Aonghus

Hi, I've just installed planeshift from the contribs, for MDK10.2. When I tried to run it, it seemed to want crystalspace so I installed that then. The problem is that I keep getting the same errors, even though I've installed crystalspace and set the environment variable. I typed export CRYSTAL="/usr/lib/crystalspace", but psclient complained of a missing .cfg file, and then said : ERROR: csInitializer::SetupConfigManager failed! Is your CRYSTAL environment variable set? I discovered the configs under /etc/crystalspace/, so I tried copying them to /usr/lib/crystalspace, and that got rid of the 'cannot find vfs.cfg' error, but I still have the one above. Incidentally, the error above occurs regardless of what I set the environment variable to - I've tried unconnected folders to see if I get a different error, but I don't. Obviously I've set up crystalspace wrongly, but I just installed from the rpm in configs, and set the variable, so I haven't had much scope to go wrong :). Anyone know what I can do? Thanks, Aonghus

Thanks for the suggestion adamw - always seems to be you who answers my queries! The gnome-volume-properties options are set to mount CDs already. Oddly, the drives seem to have magically started working again - at first I couldn't get a CD of any kind working, but now I can browse the contents of video DVDs and CDs, and Audio CDs are functioning nicely too. I've just been installing linmodem drivers, so I don't see how this happened. Perhaps it was the rebooting..... The only remaining difficulty is not being able to load my Contribs DVD - but its probably just a bad burn or something. Works ok in windows on my other comp, but can't copy all of the contents, so some things must be corrupted. I suppose I'll try to copy what I can and use it from the harddrive. Thanks for your help Adamw - I didn't know about the gnome-volume-properties thing. Aside from that - apologies to everyone for creating a largely pointless thread...I suppose I ought to try a little harder before running for help Aonghus

Further to the above: I just tried installing a package from MCC with the installation DVD in and it worked. The entry in the media sources refers to /mnt/cdrom/. So, I tried adding the DVD of contribs that I have too, but it couldn't read from it. It seems that urpmi can access the cd somehow... I still can't browse the CDs at all - /mnt/cdrom and /mnt/cdrom2 are both empty when I have CDs in (both from konquerer and the command lne, if that's relevant). In my /dev directory I have the following: hdc hdd cdrom -> hdd cdrom0 -> hdc cdrom1 -> hdd cdrw0 -> hdd This is proving most frustrating, especially since I discovered that urpmi could get at the drive but I can't! Any ideas on how to solve this would be thoroughly appreciated, regards, Aonghus

Hi, I've just installed Mandriva LE 2005 and can't access my CD drives. The /dev/cdrom etc. files exist, and are linked to hdc and hdd (I have a dvd-rom master and cd-rw slave), and the /mnt/cdrom and /mnt/cdrom2 folders are there too of course, but apart from a little whirring, inserting a CD does nothing. I know my drives are supported, because they worked fine under 10.1 CE. Can anyone tell me why this might be? I'm not too experienced with Linux, so I'm quite at a loss. Any help would be great. Thanks, Aonghus P.S. I can post any other info that may be relevant - not really sure what to check at the moment.

Thanks for your help. I made another user just to be sure and got the same problem. Sorry for a stupid question, but what does the nodeps argument mean? Does it avoid removing the non-gnome, but related, rpms? I have set up my urpmi sources with easy urpmi for my version (Mandrake 10.1 CE) Am I right in thinking from the above that I need to uninstall all the gnome packages and then reinstall the 2.6 rpms, possibly without the help of urpmi? I have the 10.1 CE CDs, so will using rpm and their contents suffice as an alternative if necessary? I must admit to being a little lost with your advice (sorry - distinctly inexperienced :) ). COuld you clarify? Are there perhaps alternative ways of making the version I have work? Thanks again for your help - it is greatly appreciated. regards, Aonghus

Thanks for the suggestion. I deleted those directories, but I still have no desktop, or terminal in gnome. I presume this means there is something awry with the gnome-desktop and gnome-terminal rpms? I mean as they combine with my system of course - if they were inherently faulty I'm sure they wouldn't be up in the first place. ANyway, no luck with that method - does anyone have any alternative suggestions? Thanks, Aonghus

