was a likelihood of a major problem! Like, data-loss.

For the life of me, I cannot see why this option exists to change the inode. Either it's there for the future (ext4), or I should have left my system for a day or two for it to finish changing the inode size. Either way, I won't be doing it again. The most simplest way to change it is:

1. Copy off all data to another machine.

2. Format the partition and specify the inode size you want.

3. Copy data back to partition.

Well, it was a nice lesson, and the outcome wasn't as bad as it should have been :)

I've used the command-line because you can then use this on any distro you like. You can use a GUI tool, but I find it much easier and clearer to show all this by doing it from the command-line. Feel free to try whichever way you prefer the most, but it's just as easy from the command-line, if not perhaps quicker.

Firstly, when you use static partition types, you tend to allocate the space, and then find later you ran out. Then you're having to move/resize all your partitions about to make space. This is where LVM comes in handy. You simply just add another disk and add more space to the logical volume that requires it. Of course, you could add another disk, and just create a new partition and then move your files to this. However, LVM saves the need for moving your files.

Let's take my example here, done with Mandriva 2008.1 Spring in VMware. I simulated this way, because I set the system up normally with /dev/sda and two partitions:

Disk /dev/sda: 21.4 GB, 21474836480 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2610 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x7c63a8b5

  Device Boot	  Start		 End	  Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1			   1		 125	 1004031   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2			 126		2610	19960762+  83  Linux

as you can see swap is allocated to /dev/sda1 and / is allocated to /dev/sda2. Of course, if I run out of space on /dev/sda2, I've kind of got a problem. However, I added two more disks to the system, /dev/sdb and /dev/sdc both of which are 20GB in size. /dev/sda is also 20GB in size also, which you can see from above!

Check you have LVM installed

To use LVM, we have to make sure the package is installed, so:

[root@localhost ian]# rpm -qa | grep -i lvm
lvm2-2.02.33-1mnb1

shows me that the package is installed. The name of this package can vary from distro to distro, but it's generally lvm or lvm2 (at the time of writing this article).

Creating the Volume Groups and Logical Volumes

Let's assume now that on my system, I am OK with 20GB for my users files, but I wanted to create a /data partition for example to store all my files away from /home. Because usually, this could fill up my /dev/sda2 pretty quickly otherwise considering it's only 20GB in size.

I've just added two disks to the system, so I could technically do:

/dev/sdb1 = /data

/dev/sdb2 = /data2

which is OK, but then it means I've got it split in two locations. With LVM, I can use one volume across both disks. You could also install a RAID controller and use Raid 0 for the same thing, but the end result is the same, except with LVM - I don't need to buy a RAID controller. Just simply add more disks to the system.

To prepare the disks for LVM, we first have to create the partition as follows:

[root@localhost ian]# fdisk /dev/sdb
Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel
Building a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0xea2ead97.
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
After that, of course, the previous content won't be recoverable.


The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 2610.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
  (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)

Command (m for help): n
Command action
  e   extended
  p   primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-2610, default 1): 
Using default value 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-2610, default 2610): 
Using default value 2610

Command (m for help): t
Selected partition 1
Hex code (type L to list codes): 8e
Changed system type of partition 1 to 8e (Linux LVM)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sdb: 21.4 GB, 21474836480 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2610 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xea2ead97

  Device Boot	  Start		 End	  Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1			   1		2610	20964793+  8e  Linux LVM

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

you can see all the commands I used in fdisk to create this partition. Now we have to prepare it to use it with LVM:

[root@localhost ian]# pvcreate /dev/sdb1
 Physical volume "/dev/sdb1" successfully created

[root@localhost ian]# vgcreate datavolume /dev/sdb1
 Volume group "datavolume" successfully created

[root@localhost ian]# vgs
 /dev/cdrom: read failed after 0 of 2048 at 0: Input/output error
 VG		 #PV #LV #SN Attr   VSize  VFree 
 datavolume   1   0   0 wz--n- 19.99G 19.99G

Now the command explanation - the pvcreate prepared the volume. I then created a volume group called datavolume, and assigned /dev/sdb1 to this volume group. The last command vgs, shows the volume group I have, and the amount of space available.

