VeeDubb

I SO wish you were wrong, but that's another topic. As for legality, you are very safe, despite the technical illegality, as long as you are only using it for personal use. The only people that anyone would ever go after are those using it commercialy, but they should know better. The same with libdvdcss. It's also illegal, in the town I grew up in, to wear a mask in public, but you don't see anyone getting arrested on halloween. That sort of thing.

Well, the big advantage to xine is that it's on the CD's, so it's as easy as it coudl possibly be to install. Just open up the mcc again and go to software instalation and search for xine. There are MANY packages with xine in the name, you'll just have to sift throught he descriptions to find the player.

You know, it's funny. One of the main reasons for the start of the club, was to provide a way to sell the powerpack, to people who might not be inclined to buy a box and wait for shipping because they had a fast enough connection to download it. Instead, the powerpack is now available from less than totaly scrupulous 'cheap cd vendors' As for what those vendors offer, well, it varries. That is the big drawback to them, you never really know. Sometimes it's the download version, sometimes it's the download + a homebaked copy of the contrib mirrors on CD, sometimes it's the powerpack download from the club, and unfortunately, some of them go so far as to buy the powerpack from the madnriva store and sell pirated copies of that. While the legality of that action may be up for debate because of the whole 'open source thing' it's clearly very wrong. There are drivers and other programs in the box that are not included on the download edition, but this is linux. The sofware and drivers that are not normaly included on the download editions, are all still free and can be downlaoded for free by anyone from the various developers. Example. Nvidia drivers. Virtualy all linux distros include a driver called the nv driver which provides basic functionality for the nvidia line of video cards. But, getting 3d accelleration or any other advanced features you have to installed the commercial driver from nvidia. The powerpack has the driver on the CD and isntalls it for you, but the DL version does not. But, anyone can go to http://www.nvidia.com and download the latest driver, which for obvious reasons, is often more recent than what's on the powerpac anyway. Now, don't get me wrong. I still like to support the linux community with my dollars, and it great when we all do. Just understand that supporting the linux movement, and lazziness are the only two real reasons to order a powerpack.

There is nothing on the CD's you 'can't' gt from the download version, but some of the things on there include closed source drivers and commercial software like a proper flash player and a slightly outdated version of realplayer, which you would have to go download and isntall yourself. It also has most or all of the contrib packages on the CD's, but once again, you can get those yourself. If you already have 10.1 installed there is no point of any kind in using the CD's to re-isntalled unless you have some need for a re-install.

once you get xorg.conf the way you like it, you can always make it read only so the stupid mcc/hardrake can't muck it up.

This was pretty well discussed in another topic, but there was never any real solid colclusions with any sort of authority. To the best of my knowledge, the 6CD set that CheapBytes sells is NOT the 'free' download version. It is, as far as I can tell, actualy the same power-pac version that is available for download to MandrivaClub members, or for sale through the mandriva store. The debate goes like this, everything on the CD is free, in the free beer sense. Everything is also, according to some, free in the freedom of speach speach/free software sense. Some argue that this is not the case. For certain, there is nothing on the CD's which is illegal to distribute on it's own. However, Mandriva maintanes that their liscense, prohuibits the redistribution of the Club CD's, and the sale of copies of the powerpack. So, according to Mandriva, those disks are illegal pirated copies. According to CheapBytes, it's all GPL and Mandriva is out of their minds. Since, we're dealing with companies and consumers in different countries, there's no legal risk, so what it comes down to, is this: Are you comfortable with buying a copy of software from CheapBytes, that Mandriva is trying to sell, and doesn't want CheapBytes selling? Personaly, I am, because my last experience with Mandriva Store was so horrific that I almost switched distros. I'd be happy to pay full retail for the Mandriva Powerpac, but I hate buying direct, I'll NEVER join the club and no local stores carry it, so I'm left with no other option.

Not totaly sure, but what you could do, is make a back up of your /etc/X11/XF86Config from 10.1 (in 10.1, that's the real file and xorg.conf is the link) then reinstall 10.2/2k5 and then overwrite xorg.conf with the file that 10.1 generated. IF that doesn't fix it, then there's a more serious problem, and you're gonna need better help than I can probably offer.

most likely, it's just a simple issue of a bad server. Try going through easy urpmi again, and this time select a different server. The list is never perfect.