Hi, I recently updated to Gnome2.9 from thac's rpms. After updating my desktop isn't working (I see the background set in GDM rather than my desktop background, and no icons), and terminal won't run either. I don't really need the update - I was just doing it for the sake of trying it out. The problem is I can't uninstall Gnome without taking all its dependants with it, so is there any way to re-install the 2.6 rpms without having to remove and reinstall anything else that needs them. Would 'rpm --force' be the best way to go about this - or perhaps urpmi has a command to avoid removing dependants? Alternatively if anyone can suggest a way of getting the 2.9 working to bypass the problem altogether, that would be great. I'm using xfce at the moment, but it's a little too utilitarian for my liking :) Thanks for any ideas you might have, regards, Aonghus

Thanks for the responses. The perferences->behaviour->always open in browser windows option doesn't seem to exist in my version, anyway. Is there any advantage to updating Nautilus, or would I need to update gnome in its entirety? I'm happy enough with it now - although the browser mode does make it open much more slowly. Also, does anyone know how to solve the default desktpo in GDM problem I mentioned above? Thanks again for all your help, regards, Aonghus

Thanks Adamw, That's solved it. I don't quite get the advantage of the spatial mode setting, so I shall stick to what I know :). Just out of curiosity, surely, with spatial mode, one would at least want to avoid having half a dozen windows open just to get to the required folder? Anyway, I shall stick to the browser mode for now, I think. Thanks again, Aonghus

Hi, Apologies if this has come up before; I've looked around and can't seem to find a solution. I've switched to using gnome (and GDM) and have had a few problems. Firstly, when I log in, I have to explicitly select gnome in the 'session' menu every time (choosing 'last' just brings up KDE, even if Gnome was the last one I used, and KDE seems to be the 'default' option too). How can I first change the default, and furthermore, get GDM to recognise that the 'last' used desktop was gnome? Secondly, the Nautilus help file says that I should be able to get a sidebar with the folder tree etc. by choosng View -> view sidebar, but I don't have any such option. When I had Fedora (for all of a week - couldn't get the sound going), I remember this option being there. Is this specific to the package distributed with Mandrake? Is the sidebar disabled or am I missing something terribly obvious (this is very possible, I am rather a novice :) )? Furthermore, if there is a way to stop Nautilus opening a new window every time I select a new folder, that would also be very helpful. Thanks for any comments or suggestions anyone might have, and apologies if I'm going over old ground again. regards, Aonghus Edit: P.S. I am using Gnome 2.6 (the packages that came with 10.1 Community) if this is relevant. Also, would people recommend updating Gnome? The thac rpms in my Urpmi seem to have a 2.9 version. Anyone who has done this - have you noticed a significant difference, or would it be an unnecessary cosmetic change? Thanks again, Aonghus

Re the community/official distinction. Just out of curiousity - what is the defining distinction between them? Does that mean that community has passed official out in terms of updates etc.? I have mandrake 10.1 community - would it be worthwhile in terms of stabilty to use the official mirrors in easy urpmi rather than the community ones? Is there a defining difference between the two - I mean at what point would one describe they're distro as official, if using official repositories after a community install; or am I completely missing the point on this? Thanks for indulging a novice's curiousity :) Aonghus

Thanks for your suggestions thus far, but still not working... It says it allows shutdown for everybody for both settings (and the Lilo boot menu is ticked - I presume this is irrelevant). Whether shutdown was allowed or not presumably shouldn't affect the ability to logout from the KDE menu, which I can't do either. At a loss as to what to do about it now........ ANy other ideas? Thanks, Aonghus

Thanks for the suggestion, but according to the Mandrake Control Centre, security level is at 'normal', which is the option I chose at install. Are there any other possibilities? As far as I can discern the only thing that comes up in messages between the first line of boot-up and the last line of the previous session (I presume that's what it is - refers to using su, which I did before the shutdown crash) is the one I've quoted above. Thanks again, and any further suggestions would be very much appreciated, regards, Aonghus