Now, we can create a logical volume within this and mount it to /data:

[root@localhost ian]# lvcreate -l 100%VG -n data datavolume
 Logical volume "data" created

[root@localhost ian]# lvs
 LV   VG		 Attr   LSize  Origin Snap%  Move Log Copy%  Convert
 data datavolume -wi-a- 19.99G

so now I have the LVM volume data created, using all 20GB of the datavolume. Technically, I could have done something like this:

lvcreate -L10G -n data datavolume

which would have allocated 10GB of this partition to data instead. I however, wanted to use the full disk, which is why I used the first command.

Now, we can create the filesystem and mount it as normally like this:

[root@localhost ian]# mke2fs -j /dev/datavolume/data
mke2fs 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
Warning: 256-byte inodes not usable on older systems
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
1310720 inodes, 5240832 blocks
262041 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=0
160 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8192 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks: 
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208, 
4096000

Writing inode tables: done							
Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 34 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.

[root@localhost ian]# mount /dev/datavolume/data /data

[root@localhost ian]# df -h
Filesystem			Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2			  19G  2.2G   16G  13% /
/dev/mapper/datavolume-data
				   20G  173M   19G   1% /data

now you can see, I used ext3 to create the filesystem and then created the mount point /data and mounted the volume. Now I have 20GB for /data.

Oops, I just ran out of disk space, what do I do now?

OK, so let's assume, I just run out of space on my /data partition. I can now prepare the third disk and add this to the volume group and then just extend my logical volume. Sounds tricky? Not really.

You create the partition on the third disk like before, and toggle the partition type to Linux LVM. Then you do the LVM commands like this:

[root@localhost ian]# pvcreate /dev/sdc1
 Physical volume "/dev/sdc1" successfully created

[root@localhost ian]# vgextend datavolume /dev/sdc1
 Volume group "datavolume" successfully extended

[root@localhost ian]# vgs
 VG		 #PV #LV #SN Attr   VSize  VFree 
 datavolume   2   1   0 wz--n- 39.98G 19.99G

now you can see that I have 40GB allocated to datavolume. I just now need to allocate the extra space to /data:

[root@localhost ian]# lvextend -l100%VG /dev/datavolume/data
 Extending logical volume data to 39.98 GB
 Logical volume data successfully resized

First, I unmount /data:

[root@localhost ian]# umount /data

then I check partition for errors:

[root@localhost ian]# fsck -n /dev/datavolume/data
fsck 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
e2fsck 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
/dev/datavolume/data: clean, 11/1310720 files, 126323/5240832 blocks

I disable journaling, so that partition becomes ext2 (you cannot resize ext3 partitions without doing this):

[root@localhost ian]# tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/datavolume/data
tune2fs 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)

The next command has to be done before a resize can be completed:

[root@localhost ian]# e2fsck -f /dev/datavolume/data 
e2fsck 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
/dev/datavolume/data: 11/1310720 files (9.1% non-contiguous), 93521/5240832 blocks

I resize to add the rest of the space to the filesystem:

[root@localhost ian]# resize2fs /dev/datavolume/data
resize2fs 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
Resizing the filesystem on /dev/datavolume/data to 10481664 (4k) blocks.
The filesystem on /dev/datavolume/data is now 10481664 blocks long.

I enable journaling to go back to an ext3 filesystem:

[root@localhost ian]# tune2fs -j /dev/datavolume/data 
tune2fs 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
Creating journal inode: done
This filesystem will be automatically checked every 34 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.