May 19 08:28:58 mandrake kernel: usb 4-5: device not accepting address 10, error -71 May 19 08:28:58 mandrake kernel: usb 4-5: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 11 May 19 08:28:58 mandrake kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: port 5 reset error -110 May 19 08:28:58 mandrake kernel: hub 4-0:1.0: hub_port_status failed (err = -32) pretty sure that's the problem. IF I'm reading that right, and lord knows I may not be, the problem is with the port you're plugging it into. Or, it might be that the flash drive itself it dead. Do you have access to another computer? Might be worth checking.

Yes, there is. The mouse is set up in a text file called /etc/X11/xorg.conf What you need to do is first find a configuration that works for your mouse. Hopefully someone here has the same mouse, if not, it's google time. Once you have that, boot into text only mode by hitting esc at the boot loader and entering 'linux 3' From there, you can use vi to edit that file with the correct config. As root, 'vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf' edit away

A lot of this has ben discussed elsewhere, but since yo're new, I'll help you out here. There is one rule before I help. If I say something that doesn't make sense, or that you don't understand, you've got to ask. We all asked the stupid questions once too. To play DVD's, you need two things, a player that's capable of plyaing them, like totem, mplayer or xine (personaly I rpefer XINE for dvd's) And the second thing you need is a library to decode them. For a lot of different reasons, the decoder can't be included on the Mandiva/Mandrake DVD's. At the very top of this page, you'll see a link for something called 'Easy-urpmi' Follow that link, and just follow the directions on that page to add mirrors for contrib, plf-free and plf-non-free. Now comes the installing software in linux part. Installing software in Mandriva couldn't be easier. Open up the Mandriva Control Center (mcc in a console as root ) You'll see the software installer from there. Once you've set up the contrib and plf mirrors, you should see mplayer in the software list, and when you select it, it will automaticaly select and install everything that mplayer needs. (I still prefer xine) After you've chosen and installed a player, you'll still need that decoder. It's called dvdcss. Just select it out tof the list and you're on your way.

I would really discourage you from using discovery. I know that they try to market discovery to 'new' users, but it'sr eally limited, and missing a lot of basic software. you should check out http://www.cheapbytes.com if the more complete set's from the mandriva store are too expensive for you. Oh, and sorry for the suggestion you post in the isntall forum. I see we're already there. I was just looking throught the days new posts.

That's an almost impossible question to answer. There are so many interpretations of that question, that I wouldn't no where to begin. If you simply mean in terms of raw speed, no, it is most deffinatly not the most powerful OS out there. It is reasonably stable, reasonably fast, and in my opinion, is a wonderful compromise betweent he two. There's a lot of easy to install software using the built in package manager, good config tools for those not expertly skilled with linux, and a friendly feal, without being overly friendly, like lycoris or Linspire. Why don't you ask about the specific terms of power you are concerned with, then I can answer you directly.

1. There's lot's of fixes because the problem you described, is actualy a symptom, not a problem, and it can be caused by many different problems. It's frequently a problem with APIC/ACPI, incompatable hardware or bad media. You should post in the isntall forum because there's guys who frequent that forum who are better at install debugging than I am. 2. As for which version has more or less problems, this really depends on the exact configuration of your machine. For some people, 10.0 was better, for many others, 10.1 was the best of the two. The unfortunate truth is that the only way to be sure which will work better for you is to try them both and find out. Alternatively, you might try the latest verion. I've been suggesting this to a lot of people lately, and most have had at least some improvement. The lates version, is called Mandriva Limited Edition 2005. If you've been out of touch, you should note that Mandrake, for a number of reasons, has been renamed Mandriva. Of course, switching to 2k5 (a.k.a. 10.2) is no more a guarantee of better functionality than switching back to 10.0

The CD's should contain everything that has to do with the handling of USB flash drives, but if CD2 was borked, you've got a lot of really important stuff missing, and media handling may be some of that.