Thanks for the responses. I've tried mplayer and it is choppy both in window and full screen (I used Kmplayer GUI) When I try it from the command line (mplayer dvd://) it won't work at all, I think because of the sound (I've tacked the output onto the end of this message). Xine/Kaffeine will only play sound for a few seconds at the start, so perhaps there is something wrong with my sound setup? Looking in HardDrake tells me the following: Souncard description: Sound Blaster AudioPCI64V/AudioPCI128 I use the OSS with the es1371 module. Should I use alsa instead, or does it matter? Video card description: ‎Rage 128 VR AGP 1x/2x I'm afraid I don't know how to check any further specs on the videocard... Hdparm gives the following for my DVD drive, so DMA must be on. Is anything else here relevant? /dev/cdrom: HDIO_GET_MULTCOUNT failed: Invalid argument IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit) unmaskirq = 0 (off) using_dma = 1 (on) keepsettings = 0 (off) readonly = 0 (off) readahead = 256 (on) HDIO_GETGEO failed: Invalid argument Anyway, maybe this info will help someone to pin the problem down? It would be nice to get DVD playback and ripping going. Any suggestions would be very welcome, Thanks Aonghus mplayer output (sorry to take up space with this if it doesn't give any useful info - but maybe it will help to discern the settings needed or some such? Should I get rid of the runtime CPU detection, perhaps?) MPlayer 1.0pre6-3.4.1 (C) 2000-2004 MPlayer Team CPU: Advanced Micro Devices K6-2 (Family: 5, Stepping: 12) Detected cache-line size is 32 bytes CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 0 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0 Compiled with runtime CPU detection - WARNING - this is not optimal! To get best performance, recompile MPlayer with --disable-runtime-cpudetection. 77 audio & 188 video codecs Linux RTC init error in ioctl (rtc_irqp_set 1024): Invalid argument Try adding "echo 1024 > /proc/sys/dev/rtc/max-user-freq" to your system startup scripts. Opening joystick device /dev/input/js0 Can't open joystick device /dev/input/js0 : No such file or directory Can't init input joystick Setting up LIRC support... mplayer: could not connect to socket mplayer: No such file or directory Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control. Playing dvd://. Reading disc structure, please wait... There are 19 titles on this DVD. There are 2 chapters in this DVD title. There are 1 angles in this DVD title. DVD successfully opened. Cache fill: 1.27% (106496 bytes) MPEG-PS file format detected. MPEG: No audio stream found -> no sound. VIDEO: MPEG2 720x576 (aspect 3) 25.000 fps 9000.0 kbps (1125.0 kbyte/s) vo: X11 running at 1024x768 with depth 16 and 16 bpp (":0.0" => local display) ========================================================================== Opening video decoder: [mpegpes] MPEG 1/2 Video passthrough VDec: vo config request - 720 x 576 (preferred csp: Mpeg PES) Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale... Opening video filter: [scale] The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec. VDecoder init failed :( Opening video decoder: [libmpeg2] MPEG 1/2 Video decoder libmpeg2-v0.4.0b Selected video codec: [mpeg12] vfm:libmpeg2 (MPEG 1 or 2 (libmpeg2)) ========================================================================== Audio: no sound Starting playback... VDec: vo config request - 720 x 576 (preferred csp: Planar YV12) VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0) Movie-Aspect is 1.78:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect. VO: [xv] 720x576 => 1024x576 Planar YV12 [zoom] V: 0.1 2/ 2 ??% ??% ??,?% 0 0 0% Exiting... (End of file)

Not really sure what to look for in messages log. I'm presuming the output for the last time it crashed is just before the start of the boot output from restarting. Only error like thing I can see there is: Apr 4 15:52:43 localhost kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0 Is this relevant? (I'm not very experienced, so don't know how to interpret the log) Does this mean there's something wrong with my floppy drive, and could it affect shut-down? I thought that it must be a KDE problem, since it happens only when I try to shut down or logout there, not at command line (it's even ok in a konsole within the GUI); so I tried in Gnome and IceWM just to check and I get the same problem.... Any ideas anyone? Thanks, Aonghus