Now, I mount the disk:

[root@localhost ian]# mount /dev/datavolume/data /data

check that it is actually ext3:

[root@localhost ian]# mount
/dev/sda2 on / type ext2 (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
none on /proc/fs/vmblock/mountPoint type vmblock (rw)
none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
/dev/mapper/datavolume-data on /data type ext3 (rw)

and then see how much space I have available for /data:

[root@localhost ian]# df -h
Filesystem			Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2			  19G  2.2G   16G  13% /
/dev/mapper/datavolume-data
				   40G  177M   38G   1% /data

as you can see, I now easily added 40GB to my /data partition. This was just an example, but you could do this for /home, or /vmware or whatever other mount points you have on your system!

Enjoy!

Original document written and posted here: How to use LVM on your system

I've since changed it to ext3, and found that by default, since root is mounting it via udev, that the disk was read-only for my one particular user. I don't have any other users, which is why I never fixed the permissioning under udev, or wrote my own rule. A nice simple way though is this.

1. Plug your disk to your computer, udev will then auto-mount it to /media/disk or whatever.

2. Change the permissions by doing:

chown -R username:username /media/disk
chmod -R 775 /media/disk

now, I can access the disk, and all files are owned by me. Any other users could essentially save here since I changed read/write/execute permissions on the disk. Simple, yet effective. I chose ext3 as the partition, because I can use the ext2ifs driver in Windows if I want to mount and access the disk. Under Windows though, it's read as ext2, so if you did use ext3, you have to make sure the disk was unmounted properly, otherwise Windows won't read it. But then, the same happens to NTFS partitions if you didn't unmount them safely in Windows first.

Obviously, replace username with your username.

but, if u want to take root advantage from GUI; here is an easy way for all.

<open console & do as follows>

$ su

password:

# kdesu kwrite /etc/kde/kdm/kdmrc

search for line- 'ALLOW ROOT LOGIN'

change its value from- false to true.

Save & exit.

Reboot PC & then type 'root' as username & enter root password.

Now u log in as root from GUI. ENJOY!!

to install the modem just do the following:

# modprobe usbnet
# modprobe uhci-hcd
# ifconfig -a
# dhclient eth1 //(or eth1)//

It worked perfectly for me.

:D

Up until the other day, I was dual-booting Windows and Linux. I had decided to drop Windows from this machine, since all I needed to do could be done within a virtual machine running Windows. So, I'm now 50GB better for Linux!

First of all, let me explain my partition setup prior to the resize. I had my partitions as follows:

/dev/sda1 = 50GB = Windows
/dev/sda2 = 8GB = Swap
/dev/sda3 = 20GB = /
/dev/sda4 = 82GB = /home

I know, 8GB of swap technically isn't needed, but I have 4GB of RAM. If I was to suspend my machine to disk, I would certainly need this space if all my memory was being used. So I'm just playing on the safe side here. Now, since I was deleting that 50GB Windows partition, I wanted to reallocate it to /home. Since this meant reordering my partitions, I wanted to have something like this:

/dev/sda1 = 8GB = Swap
/dev/sda2 = 20GB = /
/dev/sda3 = 132GB = /home

This would mean creating interim partitions whilst moving data about. To do all of this, you need to boot from a Linux Live CD or Rescue CD because you won't be able to change any of this while your system is active. I then created the 8GB swap using fdisk utility and made the new swap file:

mkswap -L SWAP-sda1 /dev/sda1

If you're familiar with Red Hat/CentOS/Fedora, you'll notice that the /etc/fstab always uses Labels for mounting partitions. I tend to use this regardless of distro, as it's humanly readable! Whilst I set a label on my swap, it won't actually be used. I always ended up getting:

Unable to access resume device (LABEL=SWAP-sda2)

first after moving to the new swap, and after re-generating the initrd for the kernel, it then mentioned SWAP-sda1. Easy way is to just alter /etc/fstab and change the swap line to actually reference the partition, so /dev/sda1 instead of the label. Then generate the initrd after this and you'll not see the error message again. For the rest of the partitions, I used labels to mount, as it's only swap that was having the problem.