The similarity that youlist is the total extent of the similarities between the two. They are fundamentaly different programs, which opperate on completely different levels. Wine (and also the 'crossover office' and cedega projects) opperates as a compatability layer inbetwen windows based programs and linux. the idea being that if you simply translate back and forth between windows api's and linux api (advanced programming interface or something like that) then you can run windows software in linux. Win4Lin on the other hand is a bit like running windows and linux both at once. You have to use a specialy patched and compiled kernel, just for win4lin, which add's all sorts of things to the kernel to make it compatible with the win4lin software. It also require, to my understanding, a full install of windows, where wine requires nothing. The advantage of win4lin is that it works on a great deal more rpograms, but at a cost. First, the program itself is payware, and expensive payeware at that, and unless you're the dishonest sort, you can expect to pay a pretty penny for win4lin. Wine on the other hand, runs far fewer programs, many of which require some tweaking to get intalled, but is totaly free, and very light weight. There's another program (also payware) called vmware, that's much easier to set up than win4lin, and doesn't require a special kernel. However, it's REALLY expensive, and still reuire a full install of windows. It's the only 'true emulater' as it accualy emmulates an x86 PC running whatever version of windows you install.

one suggestiont hat will almost certainly fix it, is to upgrae to the latest version of mandrake, now called Mandriva Limited Edition 2005. They have updated and changed the way that things like USB flash drives are handled and it's WAY better. As for a fix in 10.1, I've got that for you too. The usual reason, and you can see for your self if this is the case with your flash drive, is the lack of partition table. Let me explain. Frequently, things like pen drives are simply formatted. They aren't actualy partitioned. Try plugging it in, and opening up the mandrake control center, and going to partitions. you'll see hda, and then sda (or sdb or sdc and so on). sdx is for scsi devices like flash drives. My guess is that it will be formatted fat32, or fat16, but won't actualy have any partitions. What you can do, is partition it with one big fat32 partition, and then mandrake 10.1 'should' automount it. You might have to reboot afterwards. If that doesn't work, I say go for my first suggestion. My generic pen drive, formatted only, no partitions, work great for the first time in 10.2 (aka Mandriva le 2005)

Yup, according to the article, swappiness=60 is pretty universal for anyone making a kernel for distribution. It's one of those things that makes it work for people with sucky computers, without hurting speed 'too' much for the rest of us. And for us, it's easily changed.

for anybody who sees this, i adjusted my swappiness and got rid of every running service I didn't absolutely need (which meant about half of them) and the speed increase compared to an otherwise clean install of 2k5 was astounding.

Well, welcome to mandrake (By the way,m they have recently changed the name, so all future versions will actualy be called Mandriva) There's an awful lot you're asking about here, so let me start with the general advice. The best way you can learn linux, is to just dive in head first. There's realy no one place to look for advice, or one place to start. Just use it, and it will come. As for the hardware, since there's a couple of seperate issues, you should start a thread for each in the appropriate areas. Good luck

semi-easy one. Amorak reads the CD over the ribon cable, as data, but kscd reads it windows95 style, i.e. it tells the cd rom to play the CD over the litle audio cable that connects the CDrom drive to the sound card. To do this, you need 2 things. 1. An audio cable connecting your CDrom to your sound card 2. kscd needs to be set to use th right device. It should be /dec/cdrom if everything is default, or you could use the ide address, like /dev/hdb or whatever your's turns out to be.

Do you mean a free mandriva DOWNload? If so, yes. There's free versions available now through FTP, and bittorrent I believe. It's all been posted in the announcements page here on the forum, and there's also information right on the front page at http://www.mandrivalinux.com

I haven't done scsi emulation in a long time. You might just try a newer version of mandrake. The last several versions have not needed anything in the way of scsi emulation, because of a change int he way CD and DVD burners are handled. Mandriva Limited Edition 2005 (the newest mandrake) is out and available now, and it's quite good. If you really want to stick to 9.0, searchthe ahrdware forum for scsi. This was pretty welld iscussed back when scsi was still needed.

It sounds like the dm service isn't loading properly. Check what services are set to load at boot in the mandriva control center system tab. the dm service should be set to start at boot. Also, when you have to start X fromt he console, do it by typeing service dm restart That will start X with the display manager, so you'll have the full reboot and shutdown options. Oh, and if you start it that way, you'll need to it ctrl-alt-f7 to switch to the desktop

Well, pretty much any removable device,m including two different card readers with a plethera of differnet cards, and Iomega HipZip mp3 player and a generic USB key all were glitchy and failed to unmount correctly if hotplug was enabled, and all worked beautifuly with hotplug NOT running.