Sorry to be starting yet another thread - a consequence of trying to solve everything at once, I suppose. I have quite a slow computer with an AMD k6 (500Mhz) processor and 256RAM. I want to rip some DVDs with Acid rip, since I can play avi files quite well, but DVDs are somewhat jerky. I do have it working, but wondered if anyone has any hints on speeding it up? I have only tested it with a 30 sec. video (the intro to a DVD), and this ripped at about 5fps - which means taking 5 seconds per second of video. I saw it suggested that enabling DMA helps CD speed, but I have it enabled already. Is this just the best I can manage with these specs, or is there anything that might improve it? While I could use it as is, it's not a whole lot of use if it's going to take over seven hours to rip an average length DVD. Thanks, Aonghus P.S. In a similar vein, any suggestions on software for burning avis to VCD (I have a CD-RW and DVD-ROM drive, but no DVD burner)? I'm not entirely sure what the format of a VCD is, but I gather they are done in AVI. Perhaps this can be done in one fell swoop, with a DVD in one drive and a CD in the burner? Oh, wishful thinking...:)

Thanks for the responses. I still can't get real working in xine, so I moved the codecs to /usr/lib/codecs for mplayer, and they work fine in that. The reason I haven't installed real player is that I have only a handful of rm videos, and (since I have a modem connection) don't tend to use streaming much, if at all. Also, with a slow connection I prefer to try and get what I have available to me before I try downloading anything (although it tends to be far more time consuming in the end :) ). Still no idea about the xine crash, but as long as I can play them somewhere I'm not too concerned. Thanks for the help, Aonghus

Thanks again Anna Kaffeine wasn't in my systray because I hadn't set it in the configuration, but seemed to continue running. Anyway, I did 'killall kaffeine' then got rid of the .kaffeine in my home dir and restarted. It's now functioning quite nicely to play .avis (which is nice since they were jerky before), but as soon as I give it the path to the real codecs and try to open one it crashes. And furthermore, it messed up avi's when I restarted again and tried to play one....odd, methinks. I guess I shall have to do without real support - I don't have that many of them anyway, so I suppose it's not too much of a loss - unless anyone has any great ideas on this mystery? Thanks for all your help, Aonghus

Hi, I recently installed ltmodem drivers (after a long struggle to do so), but since then when I try to shut down or log off from KDE, I'm presented with a blank screen after KDE closes, and I just have to switch it off. I don't think it's going through any of the kill processes or anything. I can still shut down by going to the command line with ctrl-alt-F1 and typing poweroff. I don't know if this is connected to the modem drivers, but seems to have started since then. Anyone have any ideas that might help to fix this? Thanks, Aonghus

Thanks for the response, Anna. Seem to have all the necessary rpms. [aonghus@localhost aonghus]$ rpm -qa | grep xine xinetd-2.3.13-1mdk xine-win32-1.0-7plf xine-plugins-1.0-7plf libxine1-1.0-7plf xine-arts-1.0-7plf [aonghus@localhost aonghus]$ rpm -qa | grep kaffeine kaffeine-0.4.3b-10.1.101mdk [aonghus@localhost aonghus]$ rpm -qa | grep real real-codecs-1.2-1plf Same kaffeine version - I presume the different plf rpms are to do with my having a different verson of Mandrake? Kaffeine's crashes don't seem to be consistent either - it has now stopped opening at all. Running from command line just outputs: XInitThreads() Something wrong with this function perhaps? Starting to get tempted to buy a hatchet If anyone has any suggestions (including a good place to buy a hatchet) they would be greatly appreciated, Thanks, Aonghus

Thanks for the tip, Anna. Unfortunately my jubilation seems to have been premature. Xine now crashes when I try to play rm files - I either get a few seconds of the file, but with the picture outside the window, so that I can only see a bit of the side or bottom, or it just crashes immediately and gets signal 11: SIGSEGV. I have been trying to get transcode working, which downloaded 6 or 8 dependencies with it (after an epic battle getting the right working libMagick :) ). Could this have changed the version of a package on which xine depends, perhaps? Thanks, Aonghus

Sorry - misunderstanding on my part. I thought the real codecs were part of the win32 package having seen it refered to on threads about real, and since I did have a cook.so file with them. I downloaded and installed real-codecs from plf and have them working fine now. One small problem though is that when I open the xine engine parameters in kaffeine and give it the /usr/lib/real folder as the source for the real codecs, the real videos play fine, but everytime I reopen kaffeine I have to retype this. Anyone know why it's not storing the path?