Now that the swap was done, I had space to create another partition, 20GB to allocate as /. So using fdisk again, I created /dev/sda2 as 20GB. Then I created the filesystem:

mke2fs -j /dev/sda2

Then, I did the following to migrate the data from /dev/sda3 to /dev/sda2.

mkdir /mnt/oldroot
mkdir /mnt/newroot
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/oldroot
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/newroot
cp -dpRx /mnt/oldroot /mnt/newroot/

verify that the file-structure looks the same between /mnt/oldroot and /mnt/newroot. If all is OK, you will successfully be able to boot your system. But first, since we need to fix the labels, I do this next:

e2label /dev/sda2 /
e2label /dev/sda3 oldroot

that will mean that when /etc/fstab tries to mount the label for /, it will now mount /dev/sda2 instead of /dev/sda3. Verify this after your system has booted successfully. Now, you can reboot using the LiveCD or Rescue CD again, so that we can delete /dev/sda3 and then start to move /home about. Luckily, I was only using 15GB of my partition, which meant that the remaining 40GB or so that would now become /dev/sda3 meant I didn't have to copy data off of my machine to another before moving partitions around again.

So, the process, is similar again. I created /dev/sda3 using all the space between /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda4. Then:

mke2fs -j /dev/sda3

and I'm now copying data again, so:

mkdir /mnt/oldhome
mkdir /mnt/newhome
mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/oldhome
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/newhome
cp -dpRx /mnt/oldhome /mnt/newhome/

again, verify that all data was copied successfully to the new partition. Then, edit the labels again:

e2label /dev/sda3 /home
e2label /dev/sda4 oldhome

I then booted my system again, to make sure that /dev/sda3 was mounted to /home, and that /dev/sda4 was not mounted. Then, I rebooted one more final time to delete /dev/sda4 and resize /dev/sda3 to have /home set to use 132GB. First, I check /dev/sda3 for errors, and then remove the journal so that I can resize it (you cannot resize with journaling enabled).

fsck -n /dev/sda3
tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/sda3
e2fsck /dev/sda3

once that has all happened, I then go into fdisk and delete /dev/sda4. I then delete /dev/sda3, but I recreate it again using the same Start block - as this is important. If you change the start block, you will lose all your data. The end block was then basically the last available one on the disk, meaning I could use my full disk when I issue a resize for the /home filesystem.

resize2fs /dev/sda3
fsck -n /dev/sda3
tune2fs -j /dev/sda3
e2fsck /dev/sda3

I can then mount /dev/sda3 and check to see if it has 132GB. It did, so all was OK. Now I restarted my system normally, and all was accessible without problems, and I had all my disks how I wanted them. All my disk space available for Linux :-).

Article originally written and posted here: Resizing Partitions / Getting rid of Windows

Finally, after loads of trial I found what I needed, a good System info monitor. The webpage is there :

http://hardinfo.berlios.de/HomePage

and a simple

urpmi hardinfo

will put it on your distro. The GUI is just amazing and it includes a benchmarking utility. The benchmarking can be synchronized with the net and compares your machine with others.

I invite you to try it and why not compare our results, after all, we are nerds!

Processor
2x AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+
Memory
2074MB (408MB used)
Operating System
Mandriva Linux 2008.1
User Name
stephane (stephane jaglin)
Date/Time
Mon 26 May 2008 10:42:28 BST
Display
Resolution
1024x768 pixels
OpenGL Renderer
GeForce 6800 GT/PCI/SSE2/3DNOW!
X11 Vendor
The X.Org Foundation

IDE Disks
IBM-DPTA-371020

_NEC DVD_RW ND-2510A

SCSI Disks
ATA Maxtor 6L160M0

Operating System
Version
Kernel
Linux 2.6.24.4-desktop-1mnb (i686)
Compiled
KDE 3.5
Benchmarks

CPU ZLib
This Machine
24032.916

CPU Fibonacci
This Machine
2.680

CPU MD5
This Machine
76.421

CPU SHA1
This Machine
88.259

CPU Blowfish
This Machine
13.002

Stef :woot_jump: :woot_jump: :woot_jump:

[moved from Software by spinynorman]