Thanks for the response. They are directly in the /usr/libwin32 folder, not a subfolder. I had hoped to get the essentials package working because I only have a modem connection, so I try to avoid really large downloads. I presume that the essentials package wouldn't be available if it was missing anything critical, surely? Or could it be that it just doesn't work with my distro, or version of xine? THe fact that the error refers to the cook.so.6.0 codec, rather than saying it is missing the codec like it did before, suggests that it can find them, but can't use them for some reason. Has anyone else got this error message when using these codecs with xine/kaffeine? Thanks, Aonghus

Hi, I am running Mandrake 10.1 community with kernel 2.6.8-1.10-up-1GB. I've been trying to play .wmv and .rm videos in kaffeine and having installed the essential codecs package from the mplayer site to usr/lib/win32 (which is apparently the right place for xine), Wmvs play sound and no video, as they did before, and with .rms I get an error in kaffeine saying: A problem occured loading a library or a decoder: cook.so.6.0 So I tried using the codecs with mplayer (renaming /usr/lib/win32 to /user/llib/codecs, which I believe is the correct location for mplayer). I get the following error for .rm files: Cannot find codec matching selected -vo and video format 0X30345652 Does this suggest that I haven't linked the codecs properly in either case; that there is something wrong with the codecs; or (which I presume is unlikely) that there is something wrong with both these players? Any help would be greatly appreciated Update: I deleted the codecs and tried installing from urpmi from plf. Selecting xine-win32-1.0-7plf.rpm automatically added: xine-plugins-1.0-7plf; xine-arts1.0-7plf; libxine1-1.0-7plf (which I presume needed updating) and win32-codecs-1.6-3plf The problem is, kaffeine still says it can't load cook.so.6.0 when I try a real video file. Looking through the codecs folder, this file doesn't seem to exist (which it did in the previous tarball I downloaded). Is realmedia support missing from the plf rpm; or is it maybe still looking for the old codecs for some reason? This is driving me nuts, so if anyone has got .rm files going in kaffeine, please let me know how it worked. By the way, wmv 9 files now work fine, so it must be accessing the codecs. Thanks, Aonghus

Hi, I'm terribly new to linux, so apologies if this is a ridiculously simple question. I have just installed linmodem drivers (seemingly successfully) and am trying to get it working using Wvdial. I have run wvdialconf and edited /etc/wvdial.conf to add my phone number, username and password but am told I haven't set a valid phone number etc. when I run wvdial. It seems to detect my modem, which (I hope) means I have finally got the linmodem drivers going, but can't connect (no doubt I'm too used to windows where Bill just smiles and says 'I'll do it...as long as you don't ask too many questions'). Anyway, have attached the contents of my wvdial.conf (less my username & password, since I can't seem to get past the dialing point and probably oughtn't hand these out :) ) and the output when running wvdial. Any help would be great, since I'm admitedly rather out of my depth (although if someone tells me that I DON'T have my linmodem drivers properly installed I may set fire to the wretched thing!), Thanks, Aonghus /etc/wvdial.conf contents: [Dialer Defaults] Modem = /dev/modem Baud = 115200 Init1 = ATZ Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 ISDN = 0 Modem Type = Analog Modem ; Phone = 1332103001235 ; Username = ******** ; Password = ******** output when runnign wvdial: --> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.54.0 --> Initializing modem. --> Sending: ATZ ATZ OK --> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 OK --> Modem initialized. --> Configuration does not specify a valid phone number. --> Configuration does not specify a valid login name. --> Configuration does not specify a valid password. Sorry if anyone wasted their time reading this - I'm guessing those semicolons are like comment marks - removing them seems to be the trick. Sorry for posting without checking the obvoius